When I was a kid my buddies and I could occupy ourselves for an entire day if we found an electric fence.

Electric fences fascinated us. We feared them – but were strangely drawn to them. It was as if an irresistible force bent us to its will… saying “come over here and touch me.” Inevitably one of us would take the risk… One of us would say “Hey, watch this…” and we’d reach out to see if the fence was “hot.”

In my experience every group has a kid like that… that kid who is willing to venture out early… first… Willing to make the plunge and take a risk before anyone else did.

Church planting is like that… we need grown-up kids who are still willing to experiment, improvise, take risks… and to be the ones to walk up and touch the electric fence just to see what might happen if we do. This reflection came to me recently while I was leading a session at the Pepperdine Workshops with Charles Kiser (pastor of Storyline Community Church, www.storylinecommunity.com, and trainer for Mission Alive, www.missionalive.org.)

Charles and I spoke on the topic…Adaptive Community: church planting as missional R&D. Enjoy!