Rich Kao

#1 - Incubate leaders and their ministries, known as the A12 rule or the Assignment of 12.  Specifically the senior pastor signs on to raising up and releasing up to 12 full-time ministers in his life time, in the tradition of Jesus himself who raised up 12 apostles.  This is the legacy mandate.

#2 - 10 x 100 rule.  Rather than raise up one church of 1000 people, raise up 10 churches of 100.  This is a multi-site city strategy to better penetrate and incarnate the gospel, while releasing more leaders to do the work of the ministry.  It's meant to facilitate a viral church multiplication model.   This is the impact mandate.

#3 - Boutique church - one pastor, one church, one purse.  This is the 1 x 1 x 1 rule.  The purpose of this rule is to keep the pastor close to the people for the purpose of shepherding them into the Lordship of Jesus.  This is the discipleship mandate.  Additionally, it's to raise up a congregation that can finance the livelihood of one full-time minister.

 * Being proto-typed in Vancouver, BC (5 Stones Church)

Defined: The study of how churches multiply.  (adding to church planting lexicon).

Coming soon: seed thoughts from the field in Vancouver and our incubator church concept.

In August, I posted an entry about our 20 year plan for our church plant.  It basically breaks down the 20 years into 4 five year segments and describes what each five year segment is about.  Recently while preparing for our upcoming staff retreat, God impressed on me a sport metaphor; "Your 20 year plan is like four quarters of a football game and you've just finished the first quarter.  You now have a proof of concept regarding your incubator church model."  Wow, what a neat picture, and what an encouragement from the Lord to know we've prototyped something that's of some value.  Can't wait for the second, third and fourth quarters.  With Coach Jesus on the sidelines, we can't lose.

One of our 5 operating principles at 5 Stones church is to leverage technology for the gospel. This is still a work in progress, but never in the history of man, have local churches been able to have such global reach and appeal through the internet, technology and multimedia. 

Mars Hill Church in Seattle says it well:

"God has often used technological advancement to spread the Gospel through the church. At the time of Paul it was the Roman’s system of roads.  For the Reformers it was the printing press. For Billy Graham it was sound amplification systems and stadiums. For Mars Hill [or local churches], we have ... the opportunity to use the advances in video and internet distribution [like never before]."

I'll be sharing more on the other 5 principles we live by at 5 Stones; it's part of our "incubator" concept for church planting.

The above picture says it all.  High tech reaching the farthest corners - may it be for Jesus and his glory.

I love both Amazon (books, Jeff Bezos is a genius) & Zappos (CEO Tony's tweets are the best; my wife loves their shoes).  When I heard Amazon bought Zappos, I was anxious to hear Jeff's (CEO of Amazon) take on the purchase, and he did not disappoint.  Listen to what Jeff has learned in building Amazon; he's reduced it to just 4 things, and how Zappos fits into the picture.  Each of his lessons can be used for the gospel, church planting and Kingdom expansion.  See my applications below the video.   Great stuff.

Application:

Lesson #1 - Obsess over customers = Obsess over Jesus (i.e. what's the one thing your org is about?) Jn 12:32.

Lesson #2 - Invent = Creativity is the lifeblood of the re-articulating the gospel in each generation. 1 Cor 9:22.

Lesson #3 - Think long term = Have a 20 year plan!  See here.  Don't be afraid to take your time.  Our culture is obsessed with instant success.  Gal. 6:9.

Lesson #4 - It's always Day 1 = There's always something new to learn.  There's never a dull moment.  Be a life long learner.  Prov. 4:18.