Monthly Archives: February 2007

The Five Most Viewed Posts of The Month

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A little something new here…

At the end of every month I’m going to post the five posts that got the most views.

And with no further ado… for the month of February the top posts were…

  1. Flood at the church
  2. The Top Five Reasons Why Leaders Fail
  3. What Should We Expect From the Church
  4. Five Things I Would Do If I Were the Pastor of a Small Church
  5. Why Do Leaders Fail? (This one generated a lot of response which led to the #2 article)
  6. I know I said “Top Five” but since #5 was a question… the sixth most viewed post this month was… another question… “What Makes an Effective Communicator?”

Thanks to all of you who check out and interact with this blog!

Some Northgate “Stuff”

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A few cool things happening around here these days…

  • Just walk across the room this week and invite someone to church this weekend for our new series “Struggling With God”! We’re gonna hit it hard these next few weeks! You can bet that we’re gonna be calling people to give their lives to Jesus during this month! BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!
  • This Sunday afternoon (from 1-2:30) we have rented the Batavia Ice Arena… IT’S FREE! Just walk across the room and invite someone to hang out with you… or fall with you depending on your skating skills! Skates and skating are free… we’re hosting it as an opportunity for your friends and family who don’t know our Leader (Jesus) to hang out with some people who do! Watch the Batavia Daily News for advertisements! (Let’s all try to convince Jeff to skate this time – see here for Jeff’s history)
  • On March 14th our staff and a few volunteers are headed down to South Carolina to the Unleashed Conference. New Spring, the church hosting this event, has already seen over 300 people give their lives to Jesus this year! God is doing something REALLY cool there and we’re gonna hang out and learn! Keep us and them in prayer!
  • Tomorrow (Thursday) is our off-site worship planning day! We’re gonna hang out @ Anthony’s, eat all his food 8) and plan worship themes (e.g. “Big Ideas” for sermon series; what series need dramas; etc.).
  • I’m in love with Northgate! I love being your pastor! :-)

I’m an idiot

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Sometimes I’m a great leader and I hit homeruns every time I get up to bat… 8)

And then other times I’m a schmuck and I strike out and fall down! I had one of those days today! CRAP! :-(

I needed to share some frustration and did it in a hurtful way. What I needed to say needed to be said… but not like I said it.

I basically came out and laid a person flat. I didn’t mean to… but I did.

After reflecting and seeking counsel from a wise man, I think I should have done it like this…

I said, “Here’s what I saw… I didn’t like it… You were responsible.”

I should have said, “Here’s what I saw… I didn’t like it… What happened?”

I think that rather than charging in with finger pointed I should have walked in with a question.

Yea so today… I’m an idiot, but tomorrow I’ll hit a homerun!

Struggling With God – this week

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This week we are starting a new sermon series… Struggling With God!

This is going to be a tough, honest look at the “dark side” of the Christian journey.

The reality is that sometimes our theology and reality collide! We believe that God is good, just, loving, and holy! But then tragedy strikes! What happens when what you believe is put into question by what is happening to you? Is it possible to go through crisis and still maintain faith?

Larry Crabb, in his book Shattered Dreams, asks the troubling question, “How do we trust a sometimes disappointing, seemingly fickle God who fails to do for us what good friends, if they could, would do?”

I don’t always understand why God doesn’t heal good people when other good people pray. I don’t understand why God allows Christians around the world to be violently persecuted, and sometimes even killed for believing in His Son, Jesus. I don’t always have the answers I wish I had…

This weekend we’re launching this series with a hard look at the prophet Habakkuk’s struggle with God… “Why aren’t you taking out the ‘evil’ people? Why are you using them? Why am I struggling and they’re not?”

Rebounding from failure

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I think that the best remedy for failure is confession, which breeds trust, and a solid plan for recovery, which facilitates hope!

It sounds like this, “I did (Fill in the blank) , and I am sorry. I am now going to do (Fill in the blank) and (Fill in the blank) in my best effort to correct the problem I have caused.

If you’ve been tracking with the recent Jet Blue debacle you know what failure looks like!

If you haven’t read about it here.

Jet Blue CEO David Neeleman wrote a letter of apology (read it here) in which he clearly confessed and outlined some ways that they are seeking to correct and assure that this never happens again!

It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Jet Blue!

I think there’s a lesson to be learned here…

The best thing you can do when you’ve screwed up BIG is APOLOGIZE BIG! Do not rationalize, explain, or ignore! Get specific and say, “I’m sorry!” And then outline your plan for recovery!

After church thoughts

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WHAT A WEEKEND! I LOVE serving @ Northgate!

Here’s the scoop…

  • We wrapped up the “Just Walk Across The Room.” The last three weeks we did team teaching (I enjoyed teaching with Vern and Anthony), but this weekend I went solo. I answered the question, “What happens when you and I walk across the room?” The answer… Chaos and a consistent lack of predictability! The text for this sermon was Mark 5:1-20.
  • The basic story line was this… when Jesus cast the demons out of crazy man in the graveyard and into the pigs, the people were scared (I would have been too)! Everything that was predictable and familiar in their lives had just run over the hill! But what happened when predictability was compromised was that a life was radically changed! For the most part, you cannot have predictability and radical life change at the same time. What will you choose?
  • We had a total attendance of 807 this week.
  • After the 11:00 service we had lunch and a movie – Face the Giants (read about it here). We asked people for donations and all of the money is going to the Emily Grace Pavilion (a pavilion being built as a memorial to Emily Grace Klein who God took home at 19 days of age). We brought in $4834.01!!!! Way to go Northgate!

OK, time for a “straight from the gut” take on the weekend…

I love to watch the church come together! Today to wrap up my message I shared with the church that I am ready to put down my stake on this premise, “I choose chaos and unpredictability every time if it means that more people come to Jesus.”

I then asked the church to join me around the front of the church as a sign that they too were putting down their stake! Hundreds joined me!

Here’s what we know… when each one of us begins walking across the room for the purpose of leading someone to Jesus it is going to get chaotic around here! When hundreds of unsaved/unchurched people meet Jesus this year because you and I are walking across the room… it’s gonna get crazy… but BRING IT ON!

  • Parking is going to get screwed up… but BRING IT ON!
  • Service times will change and I’ll have to preach more… but BRING IT ON!
  • Our kids ministries are going to bust out the walls and we’re going to have to move them into the adult wing which means we will have to rearrange the ABF schedule… BUT BRING IT ON!
  • Where you sit, where you serve, the service you attend, where you park, who you know… all of this may change, it will be unpredictable, but that’s what happens when Jesus starts changing lives and I say… BRING IT ON!
  • May Genesee County say of us what the religious leaders in Thessalonica said about Paul and Silas, “These that have turned the world upside down are come here too!”

Why I blog

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Seth Godin had a great little post on the benefit of blogging (read it here).

In a nutshell, I blog for three reasons:

  1. Real time communication – blogging allows me to share info and commentary on issues as they happen (e.g. the flood). You can read about it on the blog… or you can wait for the weekend!
  2. Personal insight – blogging allows you and I to conversate about issues that we may not otherwise be able to (e.g. here, here, or here). It allows you to see me in a different light than the stage lights on the weekend. I read a lot of blogs and one of the great benefits of doing so is that I get to know people I’ve never seen! Blogging is living out loud, and I think it’s kinda cool to live out loud!
  3. Learning – When I blog it makes me think through an issue and forces clarity! I know that once it’s published it’s out there, so I want to make sure I’ve at least thought through what I write. So blogging forces thoughtfulness and clarity, but it also allows you and I to interact, and often times your comments help to shape or reshape my thinking! I love and learn from our conversations (and hopefully they add value to you too!)

A few things you should know about this blog…

  • You can get it in your e-mail. On the right side of this page there is a link with blue letters that says, “Subscribe to Paul Peterson by e-mail.” Click on that and follow the prompts and you will receive the content of this blog in your e-mail.
  • You can and should comment! At the bottom of every post there is a place to comment; simply click on the blue letters that say, “No Comment” or “2 Comments” and it will take you to a comment box! I love when you comment!
  • I will respond to your comments. When you take the time to comment I am honored and will respond.
  • You can search for anything on this blog by typing a particular word in the “Search” box on the right hand side of this page.
  • You can tell someone else about this blog. If you find this blog helpful, tell someone else about it; print out the e-mail version and pass it on; or just encourage someone to check it out for themselves. Let’s keep learning and sharing together!

What makes an effective communicator?

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I was reading in Proverbs this morning and came across two interesting verses…

Proverbs 15:2 “The wise person makes learning a joy…”

Proverbs 16:21 “…instruction is appreciated if it’s well presented.”

We hear a lot these days about “people’s short attention span.” I don’t believe it. We can watch a two hour movie without getting bored; we can listen to Jeff Foxworthy for over an hour without wishing it would end; we can go to a concert for over an hour without “checking out.” We do have the capacity to pay attention with interest!

It seems to me that the issue is not so much our ability to pay attention as it is the speaker’s ability to present well.

Andy Stanley says it like this, “Presentation determines attention.”

So help me out here, what enages you and what bores you? What makes you want to sit on the edge of your seat, and what makes you want to slither out the back door? What do effective communicators do that makes them effective?