Did you ever have a fake ID? Shhhhhh…I did!

When I was a senior in high school, my journalism class took a field trip to New York City. One afternoon while shopping for souvenirs,  I and a couple of girlfriends slipped into a little shop and had our photos taken and fake ID’s made. I felt notorious and terrified all at once just having it in my pocket.

What if someone found it? What if my mom found it? What exactly was I going to do with it? Needless to say, I was too afraid of being “busted” for having a fake ID to ever try to use it. I decided I’d rather just be myself. I didn’t even like alcohol, I just wanted to go dancing!

This month at Kinetic we are exploring our identities and examining them to see if they match what God says our identity is.

For the church planter, this matter of identity is a little sticky. We can become so enmeshed with our church and our people, in our jobs or our titles that we forget who we really are. We may find ourselves trapped by the position. Our whole personhood encapsulated in one phrase, “Pastor’s wife,” or “Planting Wife,” or maybe “worship leader,” or “children’s minstry director,” or “women’s ministry director.”

If your church plant has become your ID, part of who you are, what you identify yourself with, that can be a very dangerous place for a planter to be. If any of the ministries fail to perform the way you expect, what are you left with? And if the plant fails in those areas, you’ve tied your self worth to that performance. On the other hand, if you are super successful, suddenly you may start believing that you and your amazing talent had everything to do with it.

It helps me to remember that I’m just a girl, saved by grace, who loves Jesus. All the rest is what I do to serve Christ, but not who I am.

Have you ever struggled with this identity issue? In what ways? Please share what has helped you on your planting journey.

What do you do for your staff wives to encourage them? What do you do as the lead pastor’s wife to lift them up, and train them? Stadia, the church planting organization we partnered with, has a wonderful ministry for and by the women who plant with them.

This ministry is called Bloom! and I am excited to a part of her leadership team. The goal of this group is to encourage the lead planter spouses so they in turn can minister to the women under them; staff wives, ministry leaders, etc.

One of Bloom’s many ministry teams is the Blessings Ministry. My friend Tammy Smith (Impact Community Church) heads up that group and is constantly coming up with simple, great ideas to encourage our ladies, which we can in turn use to encourage our staff if we choose. I am so grateful to Tammy and her team for their thoughtfulness.

The photo for this post is a shot of the “Blessing” that I received from her team this week. Comment back on great ideas you have used or seen to encourage the women on your team!

Today is Good Friday and like churches across the country, Kinetic will be celebrating with her church family. This year we are doing a Family Communion Service. Since we are are still a mobile church, we are hosting this service at our church offices. We had small groups of people sign up for time slots to go through the service together.

Sunday we will host Easter services at 11:00AM.

What do your church plants to for Easter? How do you overcome being a mobile church?

Just a quick reminder that I will be on Girlfriendit Radio today at 12:30PM promoting Bloom Where You’re Planted, my new book! The show starts at noon and wraps up at 1PM. If you can’t listen live, go to: http://toginet.com  or check out the podcast online at: girlfriendit.org!

This Easter we are implementing a new campaign at Kinetic. We are encouraging our members to mug their neighbors, friends and family members. This isn’t as violent as it sounds. It actually might be quite pleasant.

We ordered 500 mugs and printed the card to place inside. Then we asked our members to take mugs to give away to friends they wanted to invite to church. We encouraged them to fill the mugs with treats and then to go out and mug their neighbors!

Hey friends, I am being interviewed by Girlfriendit Radio show hosted by Patty Wyatt and Lisa Jernigan this Thursday! That is March 28, 2013 at 12 noon. I’ll be on from 12:30 to 1PM, but the show starts at 12.

I’ll be promoting my new book, Bloom Where You’re Planted, and discussing topics from the book with the hosts. If you miss the show you can always catch the podcast online. I love listening to these ladies each week as they discuss relevant issues to women and faith. They also partner with Bloom Ministries, support for church planting spouses. You can listen live on: toginet.com and check out their blog on: girlfriendit.org