--- id: ff26_howard_church_plan_and_seminary title: FLYINGFREE - Howard's Church Plan and Seminary Teaching category: Biblical Life Counsel predicted_narrative_arc: hard-timing-to-multiplied-fruit sentiment: Hopeful emotions: - Pastoral - Steady - Grateful keypoints: - Diagnosis timing was bad — expensive new sanctuary and pending debt - Congregation needed confidence they could survive without Howard - He taught endurance and faith before leaving; plan relied on God more than themselves - Congregation doubled; example still used by hundreds or thousands - He teaches young pastors at the Bible college where he attended seminary summary: > Howard’s hard-timing exit — sanctuary debt, faith-first plan, doubled congregation — and seminary teaching show a practical positive landing that still multiplies. tags: - flying-free - chapter-26 - howard-brammer - church-growth - faith - seminary - adversity - dean-rush - book-excerpt - biblical-counsel sycophancy: 0 truth_score: 9 entropy: 2 sample: false consent: owner_approved agent: flyingfree created: '2010-01-01' updated: '2026-09-09T00:00:00Z' vault_stage: 07_CODEX headwaters: FLYINGFREE prefix: FLYINGFREE enrich_status: ok enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: manual pipeline_filename: FLYINGFREE_26_howard-church-plan-and-seminary.md source_kind: book_excerpt proposed_topic: FlyingFree lane: FlyingFree voice: desk active_voice: desk voices: - desk routing_source: carbon corpus_topic: FlyingFree content_status: active date: '2010-01-01' share_url: https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md source_url: https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md site_category: Flying Free book_title: Flying Free book_chapter: 26 book_chapter_title: Perfect Touchdown – Examples in Good Landings source_file: flyingfree/flying-free-26-perfect-touchdown.md description: > Chapter 26 — Howard’s congregation faces sanctuary debt without him, builds a God-reliant plan, doubles, and he teaches young pastors at seminary. --- # Howard's Church Plan and Seminary Teaching **Author:** Dean Rush **Book:** *Flying Free* · **Chapter 26:** Perfect Touchdown – Examples in Good Landings **Full book:** [deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md](https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md) ## Context for the Reader Howard’s landing includes the hardest pastoral timing: leave when the flock’s vision is costly and unfinished. This lesson holds the sanctuary-debt crisis, the God-reliant plan, multiplied fruit, and his seminary teaching of young pastors. > Voice note: Everything under **Dean's excerpt** is Dean's original prose (lightly cleaned only). Sections marked **Biblical foundations**, **Scholar sidebar**, **Takeaways**, and **First-time learner** are enrichment for Asker / first readers — not Dean speaking. --- ## Biblical foundations (preface) Dean’s story joins hard timing, faith under hardship, God-blessed plans, and passing skill to the next generation of shepherds. | Dean's claim | Scriptural undercarriage | | --- | --- | | Use faith to endure hardship | Consider it pure joy… whenever you face trials (James 1:2–4) | | Plan relied on God more than themselves | Trust in the Lord with all your heart… and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5–6) | | Analyze situation; take positive action | The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance (Proverbs 21:5) | | Teach young pastors to build and serve | What you have heard… entrust to faithful men (2 Timothy 2:2) | --- ## Dean's excerpt ### Bad timing, God-reliant plan, next generation He was aware of the need to develop a positive attitude because the timing for his diagnosis had not been good. The congregation he had ministered to for so many years had just built an expensive new sanctuary and were concerned about how to pay for the pending debt without Howard. They needed to develop confidence in the fact that they could survive without Howard’s input. All the vision Howard had worked toward for his flock was coming to fruition and he was now being taken out of the equation by a disease that no one truly understood. The sickness was affecting him, but he didn’t let it stop his life. Before leaving the church he spoke to his congregation about how to endure hardship and build strength during adversity. He talked to them about using their faith to endure hardship. The church began developing a plan that relied on God more than on themselves. The church has successfully moved forward. Their congregation has doubled in the last few years because God has blessed the plan they developed with Howard. Howard’s example and teaching is still being used by hundreds, if not thousands, of people who watched him endure this dire circumstance. He never quit trying to look to God for leadership and he demonstrated an exemplary model of analyzing his situation and taking positive action to move forward. His practical and positive landing now affects thousands because he showed them how to survive a severe crisis. Howard began teaching young pastors at the Bible college where he had attended seminary. He was able to teach the students how to build and effectively serve churches. > **Scholar sidebar — Hard timing, faithful plan** > James 1:2–4 frames trials as formation. Proverbs 3:5–6 and 21:5 join trust and diligence. 2 Timothy 2:2 multiplies leaders. Dean’s “practical and positive landing” is analysis plus action under God. --- ## Takeaways 1. **Timing was bad.** New sanctuary debt met leadership loss. 2. **Congregation needed confidence.** Survival without Howard had to be learned. 3. **Faith-first plan.** Rely on God more than on themselves. 4. **Fruit followed.** Congregation doubled; hundreds or thousands still learn from his endurance. 5. **Seminary multiplication.** Young pastors learn to build and serve churches. --- ## First-time learner ### What is Dean saying in one sentence? Despite terrible timing — sanctuary debt and an unfinished vision — Howard taught faith under hardship, helped form a God-reliant plan that later doubled the church, and now trains young pastors. ### Why keep the debt detail? Because perfect touchdown happens inside real unfinished obligations, not after everything is tidy. ### Key verses to read with this lesson - **James 1:2–4** — Trials and perseverance. - **Proverbs 3:5–6** — Trust the Lord; straight paths. - **Proverbs 21:5** — Diligent plans. - **2 Timothy 2:2** — Entrust to faithful people. ### A simple practice Name one unfinished obligation in a hard season. Write one step that relies on God more than on a single human leader. ### How this feeds Ask Dean Seed material for: *What happened to Howard’s church? Did the congregation grow? What does Dean mean by practical positive landing?*