This will probably be the last of my comments on Drive. And this comment may be more directed towards North Point than their Drive Conference. One of the things I love about North Point is their strategy. Everything they do has structure and vision behind it. How many Amerian churches have a strategy for making disciples? Most churches just hope it kind of happens somewhere along the way. I would encourage you to sit down with your staff today and “map out” strategic processes in your church. Start at the end (the goal) and work your way backwards. Thank you North Point for daring to lead with razor-sharp vision and strategy.
Pray for our church today. Our pastor is having a staff meeting tonight to introduce some changes that we can use to reach the lost in our community.
We had a great service last night in spite of the fact allergies had wreaked havoc on my voice. I sounded like a 7th grade boy going through puberty. God spoke even through that, though. OUr message last night was called, “Read the LARGE PRINT,” and I spoke about the cost of following Jesus.
Our set list for last night was All Because of Jesus by Steve Fee, Let Me SIng by Todd Fields, Inside Out with the Came To My Rescue tag by Hillsong United, God of This CIty by Chris Tomlin, and We Shine by Steve Fee.
To any students/parents who read the blog, don’t forget: whitewater rafting money is due immediately!
The second main session focused on “Becoming A Great Staff.” Some of the highlights from this session were:
A healthy staff culture is characterized by mutual submision. This means being servants to one another. Ho many times in church life have we seen a church buy 3 identical products (sound system, tv, etc.) because ministries would not share with each other? We must serve one another to become great. (Mark 10:32-45)
A healthy staff asks each other, “What can I do to help?” If we’re honest, in most churches the staff is to busy in their own little world to know or care what is going on in other ministries. We must seek church health, not just our own ministry health. We must be servants of others on our staff.
Do for one when you can’t do for all. Andy gave an example of two staff members that had made requests for things they needed in their ministry. One staff member needed a laptop. The other staff member needed a paper cutter. Financially, they could not afford a laptop at the moment, but they could afford a paper cutter. Andy said this is not “fair” per se, but it does allow you to have positive influence on some ministries, even whaen you can’t do for all.
Systematize top down service. We must get away from the system of, “I’m the big cheese, you’re the little cheese. You do what I say.” While I definitely agree with (and the Bible supports) leadership structure, leadership must be characterized by modeling servanthood.
Celebrate and reward greatness when you see it. How greatly could the words “good job” increase the health of your staff cultre today?
Sunday was Mother’s Day. I am fortunate to have married WAAAAY out of my league. I have a wife who is stunningly beautiful, very wise, very charming, loves saving our family money, love me deeply. and is an incredible mother to our son Charlie. She rarely gets recognized enough for her hard work “behind the scenes,” but she is the force that makes our family go round. I love you Katie! Happy Mother’s Day!
Katie’s parents, her grandfather, and her grandmother came to eat with us on Mother’s Day. I wanted to cook lunch in honor of Mother’s Day, and it actually turned out edible! I made poppyseed chicken, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and a cake for dessert. Nobody has reported food poisioning. Yet.
I went fishing really early yesterday morning. As soon as we got out on the water, I was really excited. The fishing conditions were great and we started seeing some topwater action. I threw a Zara Spook around a weedline and immediately had a bass blow up on it. I got the fish into the boat and was taking the hooks out, and then the fish just freaked out. The next thing I knew I had a treble hook sticking out of my thumb. The hook went in on the right side of my right thumb nail, and then came out the back.
We found some tournament fisherman who were kind enought to get some heavy duty pliers and cut the hook away from the lure. My fishing buddy dropped me off at my car and then went back tot he lake. (Before you say anything, I would have done exactly the same thing!) I drove myself to the emergency room and luckily was the only person there. The doctor put a shot of lidocaine in my thumb to deaden it. Then he pushed the hook all the way through, cut the hook off below the barb, and then backed it out. Done. It actually doesn’t hurt too bad. It feels about like a hangnail. The worst part was I missed some really good fishing!
One of the big takeaways the Drive conference promoted was healthy staff cultures. Do you have a healthy staff culture at your church. Andy said that whenever there is a gap between what you expect from someone and what they actually deliver, you have to choose what you place in that gap. There are only two choices: trust and mistrust. Staff members have to trust each other and be trustworthy. Often times in church life, people come to you with complaints about other staff members. We must choose to defend and trust in the rest of our team.
To end the first message, Andy posed this question: “Are the relationships around the staff table worth exporting to the rest of the congregation?” Wow. That will make you think.
We had an awesome service last night. Our set list was: Happy Day by Tim Hughes, Here Is OUr King by David Crowder, Spring of Life by Kristian Stanfill, The Wonderful Cross by Chris Tomlin, and God of Wonders.
Our message last night was called Remote Control and focused on the beauty and signifigance of the Lord’s Supper. The message will be up on the website later this morning if you want to check it out.
Hey everyone! I haven’t posted much in the past several days. I am at the Drive Conference at Northpoint Community Church in Alpharetta. It has been an AWESOME experience. The teaching has been wonderful and inspiring. It is refreshing to see a church that has razor sharp vision and the drive to reach lost people. Even if that means changing things. Even if it means improving or removing programs that have been in place a long time. I am so glad I came.
Last night the Drive Conference had a huge surprise for all in attendance- Jeff Foxworthy came out and did and hour and a half comedy show. He was so stinking funny. I like his definition of a redneck- a grand absence of sophistication.
I will fill you in on all the teaching from the conference tomorrow. It’s enough material for about two weeks worth of blogs.
Today our church staff is heading to Northpoint Community Church in Alpharetta, GA for the Drive Conference. I am so excited! This will be a great chance for our entire staff to learn at a church that excels at impacting their community and communicating the timeless truths of God in fresh and relevant ways. Andy Stanley is one of my favorite communicators, and I can’t wait to hear his messages. I will update from the conference!
Our student ministry worship team in now YouTube famous. We have two songs we led on Wednesday night uploaded to YouTube. Watch them both- we have an incredibly talented worship team. The first video is “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2, and the second song is “There Is Nothing Like” by Hillsong United. Enjoy!
Today I had the privilege of hanging out with Charlie all day. We had a ball! The first thing we did was to go to Monkey Joe’s in Douglasville. Monkey Joe’s is a huge open room with tons of inflatables for kids to play on. We stayed for over an hour. Here’s two pictures of Charlie playing at Monkey Joes. The first picture will tell you EXACTLY what he thinks of the Florida Gators. As Charlie says, “BOO Gators!”
After Monkey Joe’s, Charlie and I went to Best Buy. All guys inherently love going to Best Buy. Charlie tried talking me into a 55 inch HDTV, but I told him his mama might get mad at me. So, as a compromise, I bought him the movie CARS. We’re going to watch it when he gets up from his nap.
After Best Buy, Charlie was hungry. He was asking for his favorite lunch of “tacobeans” at Moes. So we had lunch at Moes. He ate his whole Powerwagon taco like a big boy. He even used a fork! He also ate a whole Oatmeal Raisin Cookie for dessert (surprise, surprise).
Last night we had our Ecuador Share share service. First off, our crowd was off the chain. We had between 250 and 275 people there last night. WOW!
We tried to gear everything around missions last night. Our worship team played “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2 and we had video footage of the mission trip in the background. It was powerful.
We are producing a video of the service. I hope to get it online by next week sometime. Make sure you check our student ministry page to watch it.
We had 8 students from our Ecuador team share last night: Allison, Ashlee, Catherine, Collin, Holly, Michael, Parker, and Taylor. They did an amazing job. I am blessed to have such a great group of students who #1 are willing to give up their spring break to do missions, and #2 share about their experience on a Wednesday night to get other students fired up about missions. What they said last night had 10 times the impact of anything I could have said. After all, I’m “paid” to encourage people to do missions. They are not. And to hear how their personal walk with Jesus was impacted by the trip was awesome. I’m ready to run through a wall right now.
Oh, and here’s a picture of me kissing a cooked guinea pig while in Ecuador. I hope my wife doesnt see this or she’ll never kiss me again.
Just got home from band practice. It was great! I am really excited about our student worship service this week. Our team that went to Ecuador will share with their fellow students how God worked, how their life has been changed, and why other students should do missions. It will be powerful. I think it will be even more powerful because we tried to plan our worship songs to go along with the theme of missions Wednesday. The students know there is one theme- sharing Jesus- on Wednesday night. They will not be able to escape it. The Holy Spirit will deal with them as they are focused on that one theme. The worship and the message should ALWAYS have one central theme. Your service should head one direction, not multiple ones.
Our set list this week is: Where The Streets Have No Name (U2), All Over The World (Matt Redman), Lord Of All (the new Kristian Stanfill tune off the Louder Than Creation cd), We Fall Down (english and spanish version), and There Is Nothing Like (Hillsong United).
We got to see our dream house today. If our house had already sold, I would have made an offer today. It was everything we want in a house. It is huge- 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, and plenty of room- two living rooms and a bonus room. It is a phenomenal deal because it is in forclosure. ANybody have 200,000 they want to give us? Pray that our house sells!!!!!!
