Austin Porter dot org

As I shared last week, I am starting a series of posts to share with you some of the people influencing me right now in my life. Here is the first of those leaders…

JR Lee

From the time I met JR (ChurchPlanters.com Conference and then UNLEASH ‘08), I definitely knew he was the real deal. To this point, I had been tracking his progress for launching Freedom Church in Acworth, GA (which they just recently started a couple of months ago and are now having to implement 2 services just to facilitate the growth of their Sunday attendance) and was completely blown away by the time they invested in making sure they were doing things right.

Now you may ask what has lead to such a fast growing community of believers since they have finally launched? I’ll give you two words:

Preparation and Faithfulness.

Whether JR realizes it or not, he has certainly taught me all about faithfulness and preparation. As you were able to track the progression into their initial launch through both JR’s blog and the Freedomlive.net website, you were able to see God moving behind the scenes through the leadership of JR Lee before any Sunday morning experience ever took place. And this is a testament to JR’s faith in knowing exactly what God has called him to do in a particular community, for a particular time, and with a particular purpose.

All too often I see way too many leaders (church planters) jumping the gun just to get something done, almost as if their confidence rest in being able to produce a large number people within a short amount of time, which sadly for them becomes “the sooner the better.”

However, I believe this is way too big of a mistake for leaders to make and because they become only enamored with an unattainable mirage. And it is this lie straight from hell of believing “the sooner, the better” that ultimately lands guys right on their faces before God Himself and then having to explain to Him why they chose to do it their way instead the way He told them to do it.

JR Lee is not one of these guys. As I said in beginning, from the time I met him I realized he is the real deal. What is the “REAL DEAL” you may ask? 

Well, it is this…

JR is not rapped up in letting the number of people who attend their weekly services define who he is within his own self confidence. In fact, his confidence isn’t measured in his self at all but rather in his relationship that he has with Christ and nothing more or nothing less. All it takes is one conversation with him and you realize that JR lets Jesus define who he is and not anything else other than Christ.

Secondly, JR is one of the most Kingdom minded leaders I have ever been around. While other church planters may tell you that they will do anything in the world to help you, JR takes it one step further in actually doing all that he can to help you along the way.

For example, I sent ONE email to JR about wanting to meet with him in order to learn from what they are doing and by the time the conversation was over he had invited me to come spend two whole days with them in order to learn as much as I can. Now that is someone who is Kingdom minded!

(And before you go bombarding JR with emails and phone calls please be respectful of his heart and time. The last thing I want to happen is some yahoo burning up his inbox with self inviting emails just trying to take advantage of how BIG his heart really is. Try actually meeting someone before you look to contact them so they at least know who you are when you try to schedule a meeting.) 

And the last thing I will say about JR (as I really could go on and on) is that he is one of the most positive leaders I believe I have ever met, which I believe is truly born right out of his humility founded in Christ. Again, way too many church planters are far too set on making a statement by being critical, sarcastic, rebellious, or whatever other negative character trait you happen to observe only for the sake of being known in the church world as the next ”such & such” (apply whatever term you’ve observed – powerful; innovative; relative; up-in-coming) leader. JR has taken the other approach in only letting his Godliness define who he is and how people remember him. 

Of course… I know, none of us are perfect and we all need a little bit of a cowboy attitude just to survive in this church planting world, but this still isn’t a legitimate enough reason to throw class and integrity right out the window. So I want to say thank you to JR, and the rest of you, who are doing everything that you can to lift up the name (and character) of Jesus in this sad but true dog-eat-dog world of planting churches.

JR, you are definitely an example to all of us for what being REAL is really all about. Loving Jesus, loving people, being faithful, being prepared, knowing exactly who you are, and how God has called you to reach the community He has placed you in order for God to use you in the most effective way simply because you haven’t forgotten that it really is all about Jesus! 

Thank you for what you do. And even more importantly, thank you for who you are. I look forward to learning even more from you as we continue to serve our Christ and King.

And, oh by the way, it is these characteristics of a leader that I believe God truly blesses, those who are looking to only serve Him and Him alone.