Acting Like Acts…Pt. 3

21 05 2009

You can read the other two parts HERE and HERE if you like.  I’ve been reading in Acts for my devotions and just saw a couple church related things that I thought I’d share.

#1  If you don’t want problems…don’t grow

#2  If you don’t want opposition…don’t preach the Gospel

#3  if you don’t like change…don’t pray for God to move

I’m amazed at how many Christians and churches say they are praying for revival, and dying for God to move in their churches and communities but are totally unwilling to embrace change.  How many people say they’d do ANYTHING to see their children or grandchildren know Jesus, but won’t let their pastors change the style of music or their methods of ministry to preach the Gospel and worship Christ in a way that connects with a new generation?  “Because, well, that’s the way we’ve always done it.  I met Christ through those methods and that music.”

Folks, when God moves THINGS CHANGE.  And sometimes IN ORDER for God to move He has to CHANGE THINGS.  If you don’t like change, don’t pray for God to move.

In Acts 1, it had been about 40 days since the resurrection and Jesus had appeared to the disciples on a number of occasions.  This was the last time He would see them, before literally, their world stinkin’ flipped upside down.  In Acts 1:4-5 Jesus tells them to “not leave Jerusalem” until the Holy Spirit comes upon them.  He was preparing them for EVERYTHING to change.  So they obeyed.  We find them, with bout 120 other believers, together in once place.  What were they doing?  Praying.  On the day of Pentecost the Spirit fell on the disciples and filled them with power.  EVERYTHING CHANGED!  They had 120 believers at that point.  That is larger than the average church in America today.  But they weren’t praying for God to keep everything the same.  They were pryaing for GOD TO MOVE and when God moves EVERYTHING CHANGES!

They couldn’t just hoard this new gift that was given, so Peter goes out and starts preaching.  3,000 were added as believers in one day.  WHAT?  120 to 3,000.  That meant that not all the believers knew each other anymore.  Peter was the preacher but he couldn’t minister to all 3,120 believers like maybe he/they could at 120.  The upper room wasn’t big enough now, they needed more space.  It worked before, but now there was no way.  When God moves EVERYTHING CHANGES!

Now people were meeting in homes all throughout the city.  People were sharing their own possessions.  They ate meals together.  Prayed togther.  Worshipped together.  They would meet in the synagogue or temple all together and then go back to their homes and minister to each other (can we say small group ministry?).  In Acts 6 we see a MAJOR shift in the leadership of the disciples.  They went from doing ALL the ministry needs to focusing on just  preaching and teaching. (Wonder how many comments they got on that decision)  EVERYTHING CHANGED!

Read through Acts and see how many times when God moved things changed.  The Jewish Christians had to welcome the Gentile Christians.  Churches began popping up all throughout the region so Paul and others traveled to minister to them.  The old law was being done away with for the age of grace.  The old Jewish system had to be adapted to meet the needs of the new Gentile believers.  EVERYTHING CHANGED!

If you don’t like change…don’t pray for God to move. BUT…but if the salvation of men and women and the transformation of their lives and the permiation of God into our communities is at the top of your priority list, then PRAY FOR THE MOVE OF GOD!  DESPERATELY pray for the move of God.  When God moves things change, but if we’re honest, they ALWAYS change for the BETTER.  At least in the eyes of the Kingdom.

Praying for God to move,

Jeff


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Acting like Acts: Part 1

19 05 2009

I’m reading Acts in my devotions right now.  Side note:  Isn’t it AWESOME how you can read something 5, 10, 15, 50 times and yet you come back to it and AGAIN you learn something new.  That’s how I’m feeling with Acts right now.  As I’m reading through it, I’m thinking, “MAN, there is still so much the church needs to learn from this book.”  People always say “We want an Acts type church.”  Most people who say that, have NO CLUE what they are asking for.  I want to address a few things I’ve seen in Acts about the local church.  We say we LONG for the Acts church, but I don’t know if we realize what that means.

If you don’t want problems…don’t grow! We read Acts and we think “I wish our church would see 3,000 people added in one day!”  “I wish our church would see the kind of rapid multiplication of believers and churches like Acts did.”  “I wish we were as big as ‘church name here’!”

Acts 6:1 says “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent!” You mean, the Acts church deal with that too?  HA Pastor…attender…member…listen to me…BIGGER DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN BETTER!  I know so many people who just think that if the church would grow it would solve everything.  That somehow complaints, discontent, misunderstanding, and people who are downright hurtful don’t exist in larger churches.  Exist?  I’m not gonna go there.

NOW, I’m not saying we shouldn’t desire for our churches to grow.  Our NUMBER ONE desire for our churches should be to GROW through NEW CONVERTS!  But you better expect, that when you grow, it only brings on MORE problems.  Are you ready for that?  If you are having trouble dealing with the issues you already have…don’t grow.  If you are burnt out dealing with people who are discontent with what you do…don’t grow.  If you don’t like hearing complaints about how you preach…what you sing…the volume of the music…the decorations…the decisions…then don’t grow.  Because that only grows with you.

I heard Ed Stetzer say this at a recent conference we attended and I think it is so true:  “Most of you will not experience ministries like you’ve seen here today, and if you do, it will hurt more than you thought and you’ll struggle more than you ever imagined.”  BUT…BUT…don’t let that stop you from ADVANCING THE KINGDOM OF GOD.  The disciples didn’t, and WE’LL never be the same because of it!  Bring on the problems if it means MORE PEOPLE know Jesus!

Growing,

Jeff


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I Hate Labels

17 03 2009

Over the past year, I have grown increasingly weary of the labels we make for ourselves as the church.  We are a “traditional” church.  We’re “contemporary” (Which in my opinion, the contemporary church is fast becoming the new traditional).  We’re “missional” or “attractional” or “emerging”.  HUH?  I have a post HERE from several months ago, talking about “Why can’t we be both missional and attractional?”

Adam and I were talking about it yesterday, and we were again venting about all the labels we have made when we are just called to be the STINKIN’ Church.  There isn’t a correct model.  There isn’t a name we should pursue OTHER than the BRIDE OF CHRIST…THE CHURCH!  But, we are humans and so we gotta foul everything up.  And we have done a masterful job at it again when it comes to “naming” our model of church.  Well, I hadn’t heard a “prominent” church leader share on this idea of it being possible to be “all” the models at the same time, not just one.  Perry Noble posted a blog about it this morning.  I think he NAILED it on the head.  You can read his post called “Terminology or Transformation?”  HERE.

I just want to be the church that GOD has called us to be.  Sure, when you are describing a way a church does things, some terms might help you get a picture of their method, but folks, we’ve put our METHODS far above the MASTER and it’s high time we start pursuing the MASTER first and foremost.  Is there a style that Jesus really prefers?  Even the most traditional church is NOTHING like the one Jesus went to in Jerusalem.  There may be some elements of EVERY style and EVERY label in our churches…but I just want to be THE CHURCH!

Trying,

Jeff


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Stages of the church…Part 4 of 4

27 02 2009

You can read the first three posts HERE, HERE and HERE.   If a church can reach and commit to the third stage of church planting, then I think the fourth one just naturally takes place.  At least, that is what we thought as we were hashing this out at Lead Team.  I think by the time a church is established…if they choose to enhance and expand…they WILL become, by the power of God…

Exponential: The fourth stage of the church is exponential.  It’s at this stage of the church where church multiplication happens.  New churches are birthed out of the existing church.  Today we’re seeing multi-site campuses and web-campuses and ALL sorts of various arenas to multiply the church.  Church planting USED to mean, one poor guy goes to a community all by himself with no money, no support, no team and no CLUE.  Today, I think the church has CORRECTLY taken on a more aggressive and intentional church planting mode.  The training, coaching and resourcing today is unbelievable.

The biggest statement is “Whatever takes it further”:  Who is God raising up to lead the NEXT church plant?  Where are new churches needed for God to send us.  It’s at this stage where the training and coaching of leaders hits unprecedented levels.  Multiplication needs to happen not just in the “church” but individually.  We MUST be raising up new leaders.  Maybe books are written by the pastors here, or conferences are held.  I don’t think Rick Warren set out to write a book when he started pastoring.  I just think that at some point, it needed to be exponential.  I don’t think Bill Hybels’ goal was to do conferences, but at some point it was his responsibility to be exponential.  Exponential will be different for every place.  Some will do conferences, write books, or start organiaztions.  Others will train leaders, coach planters or fund church plants.  Whatever the case, we need to be mindful of being exponential.  What innovative ways have we yet to uncover that will enable us to multiply?

The biggest question is “Where else can we go?”:  It’s no longer “what can we do?” but “where can we go?”  How can we multiply?

The biggest danger is “Let’s keep it all!”:  If a church doesn’t eventually begin to “share the wealth” through multiplication it will eventually fall for “Let’s keep it all”.  What you do is end up building an “empire”.  And by “empire” I don’t mean mega churches.  Big churches aren’t the only ones with a responsibility to multiply.  There are 100 person churches that are nothing but a reflection of the empire they’ve created.  There are also MEGA churches that are the same.  Just saying, don’t point to big churches as having an empire or making it JUST their responsibility.  Some of the GREATEST multipliers I’ve seen come from both ends of the spectrum.  It has NOTHING to do with size of the church.

Words that fit the exponential church are: share, release, equip and empower.  (didn’t do this for the other stages.  Maybe I should.  lol)

As I was thinking about all four stages I realized that the one theme that EVERY stage has is this: “We’re willing to fail!”.  You’ve got to be willing to fail to try and get established.  You MUST be willing to fail to move from establish to enhance.  Failure is a REAL possibility in trying to expand, and when you try and go exponential, failure very well may happen.

Learning,

Jeff


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Stages of the church…Part 3 of 4

26 02 2009

Please read the previous posts HERE and HERE!  These are just scribbles in my journal at this point and thought that blogging it would help me process it more.  The first two stages are Establish and Enhance.  The established church basically “made it” to the point that they could continue doing the exact same thing and ALWAYS exist just as they are.  The enhancing church is taking what is established and making ALL of it better.  Becoming more efficient and excellent in how they are doing ministry.  It leads to stage #3.

Stage #3 is Expand:  When a church begins to expand, they are going beyond making it better.  The expanding church wants to make sure they are reaching FULL impact in ALL areas of ministry for their community.

The biggest statement is “Whatever makes it bigger”:  Now that things are better, how do we make them bigger?  How do we reach MORE people?  How do we serve in MORE places?  How can we give MORE to missions?  How can we do MORE in our city?  Impact, influence, the SCOPE of the ministry is ready to go BIG but how do we do it?  The enhancing church, if they aren’t careful, can keep making things better without ever using better to be bigger.  I’m not JUST talking about “How many come to church”.  I’m talking about “How big of a stinkin’ dent can we put in hell?”  “How can we help meet REAL needs of REAL people in our community?”  How can our church of 200 make the BIGGEST impact?  What about 500?  1000?  2000?  I DO think that if a church makes it to the third stage, the results WILL be more people “coming” to church but that isn’t necessarily the goal.

The biggest question is “What more can we do?”:  Where else can we serve?  Can we take our existing serving opportunities and make them bigger?  What else does the city need?  What can we add to our experience to make it bigger?  Expansion mode, keeps the church in establish and enhance mentality ALL the time.  When you’re expanding, you’re constantly trying to establish  new things, enhance them then expand again.  Establish, enhance and expand again.  You’re ALWAYS willing to “do whatever it takes” and “make it better”.  Your consistently wondering “will we make it?” because expansion STRETCHES the church like nothing else.  It keeps the church ADVANCING!  It is risky and scary. But there is no better place to be.  If expansion doesn’t happen, a church will enhance itself to death and eventually just establish.

The biggest danger is “Let’s stay here!”:  “We’ve always done this so why would we change it, add to it, or take it away?”  Most churches are GREAT at getting here, and then they stay.  Keep everything running smoothly and efficiently, WHY ROCK THE BOAT?  “We don’t mind enhancing what we already have, but lets not go beyond that.”  It’s at this point where churches are in danger if being “ABOUT” the building and not use the building to be “ABOUT” the city, people or Kingdom.  There is NOTHING wrong with having a building, as long as you’re not ABOUT the building.  It’s at this stage that we are VERY comfortable.  We like where we are at.  We like who we are with.  And we like what we already do.  It’s just easier to stay here!  What we end up with is we keep enhancing OUR STUFF but our impact on the city stays the same.

I’ll tell you, THIS is where I am challenged the most as Lead Pastor of Element Church right now.  HOW do we expand our impact.  It’s our vision!  That GOD would so impact the Cheyenne area through Element Church that if it were gone the community would miss it.

Processing,

Jeff


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Stages of the church…Part 2 of 4

25 02 2009

This is something that was stirring in my heart and I’ve scribbled it down in my journal.  Since it isn’t all processed it’s a bit random.  Shared with the Lead Team a few weeks ago.  You can read part 1 HERE if you’d like.

The first stage of the church is Establish.  Established in my book means “We can stay this size, do this stuff, stay in this place and keep the doors open.  Staff will be paid.  Ministries will run and we can “remain” established”. You can be what you already are forever…OR

Stage #2 is Enhance: After the church reaches an established stage it has a choice.  Do we remain the same, or do we enhance?  HOPEFULLY it makes the choice to enhance.  To enhance the established church you need to re-think your systems and structures.  What can we do that will help us BE the church, and DO church BETTER?  More efficient?  More excellent?  What upgrades can we make to equipment, programs or ministries?  What conferences, seminars or education can we send our team to so we can be better ministers?  Enhancing is a tough choice because it threatens the establishment.  People who want to “remain” won’t like it.  But if we’re to advance God’s Kingdom it MUST happen.  It sets up the church to maximize impact.  If a church refuses to enhance, it will remain established and never reach its full potential.  SADLY, it is where MANY churches are.

The biggest saying is “Whatever makes it better!”:  What can we do to make EVERYTHING better!  Not for better sake, but so that we can better fulfill our mission and vision.

The biggest question is “Ok, now what?”:  What’s next?  That question should ALWAYS be in our vocabulary.  Wha’st next?  We enhanced that…what next?  We reached that goal…what next?  God fulfilled that…what next?  It leads us to the NEXT stage of church life.

The biggest danger is “Let’s not blow it!”: It is the “We’ve made it” mentality and it’s really just human nature.  A human nature to be avoided.  When you’re trying to reach establish,  you’re in survival mode.  “Will we make it?  Will we make it?”  Then BOOM you’ve made it and…”Ahhhhh, we’ve made it so lets not blow it!” And you relax.  Relaxing in the church leads to atrophy in its ministry.  The church with the “We’ve made it” mentality wants to save money for “A rainy day” or “The emergency”.  “We worked hard to get here, we don’t want to blow it.”  The established church has a fear of spending money on making things better cause that money helps KEEP them established.  They aren’t willing to continue to do “whatever it takes” which is what got them to where they are, at and it will get them to where they are going.

Processing,

Jeff


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Stages of the church… Part 1 of 4

24 02 2009

This is something I worked through a few weeks ago, and I shared with the Lead Team as well.  It isn’t completely formulated beyond the pages of my journal yet so I thought I’d get it up on the blog to keep processing it.  Since it’s not fully processed it’s a bit random.  I started thinking about Element Church.  We’re 16 months old, but we’ve already gone through several “stages” of church life.  It got me thinking about where we were going, and what we would be doing 16 months from now.  Then I started thinking about the fact that EVERY church, at some point, was a church plant.  Whether your 16 weeks, 16 months, 16 years or 160 years old, you started and ground zero.  LAUNCH SUNDAY!  So I began jotting down what I thought were the four stages of the church.  I’ll start with stage #1 today.

Stage #1 “Establish”: In the establish stage of the church you are concerned with very few things.  There are probably more but here are three

1.  Money  2. Consistency and 3.  Critical Mass.

Money is HUGE in the start up of a church.  It is not the ONLY factor, but it definitely helps in being able to launch big.  People have started churches with lots of money and failed miserably.  People have started churches with little to NO money and were HUGE successes.  Lots of variables go into that, I just know for us, and talking to other church planters, that when you are trying to get established it just simply takes money.  WHEN Element decides to plan another church or campus, one of my HIGHEST priorities is to resource that church plant team properly with finances.  Being a church plant that was properly resourced enabled us to do things that I think were a HUGE factor in the strong start we had.  Two paid pastoral staff, office assistant, office rental, marketing, outreach, equipment ALL were a part of our beginning because of money.

Consistency was one of my BIGGEST frustrations and concerns when we were being established.  Church doesn’t work without consistently committed people.  I was surprised (not sure why) at how many “AWESOME, we’ll be there!” responses we got from people that were at BEST hit and miss.  Mostly no shows.  In fact the people who became consistent were the biggest surprises for us.  You CANNOT become established until you have consistency.  Bible studies, service projects, prayer meetings, worship times DON’T WORK without consistency.  We started doing Unplugged services each Sunday in the Summer of 07 to start developing these consistently committed people.  Unplugged made the beginning of Element Church.  That leads to the other part of the Establish stage.

Critical Mass.  I don’t know what the magic # is, but there is something about a certain # of people that make a service “feel” better to people.  If you come to a church 0f 15, compared to a church of 50, something just “feels” different.  Critical mass is huge in the success of an early church.  It helps first time guests feel as if they don’t stand out as much.  It brings more enthusiasm and energy into worship.  It creates a greater sense that “something is happening”.

The biggest statement is:  “Whatever it takes!” When it is LITERALLY “This thing works or we move somewhere else”, you will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to make sure it works.  Sacrifice, time, work, money, effort, WHATEVER.  You work as if it depends on you and PRAY as if it depends on God.  UTTER DEPENDANCY ON GOD!  You realize the GRAVITY of what you are trying to do.  By the way, why do we lose that the longer our church is “established”?

The biggest question is: “Will we make it?” A great sense of wonder fills the establish part of church life.

The biggest danger is: “We’ll give in” Giving in to someone elses vision.  People WILL come to a new church to try and push their vision and agenda.  New churches attract disgruntled church goers who want to make THIS church what THEY think it should be.  This NEVER goes away in ANY stage.  DON’T GIVE IN!  Giving in to someone who has money.  “What if they stop giving?”  Who gives a crap?   Did they call you to do this or God?  Trying to be “another” church and not who God called you to be.  Just because it worked for… doesn’t mean it will work for you!

EVERYTHING in the first stage of a church is about “making it”.  Getting to a place where the church is sustainable.  Money is coming in.  Ministries are being performed.  People are being reached.  I remember the anxiety of the unknown.  SO MANY variables to getting established.  SO MANY expectations, whether realistic or not.  MAN, what is sad to me is that the next three stages are so often avoided by churches.  Establish is all they ever make it to.  It’s a danger for all of us.  Stage 2 – 4 coming.

Processing,

Jeff


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Other Church Plant News

19 02 2009

I LOVE watching other church plants start up and hearing what other guys are doing.  My college roommate is planting a church in Boise, ID called Connections.  They are launching, on Saturday, their full public ministry.  Dusty and his worship leader did an AWESOME little outreach event yesterday and their local Fox affiliate covered the story.  Click HERE to go to the news station website.  In the “top story” video box there, they are the piece entitiled “The Spirit of Generosity and Charity”.  Check it out.  Can’t wait to see what God does through Connections in Boise.  Got a feeling He is gonna ROCK that place.  Buckle up Connections and enjoy the ride.

Watching,

Jeff


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Sunday Rumination (1-18-09)

18 01 2009

Wow, I am wiped.  It’s been a long day.  As soon as we were done at church a group of us guys drove down to Denver to go to ESPN Zone for some amazing food and football.  We were celebrating a close friend of mines birthday.  I think it should be the beginning of reuglar “MAN DAY” outings.  It definitely made for  a long day though as I thin we were ALL very tired when we got back.  It was another awesome day today at Element.  Here are my Ruminations.

— I spoke specifically on the issue of sin today.  In our series, we’re talking about the pursuit of the perfect day, and I don’t know how you can talk about that WITHOUT bringing up the issue of sin.  It was less about specific “sins” (because there are so many) and more about the tactics/gameplan our enemy uses to get us to be ensnared by sin.  Proverbs 7 was the text and it is such a PERFECT picture of the lure and trap of sin.

— 8 people came forward today during an altar call, releasing to God some sin issues in their life.  One couple came forward 2nd service but around 20 people raised their hand for prayer saying they were dealing with and needed to release some specific sin issues.  MAN, I love seeing people open up and seek God’s redemptive hand.

— I shared an email of one young man from our church today.  It was a year ago he came to my office for some counseling.  He was dealing with some pretty deep sexual sin.  He shared how now, for the past year he has been SET FREE from those addictions.  How he can stand in victory through Jesus.  Then his closing words get me everytime.  “Jesus truly does save to the uttermost”  WOW!  I told him today, “I hope you realize how encouraging it is for a pastor to see it WORK in someone.”  God’s grace truly does save to the uttermost.

—  634 today.  1st service was down but 2nd was full.

— MAN, the worship band nailed it today.  The set was PERFECT!  While Adam knew the subject I’d be preaching on, he didn’t know any specifics of my message.  Yet somehow, some of the lyrics in the songs were spot on, almost word for word what was said in my sermon…Somehow right?  I LOVE when in the midst of different planning and preparing God just orchestrates it all together.  LOVE IT!

—   The band was tight today.  God’s Spirit was evident through the worship and TOTALLY set up the message.

—  Amazing Grace gets me EVERY time.  ESPECIALLY with the added chorus from Chris Tomlin “My chains are gone I’ve been set free”.  Just SO THANKFUL for the freedom in Christ.

— Adam’s song “The One Who Loves Me” is so KILLER.  I’ve loved it since he introduced it.  I love the fact that we can incorporate original music.  There is something special about singing music that was written as part of your church.  Specific to who we are, where we are at and what we need to hear.

— Met some new people today.  Always enjoy that.

— The message really seemed to hit home with some people.

—  GO CARDINALS!  Love the story of Kurt Warner and will cheer for him all the time.  He also said some GREAT words following the game.  Even if people don’t like it.

—  I’m not a huge NFL fan so was glad to see a couple of good games today.

—  Man, my mind is shot.  Got some very cool stuff we’re doing at Lead Team tomorrow.  Excited for that.  I’m gonna shut er’ down.

Following Christ,

Jeff


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Categories : Element Church, Sunday Rumination, church planting, updates

Who made hot lunch cool?

16 10 2008

Two of our four kids are both in elementary school this year.  One of the things they were SO excited about was eating lunch at school.  Before school started they didn’t care if they had hot or cold lunch as long as they were eating it at school they were excited.  Not long after school started the cry for hot lunch from our kids became a daily routine.  They didn’t want to take their lunch box with a PB&J, chips, desert and a Capri Sun juice.  They wanted hot lunch.  Why?  Because it’s “cool”.  COOL?  You’re in stinkin’ kindergarten who determined already that hot lunch is cool? It’s food.  What first grader in the US has enough clout that they can say something is cool and it is?

The 2 arm backpack carry or the one arm.  Who makes that cool?  When I was in school if you carried your backpack with 2 arms through it you were a definite nerd.  Now, if you carry your backpack the old cool way of slingin’ it over one shoulder you’re…not cool.

Trapper Keepers anyone?  Who had a Trapper Keeper and you decorated your own?  Trapper Keepers were da bomb (even that phrase was made cool) when I was in school.  Any high schooler willing to carry one around class now?

I realized that even at 5 and 7 years old my kids are already learning to “chase cool”.  It’s innate.  We want to belong.  We want to fit in.  We want other people to like us.

While I could go the direction of saying “This means that we as the church need to be welcoming people, loving them, giving them a place to belong”, I’m not.  Why?  Because I want to say this.  The church is a lot like my kids.  Something becomes cool, and we want to do it.  I think most churches, at some point or another have fallen prey to this.  A trend develops in the church world and all the sudden everyone wants to do it cause it’s “hot lunch”…”two armed backpack”…”Trapper Keeper”.  YES, I understand our methods change, we try new things, we do church in such a way as to try and connect the un-churched.  BUT, at what point are we just “chasing cool” and at what point are we connecting people with LIFE?

I’ve fallen for this before.  Have you?  Do I want our church to be fun, exciting, energetic, “cool”.  Sure.  I’d be a moron to try and do church in a way that I wouldn’t like or people wouldn’t like.  Even traditional churches are doing church in a way that certain people will like.  Traditional people!  Every church does that to some degree regardless of how “traditional” or “modern” they may be.  We’re all trying to do church in a way that connects with people.  What I want to be careful of is following the latest “cool”.

What does God want US to do, and lets do it!  That’s IT!  REGARDLESS of what the church world says is “cool”.  Regardless of what the biggest churches are doing.  Be who God asks YOU to be!

Toting My Trapper Keeper,

Jeff


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