Bill Hybels – Session 4

There was once a community of people who were completely devoted to God. They were so devoted to God that when He told them to go, they went. They would do whatever God told them to do. In this community there was a radical love for one another that broke down every kind of wall there is. Each member used his or her spiritual gifts, and they knew that they were dependent not only on God, but on one another as well. They believed that God could perform signs and wonders, and because of this, they regularly stood in awe. The people in this community of faith burned with passion to take the gospel to their world. When they were threatened and told to stop, they met in an open room and prayed not for God to stop the Romans, but for courage to spill their blood. There was once a community of faith like this.

Hybels' Counsel for those thinking about Church Planting

• Understand the difference between a hankering and a holy discontent.
  
  • A hankering doesn't last. A true holy discontent cannot be put out. God has stirred something in you that cannot be quieted.
    
  • David – he got the point where he could not take any more trash talking by Goliath about his God.
    
  • Bob Pierce (World Vision) – He saw children dying because of a lack of food. This wrecked him for the rest of his life, and he decided right then and there to devote the rest of life towards providing food for children.
    
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. – His dream for racial reconciliation eventually killed him.
    
  • If church planting is simply a hankering, then when the hard times come, you will quit. If it is a holy discontent, then nothing anyone can do to you will stop you.
    
• Understand how God has gifted you.
  
  • Who's got what gifts?
    
  • Rank order of giftedness matters.
    
  • There are times when we have to do lots of things to keep things going, but we need to make a habit in the beginning of doing things based on our giftedness.
    
• Understand the connection between leadership and faith.
  
  • We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)
    
  • There are going to be countless times when the money is not there, the people are not there, and problems are all around us. If we walk by sight, we are going to lose heart.
    
  • We have to walk by faith, believing that God will do what only he can do between here and there. That's what faith is.
    
  • Faith is walking in the direction that God has told you to go, believing that somewhere between here and there, he is going to show up in power and He's going to help you do what He has called you to do.
    
  • Moses and the Red Sea
    
  • Joshua and the Jordan River
    
  • Jesus at the wedding in Canaan (faith of the wine tasters)
    
• Figure out early on if you're going to take the high road or the low road.
  
  • More than anything, people desire for their leaders to have integrity and character
    
• Ask God to let you finish with a few of the people with whom you started.
  
  • It's naïve to believe that everyone you start with will be here in twenty years, but ask God to let you finish with two or three of them.