Monthly Archives: April 2007

After church thoughts (3-16-07)

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HOLY COW! What a weekend!

I preached til I thought I was gonna die… and maybe some people wished I would have… but I’m not gonna! ;-)

We’ve been working through the “Shattered… He’s Not Who You Thought He Was” series, and this week we talked about the fact that Jesus is relevant!

If He is viewed as irrelevant (which He is by many) it is because His body, the church, has projected Him as such! These guys wrote a song about it (see it here).

How?

We’ve whined and fought over petty crap… while the hurting continue to hurt.

We’ve argued about what kinds of songs to sing… while people go to hell.

We’ve argued over where the communion table should go… while people live in pain.

We’ve spent hours discussing the fact that the preacher wears jeans to church… while people throw up their hands in disgust and walk away from the church AND Jesus cause… He’s coming off as irrelevant!

The Scripture lesson came from John 9:1-16 the story of Jesus healing the blind man!

I find it interesting that in this story (read it at the link above)…

  • (v. 2) the disciples looked at the blind man (a person in need) and got philosophical, “Why do you suppose he’s blind?” (i.e. what’s the source of evil here?)
  • (v. 16) the Pharisees (i.e. the religious leaders) looked at the blind man after Jesus had healed him and got theological, “He healed him on the Sabbath… it doesn’t count.”
  • (v. 6-7) Jesus looked and saw a man in need and moved past the discussion phase and touched him! He got practical! Do you wanna talk about relevant? That’s relevant!

Often the church of today makes Jesus look irrelevant because we spend a lot of time fussing over things that won’t matter a bit when we stand before God, and we miss the things that matter… like touching hurting people!

Bottom line… God won’t ask what kind of clothes we wore to church or how many hymns we sang or what the light setting was at church! He will ask what we did for people? How many people will you bring to Christ… that’s what matters before God.

OK, enough of the sermon rant, if you were here this weekend you’ve already heard it!

Other highlights…

  • 805 people ministered to this weekend!
  • The Relevant Worship concert last night was great! We had app. 500 people here… of all ages!
  • Nine people gave their lives to Christ this weekend! That’s nineteen new converts in the last two weeks! Thank you Jesus!
  • If it doesn’t stop snowing… I’m gonna… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

It’s not working anymore

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Someday someone is going to look at our innovation and say, “It doesn’t matter how you used to do it… it’s not working anymore.” What will happen when what we’re doing isn’t working any more?

I have been accused of changing things too much… ;-) OK, I’ll give you this much… I do have a tendency to initiate change.

Someday though someone is going to look skeptically on the change that I’ve facilitated… what will they say? What will they initiate? Will I fight it? Will I support it?

What is the next “Best way” of doing church?

Just thinking…

Looks like I’m not the only person thinking about this either… (read more here)

Three ways to know when it’s time to quit – the CPR principle

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This is a sensitive subject, but let’s give it a whirl!

How do you know when it’s time to step aside from a ministry that you’re involved in?

Before I answer that question, let me say that if you’re involved in ministry, you love it… at least you should (if you don’t then what the heck are you doing it for?)!

Because you love the ministry you put your heart, soul, mind, and strength into it. You “leave it all on the field” every time you serve! Thank you!

As more and new people come into the church and the ministry responsibility gets bigger and more complex we should all be asking ourselves, “When is it time to quit and move on to a new ministry?”

Let me give you three ways to know it’s time to quit, it’s called the CPR Principle.

Here’s the question, “When do you quit giving someone CPR?”

  • When they die.
  • When you get too tired to continue.
  • When someone who can do it better comes along.

Now take this situation and apply it to the local church…

  • When do you quit doing a ministry? When it is no longer accomplishing it’s purpose!
  • When do you quit doing a ministry? When you are worn out and your family is taking a hit because of your commitment to ministry. (BONUS: your family should not have to compete with the church for your attention.)
  • When do you quit doing a ministry? When someone better comes along… someone who can do what you’re doing, and wants to do it, and will do it better than you… step aside.

Now, if we’re talking CPR here… we’d all agree… right? But we’re talking something WAY more important than CPR… we’re talking eternal destinies here! The effectiveness of a ministry will ultimately determine whether people end up in Heaven or Hell!

So why wouldn’t we step aside if…

  • The ministry is no longer effective? Stop letting it consume resources (Human, Financial, Spacial, etc.)
  • You’re burned out? Burned out people burn people! If you’re wiped out… step out… then step back in! The best gift you can give away is a well-rested, fully surrendered self, but that may mean that it’s time to step out for a season!
  • Someone better comes along? If you’ve given your best, celebrate what has been accomplished! You brought the ministry up to a point where someone else looked at it and saw potential! Celebrate what you’ve done then step aside and hand it over!

So, when you step out of a ministry, does that mean you are “useless” in the church? NO WAY!!! NO WAY!!!

Let me give you three ideas to consider as you move out of a ministry…

  • Take a break and get set for the next phase of ministry! Enjoy your family for a while. Pray. Read some books on leadership or ministry. Visit some other churches to get ministry ideas.
  • Spend some time in prayer asking God where He wants you to invest your time and talents next. Keep your eyes and ears open to the needs in the church.
  • Talk to your pastor(s) and see where the church needs help the most! You might just find a whole new ministry adventure awaits you!

At the end of the day check out these words from St. Paul,

“…my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless” (1 Corinthians 15:58 NLT).

The second best part about Easter

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The greatest part of Easter is the celebration of a Living Leader – Jesus!

The second greatest part of it, for me, is the celebration of how He has restored my life!

Pre-Christ, I am a high school dropout with a long list of failures!

Post- Christ I am a profoundly blessed man! My greatest blessing, following my salvation is my family! (For the rest of the story click here)

“Ladies” I love you!

WHOA – here’s a bonus!

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Perry Noble and the gang @ New Spring church in South Carolina, the one our staff went to for the Unleashed Conference, have just given a gift to everyone!

They have made the two main sessions with Perry speaking available FREE right here and the notes from the breakout sessions here.

You can check out some more about the conference by clicking on these links…

  • A post with some pictures of the team that went down (read it here)
  • What I learned at Unleashed (part 1, 2, and 3)

After church thoughts (4/8/07 – Easter)

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One word… AWESOME!

Jesus is ALIVE and He showed up at Northgate this weekend!

We were cranking from the get-go!

Some highlights…

  • Our volunteers – from the parking lot to the food stations – YOU GUYS ROCKED! Thank you so much for your GREAT acts of service today!
  • The worship was PHENOMENAL! After the 11:00 service I grabbed the Worship Team and told them how much I love working with them! Way to go guys! Thanks for leading us into the presence of God!
  • The sermon intro video was HOT! Way to go Justin! He spent 25 hours and 36 seconds on that baby… and it showed! Great work bro!
  • I cried A LOT today! I can’t help it! I get fired up when I talk about Jesus and how much He loves “The lost,” and it kinda leaks out my eyes!
  • We ministered to 1143 people this weekend!
  • We had ten people make a public confession of faith this weekend! Not all of them came up to the front afterwards… we’ve still gotta work on our follow up plan!
  • We launched our new sermon series “Shattered… He’s Not Who You Thought He Was.” I’m hearing positive feedback and am looking forward to exploring more about this amazing Leader we follow… Jesus!

Church, now it’s time to start praying for and “Walking across the room” into our unsaved/unchurched friend’s lives for the purpose of leading them to Jesus! We got a great start this weekend! Step out, take a risk and invite someone you’ve been praying for to join you next week on Sunday… and then PRAY LIKE CRAZY!

I love you guys!

“What about me?” (Part 2)

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So yesterday’s post was a look at the “What about me?” thing from one perspective…

Now let’s hit it from another perspective…

A couple of presuppositions:

  • The “Church” is PEOPLE. There is no reference in the Scriptures to “Church” as a building. References to the “Church” in scripture are references to groups of people.
  • The “Church” is a body of people who have have been called by God, saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and sanctified (made holy/being made holy) by the Holy Spirit (see 1 Peter 1:2)
  • The “Church” is called to “be Jesus” in this world. The Bible calls the church the “Body” of Christ (see Colossians 1:18). In other words, if someone ever wonders how Jesus would live/act/talk if he were here in 2007, all they would have to do is hang out around the church.

OK, having clarified some assumptions, let’s answer this question, “What should someone who comes to Northgate (or any church for that matter) expect…

  • Teaching (Ephesians 4:11-16 – notice the result of the teaching… “the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”)
  • Encouragement to “acts of love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24)
  • Connection to others… a place to receive help within community (e.g. small groups) (see Galatians 6:1-3)
  • “Discipline” when there is sin in the life of the believer… an attempt to lead to repentance and restoration (see here for the various Scriptures which teach this point).
  • Prayer for healing of both physical and spiritual sickness (James 5:14-15)
  • Worship… which ironically is defined by St. Paul as a way of life, not something that happens on the weekend! (see Romans 12:1)

We could go on but the greater point here is this…

The church is like a team. We are at our best when we are “playing the game”… doing what we’re supposed to do, bringing the lost to Christ, building them up in that relationship, and engaging them in service!

In order to do that we must…

  • Learn together
  • Pray together
  • Worship together
  • Forgive one another
  • Confront one another
  • Encourage one another

We do these things together so that we will be a stronger team, better equipped to accomplish our mission of Bringing the unsaved/unchurched to Jesus Christ, building them up in that relationship, and engaging them in service so that they can go and bring their friends to Jesus, and build them up in that relationship, and engage them in service…

Church… I love you and believe that God is calling us to be the group of people that breathes hope back into Genesee county and beyond!

Our mission is a big one… one that requires a unified team that deeply loves God, the unsaved/unchurched, and one another! No one of these elements is negotiable!

Here we go!