Pastor Otto Wegner

      Pastor Otto has been an ordained and licensed minister for 46 years. He graduated from CBC and most recently was the pastor of Highway Tabernacle in Center City, Philadelphia. He pastored in New Jersey for 11 years and was at the richest church in the district. From the time he proposed to his now wife he knew that he would pastor in a city and that this was ultimately what he was going to do. The church was anything but urban yet the people who lived there all worked in the city and had a great understanding of how the city worked. This is the reason he felt that he served in the church in New Jersey was to learn about the city because he didn’t know anything about what it meant to serve in the city. When he told people that he was going to move into the city people wanted to send him to Emerge, which is a psychological center of the AG. They couldn’t understand why he would leave this church and make a terrible career move.

      When he left the church they started planting churches and used college seniors and juniors to plant these churches. The students would be coached 6 months at a time. None of the students were urban young people and knew nothing about city life. They would mentor these students and would equip them to serve in these capacities. They would simply experiment with what to do in places they wanted to plant churches.

      He started using core values and wanted people to learn them and repeat them. One of those core values was that when I work I work. When I pray God works. He had many different prayer meetings at the church. He says “all language is learned by hearing language” meaning that how can people learn how to pray if they do not hear others praying. He learned by listening to his parents praying. He says that churches who don’t have prayer meetings aren’t teaching prayer.

      A quote he shared with us in class is that Christians must give or they cease being Christian. We need to give even before we can give. If you want the church to balance the budget the be the lead giver. If you want the church to be a missionary church then give to missions. He said that we teach what we believe and we reproduce who we are.

      When it comes to fundraising the biggest hurdle is to overcome the resistance to ask. If you do not ask then you effectively are saying no. We need to know who we are asking and ask for what that person can give us. One of the most effective ways is to break down the large sum into smaller parts. It is more than asking for the money. It is something that people can become engaged in that will last much longer than what that money can buy. Something that he knew in theory but learned in practice is that God’s true people will stagger you with their generosity.

      Education has played a big role in his model for discipling the people in the city. The city is different in the respect that the problems and challenges of the city will be everywhere and tend to radiate outward. A study was done and all of the issues that center city was dealing with 20 years ago is now being dealt with in Upper Darby. This is the first ring outside of the city is where this problem first affects the suburbs. If a child doesn’t learn how to read by 9 years old they will be illiterate. The church can not be so narrowly spiritual that they do not give to justice then what are they doing. Pastor Otto said that Jesus didn’t die so that we had something to do on Sunday morning. Jesus died so that people could be whole.

      They have an equation at the church that said responsibility + accountability equals maturity.

     Almost anybody can count the amount of seeds in an apple. But we get to know a God who knows how many apples will come out of every seed. Do not spend time counting seeds. Spend time getting to know the God who makes seeds grow. God will lead us to the most potent seeds.

     Pastor Otto Wegner defined disciple makers as people who spend time with people and answer questions. Nothing more complicated than that. It is just being real.

C.J. Ortega

      C.J. Ortega was in the marine core and came to PA in 1997. He lived in San Diego during that time and he worked as an engineer. He lives in Reading, PA and he met his wife there. He fell in love with urban church planting and that’s what he does now. He worked as a bouncer when he first moved out to reading from San Diego. While working as a bouncer he had already given his life to Christ but he wouldn’t consider himself a Christ follower. He considers that to be someone who is sold out for Jesus. He met Christ through another marine that he knew. This was during a time that he had attempted a second suicide. He spent 3-4 hours talking with this marine and the next morning he had been delivered from alcohol, tobacco, and even some drugs. Then mike took him to a church and he had a pastor read him his mail.

      C.J. looks at certain things we do in church planting and wonders why we do that. There are two churches that are planted in Reading. There was one day when he had to change up the order of service. They started with prayer and went right into the announcements, then the sermon and ended up with worship.

      His wife went into labor and was having difficulty with the birth. After 18 hours no one could figure out why this was going on and she went in to have a C-section. He prayed unlike he had ever prayed before and he promises God that he would do whatever God wanted. He then went to church at Glad Tidings a couple weeks later and felt the hand of God on him and God spoke to him everything that He wanted. He made his way to the altar and after that he never looked back.

      C.J. was discipled in a couple different ways. He had a one on one learning the basics type of discipleship and then the real grind and growth came in through small groups. He disciples people the same way now at his church. He is real big on keeping things in the living room at home. There are one on one type of discipleships also and they use a curriculum that allows the person who is being discipled to be a discipler.

      C.J. planted a church because he wanted to see peoples live changed and transformed through coming to Jesus. He has always had that as a passion. Through being a small group leader his groups would grow and eventually he had an opportunity to go to church planting boot camp. He came to the conclusion that planting churches is the way to reach as many people as possible.

      One of the success stories is this guy named Corey who he met at a homeless shelter. Corey is now no longer homeless, he has a job and when he cant come to church he shows up at 6:00 PM just to say Pastor I am sorry that I can’t make it to church today because I have to work. He would leave church to go sleep under a bridge and there was nothing C.J. could do about it.

      Some of the lessons C.J. said he learned in church planting is that he doesn’t want to dismiss experiences that haven’t been good experiences. Everything hasn’t been good along the way. He doesn’t want to dismiss them and say that there is no value to them. He told us that we don’t have to learn the hard way. One of the first things we need to do is to be ourselves. Do not try to be another Pastor who is successful. Love Jesus and Love the people that God has given you to disciple. C.J. tried to be like everyone else. This did not work though. They planted at a place 7 miles outside of the city and this was not working. He then decided that he needed to plant in the city. Out of the 30 people who were there only 5 came with him to the city.

      He used to be timid when it came to asking for money and that is something he had to learn to change.

      Time management is very important in not burning out. C.J. and his wife decide what is important to them. They need to prioritize what things are more important. The people at the church have a lot of grace for him because of the job he has. When they need him he is there but not for things that others can do. One of the other things that helps is that his wife and him do everything together. This allows for them to have family time and not give that up.

      The Biggest letdown in ministry for him is when people turn their back on God. When you pour into someone’s life and give and give and no matter what you do they still walk away. That is when you have to look to God and ask him to really perform a miracle.

Elijah and Ashlee Hollis

      This past Tuesday on January 17th we had a young couple come to our class to share about their experiences in ministry. Their names were Elijah and Ashlee Hollis. Right off the bat you could tell that this was going to be an energetic time as soon as Elijah came up first to be interviewed by our professor. the class started with Elijah telling us about his times traveling with his family from a young age. His father was a youth pastor at the time and his grandfather was the senior pastor of a church they were serving at. His dad felt like they were called to go on the road and minister to churches all across the country. They sold everything they had and went on the road for 12 years all together. During 6 of those years it was just their immediate family and for 6 years his mothers family joined them. They would sing and perform dramas at churches.

      After being on the road all of that time his father then decided it was time for a change. The planted a church called the Power Place in Kennett Square, PA. This church was started in the basement of an American Legion building that was not in use. There were holes in the walls and the place was just filthy. They went in and made it look much better.

      Elijah went off to Bible college for one year and when he came back his father presented him with the opportunity to be the Youth Pastor at the church. Elijah had an interesting response to his dad. He said I don't really like youth and I have no desire to be a Pastor. He then went and prayed and really felt a strong burden for young people and then came back to his dad and said he would do it. The youth ministry is called High Voltage. The vision for the ministry is to raise up a generation of world changers. They want to take broken kids and help them to be put back together through the power of Christ. A lot of the students are not churched and the have recently graduated most of the students they started with so the youth group has a new face now.

      Ashlee grew up in a church with a more traditional mindset so when she moved out here after getting married to Elijah she said she had an adjustment period. She was used to be around kids who were already churched and this was not the case around here. The vocabulary they used and just their mindset was very different from back home in the Midwest. these are exactly the kids they want coming to the church though.

      Some of the activities they have done at the youth group that have been successful are the mud formal where everyone bought suits and dresses from a thrift store and they trashed them with mud. They posed for prom style pictures and they played games in the mud. They had a willy wonka night at the youth group where everything was basically edible in the room. Every time the have an event each month the next event already has a date and is in the works so that the momentum continues. They have creative meetings and plan thing down to the final detail.

      Prayer is very important. He couldn't emphasize this enough. No matter how well planned things are God has to be in control of everything and only he can make something a true success. Elijah talked about how if you aren't seeking God yourself then there is no way you can give that to the students. He loves just doing life with the students and finds that to be one of the most successful ministry tools. He finds out what kids like and spends time doing that thing with them. IT means the world to the students.

      One of the coolest things they talked about was a manna jar that they have in their home. Every time God provides a miracle or does something in their lives they write it down on a piece of paper and place it in the jar. This is a tangible way to remember all of what God has done for them and other people come in a read them when they are at their home. It is a great conversation starter. This is something I want to do in my home and I am going to in my home. Their time with us was very uplifting and it was great to see young people who are wise and doing things to spread the kingdom in a creative way.

Class Notes 01/10/12, Bill Hybels- A Vision to Die For

He starts off the sermon with a story about a pastor who got a vision from God about the next 5 years of the church.

·      The vision is well received by everyone in the church.

·      This is some sort of a fantasy in a pastor’s life.

·      It is a FANTASY!!

·      A vision that comes that fast, not discussed with key stakeholder in the church, and handled that unilaterally will not be owned.

·      Nothing matters more than the ownership of a vision

Owning a vision

·      Vision is the powerful offensive weapon in a leaders arsenal

·      It is the painting of a picture that produces passion in people

People love going to a church that doesn’t just hold a service but they know where the church is going and why.

Jesus is teaching in John 10

·      There are two people who protect the sheep.

·      Hired hands and Owners

·      Hired hands run off from a problem

·      Owners protect the sheep because they have known them from a young age.

·      Ownership matter in the vision business

PEOPLE WILL DIE FOR A VISION!!

For the last 4 years senior leaders from willow creek and Southside Baptist get on a bus and visit sites where Martin Luther King Jr. cast vision. March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday. People died crossing a bridge.

·      Things had to change in the country because people were willing to die for a vision

·       

Government can not cure what is diseasing the human soul

Schools can educate but not change hearts

ONLY JESUS CAN TRANSFORM A HUMAN HEART!

·      This message has been entrusted to the church

·      This is the hop of the world

·      This makes our visions very important for the church.

·      Our visions must wind up getting owned by substantial numbers of people in the church.

How do we get into the business of casting visions that people own and be? Even further is something they are willing to die for.

·      The answer is a word most leaders hate.

·      PROCESS

·      It is hard for activistic leaders to subject themselves to process.

The likelihood of a person owning the vision of the pastor in the beginning of the sermon is none.

·      It makes people feel devalued because they weren’t allowed to take part in it

·      This is defeating for others

Vision Formation

·      The Sinai approach

o   Senior leaders love the text where Moses goes up the mountain and comes down with the commandments

o   How cool is that for anyone other than the leader?

o   This is a dramatic method, it is quick

·      The team approach

o   Instead of the pastor going away for three days. Schedule a three-day retreat for the leaders in the church.

o   Ask them what does God want our church to look like 5 years from now?

o   It is a question that makes people want to search the scriptures. It makes people want to talk to their colleagues.

o   The likelihood of ownership goes way up

o   This is terribly slow and quite inefficient

o   It took willow creek 18 months to do it

o   It built community and demonstrated value

o   Are you going to take the Sinai approach or the team approach?

o   People don’t always have to have their way. They just need to have their way considered.

Vision Refinement

·      First draft from

o   In the past pastors would say thank you and team dismissed. Ill do the rest.

o   The idea is to take the first draft of the vision and take it to other parts of the church. Staff, volunteers, young, old, men, women.

o   What excites you about this? What would you add? What would you delete? How can you help us improve?

o   Several good things happen when you shop this around

§  People feel valued

§  You get important feedback

§  You learn what is tripping people up

§  It paves the way for higher levels of ownership

o   In 2000 they launched a vision for a new auditorium

§  A few leaders and the pastor took it to 40 meetings and cast the vision to the 40 groups of 75 people.

§  They asked the questions.

§  He learned how to scare people less and excite them more.

§  When they were done with the forty groups of people they had committed 40 million dollars.

Vision Declaration

·      Ideas

o   He asked if he could do a trial run of the weekend vision message in front of the elders, and a leaders meeting.

o   He then asked for their feedback

o   After 3 test groups he changed his introduction

o   The main points were right

o   If it doesn’t move and stir the leaders it won’t move and stir the congregation.

o   He then said here is what the senior leaders believe the future of the church is.

o   They helped him build the talk

o   People deeply own the vision.

·      Vision is not a solo activity

Vision Leaks!!!!

·      By Tuesday people have forgotten what he said on Sunday.

·      People in your church have real lives. They have jobs, bills, and many other things.

·      You don’t beat the sheep back into the vision

·      Fill their vision buckets back up through websites, podcast, preaching, and teaching.

·      CELEBRATE PROGRESS ALONG THE WAY!!

·      Tell a story, mark a milestone, and tell them it is actually happening.

·      This refocuses the church very quickly

Would you be willing to sacrifice deeply and die for the vision has cast in your heart?

·      Are you a hired hand? An hourly worker?

·      Do you stop when the vision stops?

·      Or are you an owner? Willing to pay any price?

·      EVEN DIE FOR IT!

Wise leaders know the single most determining factor of whether or not your followers are going to own a vision deeply is whether or not they believe you own it.  

·      They will sacrifice for it if they see that you are willing to sacrifice for it.

·      People will not follow us if we are hirelings, low cost people