Closer

Watching my daughter play is wonderful.  Watching her do life, discover bugs, spill drinks, make mistakes, and have victories is such a joy.  Her best friend, other than her brother, is Ellie—a pink washcloth elephant that has been by her side through weeks in the hospital, car rides, sleepovers at Grandma's, trips to Disney ... everywhere.  Ellie is closer to her heart than anything.  It goes where she goes. It does what she does. It soaks up her tears and hears her laughter.  It gets to lay next to her when she dreams. 

This morning, as I’m watching her, I’m thinking about my relationship with God.  Now, I know that He is everywhere all the time.  This isn't about His nature ... it’s about mine and yours.  We have access to God to be with us all the time but we refuse.  Think about the fact that we could engage God Almighty at anytime anywhere; yet, we put Him on the shelf only to be accessed after a certain worship song is played, a traumatic event, or out of obligation.  If Ellie was kept in the toy box, I would know that its time of importance was over.  Do I, and do you, put God in the toy box to be brought out at our convenience?

I desire more from my walk with God.  I’m tired of dusting God off when I need Him.  I want to do life in tandem with God, like my daughter does life with Ellie.  Everywhere all the time.  When I play, when I eat, when I dream, when I cry. 

Records

Records

The last few weeks we have seen an astounding growth in the Student Ministry at BridgePointe.  Numbers are great and with the attractional way in which we do ministry, it’s very exciting to see them go up.  Often in student ministry, it’s easy to get a crowd of students together if you have the right band and the right students at your meeting.  The problem is that most of this kind of growth is just students from other churches coming to see what your church is all about.  So, all the local churches just kinda of trade students from month to month.  This isn't healthy and it isn't growing the kingdom of God.  Sure, I might communicate the Gospel in way in which a student from another ministry resonates in a deeper more meaningful way or vice versa, but really these kind of numbers are just numbers to make us feel good. 

What has really excited me about the new growth at our gatherings is the students are largely unchurched.  What does that mean?  It means that I need to shift the way in which I speak and plan the night, but it also means we are not just stealing the students from down the street.  It means that there will be more spilled drinks and questionable behavior in the parking lot.  It means that God is doing something amazing!  It means that student lives are being turned upside down by the amazing love of God.  It means our students are excited about what God is doing in their lives and what He can do in the lives of their friends.  As we launch this week with a new format, I hope we can reach many more students in profound ways.   

Growing Up

Growing Up and taking responsibility are huge in my house right now. Bowen and Kendall are two and half and this morning they decided to go to the bathroom themselves and dress themselves without any help. None! I was a little scared about what disaster I would find when I found the diapers. No mess. No tears. No bite marks! I thought, "My wife has to be home somewhere around here." What did I miss? When did this happen? For weeks now we have been potty training and all that entails. For weeks we have be letting the kids pick their clothes for the day and showing them how to put them on.
And then I was sad. My babies are growing up. They don't need me as much as they once did. Part of me longed for them to need my guidance, my help, my touch.

And then I was proud. Even though they are two they are becoming independent. Making their own choices. The clothes they picked out even matched!

As I drove to work today, I thought how much of this is like what we do in ministry. Many parents try to keep their kids dependent on them for as long as possible and then complain when they act like babies. At church, we treat the people in our churches like spiritual babies and then complain when they act like it. We whine and we complain that they won't "grow up", but in reality, are we training them up? If we're honest, isn't it our pride that says, "I want these people dependent on me and my gifts"? If I give them the tools, they might leave. Yeah they might. That's what Jesus did (Luke 9:1-10 and 10:1-10).

We're not in the business of building our own kingdom but the Kingdom.

As I write recommendation letters for colleges this year, I struggle with this. My seniors are all grown up. I want them to stay here ... hang out with me ... help my ministry. That would be me building my kingdom, not the Kingdom. I've got to be satisfied with the small part I have had in shaping their amazing lives and now, it is time to watch them change the world.

Empty

Today I went to a restaurant with no one in it.  It was me and two workers.  The food was awesome.  the decorations were hip and inviting.  Parking was easy.  Why then was no one there?  I was at the restaurant for 45 minutes and outside of taking my order I was never talked to.  Not engaged...at all.  If you know me you know that I am fiercely loyal to the restaurant I pick.  I like to be on a first name basis with mangers and waiters.   

This place sold the same food as Panera Bread, one of my favorite places in the world.  The only thing I don't like about it is it is a chain.  However, at Panera two of the clerks know my name, at Panera one of the clerks asked me about a youth conference that she attended (I was the speaker).  I get great service along with my amazing Asiago Bread and broccoli and cheese soup.  They know to take the onion off of my sandwich and grill it a little longer cause they know I hate a cold center.  I am in love with Panera and its product.

What's the point?  What do our churches resemble?  If we look at ourselves our "product" is awesome (Jesus).  We may have a awesome building, decorations, media presentation, or worship but if we are not connecting with people we will be empty. This restaurant cared about their product, it was delicious.  What they didn't care about was their customer.  When the whole point is attracting customers to experience the food. If we are honest how many of our churches could say the same thing.

Character in leadership

Recently I have been thinking a lot about character and what it has to do with leadership, specifically leadership in the Church context .  The role of character in a leader is incredibly important.  Many are the leaders who have had character issues which has resulted in huge harm to the Kingdom of God.  Character seems to be one of those things that is most often noticed when it is lacking.  A leader who has character leads from who he or she is, not from charisma.  Charisma finds away to get leaders in compromising situations.  Whereas character moves past the hero worship or Messiah complexes to lead out of a place of integrity.  Character is when a leaders says, "I will only lead you where I am willing to go." When character is present it can be a huge motivating factor for the people who he or she leads, especially in the case of chasing the Great Commission.  Leading people to Jesus is an incredibly hard thing to do on many levels.  There are the fears of rejection, looking inept or silly, pushing people away, or feeling fanatical.  The care and sheperding of a leader can play a huge role in overcoming those fears.  The character of a leader earns the of trust of their folowers to believe and act on the challenges issued.  In the case of  personal evangelism the leader has to model evangelism if they want it repeated. For that matter, if a leader wants any behavior repeated they need to model it.  If they want their people to pray then they must pray, worship they must worship, evangelize they must evangelize.  This is practiced by truly evangelizing, letting people see the conversation around a dinner tables or in a coffee shops.  Leaders with character allow people to see behind the curtain.  People today are tired of the flash and the show. If they are to buy into our faith they want to know that it is more than just a Sunday thing.  They want to know that is is for real and it is lived out.  

Changing Culture

This week our staff was able to attend the leadership event Catalyst One Day.  This was a wonderful experience, I actually enjoyed it more that the large gathering in October.  One of the major things that they hit in during the day was Culture.  Meaning the culture of your specific church and context.  The take away for me was that everything that you do as leader and do not do effects the culture.  If you speak a certain way it communicates something, if you put money somewhere it says that its important.  Conversely of you do not advertise or spend money on something it also says that it is not important.  Even if it is, Even if it core of you church.  This is all very interesting in that it means that in leadership everything matters.  Does this intensify the pressure on church leaders?  Does it inflate our self importance?  If we want to change the culture in which we are in, we need to realize that we are leading always even if we are not speaking.  Maybe, just maybe it is refreshing.  For me it is exciting to know that I have a chance to change culture outside the hour a week I am teaching.

Across platforms

I recently received an Ipad for my Birthday.  No I'm not bragging.  Okay maybe a little, but that's not the point.  The point is I have a problem, I have both pc and mac devices.  A pc at home, mac at work, android phone and an Ipad.   The last thing I want is to limit what I can do because all my platforms are different.  What I want is to maximise my effectiveness while using any of the devices.  I found a popular and wonderful app called Evernote.  With this app I can work on a thought on any of my devices ant the thought is synced to each of them.  So if I have an idea in a meeting I can write it in my phone and once I get back to the office pull it up on Evernote and finish it.  This is awesome.

Now for the leadership application.  If your anything like me you spend a lot of time in different roles.  This week I was an tech support, graphic designer, teacher, and mentor.  It's Tuesday morning!  To be an effective leader I need to be able to streamline all that data into one place.  This is done by having a strong vision for the kind of leader you want to be.  For me it is wanting to have a teachers heart in all that I do.  So if I am designing, I want to teach through it and teach someone how to do it, if I am fixing a tech issue then I will be teaching someone else how to fix it, if it is teaching in a service I want to show someone how I am crafting that service.  The baseline or the syncing of my information is to Teach.  If I can do that I don't loose sight of who I am and what I am supposed to be about.  If I am not able to teach through it than it's not worth doing.  As well as having tremendous personal impact on how I do things.  I think this mentality can have profound impact on how organizations do things.

Maybe you feel like you wear to many hats or are stretched to thin.  I would encourage you to find the central point of who you are and operate from there.  From that point you can work across all platforms and devices.  No matter how crazy your job description is.

What is your "main thing"?

How can you "snyc"?

Can your church reach across platforms?

What needs to happen to instill this process?