One thing that can be difficult to gain (or retain) after being in one place for 7+ years is perspective. There are times when it seems that the whole world (or at least the whole church) starts and ends at Cornerstone. This is obviously false and so many pastors like myself seek out conferences, classes, and other pastors from other churches to maintain or gain a broader perspective of what God is doing with their own church. It's healthy to remember that your church is not the only church that does some things well and other things not so well. However, conferences, phone consults, and scouring church web sites for perspective, fresh ideas, and creative inspiration only goes so far. So again I asked the Lord to answer the above question in light of experiences that only a sabbatical could accommodate.
The answer, and what will consume the 2nd half of my sabbatical experience, that I was led to is to go "on-site" with churches that are kindred spirits with Cornerstone. So for several weeks, I’ll be watching, listening, shadowing, and learning at churches that are similar in philosophy and organization to Cornerstone. It’s good to “get out of the box” now and then and learn from your peers. I will be traveling to various churches to “shadow” a teaching pastor, soak up new ideas, ask practical questions, sit in on elders meetings, consult with their leadership, discover “best practices”, and generally beg, borrow, or steal what they've got going on! Not all of it will transfer back to CBF because God has a unique journey for us. But what we can learn from others who have traveled similar paths will better prepare me to be a better leader for what lies ahead for CBF. I'm praying it will provide valuable, visionary, leadership perspective.
Once this question was answered, I discovered another difficult question had to be answered: Where will I go? For this I did plain old time consuming research. My criteria was pretty detailed. I wanted to find churches that had similar leadership philosophy to Cornerstone, had been our current size in the past 10 years, now has an attendance of at least 850+ on Sunday's, and had a location somewhat comparable to a free-way access road campus in a town roughly the same demographics as Sherwood, AR. God can answer very specific prayer requests, can't he?
Yes he can and yes he did. I discovered that there are church researchers at various organizations and Seminaries that study these very criteria. Using the data from several of these firms and universities, I made my list of the churches I'd like to visit the most. I then started sending "cold call" emails to their Teaching Pastor's introducing myself and sharing with them what I was trying to accomplish and asking for time for a phone call to further explain myself and my request.
I can not be more thankful for what God has already done with this! I have 3 confirmed visits and 1 very likely visit with some great churches now scheduled. Not only that, I've already had several valuable phone conversations with the teachings pastors of these churches who have done nothing less than rolled out the red carpet for me and my family! No matter what you hear, teaching pastors can be really nice guys!
So in July and the first week of August, Alicia, Mikaila, Jeremiah, & I will be on a road trip. We will be in the Southeast and Northeast primarily. We will visit churches from 850 to 1500 in size. We will enjoy their worship services and hang out in their towns for 3-5 days at a time. I will have access to each church's entire pastoral staff and have multiple sit-downs with their teaching pastors and other key leaders. I'll sit in elders meetings, staff meetings, and ministry team meetings. I'll ask questions, learn their approaches to church growth barriers, and gather notes and ideas. Honestly, I've never heard of any pastor doing this on a sabbatical and neither had the pastors I'm now scheduled to visit. But the way God has orchestrated the contacts and schedules and phone calls and reservations, I am really excited about this unorthodox sabbatical experience! I'm now beginning to think that one of the best outcomes of this half of my sabbatical may be an unforeseen one. I'm already starting to think of these other teaching pastors as friends.
I'm not going to reveal the names of the churches I'll be visiting just yet, but I will blog about each of them during or after each visit. I will ask you to thank God for them and to ask him to bless them. They have offered me assistance in arranging housing, scheduling meetings, escorting us to good places to eat and other area attractions that our family might enjoy while we are there. I have direct contact with their support staff who have answered all my questions and sent me all information I've asked for. I so want Cornerstone to have that kind of welcoming and helping spirit when other churches come to us for consultation on their ministries.
I still have some hotel and rental car reservations to find so please pray we can find the best deals possible on these expensive aspects of this journey.
UP NEXT: Pt 4, FAQ'S and how CBF people can participate in this sabbatical journey!
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