Yesterday, I was glad to visit with friends in Atlanta at the ChurchPlanters.com Conference in North Georgia. I am driving to North Carolina right now to speak at another conference so I did not get a chance to stay for the second day, but it got off to a strong start.

It was good to visit with friends Troy Gramling, Tony Morgan, David Putman, Shawn Lovejoy, Larry McCrary, Brian Bloye, and others at dinner last night. Their conference continues today and it looks like a day filled with encouragement and challenges.

During my talk yesterday I promised to post my notes here on the blog. During my message, I also cited yesterday's blog post, which seems to have garnered a bit of contention in the comments.

So, here are my notes from yesterday:

Discipleship for Church Planters

Four Essentials for Spiritual Formation in New Churches

1. Elementary is a "Danger" and Not a Goal

You are supposed to "go on" to maturity and "leave" some of the basics. But many don't--that is why they are commanded to do so.

As church planters, we want to keep it simple. We want to engage the unchurched. We want to reach seekers. And, all of that is good.

But, remember, "elementary" is a danger and not a goal.

Too often, simple (which is good) gets replaced with simplism, which reduces the gospel from what it really is.

In your church plant, you can tell people to:
-pray this prayer,
-come to these meetings,
-give this amount, and
-serve in this job,
all while not obeying the central command of the Great Commission: to make disciples.

"Therefore, leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity" (Hebrews 6:1).

Some of us pride ourselves on being accessible to the unchurched by keeping it simple--but God calls us to leave the elementary.

"Keeping it simple" while "leaving the elementary" is a hard balance.

How do you do it? First, it starts with you in your own spiritual growth.

1. Recognize your propensity to get busy serving that you forget knowing God. You are NOT naturally spiritually contemplative.
2. Pastor yourself.
3. Pastor your family.
4. Lead your people to maturity.

If you pastor a great big church but end up a personal spiritual midget, the plant will fail, and (more importantly) your spiritual life will fail.

Do not make it a value to say that you will "never go deep." Instead, find ways to go deep and, at the same time, make it clear and accessible to outsiders.

The reality is that it has become normal for us to NOT grow. We studied over 2500 church attendees in the LifeWay Research study only 3.5% of those we surveyed over the course of a year displayed any measurable growth. But, 55% of those we studied perceived themselves to have grown spiritually.

God has a strong word for the spiritually stuck:

"Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet able to receive it" (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).

So, you don't want that to be you! You don't want that to be your church plant.

Instead, we want to move ahead, grow deeper, and experience a fuller spiritual life.

"We have a great deal to say about this, and it's difficult to explain, since you have become slow to understand. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of God's revelation. You need milk, not solid food" (Hebrews 5:11-12).

So, are you a grower, shrinker, or stuck? Let's take a moment and think about it because there are some big issues at stake here. A vibrant spiritual life or a shrinking and dying one. You must have a robust spiritual life.

Then, you have to lead your church to have a plan for robust spiritual growth.

That involves:
1. Moving from decision to disciples.
2. Providing a pathway to spiritual maturity in your church.
3. Spending as much time planning your discipling strategy as you do your launch, assimilation, and worship strategy.

2. God Wants You and Your Church on a Clear Path to Spiritual Growth

If the central command of the Great Commission is to make disciples, and you have a plan for marketing, facilities, and organization, but not plan for discipleship, you have missed the point.

"For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:9-10).

Notice the progression.

Knowing → Being → Doing

We can observe from Scripture a clear pattern that spiritual transformation begins with exposure to the truth. As God's revealed Truth (the Word) penetrates the mind it leads to the transformation of heart and character. The Apostle Paul expressed it this way:

"Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2).

The renewal of the mind, enabled by the inner working of the Holy Spirit, brings about spiritual growth.

Here you can see the pattern of knowledge leads to understanding (knowing), which leads to walking worthy (being), which leads to bearing fruit (doing).

It starts with knowing.

That is why in our research we found that the number one statistical correlation to spiritual maturity was the practice of reading the Bible. There was a strong relationship between those who grew spiritually and the practice of reading the Bible.

You don't need to get your people thinking you are clever, you need to get them thinking that the word of God is sufficient.

People sit around in a creative planning meetings and ask, how can we communicate this in a way that is clever?

A more important idea: how can we get them to think they only place they see the Bible is on a big screen at church.

God provides both a process for spiritual growth and the means for this transformation.

3. God Involves Us in Our and Our Church's Spiritual Growth

Unlike in conversion, we "work toward" spiritual growth. But, like conversion and all things with God, he is the source and power of it.

Only God can cause true spiritual formation.

Referring before to their lack of spiritual maturity:

The Apostle Paul said, "... God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth" (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

There is this tough balance on this. I was speaking at John Piper's church when he reminded us that God builds his church. He emphasized point by point I - Will - Build - My - Church. (See that message here.)

If you think it is all on you, then you have placed your work in place of God's promises.

But it is also clear that God places responsibility upon us for our spiritual growth and the spiritual growth of our church. There is an important balance here.

"So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13).

How much energy are you spending on working our your salvation?

This is not something you do once.

The gospel is not something you get over, it is something you live out.

You have to learn to live out the implications of the gospel.

God enables us to grow, but we have to "work out" our salvation.

Many church planters are spiritual bankrupt and strategy rich. It is time to declare bankruptcy and not pass it on like a Ponzi scheme to your people. It will all eventually come crumbling down.

You need a plan and your church needs a plan.

Over dinner a couple of months ago with Rick Warren, he talked about their process for spiritual maturity and he listed off the number of people committed to having daily quiet times, the number committed to serving, the number committed to this or that. Why? Because they have a discipling plan. You may not like it because you have an aversion to a baseball diamond, but you need a plan of your own.

4. God Calls You and Your Church To Be Spiritual Learners

"Be conscientious about yourself and your teaching; persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Timothy 4:16).

Guard your life and doctrine well. That is probably not something you hear at a lot of church planting conferences. But, maybe we should. And, discipleship is my topic and you can't talk discipleship without talking about you being a learner, and that includes guarding your life and doctrine.

Example of the Bereans: this s why you have lots of churches called "Berean" and none called "Thessalonicans." (That, and "Thessalonican" is hard to say.)

"The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (Acts 17:11).

Open minded means ready to receive.

As church planters, we are not a naturally contemplative people. But, we need to guard our lives and our doctrine well and have a plan to lead our church to do the same.

Is discipling part of your planting strategy? If not, you are building a strategy around organizational momentum and not spiritual maturity.

Do you people see you as a great leader or a godly pastor. Hopefully both, but pick godly over great.