Lessons from ghost & missing animals

No, this isn’t a post about animal sacrifices; it’s about miss-led expectations. Sunday, we took CB to our local zoo for the annual Boo in the Zoo. CB had to be the cutest bunny in the park. Unfortunately, if it wasn’t for the other kids dressed up as animals, we might have not seen any. Although this was my first time at the event, I figured all of the animals would be out for CB to enjoy as we walked through collecting candy. Instead we saw cutout ghost & pumpkins, some vultures and a few goats. BOOOO Boo in the Zoo.

Couple this with our Sunday experience at Waypoint I sat this morning wondering how well we are doing at letting people know what to expect when the come. Especially first-time guest! But even those who come as regularly as once a month. Are they coming with expectations? Are their expectations met, exceeded, or let down. Are they getting everything we have? Have we provided an over-the-top atmosphere? Were they challenged to Regroup, Refresh, and Realign? Or did anyone walk out and wonder if they had just hung out with some vultures & goats.

So this week I’m beginning the process of evaluating our up-front, pre-sunday appearance. Praying for guidance and wisdom!

Post Game Let Down

Monday Night Football was awesome! Last night I enjoyed watching the Miami Dolphins turn their final drive against the NY Jets into a victory. Football lives and dies in our household from Thursday to Monday. We watch pre-game, halftime, & even special web coverage for high school through the NFL.

Last night I was saddened, not from anything new; but from the abrupt ending of ESPN’s coverage. It’s the same every week but this week, the ending of the game was awesome and all I got was a 30 second commentary followed by a set-up for Sports Center. I felt like I needed some form of Post Game follow-up. I was left hanging. I tried to watch some Sports Center highlights; but to no avail, I still felt empty.

This week at Waypoint we finished one of the most difficult series we’ve had. We asked a lot of questions, we didn’t find a lot of answers. We uncovered some of the mysteries’ of God and his dealings with humanity and I woke up Monday feeling like we needed more. We needed some form of Post Series follow-up before diving into the next series. We need to process what God is up to, how does his mysteries impact my lifestyle and my future. How can I take the best of this game series and get prepared to move onto the next one.

So come to Waypoint this Sunday for our first ever Post Series Follow-up. Whether you attended one, all, or none of the Why Series; this Sunday is vital to helping us move forward in our faith. Don’t miss it!

Sheperding more

It’s hard enough to develop and grow your own spiritual life. Following disciplines, finding mentors, allowing yourself to be cut and molded, being patient, confessing!

It only got harder when I got married….all of the above now x’s 2. Leading your spouse to become the person God intended her to be all the while chasing recklessly after Him yourself: constantly wondering why I signed up for this?

Along comes a daughter; my task, propel her! Give her everything I have and opportunities I didn’t to make a kingdom impact

I knew I was called to work within the church in 2000, 9 years later I found myself as a pastor leading, shepherding the lives of others. I’m trying to bask in the goodness that God has given, celebrating the victories. Yet I’m full of fear as he continues to put more sheep into my pasture.

His Mission: Imago Dei–my task–letting it happen!

Split emotions

Today I sat in my office and suffered under the heavy hand of split emotions.

excitement filled me up as I reflected on Sunday. God showed up and blessed our worship, again. His Spirit broke through the darkness of 2 lives moving them into a relationship with Him. Healing took place, LOVE changed everything. As I’ve looked over the past 2 months I have seen God’s hand consistently bringing blessings to Waypoint….and to my family.

Yet against this backdrop is fear….fear that I’m incapable of handling the blessings God is bringing. fear that my faith isn’t strong enough to continue to take risks and challenges that I took before. Fear that I’ll screw it up! Fear, because I’m now shepherding over more lives…..

to be continued….

I don’t Like ____ Church or Pastor____

I have at least one huge soap box, and if you catch me in the right moment you’ll find out what it is. As a follower of Christ, and one who was uniquely designed with a critical/detailed eye, I often found myself analyzing churches, sermons, pastoral leadership, etc. Typically I would walk out of a church service with a litany of things I would do differently; or would engage other believers in “discussions” about how a church is not doing _______. One day I got the God-smack when reading 1 Corinthians. After discussing divisions within the church; Paul argues it is the foolishness of preaching that saves souls.

Since then I’ve been on a crusade: I can’t stand to hear people, especially those claiming to follow Christ bad mouth a Church or a Pastor. Saying “I love Jesus” but hating the church is as irrational as saying to your best friend, “I like you–I just can’t stand being around you.” Ones attitude toward the church tells you–simply–their attitude toward Jesus.

Monday’s Brew

Monday’s drink = chocolate milk 2 glasses

I am in amazement at what God is doing in the life of Waypoint Church right now! All I can do at this point in our life is to sit and enjoy the beauty of his workmanship!

Here are just a couple of highlights

• Highest non-Easter attendance to date!
• We’ve broken the above highlight  3 times over the past 6 weeks!
• Had 2 more individuals come up and let me know they wanted information on our Baptism service on 10/4
• Had 20 people show up for our first Music Ministry Meeting!
• For a church of our age and size: I said it, and truly belive it, we have the best worship leaders and musicians in town!
• Kicked off Why? series looking at questions that stump our faith journey
• Got to connect with lots of new people
• Several key volunteers are stepping up huge right now! Love IT!

I am more excited today, more than ever about what God is doing in our faith community; and what He will continue to do!

Organism vs Organization

I remember in my college days hearing the new words amongst church life….”we are an organism not an organization!” I was perplexed; loved the concept, but also loved the structures and systems that organizational life provides. Low and behold, 10 years later Jim Akin, the guru of church planting from West Ridge Church posted the following:

“every organism has organization or it falls apart. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” faith begins as a tiny atom/seed of thought in a person’s life – “is there a God?” “how did all of this stuff get here?” etc. etc. that faith is germinated and grows into a living breathing person of faith, but 99.99% of the time without an organization to attach itself too that faith will die.so we may glamorize the church as an organism, fluid, changing, alive, without the organization the organism dies.”

Love it! No longer am I perplexed  Read the entire post here

 

Lending Workers to Other Companies

#6 on the Wall Street Journal’s creative ways to avoid layoffs during a recession (here’s the link to the article) describes Rhino Foods of Vermont-they make Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream better…trust me–sending their employees over to a fellow company who was experiencing a seasonal rush. So companies are sharing employees (even if an invoice comes later)! This is huge for privatized companies with trade secrets….this isn’t typical….this emerged out of necessity and innovation. AND BOTH companies won!

I wonder if churches will ever take this leap–sharing of staff, key leaders, workers, resources. Will we ever get to a point where we are Kingdom minded and not just Church minded. Can we stop competing with each other and learn how to complement each other. I’ve had this discussion several times over the past few months. I’m not sure where it’s going, but it keeps coming up…I’ll keep you in the loop as it progresses.

Challenged by words…

I collect quotes, and keep a ready supply on a file on my desktop. That was untill my PC crashed and now I have a blank document…

Words mean a lot and can radically change my approach, my emotions, and my courage. Here is what I was challenged by in the last few days via my Twitter Feeds.

• @RickWarren “Surrendering to God isnt fatalism or laziness. It may mean sacrificing & suffering criticism to change what needs changing”
• @davidhfoster “It’s the hard thing you do that makes you stronger not the easy. Stop pushing paper and tackle the thing you dread.”
• @andywood “a river takes the path of least resistance, that is why it is so crooked!”
• @chasenc “I’m stuck in a bathroom” (ok…this one just gave me a good laugh)
• @davidhfoster “No one can take from you or keep from you what God wants for you, but you!”
• @RickWarren “It is when we try to be God that we end up most like Satan, who desired the same thing.

Post Attractional Church Planting

With a brief understanding of the attractional church already covered here; let’s dive into post attractional church planting.

Matthew 22 and Luke 14 illustrate an attractional event with an interesting storyline. Not everyone wanted to come to the dinner. The inadequacy of the attractional church plant is that the banquet hall is far from full; mainly because we are extracting people from things they are already doing. Eventually the church plant will reach a limit on who they are able to attract.

• What happens when the good-will concept of church vanishes and becomes less functional?
• What happens when the baby boomer’s predilection to be attracted (church shop) is replace by future generations post-modern philosophies?
• What happens when individualism is more important than collectivism?
• What happens when we have over-saturated areas with attractional churches to the point that people are numb to our welcoming facades?
• What happens when we need more than just savoy marketing, quality bands, and methodological volunteer training?

Some find the answers in the second component of the Matthew 22 and Luke 14 story….a switch…a “go-to”, or a missional church.

Still begs to ask though…what’s next?