Shout Out

I've just got to give a shout out to the Wallace's. Thanks guys for picking up the slack and cleaning up our mess.

We do short video testimonies of people getting baptized and mistakenly recorded over the raw footage for 7 of the people who were getting baptized. When the Wallace's were doing their shoot, they volunteered to reshoot everybody for us! It's 10:30 on Wed and they got everyone plus a few. Thanks. Now we'll get it into the computer and edit it before we mess up again.

See you guys on Sunday! Remember to invite your friends to church and to stay for the baptism...it's real life evangelism.

What Matters Most

Given my earlier state of mind, it helped for me to think about the things that matter most and the things that I'm thankful and grateful for. Here's some of what I came up with.

Five healthy kids that I couldn't love anymore
One wife that's got my back and is supportive and understanding in all ways
Over one hundred people that I actually count as friends, not just acquaintences
Parents and in-laws who are still married to one another (what an example)
Grandparents that I can still talk with and visit
Staff to share the load of church planting with
Men and women who ARE the church and aren't content to just be AT church
"I'll do it" people who don't need to be asked
At least a dozen people who will be baptized on Sunday
The Winterville Volunteer Fire Department (for filling up our baptism container for free)
My house (I love driving into my driveway and see me living here til I die)
The brand new dining room set that was given to us "as confimation we're in the right place"
Being portable and not having to worry about maintaining a building
That I don't have a dog or a cat
Never been physically assaulted because of my faith
Never physically assaulted anyone because of their's
My red truck (makes me feel like a man driving that thing)
Cell phones, email, PDAs, blogs and other technology
Jesus loves me even when I've messed up or am in a bad mood

Monday on Tuesday

Aren't Mondays usually supposed to be the proverbial "bad day" of the week? I guess it started yesterday, but I enjoyed that day with my family at the beach. Hope others had a good Memorial Day too.

I'm gonna make this short, 'cause I'm already in a funk. Our Family Pastor (Claude) has a paying job outside of Discovery and occasionally requires his travel back to FL. He manages an assembly company that does about 60 Home Depot stores in the Tampa market. Holidays are always tense, and Memorial Day was no exception. Claude left Sunday night and sent me a text saying he'd probably need to be there 3 weeks!!! Hard to get angry when that job pays his bills, but totally wasn't part of our plans for the next few weeks. Good news is he won't be there 3 weeks continuously, just flying down each week through the 4th of July. Bad news is there are some serious issues and the company may lose their contract. Pray that doesn't happen.

After I got his text I got a call. Long story short - we do a video for each person who we baptize (next baptism is on Sunday!) and "we" taped over 7 interviews on Sunday! Gotta reshoot and still edit the stuff. Not cool. Not happy.

But enough grumbling. I'm gonna do what I talked about David doing this past Sunday. I'm gonna "find strength in the Lord [my] God". After all, everything that happens now is PREPARATION for what's going to happen later and I need to live my life ON TARGET even when it seems like I AM A TARGET.

Christianity - safe?

I just finished watching some videos with stories of people from around the world who have been targets of hate and hurt simply because they are Christian. I'll show a clip or two on Sunday in the service so people can see and hear for themselves what some of our brothers and sisters in Christ are going through. I'm not talking about name calling either...beatings, prison, executed, burned, shot, raped, one man's head almost severed from his body (and he lived!) And in the face of it all, they do not turn from Christ, but run to him. Click here for just one story from Voice of the Martyrs

What do we do in America? Complain. Boycott. Petition. Maybe we should live out the faith we profess to have in bold ways that may even invite persecution. In the words of one of many persecuted Christians, “Don’t pray against persecution, pray for perseverence” [Pastor Fikret Bocek, Turkey]

Friends In Low Places

I had a chance to talk to a good friend of mine earlier this morning who was home for a couple week break from his duty tour in Iraq. He came back for his son's graduation and to see his family for the first time in over 6 months. There are a couple of other people Lora and I know that are serving in Iraq and plenty who are still stateside. What I want to say is simply this

I consider it a high privilege to count these people as my friends because they are willing to go through things and do things that I really don't want to. Sure, they don't want to be away from family for a year or more. And they don't wake up wishing they could "see some action" that might result in serious injury or death. But they're willing and they're there - one of the lowest and most volitile places on earth right now.

I know of other people who are fighting other battles at home. They're fighting divorce, depression, debt, and many other things I don't want to have to go through. These people have and deserve my support too. Their life isn't on the line, but their success or failure doesn't really effect me like our military. Win a war, I'm safer. Win a battle over depression and I'm.....all too often indifferent.

Don't forget to remember those who've served this Memorial Day, but also don't forget about your other friends in low places. Jesus came to set the captives free and they need all the help they can get...no matter where they are or what they're fighting against.

Staff Evaluations

So it's already the end of Thursday and I posted like once this week. Maybe I'm not back.

Anyhow, I'm not about to detail our staff evaluations, but I'm now done sitting down with each of our staff guys (Brent, Claude and Davey) and I can say a few things. First, I'm glad these are done. I was stressing them a bit because there were a couple of spots that each one needed to work on and I really don't like pointing that out. The good news is, they all recognized it before I ever really brought it to their attention. Second, I still don't know who's going to do mine. I get feedback, but I'd like a more detailed evaluation. Here's a few reasons why I think evaluations are important tools

They force issues to be addressed
Earned praise is given
Deserved "blame" is assigned and accepted
They lead to changes for the better
There's an agreed upon goal coming out of them
They involve input from others
They take the big picture into consideration as well as the little (position specific)
They force us to think towards the future instead of camp in the past
They're raw, real and uncomfortable (which forces us to grow)
They're a snap shot of the process, not the finish line
They force us to make adjustments individually and collectively
They help staff fine tune their fit
They provide accountability

Did I say I'm glad they're over?!

Big Dreams

Just got done meeting with a guy who goes to Discovery and he basically shared an idea that I've been hoping someone might share one day. It's a big dream to see the church move into the marketplace and become a gathering point - not for services, but for life. You may be hearing more about this soon!

I'm Baaack

Pretty much checked out of blogging last week and this past weekend. My dad was in town and helped me build a deck around the pool we got last year and then I had to finish up the details for the weekend that I realized hadn't actually been completed yet. We really need a creative media/graphics person and I need an administrative person to keep me on task and on time. But anyhow....I'm baaack

We spent extra time on Saturday trying to get the sound right in the gym at the Boys and Girls Club and I think we did. In my opinion, it sounded the best it has since we moved there. But I was reminded of the delicate balance it takes. Not on the audio side, but the personalities side. When I lead worship at a church in FL, there was always, ALWAYS a battle between the guys running the sound (them) and the guys making it (me). I'd want to hear things a certain way and they wouldn't accomodate, perhaps thinking they could hear better than I could even though they were 80 feet away from my monitor! So here are some tips on working with sound people and musicians..

Always try to let the musicians determine what they want to hear first. They're there to lead worship and need to feel like they're doing a good job. If they hear garbage, they think everybody is hearing garbage and it's really hard to effectively lead if that's the case. Sound guys should only control the overall volume, not the stage mix...if the lead guitarist wants more of him in the monitor, give it to him

Understand that you can be right and still be wrong. Whether you're at the stage or back of the house, your goal and main objective is to be unnoticed and for the presence of God to be obvious. If you get what you're asking for but the people coming to worship don't get what they're coming for, you may have been right but it turned out all wrong. Worry more about why you're there than just what it sounds like to you.

Don't take criticisms, comments and changes personally. It's not about you (or the other guys) it's about honoring Jesus Christ and moving other people to the place where they can communicate with and hear from God. If somebody asks you to turn something down or up, don't act like they just told you "your way" was wrong. Talk about it, don't fight about it.

Less is more. Personally, I'd rather have someone in the crowd asking for more volume, more songs, more whatever, than complaining because there's too much or too many. Isn't that why "unplugged" services and concerts are just as good if not better? They're more intimate and focused.

Explain, don't complain. This goes for anything, but here particularly, take the time to explain why your thinking what you're thinking. It does more to help then just whining about how things are and doing nothing to change it. You'll have to be vocal, and someone may not like what they hear, but I covered that...it's not personal. So tell them what you're thinking and WHY.

I love getting comments from our Sunday crowds. They help us evaluate how we're doing and what's going on in the lives of our people. They write down prayer requests, comments, praises and questions. I can't imagine going to a church where they don't encourage you to share your life, doubts, problems and even complaints. That's how we grow stronger and closer. Thanks for being a part of the solution and not just the problem Discovery!

Wednesday's "Work"

I'm doing better at taking Weds off. Spent the whole day yesterday framing out a deck in the back yard. Hopefully have some time today to throw some of the planking boards down (and hopefully this thing is square and looks good finished). Couldn't have done it without the help of my dad - Thanks Dad!

Lora redid (stripping wallpaper and painting) one of the bathrooms, and then we sanded and sealed the kitchen bench so we can coat it today. Made for a long but productive day.

I'll post some pictures later for those who care (and those who don't . . . well, tough)

Systems

One of the things I know we can improve on is our systems - the different ways we get certain things done (or not done sometimes). So I'm really looking forward to today. Heading over to C3 for a roundtable session about creating systems that work. Besides that, I haven't been to one of these with ICC for almost 5 months. Way too long.

Staff Meetings

I used to really dread staff meetings where I served before...lots of talk no real action (at least on anything earth shattering). I don't mind talking if it leads to something. Nothing better than a good ol' knock-down-drag-out debate over some relevant ministry issue. I don't want our staff meetings to be boring, but sometimes they bog down in details that don't matter. That frustrates me.

Just read through a book called "Death By Meeting" and have to say I really liked it. It suggests having more, but also more focused/targeted meetings. A stand-up 5 minute briefing each day, weekly, quarterly and then yearly meetings. The problem I'm having is since we don't have an office (unless you count Panera, Bojangles and CiCi's), since we don't even have "real" full-time staff but bi-vocational staff, and since we have limited face-time with all of us together, how does a church plant team do the 5 minute meeting?

The answer so far is we don't and so we play a little bit of catch up at our weekly meeting sometimes and we end up bogging down. Did I say I hate that? We could try email, but that doesn't allow for real-time interaction. Maybe we could schedule daily IM's, but that seems mechanical and like overkill. Conference call? Wonder how and if it might help.

What do you suggest to help staff and key ministry leaders make sure we're all on the same page and all moving the same direction from day to day? Tried anything? Know of anything that works?

Too Many Desires

Been working all morning on this week's message. Don't want to give too much away, but I'm really enjoying the history I get to learn about for this series. The series title itself we stole from somewhere, but the point's the same. DEFINE THE LINE.

Think about it. On your tombstone you'll have two dates - birthdate and deathdate. Your entire life will be summed up by about a one inch line between them. So what's it going to stand for? How will we define it? This series will look at David who's line was defined as a man after God's own heart. I'm tying in some other great people, presidents, founding fathers etc. and this week is Teddy Roosevelt.

Found a great quote where he said, Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind. I think that speaks to Chrisitianity and churches too. Too often we (pastors or teachers) try to share these "great thoughts" and insights on Scripture and that's good. But it's dangerous when we neglect to give it feet and actually answer the question "what difference does it make?" That's why I'm glad that Discovery is the kind of church where people serve. What's better is they serve people who aren't in or part of our church. I think it's like our way of trying to speak to "all mankind."

INFORMAL POLL:
Who's your favorite president and why?

I couldn't hardly sleep last night because I'm so excited. But it's because I'm so excited about finally putting a deck around the pool. I was dreaming about lumber and angles and saws and drills. I could practically smell the saw dust. That's not the only project on the list either. Still need to finish the table and then want to build in dressers and shelving in the boys room. Carpentry work relaxes me, but right now all these projects along with our upcoming series are giving me too many desires and not enough time to work on them all.

Author or Audience

Just had a conversation and I think I figured out why it's so hard as a pastor to handle Mother's Day (or Father's Day) and it's because, on days like these, there's a tendency to switch the focus to the people in the audience instead of staying focused on Jesus. I'm not saying mothers and fathers aren't important. I am saying they're not more important than Jesus.

Jesus should alway get head billing, not mothers, fathers, veterans, servicemen, teachers, pastors etc. I'm tempted to say something tomorrow like...today is a day we set aside in order to honor our mothers, but this hour we've set aside to honor Christ. There's no better way to honor your mom than to live in a way that honors the lord.

I don't want to sound like there shouldn't be any relevance with what's going on around us whether it's holidays, TV and movies or local culture, because that would be wrong too. It's just that I needed that reminder (correction?) that the audience isn't just mothers. Everyone who comes should be challenged to live more like Christ, and yes, one way to do that is to honor your mother.

Coaching

Just got off the phone with my coach. Coach? Who needs a coach when you're planting a church? A coach is someone who is there to help lead you through issues you may be having or struggling with by helping you clear away the crud so you can focus on the issues. They challenge, push back and basically ask you questions you may not have thought of yet. A good coach will force you to think through all the elements of a decision WITHOUT making the decision for you. Let me just say that everybody should have a coach. Here's why...

No easy answers. If you're like me you find yourself always wanting to know what to do. Just tell me what to do. You go to a conference and are bored to death by the philosophy behind something or your excited and want to go right home and start doing it - either way you want the speaker to get on with it and tell you how to do it. A coach won't give you the answer, but they'll force you to think through something and come up with a set of potential answers that you'll still need to weigh out. More work, but more benefit because you own your decisions

Clarity. A good coach will tell you what they hear you describing and then drill down to get to the root issues or questions you've got. You might think the problem is with people when the core issue is really your fear of dealing with certain people. You can't really solve any problems or make good decisions without a clear understanding of the question you're trying to answer

Accountability. A lot of people say they need or want accountability, but let's be honest, sometimes we'd just rather skip over our shortcomings and inabilities and focus on someone else. A good coach makes sure you don't pass the buck and that you own your issues. They'll also make sure you do something about them or they'll stop coaching you - not because you're a bad person, but because if you want to be coached, you need to be willing to change.

Growth. You can stay where you are and maintain and you might be just fine, but push outside your comfort zone if you want to see what God can do. That will really grow your faith and it will grow you. Good coaches push you to try new things, think differently, read broadly, and seek broad input from multiple sources. Fresh ideas are like fresh fruits and vegetables...they're good for you and help you grow.

So if you don't have a coach, whether you're a stay at home mom or a corporate big wig, find somebody (even if you have to pay them) who will coach you. Find someone to help you sift through the clutter and push you toward your goal. They may even need to help you define your goal, but that's all the more reason you should get a coach.

Getting Excited

Enjoyed the day off yesterday, and spent a good portion of the day so far reading through and meditating on 1-2 Samuel and 1 Kings getting ready for our next series on David. Let me just say, David may have been remembered as a "man after God's own heart," but he also made his fair share of mistakes. I don't know why I find that so comforting except to think that maybe I, even with all my problems, failures and mistakes, can be known as a man after God's heart.

Because of a couple issues, we've had to change the baptism date back a few weeks. No big deal though, we'll just do the baptism on June 3 and it's still going to be cool.

The more I study and think about this series, the more excited I get. One thing really stuck out today. It's the fact that all David's followers when Saul was after him were "in distress, in debt or discontented" David, the king (who's not king yet but who's hiding in the mountains) is attracting people who are down and outers, distressed, in debt, frustrated.

Think about that for a minute. Who's attracted to us? Needy people or greedy people. People who want to be changed or people who want to change us? I never want Discovery to be filled with peole who think we're Burger King and they can "have it their way." I hope people flock to us and this church because we care, we offer hope, and lives have been changed by Jesus. I think that's why Lora and I have seen so many people who are in difficult and destroyed marriages hanging around. They're in distress. They're discontent. Hopefully we offer hope and leadership like David did.

Been Thinkin' All Day

Last night Lora and I went to the FCA "chalkboard chatter". It's an annual event at the end of the year and they usually bring in a bigger name coach/athlete or two. Yesterday, Clyde Christensen, assistant coach with the Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts was one of the guys who spoke. Shared some really valuable thoughts

Start with the end in mind - Tony Dungy wanted to impact his city by living for Christ, be a great coach and win the Super Bowl, in that order. He certainly impacted Tampa as evidenced by the thousands who came out to show their support at the funeral for his son James. He's a great coach, and now he's won a the Super Bowl. Made me really consider if I had the end in mind....with my kids or with the church. I do, but it seems a little too vague so I'm sharpening that view more now

The route to the end isn't always the shortest - people don't usually see getting fired as a good thing, but when Clyde looks back over his career and sees what he's learned, who he met and how he grew through those experiences, he's glad he's been fired more than once. For me, I so want to be able to know that my kids will know and follow Christ and that Discovery is successful, but I can't find that out unless I take the long route of consistent effort in the same direction over time.

I've been pondering that all day. Where's the end? Am I willing to stick with the game plan no matter how long it takes to get there? What difference will it make and will it be worth it? I'm determined to do a better, more focused job and get back to work.

Can You Believe It

I haven't been posting since we went to DC, but I'm back and am still swirling about yesterday and what God's doing all around this country. At Discovery, I spoke about finding success in your finances from 2 Corinthians 8 and challenged the people to give like the Macedonian churches gave - "beyond their ability". They did.

We have a couple people going out this summer to various places...Botswana (10 weeks) and the Ukraine (10 days), Nicaragua, etc. and we also want to see more churches started right here in Greenville. So I challenged people to give to help make a difference with their money by giving to people going to places we can't or won't go. Let me just say that our people ROCK! They gave more than a regular week just to the missions collection we did and still gave more than twice the weekly average in regular giving. Blown away.

Then I read some of the blogs I check regularly and hear what God's doing within a few hours drive of this place. At New Spring Church over 150 people accepted Christ in a service that Perry Noble says wasn't even geared toward a "salvation" message. Then I saw that Elevation over in Charlotte had 100 people begin to follow Christ on Sunday! Congratulations Steve That's amazing...just like God.

And I'm in the process of seeing if some of Lora and my faithful financial supporters would agree to one more year of support for us (so we can keep Discovery funds freed up for ministry) and I just found out about one family (who I haven't even asked or talked with yet) is going to do another year! I can't help but feel blessed to be a part of this.

Long Quick Trip

Back from DC, but it wasn't quite the quick trip I thought it could be. Randy and I left just after 5AM and were in DC before 11. Needing to double check some stuff online and finish up our strategic plan for the day, we went to find Ebenezer's Coffee House. It's a marketplace ministry of National Community Church and I wanted to check it out for myself, so I called my wife to give me the address. I made a mistake and had us in the NW instead of the NE side so when we parked we were about 6 blocks off. Oh well. Grab some coffee and some internet access downstairs while a group of business people were having a bible study. Way cool. I liked it.

Randy had never been to DC before so we did a small bit of sightseeing, but limited it to the mall area, and the White House. He was like a kid in a candy store. We actually checked out some memorials that I hadn't ever visted before like the FDR's and Theodore Roosevelt's. We borrowed a pro grade camera but didn't have any wireless microphones so I had to talk really loud and pretty close to the camera around all the tourists that were nearby. We got some funny looks but who cares.

Took video at the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument,WWII Memorial, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, FDR Memorial, Vietnam Wall, Women in Military Service Memorial, Arlington National Cemetary, JFK's grave, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial. We didn't leave DC until around 8 PM. So much for a quick trip. By the time we got back home it was almost 2AM. Long day.

So we've got about an hour and a half of video and a bunch of still shots to work with and turn into 30 to 90 sec spots in two weeks. Hopefully that will go quicker than our long quick trip.

Say A Little Prayer

Randy and I pull out in less than 7 hours. I'm already tired (had kids waking up in the middle of the night since Sat) and Randy's been out of town on business all week so far. So say a little prayer for our trip. I'm also waiting on some imformation support that I need to help with what we're doing and I haven't had that come across in my email yet. Pray I get it at least by the time we get to DC (about 11AM?) Last, just some stupid issues trying to get stuff prepared for our baptism on May 20th, but I'm sure prayer can take care of that stuff too. Out.

Unplanned

Claude just called and told me his paying job needs him back in Florida now. Let me just say how much that totally bites. Not just for Claude needing to figure out the quickest and cheapest way down and back, but for Discovery and me too. That means he needs to find someone who'll take over the children's stuff for Sunday (and on short notice). If his wife goes, she's gotta make sure all the stuff is covered and that most likely means I'll be doing the data entry afterwards since we've been slow to train a new person and I don't like waiting until the end of the week. Don't know for sure if they'll be back for Second Saturday Service or even Mother's Day (but most likely). This just stinks. But hey, it pays his bills since we don't (yet).

Quick Trip

Even though my family and I just got back from visiting DC, we've got a new series coming up in a few weeks and have a late-blooming idea which means I'll be going back up there to shoot some on-location video. I'm really excited about how this series has morphed though, so all this last minute work should be worth it. The series starts on May 20th and here's a preview of some of the cool things we're planning with it.

May 20th - Baptism and BBQ after the service so plan on staying to watch and eat.
May 27th - Paintball or Skeet shooting
June 3rd - Basketball and Bocce Ball tourney. Also, wear your favorite sports jersey to church that day
June 10th - Classic cars will be parked out front and we'll serve hotdogs cooked on a classic grill you'll have to see to believe
June 17th - Father's Day - one you won't want to miss