Category Archives: Ministry

Awesomenessness, Discipleship, Faith in Action, Ministry, Podcasts, Preaching, Questions, The Word, Theology, Wrestling With Scripture

Goodstuff

I have been just living inside of a great study on the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA.

Last summer, Chan preached a 7-part series on the Holy Spirit to his congregation and I have just now been able to begin working through the podcasts. Chan is an incredible teacher and his passion and desire for God is made evident when he is expressing this gift.

The podcasts have been great but I have been able to go deeper into the study by following the small group study page Cornerstone provides their people. (they are available for every lesson on the Cornerstone website. Main>Media>Sermons)

I have never heard lessons on the Holy Spirit this revealing, tempered, and powerful. Like Chan, I too believe that our greatest sin to the people we lead is neglecting the power of the Spirit.

The last few days have been eye opening for me. I have been able to approach this (too often) delicate subject without fear and trepidation. I have just found myself meditating and marveling at some passages of scripture that I feel like I have missed over the years.

My heart is so full right now that I find it difficult to put my thoughts in blog form.

The long and short of it is this: the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus, sent from the Father, is a mysterious truth that we will never fully understand. I am grateful that through these podcasts and through the Word of God I am scratching the surface of this mystery.

Discussion Question:
Why do we neglect teaching about or learning about the Holy Spirit?

Discipleship, Ethos, Leadership, Life, Ministry, Preaching

Man Time

I’m headed off on our Men’s Retreat this afternoon.

It will be a nice change of pace to be on a retreat with adults rather than teens. It will also be nice to go on a retreat that I haven’t scheduled or planned. I’m the AV guy and I do have a presentation on Teen Mentoring but it should be a relaxing 2 days.

I’m taking a few books with me. I’ll start Nancy Ortberg’s Looking for God and (hopefully) I’ll knock out a good chunk of Neal Gabler’s 912 page biography of Walt Disney.

I have been trying to get to the bio of Uncle Walt for some time but other books have gotten in the way. On March 30, I’m preaching on The Vision of a Leader and I can’t think of anyone in the modern age with more vision that Walt Disney. Of course, Walt surrounded himself with other visionaries and experts. Men “on the ground” like Ub Iwerks and those men and women of the creative team known as The Imagineers have helped carry out Walt’s vision and have even managed to take his vision further than he ever imagined.

I am convinced that you, personally, can have a vision for something but ultimately vision is a team sport. I once heard that as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens the other. Sounds like whoever said that knew what they were talking about.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Awesomenessness, Books, Discipleship, Ministry

F.R.E.E.- That Spells Free

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Over the last few weeks I have received 3 free books in the mail. Books are awesome. Free is amazing. Free books takes it to a whole different level!!!

Last fall at Catalyst, I subscribed to the Catalyst Filter. It was my understanding that the Filter would be primarily a web-based companion to the conference.

On one level it is. At the site you can find audio from past conferences, articles from speakers and leaders, and connect with other subscribers. It is good but just worth the price of admission.

However, the real benefits to the Catalyst Filter have been through the “off-site” things. I have been able to participate in exclusive conference calls with pastors and authors like Mark Batterson and Gabe Lyons. Each one that I have participated in have really ministered to my soul and imagination for making Christ number one in my life, church, and community. I would subscribe again next year for the conference calls alone.

But wait, there’s more.

I had no idea that they would be sending us books. They have sent a total of 4 books to me since Christmas and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Last month I received The Organic God by Margret Feinberg. I have heard some great things about this book and I look forward to reading it beginning today.

Yesterday I received 2 (count em: 2!) books crammed into my mailbox.

I am most excited about the pre-release copy of Nancy Ortberg’s Looking for God: An Unexpected Journey through Tattoos, Tofu, and Pronouns. Hopefully, I’ll get to it sometime next week.

The other book sent to me yesterday has the best title of any Christian book I’ve read this year. I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: Replacing Souvenir Religion with Authentic Spiritual Passion by Vince Antonucci looks to be a great book. Vince became a Christian at age 20 after reading the New Testament. When he began to get connected to a church he was dumbstruck by the superficial nature by which most Christians he encountered lived out their faith. I can’t wait to dig into this one.

Thanks Catalyst for a great conference (see you in October) and thanks for the free books. Keep them coming!!!

Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry, Questions, The Word, Theology, Wrestling With Scripture

The Stories We’ve Been Given

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I had lunch with a friend of mine the other day and we began discussing the importance of story in the Bible. The conversation turned from the standard “What is the story of the Bible?” or “What is the story of the Gospel?” to a much more philosophical question.

My friend asked me about the specific stories that we’ve been given in Scripture.

I believe that we were given the Bible, the epic love story of Almighty God for his people, for a reason. God wanted us to know what he did, why he did it, and how we are invited into this story (See Ephesians).

It goes to follow that everything we are given points us to this end. Everything in scripture – talking donkeys, kings, prophets, miracles, widows, shepherds, everything – give us insight into Almighty God and his story. However, we are given larger glimpses into some stories rather than others. We began to ask Why?

Why do we know more about Moses than we do about Job? We know almost everything about Moses’ life yet we only get a small glimpse in Job’s life, focused primarily on his suffering. Many scholars believe Job was the first OT book written. There must be a reason we are told what we are told.

What can you tell me about Thaddeus or Bartholomew? Out of the twelve apostles we really only know about half and we really only know half of those. Don’t even get me started on Matthias.

Why do we understand more about Paul than Barnabus? My friend said that if you was going to throw a party you would send an invitation to both men but that you would really hope Barnabus showed up. What little we know about Banabus is that he was the type of Christian you’d want to be- encouraging, strong, faithful. Why are we given more about the life of Paul?

In the whole of Scripture, 6 stories stand out over and above everything else:

Abraham
Moses
Joseph
David
Jesus and Pals
Paul and the Church

I believe that the stories we have in Scripture are not put there by chance. There is a bigger reason to study these stories. These overarching stories must connect us to something much deeper than the average Bible lesson (if there is such a thing as an average Bible story).

Why do you think we’ve been given a larger glimpse into some of these stories rather than others? What story would you like to know more about? Who would you like to know more about?

Discipleship, Faith in Action, Ministry, Youth Ministry

Gonna Fly Now

I had the opportunity to speak in chapel at my high school alma mater last Friday. It was actually the third time I’ve spoke there this school year. I got the call on Wednesday that the scheduled speaker wasn’t going to be able to make it. I made it clear that I would happily fill in. When I asked what I needed to speak on (in two days!) the campus minister told me that January’s theme was on the spiritual disciplines.

I laughed because I had been spending the week working through Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. In fact I was reading it when I got the call. Who says God has no since of humor!

I challenged the students to look at the spiritual disciplines like they look at training for an extra curricular activity. I read them my favorite passage from 1 Corinthians.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” – (1Corinthians 9:24-27)

When I read this passage I can’t help but think about Rocky Balboa.

Let’s face it, when we meet Rocky at the beginning of the first movie he is a loser. He is washed up, down and out, and punch stupid. He is a loser.

When Apollo Creed offers him a shot at the big time no one would have blamed Rocky if he just entered the fight to lose. In the boxing big-time, even the losers become millionaires. No one expected anything from Rocky except to lose.

Instead, Rocky trained. He ran, punched frozen slabs of meat, ran, drank egg yolks, ran, and ran some more. He trained to win. He beat his body and made it a slave.

Compare that to our spiritual bodies. Most of our spiritual bodies are fat and flabby. We spend so much time training our physical bodies for athletics, work, and free-time leisure activities yet we neglect the part of us that will live forever.

I’ve been recommitting to a few spiritual disciplines this month. I have been making a true effort to commit to personal scripture reading. Believe me, I spend a great deal of time reading scripture. However, like most ministers I struggle with making a break between personal study and professional study. I read and study for what I’ll be teaching or speaking on but I feel like I too often neglect my personal study.

I’m learning to meditate upon the word of God.

I have been struck by what Joshua and James have to say on the subject.

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.– (Joshua 1:7-9 TNIV)

“But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continue in it—not forgetting what they have heard but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”– (James 1:25 TNIV)

Of course, with meditating on the Word of God I’m not chasing after the blessing of the world (crowns that will not last).

I’m more concerned with peace and guidance, humility and freedom, love and understanding. I want to be blessed with connection to the Father, communion with the Son, and direction from the Spirit.

Well, I’m off to work out. Train hard brothers and sisters. I hear the pay off is awesome.

Discipleship, Ethos, Faith in Action, Ministry, Questions, Wrestling With Scripture

K.I.S.S.

A simple church understands that people are at different places in their spiritual journey, that spiritual growth is a process. The church is designed to partner with God to move people through stages of spiritual growth.

Sadly, most churches miss this truth.

They are not simple. They have not designed a simple process for discipleship. They have not structured their church around the process of spiritual transformation.

And they are making little impact. (62)

I have been really enjoying Simple Church by Rainer & Geiger. I passed it by so many times this year in the bookstore. It’s plain white cover would stand straight and all but wave hello at me as I browsed the ministry section. I ultimately succumbed to its siren call and I have not been disappointed.

The above quote is right on the money. Most churches do not focus on discipleship. Most, because it is easier to quantify, focus on church involvement as their “spiritual maturity barometer.” To be honest, mere church involvement can’t tell you everything about a persons spiritual well-being.

As I’ve been thinking about spiritual growth I keep going back to John 15.

“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.” (John 15:4-8 MESSAGE)

I feel like there a lot to say about spiritual growth in this chapter but these are the verses that jump out at me. The simple- remain in Jesus, mature, bear fruit.

What does this mean for us?

Remain in Jesus: Love God.

Mature: Love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40)

Bear Fruit: Serve the world

That’s a pretty simple equation right there.

I should finish the book before Christmas and I’ll post a little more of my thoughts then.

So my question to you is…

In what ways have you seen churches focus on spiritual maturity?

What have you seen that is successful in growing disciples?

Church Marketing, Ministry, Resources, Youth Ministry

Peer Review

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Earlier today I submitted two postcard designs for peer review with the Church Marketing Lab. The aim of the lab is to help ministers share their work and to get feedback from their peers on creating and designing quality pieces for communication.

Below are the two designs I submitted. They are postcards that will be mailed out to High School students inviting them to our Tuesday night Bible study, CHIAlpha (Christ First). This semester we will be getting a bird’s eye view of the entirety of God’s story. Our goal will be to read through the major stories of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Couch Postcard_front

This will be a reminder postcard that will be mailed out one week before the study begins.

Tattoo Postcard_front

So, what do you think? Give me some feedback. I’m looking for anything positive or negative that will help me create the best designs possible. Thanks for helping me out.

Awesomenessness, Church Planting, Discipleship, Ethos, Leadership, Ministry, Resources

Filter Conference Call: Mark Batterson

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I had a great opportunity to participate in a leadership conference call with Pastor Mark Batterson this morning. Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church and the author of In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. The way NCC is “doing church” has really captured my imagination. NCC’s vision is to meet in movie theatres along the Metro lines in our nation’s capital. The only physical structure they use to meet in is a coffee house near Union Station. Ebeneezer’s serve great coffee and allows the church and culture to “intersect” on a daily basis.

Someday I hope to plant a church and I have learned a great deal from NCC and Batterson’s candidness. They are always open for questioning and are just as willing to speak about “missed opportunities” as they are about big wins. Mark’s blog is a daily stop for me on the interwebs. Mark is open and honest about leadership, family life, church direction, and vision casting. I enjoy hearing about what he is up to and I have enjoyed hearing about the victories that his church has been blessed with. Thanks Mark!!!

The conference call was put together by Catalyst Filter, a great leadership resource that I became a part of at this year’s Catalyst Conference. The call lasted about an hour and Mark talked about everything from balancing personal time with work to staff development. I even got to ask a question.

Here are my notes from the call:

Creativity and Innovation

    One idea that drives Creativity: “There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet.” There is no “order of worship” in scripture.

    Creativity is a byproduct of planning. NCC has a weekly “big idea” meeting where the leaders discuss what they want to happen each week in services, small groups, etc.

    Creativity and innovation are hard wired into the DNA leaders and churches

Annual Retreat

    Leadership attends two retreats a year.

    Summer- “Play & Pray Retreat”- name says it all. The team plays and then they pray.
    December- Planning Retreat– 48 hrs. spent dreaming, thinking, setting goals

Service Planning Process– What happens on Saturday and Sunday

    Batterson plans out his sermon series one year in advance. He admitted that really about 70% of that plan is carried out. Again, goes back to creativity being a byproduct of planning.

    Try and speak to what is practical in the lives of people

    One goal of ministry is to lead people into becoming self-motivated disciples

20somethings– largest demo of NCC is single 20somethings

    Proximity- if the goal is to reach 20somethings, be/go where they are

    Meet needs- Students have needs and wants. Offer students pizza, homes to meet in, relationships with members

    Speak to them- if the goal is to reach 20somethings, speak to/with them. Sermon series that address their unique phase of life (I believe most churches fail this point)

Engaging Culture

    The byproduct of ignorance is irrelevance.

    1) Engage culture by creating culture- NCC built a coffeehouse rather than a building. This breaks down walls within culture, allows for relationships to be built within culture

    2) Sermon series that engage culture
    Use music and movies. Most people today get their theology from music and movies. Movies reach out for truth but miss the mark in pointing to Truth- Jesus. We should step in and connect culture with Ultimate Truth. Movies and music give us permission to speak to tough subjects (Think “Hotel Rwanda.” I was able to use this film in a powerful way to speak on racism and equality in a way that I would have been unable to do through a typical Bible study)

Moving from Traditional to Contemporary

    “Someone told me that it takes an oil tanker 14 miles to preform a U-turn in the ocean. Don’t know if that’s accurate but it is a great picture of how slow and difficult change can be.”

    1) Make moves toward change that are practical in execution

    2) Sometimes the change is too great for an establishment. When that happens, you can always plant and hardwire into the DNA of the church plant a desire for innovation and avoidance of stagnation. Sometimes it takes a step of faith.

Balancing Personal life with Church work– Mark has a wife and three kids

    Work

    YOU control your calendar

    Mark gets up at 5:30am and makes time to write, think, pray, go through spiritual disciplines before the day “officially” starts

    Meeting days- schedules 2 days specifically for meetings

    Focus days- 2 days to study, focus, read, dream

    Family
    Make family a priority. Mark is specifically doing 2 things this year to show his family they are the priority of his life

    1) Mark intentionally used every single vacation day for he and his family

    2) Father/Son Meetings– Mark and his 12 year old son agreed to a covenant that this year (as his son turns 13) that they will complete a spiritual challenge, an intellectual challenge, and a physical challenge. The point is to intentionally grow closer together and intentionally honor God during their time together (I plan on doing something like this if we have kids)

Learning

    Leaders are readers

    Stay curious

    Stay humble- 1Cor 8:2- “The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.”

    When reading, cross-pollinate. Choose books and resources from a wide spectrum of disciplines

    Keep learning

So there are the highlights. I hope that you too can benefit from the conversation. The call ended up being the best hour of my work week. So good!

I’ll be out of pocket most of the weekend. This might be my last post until Monday. If so, have a great weekend everyone.

Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry, The Word, Youth Ministry

Bible in 90 Take 2

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My wife and I are once again taking the Bible in 90 Days Challenge.

The goal of the challenge is to read the entire Bible “cover to cover” in 90 days. That comes out to roughly 12 pages a day. We have completed the challenge once before and we have been keen on giving it another go for quite some time.

Specifically, I have been more than a little inspired by A.J. Jacobs latest memoir, The Year of Living Biblically. Jacobs, an agnostic, decided that he wanted to tackle the world of religion head on. He spent 4 months of prep time reading through the Bible and taking note of every command, suggestion, and guideline from the Old and New Testaments. 72 pages later he had a list of rules to lay down as his foundation for his biblical year. Jacobs deftly recounts his trials and tribulations with great detail and more than a little humor.

As I read, I was struck by Jacobs’ joy of discovery in finding how these laws mandated by the Almighty impacted his outlook, personality, appearance, and zest for life.

For the next 90 days I want to invite any of you readers to join us on a journey of discovery. I am a fast reader. Most of these daily readings will take me about 45min to complete. My wife takes her time reading but none of her readings lasted longer than an hour. I am certian that no matter how busy you are with work or school or family that you can find, somewhere in your day, 45min to an hour where you can open up your Bible and read.

By next week you will have finished Exodus. By the end of the month you will have read through 1 Chronicles. By the new year you will be well into Ezekiel and before the end of January you will have finished the entire Bible cover to cover.

Join me in rediscovering why you “have the hope that you have.”

This week’s reading plan:

Thursday: Gen 1:1- 15:4
Friday: Gen 15:5- 27:37
Saturday: Gen 27:38- 38:30
Sunday: Gen 39:1- 50:26
Monday: Exodus 1:1- 14:24
Tuesday: Exodus 14:25- 28:15
Wednesday: Exodus 28:16- 40:21

Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry

Refelctions

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“Disturb me, Lord, when my dreams come true, only because I dreamed too small. Disturb me when I arrive safely, only because I sailed too close to the shore. Disturb me when the things I have gained cause me to lose my thirst for more of You. Disturb me when I have acquired success, only to lose my desire for excellence. Disturb me when I give up too soon and settle too far short of the goals You have set for my life. Amen.” -Sir Francis Drake, 1577

The Catalyst Conference completely rocked my face off this year. I walked away from the arena with a great sense of purpose and mission.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one.

On Friday night I hooked up with some buddies from college who had also been a part of the conference. After an hour or so of small talk we began to open up more about our hopes, fears, and struggles. We kept finding ourselves driven to our knees in prayer.

In fact, we spent the entire night in prayer for the future of our ministries.

Not that our ministries would be big or be blessed but that God would be glorified and that Jesus would receive all power and honor and glory through our ministries.
We realized that if this were to happen through the people we minister to it must first happen through us.

We we humbled and broken that night.

At about 3am we remembered that Craig Groschel had kicked off his session by praying that God would disturb some of us so much that we wouldn’t be able to sleep.

There we were disturbed and unable to sleep.

I didn’t sleep the entire night I was so shaken and fired up and thirsty for God. You read about moments like this but I personally had never experienced something so tangible and so holy.

I have been rocked to the core. Not from a great session (although there were 9 of them) and not from a worship song (too many to count) but I have been rocked by the Almighty God, creator of the heavens and earth.

Lord, may this fire burn within me from today until the day you call me home. May you set a blaze in me a desire for the things that you desire. May my heart break for the things that break your heart. Forgive my pride. Forgive my arrogance. Forgive me when I am more concerned with the ways of the world than the ways of your Son. To you be all power and wisdom and strength and glory and honor. Amen.