I'm not just saying this... Launching a church has been the most exciting and faith-stretching journey of my life.

If I could go back and start over, here are "5 Things I Wouldn't Change":

1) From day one, I surrounded myself w/ a couple of incredible mentors.

The guys I look to as "mentors" pastor healthy and growing churches and have the same ministry philosophy that I do.  I don't surround myself w/ a bunch of different philosophies to be "well-balanced".  Also, I've refused to look for direction from people who have a lot of opinions, but have never actually led a church.

2) We moved quickly!

I never bought into the philosophy that I should live in the area for a year and slowly build a "core" of people.  That's stupid.   Logically speaking, if we took a year to build relationships, it would've been a lot easier for the launch team to become inwardly focused and protective of their own friendships.

3) We never apologized for our vision.

4) We launched BIG!

We sent out 50K mailers, advertised in a lot of different ways and pretty much did what we could to invited people.  Over 600 people showed up to the Grand Opening.

5) I've always spoken positively about other churches.

I really do believe that different churches exist to help different types of people connect w/ God.  I pray for, meet with, and am a big fan of other pastors and churches in my community.  NOBODY can ever accuse me of saying negative things about another church.

I'll continue on Friday w/ some more things I wouldn't change...

Dave