The next ten days are both the busiest travel season AND the end of the fall "pastor conference" schedule for me. In other words, thing slow down. And, that's good.

But, I plan ahead and know that his time of year is always the busiest for me. In October and November, I am blessed to be able to talk to tens of thousands of leaders. It is tiring, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to brag on Jesus and provoke Christians toward His mission.

Yet, as you can tell, it is a little tiring. And, during this season, I need your prayers.

Here is a quick recap. See last week (part 1 and 2) for more info):

Tomorrow, I'm preaching at Harpeth Community Church in Franklin, TN.
Monday, I'm joining some friends for the TN Pastor's Conference in Jackson.
Tuesday, it's back to Louisville for the Acts 29 Bootcamp/Conference.
Wednesday, I'm off to New Orleans for the Great Commission Research Network Conference.
Thursday, I be preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary chapel and doing a dialogue with the students following my message.
Friday and Saturday, I will be teach at ReTrain, and speaking to the leadership of Mars Hill Church
Sunday, I will be preaching to all the campuses at Mars Hill.
Monday, I will be speaking at the Calibrate Conference (with the Assemblies of God) in Seattle.

And, then I head home Tuesday and collapse.

Looking Ahead

Just last week, I committed to speak on "missional disciplemaking" at the Verve Conference. I will share more about it later, but you can click here for the website.

Looking ahead is Exponential 2010. They shared some info this week that I thought I would pass on to you.

Exponential has assembled an diverse lineup for April 2010, and I appreciate gatherings like this where people from different tribes come together around the goal of learning and celebrating church planting.

Exponential 2010 opens with Louie Giglio, closes with Francis Chan, and in-between includes including well-known church planters, authors, and leaders like (to name a few) Mark Batterson, Darrin Patrick, Matt Chandler, Ed Stetzer, Efrem Smith, Dino Rizzo, Dave Ferguson, Scott Thomas, Greg Surratt, Alan Hirsch, Neil Cole, Bob Roberts, Larry Osborne... and my fingers will cramp up if I try to list them all. If I recall, I am doing the first or second main session and, as always, a forum for church planting leaders on Monday and Tuesday.

The best ideas, the strongest practices, and the most forward-thinking dreams are shared at Exponential. This is not a "our way is the only way" conference. The diverse ideas and varied cultures that make up Exponential might seem to be even contradictory! But the open handed approach that has made Exponential the strong voice for church multiplication it is make it a "must attend" event.

There's something about church planters gathering. The energy that comes from thousands of leaders who eat, sleep, and breath sharing the Gospel with people and creating new communities of faith, new ministries, new outreach strategies, movements, campuses, networks, encourages and strengthens others. The assembly of these leaders becomes one of the most influential agents of change in our country. To be part of this crowd is an opportunity to not only learn from some of the best thinkers and practitioners in all things church planting, but it's also a place to meet with others, people like you, who are planting all over the country or burdened to do so.

Come on, you know you want to - Register here.

I've shared a bit about my journey toward health here on the blog (here and here), mostly because many of you asked me to. Even since then I am frequently asked to post more on the subject. I've been slow to do this, but as I came across a recent study that showed a link between obesity and brain shrinkage, I thought I would jump in again.

Many of you already know that obesity (excess body fat that creates a significant health hazzard) is on the increase in our country. The Center for Disease Control explains,

During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.

The health hazards associated obesity are:

Diabetes
Heart Disease
Stroke
Hypertension
Some types of Cancer
Sleep Apnea
Osteoarthritis
Gallbladder Disease

But a new study claims that among the aged, "clinically obese people had 8 percent less brain tissue, while the overweight had 4 percent less brain tissue compared to normal-weight individuals."

So, 125 lbs ago I decided to finally take care of myself - physically. This was no easy task since I had been 150 lbs overweight for 15 years, travel frequently, and had grown accustomed to eating what was easiest-- and that meant lots of fat, sugar and calories. In some ways I was, like many others, the victim of our fast paced, quick fix culture. But in another way, this was something I needed to repent of, because in the end much of it came down to choices. Some of the issues at the center of all this were thankfulness, temperance, self control, and stewardship. In short, when a man is thankful for the life, body and the food God provides, his gratitude produces self control and leads to the good stewardship of those gifts while neither abusing or misusing them.

Still, when it comes to something like weight loss, exercise and healthier living it requires a plan. I was done with trendy diets, didn't have time (or interest) for a personal trainer, so I went the old school route. I am a simple man so my plan was simple: 1. I decided to eat healthier, and 2. I got on the elliptical 5 days a week (I unpack the details here).

A few new wardrobes later, I feel great, am less likely to experience the diseases above and an more likely to hold on to more of my brain.

Look, I know people are uncomfortable talking about the obesity problem in our country. We're afraid of coming off insensitive, judgmental, or looking hypocritical. So if I may, as a man who had to learn the hard way to take care of himself and the body that belongs to the Lord, let me encourage you to take care of what God has entrusted to you. I'm not encouraging anyone looking the same, or conform to the world's standard of beauty. But I am encouraging you to let the world see fruit of the gospel in us by living temperate, thankful lives.

I'm still learning but I thought I would share it with you. There will be one more post on the health topic before I am all done.

As I recently mentioned, I am intrigued by the Independent Baptist Movement. It is often caricatured and frequently misunderstood, but definitely worth understanding. With that in mind, when I see research on this movement, it catches my attention.

Paul Chappell and Clay Reed have written a book based upon an independent, nationwide survey of independent Baptist churches, and the result is Church Still Works, an insightful read that will prove surprising to some and encouraging to all.

Paul is the senior pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church and president of West Coast Baptist College in Lancaster, California. Clayton is the founder and director of Global Church Planters, which has worked with American missionaries and national pastors to help start more than three hundred churches around the world.

I was happy to talk to Clayton about the new book, and think you'll find the interview and the book helpful.

What prompted you to write Church Still Works?

I grew up in the Independent Baptist world. While we've seen a lot of professional research done on many aspects of contemporary Christianity, I had never seen a large-scale study of the Independent Baptist movement. Independent Baptists really have had nothing more than anecdotal evidence about the scope and effectiveness of our movement. I was curious to find out what our churches are really doing that makes a difference.

What is an "Independent Baptist Church"?

It's a Baptist church that isn't associated with a national convention or an outside controlling organization. Wikipedia describes our movement here.

What trends did you identify in this movement?

There's a chapter in the book called "The Fruit Factors," where we took a look at Fields (where churches are located), Farmers (the pastors who lead our churches), and Farms (our congregations). What we found was insightful, and some of it was a real eye-opener for us.

For instance, the research confirmed, as we expected, that there are a higher number of Independent Baptists in the South and Midwest. Churches in those areas experience a significantly higher growth rate as well. The vast majority of our churches are located in rural areas and small towns of less than 100,000 people. We also found that the West and Northeast are wide-open doors where new roots can be established.

Independent Baptist Churches led by younger pastors, for example, grew at a faster rate in a three-year period. In both size and percentage, the prime time for church growth is when pastors are between ages 40 and 49. This age group saw a 27% growth rate in their churches during 2005-2008, compared to pastors ages 50-59, who saw a 19% growth rate in the same period.

However, just as a successful farmer can, over time, enlarge his acreage, the largest churches in our movement are pastored by leaders who stay put. Over time, those congregations do not grow as fast, but they continue to grow. Steadfast, consistent leadership contributes greatly to local church health.

Newer churches also register a much higher growth rate than older congregations. The findings in our study correlate well with a nationwide survey of churches of all denominations. Churches started since 1990 experienced a 47% growth rate in a three-year period, compared to an 18% growth rate for churches started between 1970-1989.

What are some strengths you noted in your research about the churches in this movement?

We found some very good growth trends in segments of our movement. We are growing about 6% a year as a whole. From 2005 to 2008, Independent Baptists experienced a 20% growth rate in their average Sunday morning worship attendance.

We also found a strong commitment to doctrinal integrity and saw a great emphasis on worldwide missions. Independent Baptist churches give an average of 19% of their income to world missions. Many give more.

What were some areas of concern you found in your research?

As a whole, Independent Baptists congregations are seeing an average of 74 people come to Christ every year. However, only 27% of our converts are being baptized, and only 18% of them are remaining faithful to church.

We also found that our church planting efforts have greatly decreased over the past 20 years. We are planting at a 1% rate, meaning we are just maintaining our present number of churches. Independent Baptists are planting 130 to 140 churches a year, but to keep up with the population growth of our nation, we need to be planting about 500 churches per year.

What are some traits of the churches in your movement that were identified as "healthy" and "growing"?

One section in the book is called "Seven Practices of Healthy Churches." We found that healthy, growing churches focus on all or most of these seven practices:

- Generate guests through effective outreach.

- Create positive first impressions

- Connect God's Word with people's hearts

- Follow up biblically and strategically

- Use effective tools and technologies

- Compel spiritual commitments

- Develop devoted disciples.

Alright, you can order the book here, follow Clayton Reed on Twitter here, and follow Paul Chappell on Twitter here. Now jump into the comments and hit up Clayton with your questions. He's hanging around today to interact.

Do you remember the playground game Red Rover? You know, where school kids stand in two lines facing each other and take turns yelling out, "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Suzy right over!" Then little Suzy would have to leave her line and run as fast and hard as she could to break through the other line of kids holding hands. If successful, she would take one member from the other team back with her to her line. If unsuccessful, Suzy had to remain in the opposing team's line and then another child would be called to come over.

The game has seemed to lose some steam in the last few years. Maybe it's due to the development of "cooler" games. Perhaps it's due to the number of kids with neck injuries from nearly being strangled trying to break through. Whatever the case, it seems for the most part that Red Rover has gone to the playground cemetery along with King of the Hill. We'll have to hope for a resurrection.

It has occurred to me that we often to adopt a kind of Red Rover Strategy in church planting and pastoring. Like Paul in Acts 16, we hear the call, "Come over and help us!" and we react with a violent attempt to just break through the line. We have a dream in our heart to plant or pastor a church and we become so consumed with this vision that we barrel right into a new town looking for the weakest link in the chain before ever getting an honest and clear picture of the people that live there. We start plowing into a community with strategy, plans, and really great books written by "cool" church planters and pastors without ever considering the group of people into which we're being sent. And before we know it, we find ourselves strangled, trying to break into a community that is not ready or able to receive the church we have planned.

So, let me say this; before planting or pastoring a church, it's vital that we have a vision of the people to whom God has sent us. This was the crucial step that happened in Acts 16.

Paul and his companions are setting out to minister to people and they're running up against barriers along the way. The Bible says, "Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia, went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us!" The "Come over and help us" ends with a little dative case pronoun: "us." And, it matters.

Here was Paul, sure of where he wanted to go, never stopping for directions, but being stopped at every turn. Until he received God's vision for ministry. And in the vision, he met a person, the man from Macedonia. We can learn a clear lesson from this story. Do not go plant or pastor a church if all you have is a vision for a particular kind of church, or because you think a particular city is "cool." You can only plant or pastor a church when you have a vision for the people. Part of being missional is to recognize that we are to go into a culture, engage the people of that culture, and plant a Biblically faithful church for those people, all the while acknowledging that culture matters in the way we do ministry. In many ways, the how of church ministry is determined by the who, when, and where of culture.

So, when we "come over," it's important to remember that we are going into our own community, not someone else's. It's so easy to hear an incredible speaker at a conference and say, "I'm going to be just like that pastor!" That is not the right goal, nor is it what God is calling you to be. Too often, we get so excited by someone else's church that we get a vision for their church before we get a vision for our people.

My challenge is, don't plant or pastor a church in your head. Plant or pastor a church in your community. When you are there, that's when the Gospel transforms real people who are living real lives. When we are in love with someone else's community, we fall prey to community lust and demographic envy. We begin thinking, "If I could just be in this part of California, or this part of Seattle, or this part of Manhattan... then, my church would be incredible." Know and live in your culture, not someone else's. Don't just bring a model, bring the Gospel. Create a church. Don't create a plan.

Most importantly, we must bring Christ, not just a church, particularly a way of doing church. Sometimes, I think we get too excited about the fact that we're leading a church. That's great, as long as we remember that we're planting the Gospel that creates a church, not a church that's known for being the best church or the most trendy or the most relevant. We're planting the Gospel and so we bring Christ and not just the church. Being missional has to be tied into the mission of Jesus, which is to seek and save the lost.

Unlike the in the game Red Rover, we win when we get to stay with our new "team" and begin leading it in a new direction. Planters and pastors must first take the time to listen to the Spirit, responding appropriately His call to the particular people He assigns to us. Then, we can best respond to the call to "Come over" and win them for the kingdom of God.

O.K, I just went over the edge dealing with Twitter spam. Today, I am getting a bunch of Direct Messages from all the folks who got "phished" and did not protect their password. Then, there are the inappropriate followers. Today, I was going through my "followers" for the week and trying to eliminate inappropriate ones.

Some people ask why I care. Well, I have my twitter account set up to follow everyone back. Why? Because too many people ask, "Why don't you follow me?" I could only follow the people I know, but just because I don't know you does not mean I find you unimportant. Most of my Twitter-friends I never meet in person.

Since I have over 18,000 followers, there is no way I can check them all. Of course, that is what some people suggest, but basically that means I need to spend way too much time or pay someone to do it. I am not willing to do either. So, what I do is I watch the names when I get the email notification of new followers. For the vast majority of time, they are just names, and I don't worry about it. Sometimes the twitter avatar is obvious--and you block it.

Sometimes, they are questionable though--they might be something inappropriate or it might just be a name.

Let me give you an example. These folks followed me:

www.twitter.com/thebabesproject.

OK. Do I block or not?

I look at their avatar, and can't tell by that. But I'm not feeling too optimistic. So, I click the link and it works out fine. Turns out they are all about "coming alongside women, facing crisis pregnancy and offering positive alternatives to abortion, through adoption or parenting." Whew. They followed me because I was speaking somewhere on adoption.

But, I could give examples that, upon opening, were quire embarrassing (including once sorting through the names in public), but you get the point. So, I have to check, but I have made a covenant with my eyes, know that I should flee certain things, and am trying to figure out how to do it. It seems there is only one way to do that and that is to look at the profile. And, therein lies the problem--some background pictures are pretty graphic.

So, I tweeted and asked how others handle it.

I received this article. Good stuff.

Here is the advice I have received thus far:

Stop using Twitter.
OK. That was helpful. ;-)

Create a private profile.
Hard to do that when you have a lot of followers and have to approve them all. That is just not realistic for me, but it might be helpful for some.

Use Truetwit.
Truetwit is pretty irritating and everyone has to sign up for it to be validated. It is like those irritating email messages I get sometimes from people who want me to validate my identity--I don't do it so they never get my email, I guess.

Turn on email notifications and block the inappropriate ones from the email.
Yes, I do that. And, it works great 90% of the time. That is how I normally do it. I try to read every email just to be sure it is not obviously inappropriate.

Use one of the handheld options, they don't show the background.
Another good idea, but you can't always tell from the avatar and the username. It is similar to the email option. If avatar and username are offensive, you can block them.

Get your wife to go delete the inappropriate ones.
That one is problematic when you have 18,000 followers and don't know who they are. My wife is patient, but not that patient.

Tweetie, Twitterriffic, and apps like that do not open the full profile with the background pic.
Helpful, and a step in the right direction. But, it is the 10% that do not have an obvious pic or name.

Use Twitter Karma.
It does not seem to be able to load users with as many friends as my account. It timed out every time and eventually just said "error." It may work if you have fewer followers.

Install PowerTwitter for Firefox.
Just did that. Nice add on. But still no solution. Glad I added it though--I like it.

So, what did I do? Well, the suggestion that seems to work for me is TwitBlock. I ran its "search engine" on my followers and, whala, found dozens of inappropriate followers.
It said, "339 accounts worth examining, but please think before you block."

As best I can tell, it found ALL the spam (and a lot of non-spam) but I could tell from the description. It's free and easy to use.

So, for now, that's my plan. But I'd love to hear if you have any additional ideas! Leave your feedback in the comments.

Here is my travel for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for praying for me and I hope to see you on the road.

The National Outreach Convention is this Wednesday - Friday in San Diego, CA. This isn't just a big conference (but it is crazy big), it also features a very diverse line up with some very solid guys. I know I'll see a number of you there.

On the 8th I'm preaching at Harpeth Community Church in Franklin.

On the 9th I'm joining some brothers at the TN Baptist Pastors Conference where we'll focus on the Kingdom of God.

On the 10th I'm with friends at the Acts 29 Bootcamp/Conference "Ambition" at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY.

On the 11th I'm speaking at the Great Commission Research Network Conference

On the 12th, I will also be preaching at the NOBTS Chapel and doing a dialogue after with the students.

...and then I'm off to Seattle (See part 1)

I am going to post more conference info later, including information about my trip to preach for my friend Bob Roberts at Northwood Church tomorrow and the National Outreach Convention next week, but this picture will be part 1.

I will be teach at ReTrain, speaking to the leadership of Mars Hill Church, preaching to all the campuses at Mars Hill on Sunday, and then speaking at the Calibrate Conference (with the Assemblies of God) in Seattle, all over 4 days.

Well, all that is good and fine, but this picture above made me laugh. I appears this is what happens when your tongue gets stung by a bee right before you speak. Not sure how that happened, but there it is... and thanks Mike Anderson for that fun picture! (And, to the rest of your, sorry about making you suffer through a close-up.)

Enjoy. Perhaps you have a better caption than mine-- share it below, but be nice. ;-)

While I'm here in Chicagoland, I wanted to take time to point you to a helpful website. Bill Yaccino shared this with me and I thought it was worth your time. Bill is the Executive Director of Catalyst, a network of congregations in Lake County, IL that collaborate towards greater Kingdom impact. (www.Catalystweb.org)

The site is a tool for organizing people to pray for their neighborhoods here in Chicago. You can also sign up and join others who are also praying for their block-- and you don't have to live here in Chicago. Take a minute to see how many people are praying for their neighbors all across northern Chicago at Pray4YourBlock.org

The guys behind it all want to encourage you to sign up at the website and...

1. Plant a virtual flag in your neighborhood.

2. Start a movement in your corner of the world by inviting dozens of others to do the same.

3. Use their attached bulletin insert to encourage your church or organization.

4. Finally, write about it and tell others.

Check it out here.

As I mentioned and shared details on Saturday, I'm doing a conference tomorrow in Chicago. Whenever I come to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I do a one-day seminar for pastors as part of my class.

In this case, I will be focusing on "missional leadership." I recently taught on the subject in Oklahoma. Here is the video:

Missional Leadership from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

You can get more information about this training at the One Day web page.

Here is the outline that I used in the video and I will be using tomorrow:

Missional Leadership

1) Reconsideration of Leadership

a) From superman to everyone
b) From church to kingdom
c) From me to we
d) From personal power to people empowerment

2) Rejection of Clergification

a) From three tiers to one mission
b) From "called to the ministry" to "called to ministry"
c) From "called to missions" to "sent on mission"
d) From exceptional to ordinary
e) From "priests" to a "priesthood of believers"

3) Renewed focus on mission

a) From "full service" to "simple mission"
b) From "pay, pray, and get out of the way" to "join God on His mission"
c) From decisionism to disciple making
d) From "mission statement" to "Jesus mission"
Luke 4
Luke 19:10

4) Realignment of priorities

a) God is a missionary God
b) I personally join Him on mission - modeling
c) I lead others to join Him on mission - leadership
d) I equip others - multiplication

I hope that is helpful. Be sure to watch the video to get the context.

A friend recently pointed me to an interesting approach to communicating the gospel in multiple languages.

Hollywood veteran Bruce Marchiano (who played Jesus in "Matthew") is developing a film on the life of Christ and scripted word-for-word from the Gospel of John.

Funding wont be coming from a major movie studio, but from millions of Christians around the world. Specifically, the goal is 10 dollars each from 4.5 million folks, most of it raised online from their web site. Each contributor is considered a "producer" and can provide filming input to Bruce. I don't think that's ever been done, Christian or secular.

"A movie for the next generation" is how it is being billed. Using the latest in movie technology and techniques, the film is expected to be used around the world (read: translated into many languages) to impact millions for Christ.

I though it worth passing on.

Here's the movie promo. Go to www.newjesusmovie.com if you'd like to be a part.