Spreading The Wealth Around

Somebody sent me this and I thought it was too funny to pass up.  Yeah, yeah, I know I probably shouldn't get all political and stuff but you're a big person....you can handle it.  And it's just plain funny.  

BTW, I thought these were funny too.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

This is not a fun read, but is an absolutely necessary one. And not just for pastors. I truly respect Perry Noble and the work he's doing, his vision for the church, his take on leadership and most importantly his desire to simply hear from and honor Christ. I've felt the same way. I've actually had to share some ugly truths with my wife, but I got help. Will you?

Read AND follow

Claude Coverage

One of things we love to do is have fun.  If you didn't know, I'm a big practical joke kinda guy.  So much so that one time I "stole" Randy's car (with the help of his parents and others) and painted it pink, decked it out in Hello Kitty stuff with spinners and curb feelers and made him drive around town that way for a few months.  With 12,000+ people, Catalyst presented a great opportunity to pick on Claude.  I printed up a bunch of Claude heads (click the link to download and print your own - Claude is speaking this Sunday so he might be more comfortable if he was surrounded by himself), stapled them to paint sticks and passed 'em out and put them in some rather conspicuous spots.  If you'll click on the first picture you can see Claude looking up at the speaker from the floor of the stage (hint: you can see him hiding under the piano)

There were screens all around that people watched for words during worship and any videos they played.  Claude liked being there up close.  He even built a bigger fan base than he already has and whole groups wanted to be like Claude.  I hear he even ended up watching people in the bathroom (now that's creepy!)  Long live Claude!

Claude having a good time at Catalyst

A Catalyst attendee trying not to make eye contact

with the creepy Claude head

Some of Claude's fans (including the pastor 

of Wilson Community Church and his wife!)

Between the Promise and the Payoff

There are some people who just inspire - being around them makes you want to be better, push harder, go further.  Steven Furtick is one of those people.  He's a 28 year old kid who leads an amazing church called Elevation in Charlotte, NC (not even 3 years old and around 5,000 people attend each week and they baptized 1,000 people in one weekend!)

I've followed his story for the past couple years and have prayed for his success.  What I really liked was he was confident and humble at the same time.  He got a promise from God at 16 - committed himself to honoring Christ and being faithful and now, 10+ years later he's seeing the promise payoff.  And he understands that the process in between those two points is sometimes lonely, difficult, and filled with doubt.  

Don't believe me?  God promised all of us that He would never leave us or forsake us.  Yet, how often do we doubt or despair because of our circumstances which appear to indicate something more like "God's nowhere to be found"?  If God's promised, shouldn't we be faithful in belief - faithful in the process of waiting for Him to make good on His promise?  Yes we should.  Even when we can't see it, when it doesn't make sense, when there seems to be no possible way things could work - we need to be faithful to a God who's faithful to us.

I've already seen God come through in my life.  When we were officially homeless and didn't have enough support raised to move to NC - we didn't lose hope and God provided - abundantly.  When I didn't think anyone would come to a new church - people did.  When I didn't feel like we were reaching anyone - people believed and got baptized.  All too often I've doubted God's promises and yet He's still kept them.  Amazing!

God's got bigger plans for Discovery, we're just not there yet.  But we need to be faithful in the process.  Faithful in blessing the community, giving to others, serving people not even connected to the church or to Christ, praying for individuals, neighborhoods and this city.  God will do His part.  The question is, will we do ours?

Good or Great?

There are some people who think the church is too influenced by "business principles," but I believe that truth is truth no matter where it comes from.  Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last shared some truths that have me thinking.  We read the book as a staff, but hearing stuff again was good.

I liked this best: "Greatness isn't because of circumstances - it's a function of choice and discipline"

Discipline is what separate ordinary people from exceptional people.  I thought about that and realized I'm not exceptional and Discovery Church isn't exceptional because I'm not (and we're not) disciplined enough.  It starts with me though, and that was a hard pill to swallow because I know it's true.  I'm not disciplined.  I'm an easily distracted, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, let's do it kinda guy.  That will get me this far, but no further so I really need to up my game in this area (again, this applies to my family life too)

Another thing that I was reminded of was the most important question isn't "What should we do?"  The question that needs to be answered first is "Who needs to be part of this team?"  It's the principle of having the right people in the right seat on "the bus."  Get the right people first.  Honestly, this one's tough for me.  When you just move to a town and start a church where you don't know anyone, it's a little harder (in my experience) to even identify the "right people."  I think we're doing that more now though and I'm seeing people step up, and step out.  We're about to assign some seats on the bus and that will be a good thing that I think will take us to another level.

One last thing that I struggle with is not, having a To-do list, but having a Stop-doing list.  Everything seems important, but reality says it can't be equally as important.  I think this is an overlooked truth.  When something new gets added to my list of things to do, something should also be added to the stop-doing list.  That's why individuals are overwhelmed and churches, organizations and even families are ineffective - we're all trying to do it all and that's too much!

So let me ask you a couple questions...

1) what do you need to discipline yourself to do

2) are the right people with you

3) what do you need to stop doing

What's In Your "Shack"?

You probably wouldn't recognize him if you saw him on the street, nor would you likely even know his name if it came up in conversation, but you may have heard of his book, The Shack.  William Paul Young shared the story behind the story of The Shack.

Hearing him speak helped me realize something more though.  His intentions for writing the book were not to build a theology, rewrite biblical orthodoxy or challenge the status quo.  He wrote The Shack out of his own experiences and for his own family (which includes 6 kids, 2 in-laws and 2 grandkids).  He self-published it, spent less than $500 in 'promotion and marketing' (on a website) and the book has since become a New York Times Bestseller for the last 20+ weeks.  I'm prone to believe him when he calls the whole experience a "God thing."

He didn't say anything too intense or weird, but just spoke from his heart about his relationship with Papa, and how we all have a "shack" that we hide things in - the very painful things that will only be overcome when they're dealt with directly.  When we wonder "where was God when this or that happened" we can know that He was there experiencing it with us.  He hasn't abandoned us but has embraced us - and often times we don't even know it.

If you haven't read the book, I encourage you to pick up a copy.  It's fiction so don't read too much into it (as some have) but allow yourself to think differently about how God loves us and how He expresses that love.

Moral Authority

I really admire Andy Stanley.  I like how he can speak clearly, directly and passionately.  I also like that he's a PK (pastor's kid) and has turned out pretty well so it gives me hope for my kids.  Not that I want my kids to pastor a 20,000 person church, but I want them to love God and be used by him.

Anyhow, Andy was the first to speak, as has been the custom since I've been going, and he really set the stage for the rest of the conference.  He talked about how we only have Moral Authority when our "creed" and "deed" are in alignment, when we live out what we believe, or put yet another way, when what we say is modeled by what we do.  The world might call it "influence," but at the end of the day, influence is something you have AFTER you develop moral authority (integrity, trustworthiness, dependability, etc)

He really brought things down to a practical level where I think every pastor, every minister, every lay person, every leader has to deal with answering the question of whether or not they have any moral authority.  Basically he asked us to examine three areas - 1) have we forgiven people and released any grudges or bitterness we may be holding on to; 2) when it comes to being successful at work or ministry and being successful at home, have we traded in a role anyone could play (work) at the expense of a role nobody else can do (husband/father); 3) have we got our financial house in order by at the minimum giving 10%, saving 10% and living off the other 80%?  Get just those three areas right and you'll be demonstrating and exercising moral authority.

The one that hit closest to home was family.  If my kids or my wife feel neglected, they are.  Whether I agree or not.  I read somewhere that Andy doesn't work past 4:30PM.  He just doesn't.  I've heard my kids complain at times because they think I'm gone too much.  My wife wants just a piece of me when she deserves to be able to have all of me.

So Discovery - I'm re-doubling my efforts to be all about my family first - and you second.  It's not that I don't love you or don't care, but anybody who loves the Lord could lead this church.  Only I can lead my family, and I intend to be more intentional about that.  What area do you need to work on in shoring up your moral authority?

Whoa- Take A Breath

If it seems like I haven't posted much, it's because I haven't.  We left Wednesday with 9 of us to drive to Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference and it was, I must say, GREAT.  There will always be a few things that I don't like, but overall - I've been challenged.  We left Friday when it was done, stopped for gas and a quick meal and pulled into Greenville about 3AM which left enough time for a few hours of sleep before having to get up and drive to an away football game by 8AM.  Spent the whole day there, got back and had to finish up a couple things that didn't get done for Sunday before we left, then set up, home, sleep, church, tear down, small group, basketball, and Monday rolls in.  

Anyhow, I'm closer to caught up now so here's what I'm going to do.  Rather than summarize Catalyst in one long post, I'm gonna post a couple reflections each day the rest of this week.  It'll help me process and you get to ride along.

Speaking of riding, when we got there the first day it was raining and you have to park a good ways out.  We saw a limo backing up and when the doors opened they invited us in so...we got dropped off in a limo after being there a whole 2 minutes.  That impressed not just the first timers with us, but it made me smile too.  Now there's a good first impression!

You can see that Brad REALLY liked the limo ride!

Reminds me of how he looked somewhere else.....

 

....at the Sarah Palin Rally (he's in the top left corner)

cheesy grin in one and yelling with Palin in the other

And I was REALLY excited to get

to spend a couple days with THIS!

Catalyst begins in 10 hours

The Discovery crew got down here to our cheap little motel (where they don't have toothbrushes for people who forgot them) after about 8 hours on the road, some spent in traffic and some following what the GPS said. Good thing some brought inflatable matresses since the guys couldn't bring themselves to share a double bed.

Better get some sleep as we're getting there early so we can get good seats. Night all

Slow Down

Dang if it isn't already Tuesday.  Time is just cruisin by.  I'm feeling good about it though because more often than not lately I've been "making the most of every opportunity" whether it's with my kids or work or friends.  Still feeling like time is going by too fast though.

So fast that in the middle of typing this out, I fielded three phone calls - and got an "emergency type" email.  So now I have to run and head out to grab something to eat before I head over to the Sarah Palin Rally at ECU (thank for the tickets Jessica!)

We leave for Catalyst in less than 20 hours and there's going to be 1000 people more than last year (which had something like 12,000 pastors and leaders)  It's gonna be crazy and it's gonna be GREAT.

Wedding Day

Lora and the kids left for football this morning and I've got a few moments before I need to head the other direction for a wedding. I really hate that I have to miss my kids games, but this was supposed to be an open weekend and when games got called off a few weeks back because of a "Nor'easter" this became the make up date. You go boys!

I do like weddings though. And I do like doing them. I get a front row spot to witness two people coming together to make a life-long commitment to one another and God as well. I get to see the hope in their eyes, the love, the dreams. And because I only marry couples that I get to counsel with, I pray I'll never have to see what so many people deal with - hopelessness, lost love and broken dreams. But if I do, I'll be sure to fight for them, call them out, and point them back to the day when they gave their word to each other and the Lord. Marriage takes work on our part to be blessed by God. So here's a shout out to my lovely bride - I love you Lora, still, and more each day.

Here's some football pics from earlier games.

Tanner (59) and Tyler (15) ready
to 'crack some heads' on defense

Tyler (15) getting a SACK!

Tyler's team after a win

Champ (17) working to shed a block

Champ (17) before the game

Tyler (15) on a little quarterback keeper

Tanner (59) in hot pursuit

Team prayer before the game
(in a community league too - thanks coaches)

Champ (17) working his way down the line