But are you sure you can handle what He has to say? I hear a lot of people express a desire to hear from God… but sometimes when God speaks, He delivers a very tough message.
I’ll give you an example:
1 Samuel 3 is one of the most popular passages preachers use to illustrate “How to Hear from God”. But when God finally does open His mouth, the content isn’t very uplifting, warm and fuzzy, or even hopeful. In fact, God’s first message to Samuel was that his mentor, Eli, was about to be judged severely for the sins of his house. And to make matters worse, Samuel had to turn around and personally relay the message to Eli.

Do you still want to hear from God?

• When you ask God to speak to you about His will for your life, make sure you’re ready to embrace the repercussions. Don’t ask if you’re not prepared to obey.
• If you ask the Lord to reveal any sin in your life that is separating you from Him, be very aware that He’ll probably do it. And then you’re going to have to go through major surgery with limited amounts of anesthesia.
• When you ask God to speak to you about a financial decision, He might not tell you what you want to hear. Instead, He might fill your ear with what you need to hear. And His instruction might require a deep sacrifice, or a hard step of faith.

When God speaks, He doesn’t always just whisper sweet nothings into your ear.
In fact, sometimes the announcement He makes will leave your ears ringing, and your head spinning.
Other times, the words He speaks fill your soul with inexplicable encouragement and peace.

So here’s the summary:
God often speaks words of deep comfort.
But He also speaks words of deep challenge.
And you never know which one you’re gonna get.
Consider yourself warned.

“What is the single most important skill that a church planter needs to have in order to be successful?”

If I had a dime for every person who’s asked me that in the last 2 years, I’d have 10 cents, because somebody asked me this for the first time the other day, and I thought it was a pretty good question.
I didn’t have to think about it very long… because I just knew the answer was leadership. The ability to motivate and inspire people, and the wisdom to construct systems that reinforce the vision.
But then I thought about preaching… maybe that’s the most important piece of the church planting puzzle. I don’t know of a church plant that has ever succeeded apart from the anointed communication of God’s Word connecting to people in the context of corporate worship.

At this point, all of the major categories hit me like a flashflood:
leadership, preaching, administration, vision…
How could I ever narrow it down to one “most important skill”?
There are so many skills that are integral to church planting, but I think one critical skill is the foundation of all the others, and pretty much serves as a category killer and the end of discussion:

The single most important skill in church planting is the fine art of hearing from God.

When David was commissioning Solomon to build the temple, he reassured his son that God “gave me understanding in all the details of the plan.” (See 1 Chronicles 28:19)
I want God to speak to me like that: clear and specific. I want to have the confidence to know that I’m building according to plan, because I’ve heard from heaven.

Successful church plants come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. But there is one common denominator in every authentically successful church plant that I know of:
The pastor and his leadership team have found a way to receive vision, instruction, and strategy from the Lord, and they summon the courage to follow through with the commands that God issues.
To the casual observer it may look like they just have good instincts, or more inaccurately, good luck. In reality, they are consistently finding a way to stay tightly connected to Jesus through the Holy Spirit, so they will know what move to make next.
You can’t fake or simulate the ability to hear from God. You must cultivate it day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.

The ability to distinguish the voice of God and the promptings of His Spirit is more valuable than a Doctoral degree, 10 leadership books and 4 conferences a year, your hero’s advice, and even 50 years of life experience combined.
All of these inputs serve as avenues for God’s instruction to reach our hearts.
But they are not a substitute for a “speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” posture, and a willingness to be radically obedient when He clearly reveals your next move.

Stories from the Bless Back Project are still rolling in and we continue to be amazed at the outpouring of generosity. I especially love this one. Last Sunday I challenged our high school and middle school students to own this Dominate season and set an example for the believers. I told our students they would be a secret weapon in this campaign, and… well… it looks like I was right!
Can’t wait to see their commitments on November 11th!

Pastor,

We can’t really describe the excitement that we are feeling as we write this. Although you told parts of the story this past Sunday, we wanted to write it up for you and get all of it together.
When we found out about the Bless Back Project, it is safe to say that we were blown away. We had never heard of a church doing anything like that and were really excited to be a part of it. As the buckets came around, that excitement turned into responsibility; the gravity of what we held in our hands became very real. We wanted to use whatever we had to make as big of an impact as possible.
That’s where our small group comes in. We lead a group of 15 high schoolers. In our group is a young lady who is 5 months pregnant. She has courageously decided to keep the baby and walk down the difficult road of teenage pregnancy. Over the past few weeks, finances have been a recurring theme in our group discussions. Even though only a few members of our group have jobs and steady income, all have been very interested in learning how to arrange their finances around God. It seems that God was bringing all the elements together to stir up a perfect storm of God-sized generosity. When we brought the idea of combining our group’s Bless Back money to help out the girl in our group, they were ecstatic!
As we began pooling the resources God had provided, the generosity was humbling. Not only did everyone gladly contribute their Bless Back money, most added from their own money. These are high schoolers who could be more interested in getting more Hollister outfits or XBox games, but instead, who gave cheerfully to one of their own who is in need. One young man, an avid guitar player, had been saving money for a few years to set up his own recording studio. He gave those savings up to add to the pot. Each one gave according to what they had, straight out of Acts 2. Though it’s unbelievable, the story only gets better…
We meet in the house of one of the most amazing men at Elevation. He has graciously opened up his home for us to meet in, unconditionally letting 15 high schoolers take over his house every week. When he is available, he hangs out with our group, providing Godly leadership and wisdom. Little did we know, he was raised by a single mom who overcame financial challenges to raise him into the man he is today. When he heard our idea, he wanted in. Only God could have arranged all these circumstances!
With the contributions from our group, we had collected $500. You have no idea how excited those high schoolers were, knowing that we had that much to give to the girl. Our host asked how much we had raised and then proceeded to write a check doubling our total to $1,000! There are no words to describe the reaction of our group when we told them the new total.
We had the privilege of calling this girl’s mom and letting her know what we were up to. She was absolutely speechless. This money enabled us to get every single one of her registry items that cost $50 or more. Every single one! This frees up her family to help her with the many other costs associated with the birth of a child.
This letter is not to brag on us or our group, although we are extremely proud of our high schoolers and completely humbled by the generosity shown. We are writing this to let you know the impact that Elevation’s faith had in the life of this high school small group and especially in the life of this young lady. May all the glory go to God and may Charlotte see this and say, “We have never seen anything like this before!”

Thank you, Pastor, for your leadership and example.

In Christ,
Brandon and Rachel and 15 God-seeking high school students

Last night about 300 of the leaders of Elevation Church got together to make their 2 year commitments to the Dominate campaign.
And I can’t disclose the total amount pledged yet, because several of our leaders will be making their pledges through Wednesday afternoon. And because I love keeping you in suspense. I live for it.

Let’s just say the Red Sox weren’t the only ones who completed a sweep last night. Words can’t even begin to describe my gratitude toward the leaders of our church for stepping up and stepping out in such a big way. Really. I’m floored.

Leaders, I am beyond proud of what God did through you last night.
And you’re going to be proud too.
Details coming soon…

The leaders have hit it out of the park, and we’re in the middle of a full tilt tipping point.
Now it’s time for hundreds of other families to experience their personal tipping points on November 11th, our commitment Sunday.
If last night’s leadership commitment event was any indication, we’re going to blow the top of that tent. And blow the lid off of all our preconceived notions of what is and isn’t possible for a church that’s less than 2 years old.

All glory to God!

DOMINATE!