"The Blogging Church" Book Review

A good friend of mine and a missionary to southern West Virginia (specifically McDowell County), Malcolm Lanham, recently loaned me "The Blogging Church" by Brian Bailey and Terry Storch. (Go ahead and click away... Have some fun!)

The reason was pretty simple... I am a new church planter/pastor type and I have just started to blog! I need all the help I can get.

To make a long story short, you should check out this book. I don't know how much my boy Malcolm spent on this book, but it had a price tag of $20.

I would put it this way: If you don't know nothin' about birthin' no blogs, you should pay $20. If you know a few things about the web and page design, etc., you should pay up to $15. If you are the man with blogging, or you think you are the man with blogging, you should borrow this book from your pal Mal, or find another pal with a different name who has the book, or borrow the book from your local Public Library.

Take my advice and read this book... It is a pretty quick read and well worth your precious time!

Parents Can be Cool

In the spirit of Mother's Day, Father's Day, and the fact that Emily is about 20 weeks along with our baby girl growing fast inside her (10 ounces so far!) I thought I'd share a bit about our parents today.

I know alot of us struggled when we were growing up with getting along with our parental units. I'm no exception to that... Just ask my Mom and Dad! (They'll be honest but gentle, hopefully... I think I was the original "strong-willed child.")

Unfortunately, alot of us struggle with our relationships with our parents, even when we're adults. In that respect, I guess I am the exception! Both my parents (Roy and Frances Layne, on the left at my sister Kerry's wedding) and Emily's parents (Bill and Sue Irving, on the right in Maine) are great parent examples. First, they always loved us when we were kids and have stayed together for over 36 years.

More importantly, though, both sets of parents raised us to know about Jesus Christ and made sure we had every opportunity to learn what it meant to follow Him. They never pushed Christ on us, but allowed God to "do His thing" in calling us to be His children. (The Bible actually refers to us as God's adopted children, the spiritual brothers and sisters of Jesus. Check out Romans chapter 8. It's a great passage in the New Testament.)

The great thing about our parents is that they just keep on being good parents! We have been continually blessed by them. My parents live in Chilhowie, a little town in Southwest Virginia. So, if you see them at Ridge Church when we eventually start meeting weekly, it sadly won't be too often. However, even though they can't come to church with us, they support us generously in the prayer and financial departments. That's huge, since prayer is a big-time powerful connection to God, and it takes a load of fundage to purchase all the things a baby church needs.

My in-laws are much like my parents. You will actually see Bill and Sue quite a bit at Ridge Church. They have committed to being part of our "launch team" of people who are helping The Ridge to get up and running. They are already supporting Ridge Church with thier finances, and they are always willing to serve in pretty much any way you need them to. (I'm serious about that--family can be awesome. Just today, my mother-in-law made sure that we would have the water turned on when we arrive at our rental home in Knoxville tomorrow evening. That's clutch, man. Running water is a good thing.)

As a pastor, I love people who "put their money where their mouth is" to support God's plan and then jump on board the serving train with both feet! It means that things get done God's way--as a team. It means alot more, but that's stuff for another post.

I know not everyone has this opportunity to have a great friendship with their parents. That can be really tough. The great thing is, as Romans 8:15 points out, God is there as the perfect Father for all who do not have earthly fathers or whose fathers have let them down. He cares more than even the greatest super-parent ever could.

Some Interesting Ideas from a Preview Service

Emily and I went to Evansville, Indiana this weekend to help our friends Trey and Kitten McClain with the first preview service for their church, Discovery Church. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I'd never been to one before (and I hope to have my own in a few months, so it was good for us to be there!)

We had a great time visiting with Trey and Kitten and their two girls, Alyssa and Morgan. They are sweet kids. Morgan is 7 months old (the pic is from February, so don't worry) but I know for a fact that she has a massive crush on me! :)

We got some great ideas from Trey and Kitten's preview service. First, you need a bunch of tables. I just sort of realized that while we were there... You always think of sound and video and stuff like that, but tables are important, too, and it would be a real pain to try to borrow them from another church, although I guess you could do that.

Also, you can make cool banner-type signs without spending a ton of money. Just make PVC frames for the banners (you can paint the PVC to color-coordinate with your logo or chosen colors) and zip-tie the banner to the PVC frame through grommets on the edges of the banner. It works great for indoor banners and signs. For outdoors, just make a thicker frame (since the banners are going to be bigger anyway) and then use sandbags or maybe sand in the frames' feet to hold the banner in place if the wind kicks up.

We even learned that Starbucks sometimes gives a great deal on coffee! They comped the first preview service's coffee, pending a weekly deal for coffee. That's cool, and it allows Discovery to have quality beverages to offer the people who check out their worship gathering.

A Great Weekend!

Emily and I got back last night from an awesome long weekend. First, we had our last visit to Emily's OB/GYN here in Bluefield, WV and found out that we seem to have a healthy baby girl! From there, we started our trip to Evansville, Indiana to see our friends Trey and Kitten McClain and help them with the first "preview service" of their new church. (A preview service is kind of a "trial run" of the weekly worship services of a church plant; they are usually held monthly just before the weekly "launch" of the regular services.)

On the way to Evansville, we spent a day in Knoxville at Emily's parents' house. We got to hang out a bit, and we also were able to finalize Ridge Church's checking account and our own personal checking account. I like SunTrust! Just read my last post and you'll see why.

Discovery Church held its first of three monthly preview services at the Kerasotes Stadium 16 Theatre on the West Side of Evansville. Trey and Kitten have a real God-given excitement for this area of town. Although that side of town is the "older" area, the University of Southern Indiana is there, which means the neighborhoods have an interesting mix of residents. (Anyone familiar with their former men's basketball coach, Bruce Pearl?) Haha!

Unfortunately, there are few "cool", healthy churches for young students and families on the West Side. I think Trey's church will be just what the area needs so that people feel that they have a safe and caring place where they can explore the claims of Christ.

Speaking of the claims of Christ, you can learn all about them in the excellent book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I also found an interesting interview with C.S. Lewis that delves into some of the claims of Christ, and allows Lewis to comment on other interesting ideas.

New Churches, New Friends, New Fun!

Emily and I are in Knoxville this weekend on the way to helping our friends Trey McClain and his wife Kitten with the first "preview service" of their new church in Evansville, Indiana. It's called Discovery Church and we plan to have a blast visiting them and their two girls, as well as seeing their new church peeps tomorrow through Monday!

Ridge Church and Emily and I are as of today now officially banking at SunTrust of Fountain City. What a nice group of folks there! Annie Howard, the Assistant Branch Manager, is super nice and even helped Emily with a suggestion for a place to get her hair cut. Annie finished up the church's checking account application process that we started online and then helped Emily and me to set up our personal checking account. Looking for a bank to check out? SunTrust of Fountain City should be on the list!

We also got our first piece of mail at our new P.O. Box--our copy of our non-profit corporate charter from the Tennessee Secretary of State. With all this paperwork, I'm going to have to buy a filing cabinet!

Emily and I are excited about being in Knoxville for good starting on June 28th! One more cool thing we discovered last night: Leo's Cafe on Tazewell Pike in Fountain City has live music on Saturday nights now! So far, they've had bluegrass and jazz.

Emily and I are pumped about having a place to gather with new friends that features live music AND great food (plus great service)! Check out Leo's if you've never been there before. My suggestion: a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a Diet Cherry Coke (with real cherry syrup!).

We Finally Have a Bank Account

That is correct, sports fans! Ridge Church now has a bank account. That means that we not only can accept donations as a church, we can also deposit them... Sort of an important step on the road to planting a church that impacts the community with God's love.

May I recommend SunTrust Bank if you have a branch in your area? Their business customer support center people are great. Incorporating in Tennessee was an important step in making the bank account setup process easier, but you can set up an account if you are unincorporated (a general association) as well.

SunTrust can actually set your account up over the phone and mail you the signature cards and other info that your check signers need. The cards can be returned by mail or handed in at a local branch. You can fund the new account with an electronic check from a personal bank account, or just deposit money into the branch. The electronic check thing was great for us, since we haven't quite moved to the area yet, but are asking financial supporters for donations.

Anyway, you know you have a smart guy on the other end of the line when he knows about church financial concepts, wants to encourage you not to sign the checks as the lead pastor/planter (which I'm not going to do!), and recommends an operating account and an expense account that are linked. Great expertise really puts you at ease.

So, enough of my soapbox, but SunTrust rocks so far.

I'm an Acts29 Candidate

Well, it's time I shared the name of the church planting network that I've been applying to be part of for several months. After an assessment by three of the network's church planters in Asheville, North Carolina in early June, I have been invited to become a candidate for membership in the Acts29 Network!

Here's a quick rundown of what the Acts29 Network is all about from the Network Director, Scott Thomas:

"Acts 29 Network exists to start churches that plant churches. God is significantly using our network to influence and shape the church planting culture through both rock-solid theology and contextualizing the gospel. We will not waver on either of these commitments. We won’t water down our theology to reach more people and we won’t attack the culture in the name of Christianity. We are planting churches that are missionaries in their respective communities sent by Christ with the gospel (John 20:21). It is our desire to plant 1,000 new churches in the next 20 years. We desire to make your dream of planting a gospel-driven church come true. We count it an honor to partner with you and to serve you."

I guess Emily put it best when she called Acts29 a sort of church-planting fraternity. That's probably not a perfect analogy, since I don't plant to return to a "college-style" way of life, but if a fraternity is a brotherhood of like-minded guys, then you can call Acts29 that!

Acts29 is all about church planting, and all about elevating who God is and the Word of God-the Bible. It's an honor to be a candidate.

Emily and I have some conditions we must meet, like working out a vision for how ministry and family interact (since the family part is new to us) and gathering a core group of people who are committed to the new church. However, these are normal things and our light is green.

We're excited about being part of a group of guys and wives who love God in a big way and are committed to spreading the Gospel of Christ around the world!

About Us

Emily was born and raised in Knoxville (near Knoxville Center). I (Kevin) was born in Cleveland, Tennessee and grew up there and in Virginia. Emily and I met while we were students at Carson-Newman, and were married in 1998. We are expecting our first child in November!

Our first "church job" was serving as volunteer student leaders at Alice Bell Baptist Church (also near Knoxville Center) while we were in college. Emily and I stayed in Knoxville until 1999, when we moved to New Orleans to attend seminary. (I should finally finish this December!) From there, we served in student ministry in Jacksonville, Florida, and later moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to help create a student ministry at a great church plant called Charlotte South Fellowship.

Finally, God called us to become missionaries. We moved to West Virginia and have served some of the neediest people in America in the southern coal fields of the state. While we were in West Virginia, we realized that God wanted us to "complete the circle" we started a few years ago and return to Knoxville to plant a church in the fast-growing area of Northeast Knox County.

So, we still see ourselves as missionaries... Missionaries whose job is to love the Northeast Knoxville community and share God's love with everyone we meet. Soon, Ridge Church will meet on Sundays and be a place where everyone is welcome to encounter God and His Word.

If you have questions about how you can be involved, email us at info@ridgechurchknoxville.com!

Legal Stuff is a Pain

Well, it's about time I wrote a little about the legal/administrative stuff I've been dealing with regarding our new church. It's a real pain! It's difficult to know how to move forward with all that stuff, especially when every state has different laws, and every bank in every state has different rules.

Here's what I've found, however, with regard to starting a church (in the specific state of Tennessee):

1. The first thing you need to do is to get a P.O. Box, unless you want to receive mail at your house. I suggest having a P.O. Box, for lots of reasons, from the professionalism of having church-related mail (including financial support!) come to a special place, to not putting your home address out there for the world to see from day one.

Getting a P.O. box is not as easy as you think! The US Post Office is the cheapest place I found, about 1/2 the price of the UPS Store (although you may find the UPS Store has more convenient locations for your area). They also give you a ton of box size choices, and there are post offices all over the place. Two things you will need to do to get the P.O. box are have a permanent STREET address on your application form (so, if you aren't "on the field" yet, you have to find someone to help there) and a person to appear in person who lives in the state you are starting the church in.

This last one is according to the lady I talked to at the Knoxville post office. You have to show an ID (a driver's license works) to get a P.O. box, and she said the license had to be in-state. Having someone in the town you are planting the church in to help you get a P.O. box is huge.

2. The second thing you need to get is a Federal Employer Identification Number. This is easy enough to do on the IRS website. The form you need is SS-4, and you can fill it out online. The reason you want to get a P.O. box first, is that you can use that P.O. box as a mailing address on the online federal application. The form is easy, and when you are done, you will be given a federal EIN to use on a bunch of stuff.

From what I've been told, all gifts to churches are instantly considered tax-deductible by the IRS, as long as the church has a federal EIN. There is some disagreement on the legalese here. I've been told is that there is another form you have to turn in (an application for tax-exempt status), but your donations are considered tax-deductible retroactively up to 14 months before you file your tax-exempt status form. So, in practice, you are good to go as long as you have that EIN and you move forward with the tax-exempt form. More info on that as I go through the process.

3. The third thing you will want to do is get a bank account to deposit your donations into. That is also not as easy as you think! You must have that federal EIN, a letter showing an action on the part of your church board authorizing the opening of a bank account, and within that letter you must name at least one person as a check signer. You must have the social security number of the signers as well as their birthdate and church title. You probably are going to have to bring them in to sign something, depending on the bank. I'm still working on the bank thing (I am going to show up and work through the process soon) so again, more info on that soon.

Just as a basic thing, most reputable church planter guys out there are suggesting that the pastor NOT be a check signer, and that he NEVER signs his own checks. The first part may not be possible in all situations, but the second one should be. Just think about the possible issues with signing your own paycheck, and then you'll understand why it's strongly discouraged!

4. Finally, most churches will incorporate. There are some huge advantages to incorporation, although some people think that if you incorporate, you are selling your soul to the government, Satan, etc. Mostly the people I can find who say that freak me out a bit, they kind of sound like "Chicken Little."

You can read all about church incorporation online. Just google it! In Tennessee, you can register your church and incorporate online. I messed up the application the first time, still waiting to hear back on the second try. It costs $100, and you're supposed to get a refund if you mess up like I did. More info soon on this one, as well.

Also, many churches will apply for 501 (3)(c) status as a non-profit organization (a bunch of paperwork, but some rewards for doing it) as they get rolling. We're not anywhere near that point yet, but I'm sure we'll deal with it sometime.

So, good luck, and if you can find a free lawyer, go for it! :)

Dwell Conference Session 1: C.J. Mahaney

Well, as promised, here is my summary of the Dwell Conference that Emily and I attended in NYC on April 29 and 30. It was a great conference, and we learned a ton about church planting and the theology that should lie behind it.

There were 8 sessions, and I'm going to share my highlights from each one from my conference notebook.

The first session was led by C.J. Mahaney, the leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries as former lead pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. He spoke about "Pastoral Priorities."

C.J. read 1 Timothy 4:16 and underscored the importance of keeping a close eye on 1) yourself, and 2) your teaching and your church's teaching. He mentioned that if you keep your teaching correct (as compared to Scripture) you will lead your listeners down the proper path that leads to salvation.

Mahaney's three main points in his talk were:

1) Watch your life. CJ said that there is no substitute for personal piety, and that it is a foundational assumption of Scripture that the pastor provides a godly and authentic example. Charles Spurgeon said, "Our character must be more persuasive than our speech."

2) Watch your doctrine. Focus on the Gospel. Never lose sight of it.

3) Watch the Savior work.

I will put the rest of my notes from the sessions up here in due time... :)

Moving to Knoxville!

Well, Emily and I have a home to rent in Knoxville and a moving date!

We are renting a home for a year from a great guy who is a rental home investor. He knows his stuff and we have a ton of confidence that he will be a great landlord.

Our move-in date is Saturday, June 28th. From then out, we will be residents of Knoxville!

Also, Ridge Church has an address. Anything you want to send our way can go to Ridge Church, P.O. Box 5475, Knoxville, TN 37928.

Feel free to email us at info@ridgechurchknoxville.com or call us at 704.579.2235 if you have questions or want to chat about the future of Ridge Church! We'd love to hear from you!

The Value of an Assessment

The past week has been a crazy one! On Wednesday, Emily and I drove from WV to Raleigh to a regional church planting network gathering we were invited to attend. While there, we met some cool people, and learned quite a bit from a special guest about the importance of the leadership of a church reflecting the three roles of Christ: prophet, priest, and king. It was enlightening and enjoyable.

On Thursday, Emily and I were assessed by three guys who are part of that same church planting network. It was a great time--but also stressful! The guys made sure we understood that we might feel a little defensive and "put on the spot" during the process of assessment. While it is true that we felt scrutinized, we also knew for a fact that the three guys cared deeply about church planting and church planters, and only wanted to help us through the church planting process.

The assessors had a ton of paperwork we had submitted to the network's representatives, including personal histories, information on our lifelong employment, the beginnings of our relationship with God and the current status of that relationship, and all kinds of other stuff. We were honest in the paperwork and the initial two-hour phone interview with a network representative about what we thought were our strengths, weaknesses, and potential struggles.

I believe wholeheartedly that our honesty and straightforward answers on the application helped alot! The assessors were able to focus on our weak areas to make sure that we have a healthy relationship, are planning for a healthy family life, and have a viable plan for being missionaries in Knoxville and starting a healthy, missional church that will make God's love visible in our area.

My advice to any church planter is to be assessed! It is great to know what people who've been down the path you are walking think about you and your ideas. They can't tell you exactly what God's will for you is, but they can give you insight and wise counsel. Pursue an assessment, and pursue membership in some type of network! The camaraderie and friendship is 100% worth it. It's three hours (or sometimes three days--depending on your network) that are well worth the investment of your time.

We will hear soon about whether we are going to be moving forward through the assessment process with this network. That will help us a great deal with knowing how to move forward with our church. Hopefully, a ton of advice will accompany our assessment report!