Let me warn you… This is a little bit of a rant for a Wednesday afternoon. I was driving by a church recently and saw a huge billboard with a picture of the pastor and the church slogan. Not even the church name, just a huge picture of the pastor. The picture took up over 80% of the entire billboard. I know, I know, that was a little extensive right there, but it speaks to my point. It seems that many times we lose out on what the focus of the church should be. The church becomes hugely person and personality driven. Do not get me wrong, I understand that the church many times is a reflection the personality of its pastor, but it is not supposed to be about the pastor. So with all of this my question becomes, “Who is being promoted in your ministry?” It is this kind of promotion that causes the people to be scattered when a moral falling happens. The people were zeroed in on the pastor and not Jesus. Do I sound a little dogmatic? Maybe. However, I think over the last few years many of my ideas about the church have evolved. I have gone to some church websites where you have to search to find a picture of the pastor. In my estimation the focus is being intentionally focused on the church and the Jesus of the church. I am not going to go on for a long time, but I just want us to check our intention as pastors when it comes to who is being promoted. Peace!
Category : Church Planting, Church Stuff, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Launch Team, New Things, Uncategorized, prayer
One thing I have come to learn is that you cannot rush God’s timing. Hear what I am saying. You can not rush His timing in anything. Whenever we rush or jump the gun we inevitably feel the weight of jumping the gun down the road. It is something that I have refused to do and even more-so in this new year. Many of you have been praying for our church launch that was supposed to come in January 2010 and then in April 2010. January is here and you have said, “where is the launch of when is the launch?” You ask good questions. There is a launch that is coming, but neither of those dates were good. They were rushing. And again, God cannot be rushed. A few reasons these dates are not working;
- We had not yet met our financial benchmarks
- We had not yet met our launch team benchmarks
- We have not gotten the full green light from God
A question that might come to your mind is, what now? Since you are not launching now what will you do until you launch. We will continue to do some of what we have been doing and then some;
- We will continue to raise funds
- We will continue to build a team under the radar
- Connecting with Process Church and my buddy Pastor Rob. More on that later. Good stuff!
- I will be training and learning
- We will pray
- We will continue seeking God for timing
- We will be defining what the church is going to look like and be
One thing was that at the time of scheduling January and April launches I was trying to take remnants of what we used to do and who we used to be into the new thing and that was and is a no go. There is so much more I could say and you will see some of that in future posts. For now, if you have been praying for us or have supported us financially please keep doing so and know that whatever seeds you have sown in the direction will show up once we get the green light. Peace!!!
Alright guys, here we go… We are about 14 hours or so away from a brand new year. We are literally at the edge of 2010. I am pretty sure that many of use are ready for the new year to come and the old year to be gone. Many people are making bucket lists, goal and vision lists as well as countless resolutions. However, let’s look back for a second. When you look back on 2009 is there any one thing that was a game changing decision for you? Okay, here is the definition of a game changing decision. It is a HUGE decision that you make that sets up the stage for something HUGE and DIFFERENT to happen in your life in the new year. Got it… Let’s go! While you reflect on your own game changing decision let me let you in on mine.
My game changing decision for 2009 was putting the brakes on Purpose Church back on May 31, 2009. Whew that was alot to even say for me. Yes, after years of being the pastor of a church and people I loved dearly we closed up shop. We did not close up shop forever, but nonetheless we closed up shop. There was a serious overhaul that needed to take place in the ministry. The analogy I used on our last Sunday was that “you cannot repair a car while it is still driving, you need to pull it into the garage.” How about that? So, during this downtime there is a lot of under the radar stuff that God is doing to prepare for the launch of something new. I say something new because it will not be named the same, look the same or feel the same as what we had before. It is not that anything before was bad, but I really feel something new happening. We shot for a January 10, 2010 and then rescheduled for Easter 2010 in order to hit some benchmarks, but God said no. It was not a reprimanding no, but it was a pump your brakes kind of thing and I am at peace with that because I know what is coming will be great. In the meantime there is a lot going on that I will let you know about soon in regards to what I am getting into, what is going on with the launch and how you can help.
This game changing decision for me was extremely difficult and emotional. My wife and other friends helped me get through it and navigate my way to where I am now. Wisdom from other ministry leaders and guidance from God have hooked me up. I am good now and saying do it Lord in 2010.
Stay tuned guys… By the way, lookout for the new blog name and new blog design in the early part of the new year.
Whew! Let me say that again. Whew! 2009 is well on its way out. In just over a day we will be smack dab at the beginning of 2010. How about that? Many of us have bad things to look back on in this year and good things to look back on in this year. We all share varied experiences throughout this past year. Many people have already started to make resolutions (in my case revolutions) and make plans for the upcoming year. However, some people are so disenfranchised and beaten down by 2009 that they have no desire to enter into the New Year or they enter in limping. Even with all of this, I have a question… “What are you looking forward to in 2010″? I know that 2009 might have disappointed some, but there is nothing like a New Year and a fresh pad of paper to write things on. As far as I am concerned, I am looking forward to some things. What about you? Can you lift up your bowed down head and set your eyes forward and get a vision for 2010?
Tomorrow we will jump into what I would call Game Changers for 2009. For me 2009 brought some changes and decisions that I think God will use as a springboard to some pretty cool things. See you tomorrow!
Honestly, I could go on about this topic for a while, but I think I will wrap it up on this final note. It is funny how much you learn about what you did when you are no longer doing it. I am encouraged though because it narrows the chance greatly that I will make those same mistakes again. I am not sure about you, but I am not getting any younger. Since years are being added as opposed to going away I have to lessen my number of mistakes if at all possible. So, the last mistake (at least that I will mention here) was the lack of a clear plan and strategy.
i can admit with ease that when we started the church initially under the name Gethsemane Worship Center there was a vision and a mission, but no plan. This is a huge reason why I think things went haywire. A plan is a must in everything we do. There has to be a determined way to go about doing things. Plans do not throw God out of the plans, but they give something God to work with and show we have some initiative. As the church went on I attempted to put together an as you go plan and strategy. Let me tell you, “that does not work.”
Without a strategy you…
- Do not have a laid out plan
- Do not know how to execute
- Cannot measure progress
- Do not give your people anything to follow
These are a few things on a long list of things that happen when you do not have a strategy. Trying to implement strategy along the way is noble, but does not work. I allowed things to start off crippled. Trying to heal a broken leg while continuing to walk on ti is just crazy. This is the reason the church was pulled off of the shelf in order to be totally redone and revitalized.
Let me admit, this has been a rough process, but a liberating one. My hope for you all is that you begin to look at areas of your own lives where strategy is missing. You cannot wage war without a proper battle plan. Got it? Good!
See you tomorrow!
Here we go again. Remember, we are examining some mistakes we have made in our own individual lives and the steps we are taking to remedy those mistakes. I hope that you can take a look at how you have overcome some of your own mistakes while taking a gander at how I have screwed up. Admitting mistakes is always a humbling process. Many times we think we have it all together, but life always takes advantage of proving otherwise.
The mistake I want to take a peek at today is the mistake of doing it all yourself. This is almost always a surefire way to fail or reach burnout and maybe both. This is where I have been when dealing with pastoring a church. Now that we are on a path to launching a brand new movement I look back over things and say whew! I mean it. I get tired just thinking about all of the stuff I did on my own. I set up the sanctuary, children’s ministry and guest area. I set up the media which included video camera, laptop, projection and all sound. Wait, there’s more… I also led praise and worship, prayed, did announcements, raised the offering and preached. Aaargh! Is that a lot. I would say so. I have learned for future reference that doing it all is NOTa good thing. This happens to each of us in our home and work environments we try to do it all and reach burnout. The sad part about it is that the people around us will let us do it all and replace us when it is over.
A way to remedy this is to release people around us to get busy and do things as well as gathering people around you can and want to do things. my though was that I did not want to pressure people to step up and there was a fact that i had been burned before in regards to this. So, I said “I will just do it all” and if someone helps they help and if not it’s okay. In hindsight I can see that was such a stupid way of thinking and one that will definitely not be repeated. My lesson learned is to always get away from doing it all on your own. sometimes circumstances will necessitate doing it on your own, but that should only be for a while. After that point. Spread the love, share the joy and distribute the workload. Until tomorrow… Peace!!!
Do you make mistakes? I mean have you ever done something wrong in life? People say hindsight is 20/20. What I have been doing and am in the process of doing is making foresight 20/20. That is easier said that done most times. I think that comes with making sure we learn the hindsight lessons that each situation brings. For the next few days I will be going through a few mistakes I have made and things I have learned from them. Believe me, I am intent on not making the same mistakes again.
I planted a church in 2003 that did okay, but I ended up stopping because I was convinced through prayer and wisdom that it was not living up to its full potential. The car was stopped, pulled off of the road and parked in the mechanics garage to be repaired. That is where we are now. We are being stripped down to be repaired and made road-worthy again. Do you get where I am going yet. During this in-between time God has been speaking, moving, teaching and freaking me out. In all of this I am excited about it all.
For now, head into your weekends and we will pick this blog series up on Monday. Until then… What mistakes have you made that have informed how you perform now? Peace…
Hey everybody! It has been a few days since I have visited my blog. I wanted to jump back on the horse and continue with this GPS & Me blog series. I mentioned earlier that I love my GPS and do not know what I would do without it while I am going places that I have no idea where to go. The GPS whether on your phone or a Tom-Tom is invaluable in that it guides you places and it really useful when you are driving far away. This series is all about how me and maybe some of you out there relate God to the GPS.
One thing that gets me about the GPS is when I feel like it is telling me to go the wrong way I disobey it. Whoa! In our recent drive to Destin I wanted to go a certain way because I felt the GPS did not know what it was talking about. Everytime I have gone the way my feelings said the GPS in her kind voice had to reroute me. How many times when we are moving on our journey with God do we try to go another way because we do not like the way it feels the wayGod is leading us? That is a real question that I think lots of us can agree with. Many times while God (being our GPS) takes us somewhere on our journey we do not like the direction He gives because it does not feel right or better yet, it does not agree with our own internal sense of feeling. How about that? The elect5ronic GPS does not like that and neither does God. God knows what He is talking about and where He is leading us regardless of how we feel. I have come to the conclusion that God is not so much concerned with our comfortability as He is with our obedience in following Him. If you have lived any amount of time you know that following God does not always feel the best. God operates and gives accurate directions because of the perspective that He is viewing from. God is outside of time and we are in it. When you are outside of a situation it is much easier to see it in its entirety with an acute clarity. Just like the GPS satellite that looks from space God sees differently.
Be encouraged while travelling in life and know that the direction will not always feel good, but it will always lead you to where you need to go. Join us tomorrow as we will talk about Keeping an ear to the voice!
