taking a break

Today I got a little break from delivering the message. Our Pastor of Connections, Brian Marshall filled in for me. It's nice to have zero responsiblities on a Sunday every now and then.
Last week I actually got a chance to get a little bit ahead. I began working on a message in our new series, "RED" that starts next Sunday. It's a message series about Jesus parables.
For those of you who have the responsibility to prepare and deliver a message every single week, you know how tough it can be. There is probably nothing that drains you more. When that process begins to become a grind---it's time to take a break. In the early days of a church plant it feels like you can't take a break. For some reason most of us think that if we aren't up on stage, the world will stop spinning. Which of course only adds to the pressure. I am blessed to have other capable communicators on staff who can pinch hit for me so I can take a breather.
My goal is to speak 40 -42 Sundays a year. If you don't get a break once in a while your creativity will dry up. You will begin to feel like a sermon machine that pops out a sermon every 7 days, and let me tell you, that will take its toll on you. So do yourself (and your congregation) a favor---take a Sunday off!

Simple Man

Well we finished up our series, "WOW, Can You Play That At Church". Our final message in the series was the song Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. (the importance of simplifying our lives). It was awesome, Scott nailed the song!
We had a pretty diverse selection of songs in the series, but we figured we would wrap it up with some good old Southern rock. Our band and singers are so talented.
If you're interested in hearing the messages from that series you can click here
We had about 1200 in attendance today, but we were slammed in the 11:15 service. I saw some people standing. I can hardly wait til we start construction on that new building.

Wow!

I just found out that so far in 2006 we have had 100 salvations! Think about that for just a minute. 100 people have for the first time in their lives crossed over the line of faith and are now Christ-followers! That's an average of about 4 people per week.
That does not include children who have made a commitment in our Children's ministry (there have been many there) These are just people who have indicated on their response cards that they have invited Christ into their lives.
Now the hard work really begins---helping them grow in their faith. We offer a class to get them started that we call XCEL. It is designed to lay a spiritual foundation. From there we try to involve them in one of our LIFE group Bible studies, and integrate them into the life of the church. Many times our system doesn't seem to work, but many times it does. I think our responsibility as a church is to have tools available for people to plug into. The responsibility ultimately rests on them. I would love to hear what other churches are doing to successfully disciple new believers.

Mother's Day Musings

Without a doubt preparing for Mother's Day sermons are among the toughest. After all, what can you say that you haven't already said? I do know this, mother's are pretty sentimental and they expect to get their props on Mother's Day (and they certainly deserve it)
Mother's Day is always one of our higher attendance days of the year. One of the big reasons is because we do our Parent/ Child Dedications on Mother's Day, so all of the grandparents, aunts and uncles usually come. Today we had so many parents and kids that we had to stand in front of the stage because we couldn't get everyone on stage at the same time. As I looked at all of those little children I couldn't help but think that right before me were lives with unlimited potential. There is no telling what impact those little ones will have in this world. Thank God for parents who are committed to raising their kids in Christian homes.
It's no wonder that Jesus had a special place in his heart for children.
By the way, we had 1,254 people today! That's a 42% increase from Mother's Day last year.

Search for significance

David Blaine is a freak. If you have never heard of him, let me tell you a little about him. He is a street magician and a guy who does really crazy stunts. Once he was buried alive for a week. Then he was frozen in a block of ice for 3 days, and last week he lived underwater for 7 days in a big fishbowl in the middle of New York City. After breaking that record he tried to break the record for holding your breath underwater. His goal was 9 minutes. He didnt break it, but he held his breath for over 7 minutes while being handcuffed underwater.
Keep in mind that he CHOSE to do all of those things! This guy is nuts. What would possess someone to try these life threatening stunts. I'm not sure, but my guess would be Fame.
It's amazing what lengths people will go to for significance. The need to be known is a pretty basic human need. The reality for David Blaine or any of us is that only in Christ can we have that need for significance met. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for long ago.
By the way, I can't wait to see what David's next stunt will be!

America, what were you thinking?

There has been a huge travesty of justice. Chris got voted off of Idol last night. You must be kidding. Katherine desrved to go home. You could tell by watching her, that she expected to be the one who would be packing up and catching the next flight out of Idol Land.
Oh well, I have no one to blame but myself. I didn't call in to vote for Chris.
He will no doubt land a big fat record deal, so it's hard to feel too sorry for him.
I guess now my money is on Taylor.

idol

My guess is that Katherine goes home tonight. She was pretty weak last night. The truth is that she probably has the best voice in the competiton but she didn't bring her "A" game --so long Kat!
Surprisingly Elliot stepped up. I think his performance will probably keep him around 1 more week.
Taylor missed a huge opportunity last night with the Elvis thing. That should have been his world. He was just so-so.
Chris was just ok last night, but I still think he will be the last man standing. Besides that, he has cool sideburns.

Adding another service

We are in the planning stages of adding a 4th service. We will make the big move on September 17, 2006. Everytime we have added a service, we have had a significant jump in attendance.
Even though all of the services will pretty much be identical, this one will be a little trickier because it will be on Sunday evening (probably 6:00pm).
It will be kind of wierd to go home after speaking at 3 services in the morning, just starting to decompress, and then have to go back and do it again. Actually I am a little more concerned about what it will mean to our volunteer base. I know that many churches can swing it, but intuitively as a leader it still concerns me. Our volunteers are the most incredible people in the world, and I would put them heads-up against any church-- but it still concerns me.
The good thing is, that if we are able to begin construction this summer as planned, it will mean that it will be a short term (1 year) assignment.
As they say, "it's a good problem to have".

Another one in the books

Sundays are so much fun at Foothills! Yesterday we had a great crowd even with the overcast sky and cool drizzle. What was really cool was how many kids we have involved in our Children's ministry (Critter Crossing--pre-school, and Planet Kidz--k5-5th grade) . Yesterday we had over 275 kids!
Our volunteers did an amazing job making sure everyone stayed dry walking through the parking lot. We have an umbrella team that make dozens of trips back and forth from the parking lot to the building. It's really great to hear people's comments the first time they experience this. They can't believe that people would serve them that way.
Sometimes it's the little things that say the most to a guest.

American Idol

Well last night wasn't a big surprise. Everyone I talked to figured Paris and Elliot were going to be in the bottom 2 , and Paris was my guess for going home last night.
I felt bad for her, because at this stage, everyone of them is pretty good.
Chris is my pick for #1, followed by Taylor.
This is the first year I have watched American Idol. I could never figure out why people were so into it. Now I know. It's kind of addictive.

Leaders are Learners (part 2)

Another method of learning that has helped me become a better leader is meeting with other leaders in person. I have found most Pastors/churches to be very helpful in making themselves available to mentor other churches. You may be surprised at how far buying a lunch for a Pastor will go.
Our church has benefitted greatly from meeting with churches like New Spring Church, Northstar Church, Marathon Church, Brookwood Church and Crossroads Community Church. They have rolled out the red carpet and it is incredible how much impact it has had.

If I read or hear about a church that may have already been where we are going, I don't hesitate to pick up a phone or email somone and ask if I can correspond with them or even schedule a staff road trip to hang out with their staff. I think I have only been turned down once or twice. My theory is, Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Since we began as a church, it has always been our heartbeat to be a resource for other churches, so we have tried to make ourselves available for churches too.
There really is no conference or seminar that can come even remotely close to the things you will learn meeting face-to-face.