Part 3: Prayer

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Frank Wooden

If there has been one key element in growing our vision to plant churches in San Diego it has been prayer. Prayer literally has been the engine that drives Sweetwater River Church.

About four years ago a group of us began to pray together on Wednesday night on how SRC could reach the city of San Diego.   I had been raised in church and my memories of prayer meetings fell into two categories. They either took place in a side room off of the sanctuary where everybody prayed quietly kneeling over a folding chair trying to stay awake or they were so loud that you couldn’t hear yourself think and you wondered if God was deaf. Visionary prayer is different. It paints the big picture of who God is and how much he loves your city and it asks Him to fill in the details for you. There was a lot of conversation with each other and with God. Everyone was continually reminded that the purpose of these times of prayer was for our city. God wasn’t deaf and we weren’t going to send you to a side room to fall asleep.

As we continued to pray on Wednesdays, God began to give us a target- the City Heights area of San Diego. I didn’t know much about City Heights so I began to learn as much as I could. It is the most diverse neighborhood of San Diego, full of immigrants from all over the world and under-served by churches. We asked God to give us City Heights and He has begun to answer our prayer.

Now four years later, we do a weekly outreach to children called SDMetro Kids. Dozens of children attend this fast-paced program each week. This year we gave away hundreds of back packs with our kids website, sdmetrokids.com, printed on them. One month ago, we launched a Spanish-language church in City Heights that is averaging 25 in attendance.

If you want to reach your city, no matter what size your church is, ask God for a vision. Pray until He answers. I don’t believe that God can deny a church who asks Him for His vision.

Today, we have taken our prayer times off site. We do prayer drives where we go to City Heights and other strategic neighborhoods and pray. We do quarterly House of Prayer Experiences (HOPE) which combine worship and prayer at the church.

 

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Part 2: Vision (You Can’t Talk Too Much About It)

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Frank Wooden

Note: Part 1: How My Church Is Starting Three Churches In One Year was posted on October 3, 2011.

After John 3:16, the next most quoted verse might be Proverbs 29:18- Where there is no vision, the people perish. The problem is- too many leaders have no idea what their vision is. I didn’t, and I was the pastor of my church for ten years before I really knew what our vision was. I remember being asked by a member of SRC what was our purpose. I answered with something generic that any pastor might say- “We want to reach people for Jesus.” But shouldn’t that be the answer true for every Christian? There had to be something more specific for a leader.

That question started me on a journey to come up with a better answer. I started by taking a look at my existing church. It was urban, located in a huge city (San Diego), multi-ethnic, small and in a rut. As I prayed (Yes, this really works), God helped me to see that what we had could be assets (except for the being in a rut part) rather than liabilities. I decided to leverage our size, urban location and multi-ethnic composition to be part of God’s plan to reach greater San Diego.

Here’s what happened as I began to latch on to this- the vision grew in me. Over time, I could speak more confidently about it, even when no one else was seeing what I saw! And people began to buy into it. That was five years ago and today I am still talking about the vision.

Two of my top themes in Strengths Finder are Strategic and Futuristic. Those didn’t exist in me five years ago. Two things have changed- the vision has grown tremendously and my capability of leading from the vision has also grown.

I am convinced that vision begins with God and is essential to accomplish anything of value. Without it, churches and ministry perish; perhaps not overnight but eventually.

I am also convinced that vision is both caught and taught. I have watched as my staff has begun to grow their own visions for their ministries. It has become contagious. Where did they develop their visions? Most had something inside of them that once they shared it and got encouragement to develop it, began the process of becoming visionary leaders.

I am convinced that you cannot talk too much about vision. It keeps you alive in the hard times and it needs to be shared with new people who haven’t heard “the rest of the story”.

Next- Part 3: Prayer

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How My Church Is Starting Three Churches In One Year

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Frank Wooden

Can a church of 100 people plant three new church campuses in one year? That’s what Sweetwater River Church will be doing in 2012. Located in San Diego, SRC is targeting three areas of San Diego- North Park, City Heights, and the College area.

Over the coming months, this blog will describe the process we are following in turning this vision into reality. Already, we have three church planters for these locations. One plant is in the small group stage, another is a bible study of 20- 25 people and the third is in the beginning stages.

If you are a small church leader with a heart to plant, I want to encourage you to listen to our story and to contribute to the conversation of church planting.

Currently, most multi-site church planting is being done by large churches. Even if every large church planted another campus (which many are doing), there is still a huge need for more churches. We are leveraging our size to our advantage. We are big enough to have a full range of ministries but small enough to have a highly relational environment. Planting other campuses is an extension of what we already do. If smaller churches participated in church planting, their numbers would far out pace the number of big church plants.

Coming Next: Vision (You Can’t Talk Too Much About It)

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No Summer Slump

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Frank Wooden

It has been a great summer at SRC as we have grown numerically and are preparing for an amazing fall. I took the summer off from speaking and the team came through with flying colors. I’m proud of the staff, whether they speak or minister in another capacity.

This fall we focus on launching three campuses in San Diego in 2012. One will be in North Park, another will be Spanish language in City Heights and a third will be in the SDSU area. More about these locations in the coming weeks.

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David Wilkerson

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Frank Wooden

I join thousands others in mourning the death of David Wilkerson yesterday. He was the founder of Teen Challenge and Times Square Church in New York City. I will forever be grateful for how his ministry changed my son’s life. Well done good and faithful servant.

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Easter Recap

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Frank Wooden

This past week has been phenomenal in the ministry of Sweetwater River Church. We did two performances of “The Runaway”, an urban re-telling of the story of the Prodigal Son. Thursday night was our second Tenebrae Service, observing the rejection and pain that Jesus went through on the night he was arrested. It has become one of the most powerful services we do. Saturday before Easter was our annual egg hunt outreach- our biggest yet. On Easter we launched “Metamorphosis: 30 Days To A New You.” We wrote and printed Life Guides for individuals to use over the next thirty days.

In the past year, since Easter 2010, we have added four members to the pastoral staff, grown in size, relaunched small groups as life groups, started a fine arts ministry, added a biker outreach ministry and we are closing in on the goals of planting churches in City Heights and North Park! We also helped rescue 25 girls from sex trafficking in northern India. A couple of other ministry developments are in the works…we’ll let you know once they are confirmed.

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Catlyst West

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Frank Wooden

I’m heading out early tomorrow morning with Jon Nichols to Catalyst West in Irvine. Jon is a church planter with SRC. It is good to get away in a new environment for refueling. I love the Laguna/Newport Beach area. I was just there two weeks ago for an overnighter with my wife.

SRC is at a great point- we are growing and preparing for multi-site later this year. I want to keep my mind and spirit sharp as we move forward.

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Review of “The Next Christians”

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Frank Wooden

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review)

“The Next Christians” is the title of Gabe Lyons latest book  subtitled: “How A New Generation Is Restoring The Faith”. Gabe is a cofounder of Catalyst and now leads Q (qideas.org). Since reading his book, I’m finding his name popping up in other places (such as a webcast event on February 17th with Tim Keller).

It’s not news that Christianity is losing traction in America but Lyons takes the time to remind us that “Americans are spiritual, but they have begun to seek spiritual experiences outside the framework of traditonal religions.” He then takes the time  to describe the various reponses that Christian make with current culture- separatist, cultural or restorers (with great descriptions of each). Lyons makes an impassioned call for restorers.

The second half of the book examines six characteristics of restorers:

  • Provoked, not offended.
  • Creators, not critics.
  • Called, not employed.
  • Grounded, not distracted.
  • In community, not alone.
  • Countercultural, not relevant.

What do you do with a book like this? Read it with a pen handy because you’ll want to underline passages and write notes in the margins. With the swirling  debate on how we should live in a postChristian America, Lyons makes a lot of sense which cannot always be said about others. Second, pass this book on to a friend, especially if they happen to be in ministry. One of my staff is working on a church plant in urban San Diego and I plan on having him read this book as he prepares for launch.

I like Gabe Lyons because he writes about ministry and culture like he knows both subjects well. He’s not a pastor which works to his advantage in allowing him to talk to a broader audience from his own diverse experiences. This is an important book at a critical time for American Christianity.

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A Pastor’s Take on Facebook- part 1

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Frank Wooden

Like millions of other people, I can be found on Facebook. I joined over a year ago and have watched my friends grow in number as I have spent hours online at my wall. I’m a pastor and I thought social networking would be a good way to keep in touch with people in my church as well as friends near and far. I haven’t been disappointed but I have been surprised. Here’s the first part of what I have learned.

Friending/Unfriending

I’m no Rick Warren (although he is one of my Facebook friends) so I didn’t expect to have thousands of friends on Facebook but I am surprised at how many I do have and who among my friends still haven’t joined Facebook (like some of my staff). Because I am involved in church planting and the multi-ethnic church movement I expected that I would get friend requests from people I didn’t know or I only knew indirectly. I should have realized that there would be scammers out there (Girls asking to be my friend so that I could view their x-rated pictures that they couldn’t post on Facebook). With girls- no friendship unless I know you. I am surprised at the complete strangers who want to be my friend. Do you really need friends that desperately? Often, when I check out their info, I find out that they already have hundreds of more friends than I do. Am I really your friend or just one more number to add to your friend count?

I have asked some well known people to become my friends. Its good to know what they’re thinking. Most of my friends are people I really do know…from the distant past, the recent past and the present. They are people in ministry, people from my churches and people I know socially.

Unfriending is the process where you drop someone as your friend or they drop you. I haven’t unfriended anybody but I have been unfriended. Those that have unfriended me have done so for one of two reasons. The first reason is because even though they know I am a pastor (it’s on my profile), all of the sudden they realize that I can read everything they and all their friends poston their wall. While I have never used Facebook to get preachy, I think a few of my ex-friends felt guilty that I now knew when they were wasted, who they were partying with, and how much they liked to cuss.

A second reason I have been dropped as a friend is when a few people  left my church because I did do something that is in my job description- I corrected them. I never corrected them in public and I never posted anything in Facebook about what they did. Believe it or not, the Bible (Yes, that book) does expect pastors to occasionally correct people who are headed down the wrong path.  A few people find this a convenient time to leave the church and leave me off their friends list. I am proud of a few people who left my church for various reasons outside of being corrected but are still my Facebook friends. It shows that we can still act like grown ups instead of spoiled kids. I’m even more proud of the people who accepted correction and have stayed in my church, whether or not they are on Facebook.

There may be a another reason why one or two people dropped me as a Facebook friend- they don’t have a sense of humor. There are some really uptight people on Facebook who insist on always being politically correct. While I am mostly pc because I don’t want to be offensive on Facebook, can’t a person sometimes express an opinion that can poke fun (just a little, maybe)? Some people need to lighten up and smile more.

Part 2- What I’ve learned from reading what people post.

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Why I Believe In a Multi-ethnic Church

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Frank Wooden

I just attended the first ever Multi-Ethnic Church Conference held in San Diego. MECC provided me an opportunity to see old friends and make new ones but more importantly, my commitment to diversity was renewed.

As a pastor of a multi-ethnic church, I’m not an advocate for multi-ethnicity because it is cool or it is the latest trend. The heartbeat of the church should be to make disciples of every people group and then bring them into the same unity that Jesus has with the Father. The reality is that this is challenging work, not for the faint of heart, with tremendous rewards. The prayer of Jesus in John 17 is that future disciples would be knit together in a single community of believers. To not be a ME (multi-ethnic) church is to ignore the prayer of Jesus Christ and fragments the body of Christ.

The Church’s credibility is riding on our diversity.

Read more »

Filed under: Churches, Multi-ethnic | Leave a Comment »

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