10 Choices a Church Member Can About His/Her Church Family

#1- Choose to believe the best about the people in your church as opposed to assuming the worst about them.

#2- Choose to trust them to make decisions that matter.

#3- Choose to believe that when they are asking questions they are growing in their faith and seeking clarification.

#4- Choose to believe they really love the church (that means you!) and want to see it (you) thrive.

#5- Choose to be inspired by your fellow brother and sisters in Christ as opposed to comparing your faith with them and feeling like a failure.

#6- Choose to listen to them before making a decision about them.

#7- Choose to value them as a human being and not just another person at church.

#8- Choose to empower others by encouraging them in Christ.

#9- Choose to let them present a solution to the problem they might be telling you about.

#10- Choose to focus on all the things the church is doing well instead of just focusing on where we're messing up.

It was great to be together and looking to the future.

Wow!  It was great to be back togehter again!  It was great to worship God together and it was awesome to share God's word with you too.  It was almost like a great family reunion!

I wanted to share with you some thoughts on what we are facing when it comes to reaching the families of Suffolk.  If we are going to reach Suffolk for Christ it means we will have to reach out to young families.  Suffolk's average age is 36.  75% of our population lives in hoouseholds.  Most of Suffolk's population is between the ages of 18-45.  That means if we are going to reach families we are going to have to be sensitive to their needs.

So this raises a big issue for our church.  Our children's space is crowded.  We have talked to several consultant's and the simple truth is this, unless we do something about our children's space, (simply put, find more room)our church will no longer continue to reach out to new families.

The problem is to move into a new building (We've looked at building after building) is simply too expensice for a congregation our size.  The only way for that dream to become a reality is to find a place in between for us to continue growing so that dream can become a reality.

Here are some of our options the elders are looking at:
   1. We get a modular place at the Y and/or convert the blue closet into a classroom.
   2. The miracle of finding a place actually happens.
   3. We find a school we can rent.
   4. Bring in a mobile classroom, like in a conveted RV.
   5. We do nothing and let the people of Suffolk go to hell.

Our leadership need wisdom, and your input.  Please call one of the elders or me with any thoughts that you have.  And please, please, pray as we take these new steps to expand God's kingdom her in Suffolk.

Highlights from the Next Level Leadership Conference

Last week I attended the Next level Leadership Conference at Savannah Christian Church in Savannah, GA.  This was the first time for me to visit this fair city and it was beautiful.  Every city thinks they are attractive, but Savannah truly is with it's squares and tythes and park vistas witht he Georgia Oaks towering above with the spanish moss drifting in the wind.  Indeed, it was eye catching.

I was able to tour three of the oldest churches I have ever been in.  They are beautiful and historical.  I posted the pictures of them on my facebook page.  I also went down by myself.  It was a retreat for me as well to get away for a while and just let me and god be together.  I really enjoyed that.

I thought I would share some of the best quotes and highlights from my time at this church.  Just to let you know Savannah Christian church in the mid 90's was around 200-300 people.  They decided to double their ministry every five years.  Once they had that vision they started getting real specific in their planning and strategy in reaching Savannah.  They didn't double in five years.  They did it in three.  They started this onference to share the lessons they have learned in the process.  Here are some of those lessons and quotes:

1. The simplest definition of a leader is they know what to do next.
2. If you are a leader you have to master the art of self-leadership.
3.  When you take care of God's business... he takes care of your business. - Tommy Barnnett
4. God blesses the church after his own heart.
5. God blesses a church that loves what he loves.
6. We only accept half the gospel.  we are to love God AND love people.
7. There is only one King inthe kingdom.
8. At church we shoot the wounded becasue we don't really know them.  you don't shoot you're friends.
9. The Christians in our church are hard charging, lost seeking, disciple making, hill taking, sacrafacial follwers of Jesus!
10. When you're through changing.. you're through!
11. If you want something different then you have to do something different.
12. Your church needs to align four different areas: Doctrine/Theology; Directional/Methodology;  Systematic; and Relational.
13. The dress code of your church will tell men if they belong or not.
14. In order to figure out the man code in your church men... look at the leaders (Are they strong?)... They listen to the music (can they sing it?)... want to hear about other men (Am I part of something real?)... listen to the ministers (Does he challenge me directly?)... are extremely sensitive to quality (Is this cheesy?)... listen for vision (Can I dream a something great happening here?).
15. Our church does three things, evangelize, send people out, and disciple.
16. If you want commitment you have to ask for it.
17. Do you know the difference between a college coach and a high school coach?  A high school has to develop talent.  A college coach receruit developed players.
18. Ministers are often like college coaches and not high school coaches.
19. Everyone is supposed to be a disciple maker.
20. God wants to supply what you need- sometimes we don't look.
21. Developing leaders require proximity to potential leaders.
22. You know where a person is at spiritually by listening to them.
23. Christians grow just humans do.  They are born again, then they are an infant, then a child, then a young adult, then a parent.
24. "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it."  Proverbs 22:3 & 27:12
25. "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done."  Proverbs 19:17

That's plenty for now!  It was a great trip and I learned a lot.  I must confess I always come back meloncholy from these evetns.  I come back with all kinds of ideas and dreams but I also realize that we have a long way to go!

Cancelling Church and a Preachers Heart

You might think that if church is cancelled due to weather the preacher rejoices because he gets a suprise week off.

Not so with me.  I'll tell you why.

The messages that I bring to my congregation are no small matter for me.  In many cases i have been praying over the message and it's content for close to a year.  I've spent many hours in prayer and thoughtful study of the Bible in preperation.  I have sought to pay attention to the flock God has given me so i can bring a message that will challenge as well as confront with the truth and love of God.

By the time Sunday rolls around it's gameday for me.  I'm psyched!  I'm amped up!  I'm ready to go!  I have some fire burning in my bones!  I'm not juist doing my job.  I'm bring ing you life, real life, through God's Word!

So when church is cancelled I'm bummed!

But I'll be ready for next week.

Kirk

Things You Won't Find in the Bible, Part 2

The Cross as a Peice of Art

Many churches are decorated with crosses.  There are paintings of Jesus hanging on a cross, or statues of Mary holding Jesus after Jesus was taken down from the cross, along with the familiar cross on the stage of the church.  Many people today decorate their bodies with a cross with tattoos, neckalces, t-shirts, and the like.  The cross has been morphed into some many different shapes that we have the lost the horror and the degrading humiliation that was the cross in Jesus day.

In Jesus day the cross was something that you covered your eyes from seeing.  It was outrageously bloody.  Bone and organs would be exposed after the beating most criminals took before being nailed on the beams.  Only the filthiest and worse people would hang on the cross.  It was shameful to be associated with someone on the cross. 

Mark Driscoll writes of the horror of the cross, "...victims labored to breathe, as they went into shock.  Naked and embarrassed, the victims would often use their remaing strength to seek revenge on the crowd of mockers who gathered to jeer them.  In a turn of events, the Gospels say the mockers spat on Jesus. (italics mine)  They would curse on their tormenters while urinating and spitting on them.  Some victims would be so overwhelmed with pain that they would become incontinent and a pool of sweat, blood, urine, and feces would gather at the base of the cross."

The cross was a grotesque scene.  The word excruciating finds it's roots in the pain experienced while one was nailed to a cross.  Who could turn that into a peice of art?  Something pleasent to look at? They didn't at first.

Churches using the cross as art didn't appear until 2-300 years after the cross fell out of use.  By that time, the horror, the shame, the grotesgue memories of the cross had faded. 

And then we have progrssed to the cross in our culture where Madonna has said that the cross was sexy.

Really?

Change.. here it comes...

I believe if Celebration is going to continue to grow and to reach out to others we are going to have to change... dramatically.  We are going to have to things that might be uncomfortable for us, but on the other hand, maybe not.

Have you considered how much we embrace change?  We'll remodel our hose, move, have children, change jobs, even change churches, all voluntarily.

So I believe we all can change.  The question is why do we resist some changes and accept others?

Think about that... because I believe God is going to really change Celebration this year.. no more the same ol same ol....

Just a thought... do you realize that if we kept up the current rate of growth we will not reach 300 people until  2023?  Chew on that too... ;)

Kirk

Getting Old...

Has anyone ever asked you on your birthday what it felt like to be a year older?

I have.  I generally reply that I don't feel one way or the other.

Then this week came, excepts it's not my birthday.  This week I saw two markers of getting older.  One was I started liking coffee.  Now, I know Starbucks made coffee cool to drink and all but when i was a kid, coffee was just something old people drank.

Well, this week, out of the blue, I started liking coffee! Albeit with plenty of chocolate creamer.  I really like that mocha taste.  Have you ever had a Tiramusu dessert.  I like my coffee to taste like that.  Anyway, that's one marker of age for me.

Then the other is I started needing reading glasses.  Can you believe it.  I look so oold with the glasses on the tip of my nose.  Ughh!

But onthe other hand I can see things so clear up close now!  I was starting to read my books almost two feet away.  That's not good.  In case you didn't know, I use a large print Bible to preach from so I could see the words easier.

Getting older is interesting.  I just keep on changing.  So far it hasn't hurt too much, but my Dad says growing old hurts. 

I sure hope he is wrong!

Have yourself Committed!

kirk