I’ve promised myself that I’m not going to spend too much time on this blog rehashing why Fulcrum didn’t work out. However, I think it will be therapeutic for me, and hopefully beneficial to some of you, to share some of the lessons I’ve learned from this experience.
Before I get into the lessons, let me clearly state what our goal was when we started this project. We were sent to Austin to launch a self-supporting church that would also help start other new churches. When I talk about success or failure in this post, I’m speaking relative to this goal. There were lots of good things that happened because of Fulcrum, but ultimately we did not accomplish our stated goal.
In no particular order, except for the last one, which is the most important, here are some of the lessons I’ve learned:
1. Some experiments fail. Seems simple and obvious, but it still doesn’t negate the shock one feels when it happens to your experiment. We had a saying about Fulcrum from the very beginning: Everything is an experiment. This wasn’t just rhetoric, we really meant it. We had at our disposal a body of conventional wisdom about church planting that–had we chosen to follow it–would have increased our chances of success. Rather than plant a “textbook” church, we chose to chart our own course. While jumping off the map led to some initial wins and intriguing possibilities, we ultimately died on the side of the mountain because we chose not to walk the time-tested path discovered and marked by others. While this was done in the name of exploration and innovation, I must admit there was more than a little hubris involved as well.
2. Having sufficient funds doesn’t guarantee a successful church plant. When we started I thought that fund raising would be the hardest part of the job, especially during a recession. Yes, we got off to a slow start, but eventually God provided plenty of money to get the job done. We were careful not spend too much too soon and we had some generous donors help us meet all of our fund raising goals right up to the very end. Some church plants fail for lack of funding. This was not the case with Fulcrum.
3. You don’t have as much time as you think you do. When things start to go downhill in a new church, they go downhill fast. There is not much time to make corrections. If you make a major strategic mistake you may not have time to recover from it. There were a number of good things our team talked about doing that never got done. Part of the reason for this is that I think we kept telling ourselves there would be plenty of time to do these things later on. There wasn’t.
4. A well articulated vision can come back to haunt you later on. Be careful of what kind of initial vision you cast, because people are listening. Early on, we talked a lot about being a different kind of church that would connect with people not currently connected to existing churches. We gathered a launch team that was interested in doing something “different.” When we started to look more and more like existing churches, they called “foul” and rightly so. One of the reasons I think we lost momentum is that mid-project I unwittingly asked people who had signed up for something unconventional to help launch something conventional. Many of them said “no.”
5. Just because God is with you doesn’t mean your project will succeed, and just because your project fails doesn’t mean God was absent. Others may choose to interpret events differently, but at no time was I ever tempted to call our project “Ichabod.” There was never a sense that God wasn’t with us in this endeavor. In fact there were plenty of instances in which God proved himself faithful to our needs.
6. Just because God is with you doesn’t mean you can get away with bad strategy. The biggest strategic mistake I made was to lead us away from an experimental, unconventional approach to launching a church and toward a more conventional, textbook approach. Once we started down the unconventional path, we should have stayed the course.
7. Momentum is precious, don’t lose it. Dick Vitale taught me this years ago. You gotta keep the BIG MO baby! If you start losing it, call a T-O and regroup fast. If you lose the BIG MO, it will be twice as hard to regain it as it was to build it the first time around.
8. Success at one phase of the project doesn’t mean you’ll be successful at the next phase. We did a really good job of attracting a crowd that was interested in what we were doing. We did a very poor job of turning that crowd into a cohesive community that could overcome the obstacles inherent to starting a new church.
9. A quick death is better than a slow one. If our project was doomed to fail, I’m glad we found out quickly, rather than limping along for another year or two before finally having to call it quits anyway. In hindsight, I see this as a blessing from God that preserved resources, relationships, and my sanity.
10. There are some things you’ll never know about yourself (or God) unless you step out in faith and try something new. I’m going to unpack this lesson in a separate post. Partly because it’s going to take more than a few sentences to do it justice and partly because I also think it is the ultimate answer to the question of why Fulcrum failed. Therefore, I want to give it the attention it deserves.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I think it’s good you blogged about these things, Wade. Hopefully, it will help clarify things in your own mind and will also help others who read these in work they may be doing and/or contemplating.
I’m glad y’all will be staying in Austin. It’s a great place to be! We live in south Mississippi, and while I like living here, the church in this area is not the best. I really miss Texas!
Many blessings to you and your family today!
Dee
Thanks Dee! We do love it here.
Wade, I have ready your blog for a couple years now. I have never commented. I have prayed for you often. I have been very interested in what you were doing at Fulcrum. Please know that I have prayed for you several times this week. God will continue to use you to brig people closer to him. Lean on those that you know love God. Keep your head up and eyes on God. You did what most of us only want to do. You may be called to do it again. I pray blessing on you and hope you continue to find the peace that only God can offer. wow what courage you have.
-Daniel Burns
Daniel–thanks for these kind words and needed prayers. Keep em coming please.
Just came out to check out how things were going. I respect everything you do because I know you seek to bring God glory.
Great to hear from you Darin. I hope all is well with you. Thanks.
Thanks. Those are some helpful church planting tips.
Hi Wade,
You don’t know me. I found this post via Jon Macintosh, an A29 planter. I’m 14 months in to my second church plant (first one was ten years ago) and I felt a deep sense of sadness and pain upon reading your post. Just wanted you to know that I ‘feel’ you and I’m mourning with those who mourn. I will think of you and your family and pray for you in the coming days. I do salute your bravery in ‘calling it a day’.
May the Lord of all peace fill you with His power, strength, conviction, courage and guidance and may He open ‘the new door’ for you.
Best,
T
Todd–I really appreciate it.
You’re Rollin bro –
Stay in this posture – it’s so refreshing to so many.
True differentiation always is – proud of you and believe some form of a beautiful re-launch is coming.
May he surround you with all you need and you’re perfect role in the story that’s in your heart bro!
Keep friggin Rollin!
Lunch soon
Jeff–Yes, lunch in December sometime. We will make it happen! Thanks bro!
This blog, with it’s transparency and honesty, has just freed you from being anything else except YOU as a leader. ALL things work together for good to them who love God (you) and are called according to His purpose (you).
God loved you so much that He gave you Fulcrum to free you from being perfect. Our generation needs more leaders who have failed. Like Paul, his many mistakes produced an authenticity in ministry that takes up about two thirds of the New Testament.
Your next church thanks you in advance for going through this season. My prayers go with you.
Many Blessings,
Timothy
Those are humbling words Tim. I hope I never forget the lessons I’ve learned in this.
I said these words to a friend of mine who just closed the doors on the church plant he was leading, and I’ll share them with you too.
I see the sacrificial spirit of Christ in you. Because of your willingness to be hurt, you are a blessing to others.
Thank you.
My word for Wade Hodges has always been courageous. You continue to walk in that path from my perspective. God bless.
Wade (and Heather),
Thank you so much for your transparency. I have learned some valuable things from your post and really appreciate that you were willing to share. Praying that you will walk in the light of God, and that you won’t be discouraged.
hey wade.
i stumbled across this post from a link on another blog.
I’m 3 years out of leading a failed church plant and just wanted to say what a blessing reading this post was.
thanks and blessings.
adam.
James, John, Heather, and Adam–thanks for stopping by and commenting. I really appreciate your prayers and blessings.
I was involved with the Presbytery of Nevada that planted new churches. They created a task force to fund raise ahead of plants so that they could begin without being in debt just for land – not even talking building. I left as it was still in it’s infancy – but it had run into some troubles but I do know that new models can be very difficult. I applaud you for your openess and sharing. My husband is an APTS grad (2004) so I think I know of a little of what you did prior to our leaving Austin. I will be praying for you and your next endeavor.
Wade, thanks for openness and honesty. The church suffers from people propping up dead things and waving their arms around and saying, “See, it’s still alive!” Churches are, as you say, experiments in faithfulness and it takes time and a few tries to figure out just what God was thinking of when God called us. Try again!
I’m a church launcher too, and what I’d felt was missing was what the markers were – concretely speaking – that made you decide that these things were not “a go.” There is the obvious “It’s a marvelous success” and “It’s a total flop” but most launches are somewhere in between. What were the markers that made you decide which side of the fuzzy line Fulcrum was on? That would be very helpful to the rest of us (even though we’d have to reinterpret them for our own situations and goals.
Thanks again. It is good to hear that you are clear that God hasn’t given up on you and your calling!
Greg
Wade, how long was it before you pulled the plug?