I’ve been reading Culture Shift by Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordiero. The book is great so far. I read a couple of lines that really hit me. I wanted to share them with you.

“When asked what’s distinctive about their (Church) culture, people in too many churches admit, “I don’t know.” Or worse, they define their church’s identity by cloning the latest program that’s hot on the direct mail or conference circuit. It’s easier to duplicate than to incarnate.”

Powerful stuff! It’s making me think through what makes CCML unique and distinct. Maybe I’ll post about that soon. But while I think it’s important to learn from other churches, I think as guys planting churches we need to be careful that we don’t simply “copy and paste” someone else’s ministry paradigm into our own environment. If we do, we simply become an echo of someone else and not develop the original identity God has given each church and church leader. And remember, the difference between echos and the real voice is that echos are never as loud or as powerful as the original. They can only repeat what the “real” has said…