Mystery church guest

Ok, it might seem weird to some people, but I asked a young couple to show up at our church and give us an honest review of their experience.  I didn’t know when they were coming and I think the only other person who knew I was doing this was our associate pastor, Derek.

I wanted to know what the average “churched”  couple would be looking for if they had just moved into the neighborhood and were looking for a church.  I know this will look different than what a non-churched or a de-churched person would be looking for, but you need to be relevant to both.

This is a bit scary to do as a pastor.  However, I really want to know what people are looking for in a church, both the churched and the un-churched. What I would be looking for as an almost 50 year old, might look different than what a 20 something is looking for, or it might not.

We are doing many things very well.  The couple felt greeted and welcomed, but not overwhelmed.  They liked our announcements scrolled before service and the actual announcement time.  They felt this helped them to know what was going on in the life of the church.  They liked how the church was decorated, they said it was very warm and welcoming.  Our choice of songs was relevant to them and they enjoyed our short-term missions team’s report.  This was our sermon that particular week. They liked that we offer “Connect the Dots” which is a half hour sermon discussion time immediately following the service.

We have things to work on, which didn’t surprise us a bit.  What did surprise me was the things I thought we needed to work on..(like ascetics and structural issues) didn’t even come up negatively  in the review.  It was little things and some pretty big things.  The pastors  neglected to introduce themselves in the service,  this was big…so guess what…we introduced ourselves the next week.  They wanted our singers to be more confident and sing out louder than the instruments… a pretty easy fix.  Some of the other issues cannot be fixed in a week, but they can be worked on and tweaked while we will continue to provide a safe place for people to come and encounter Christ and worship Him in a corporate setting.

This is just Sunday morning…we have 6 other days to evaluate and ask ourselves….How are we doing?  Are we making a difference in our families, our communities, our workplace and in the world?

Not sure how to send in a mystery guest there….anyone else figure out a way to do that?

Kicked out?

Yesterday, one of the members of our A-Team asked me what I thought about the news article of the 13 year old autistic teen who was “kicked out of church!”  This event occurred over a year ago, but it is still within the court system. He asked me what I thought about how the media handled this situation, and what would we do as we have a somewhat similar situation within our own church.  Though our child is currently 10.

I feel the church offered many options and they said the restraining order was a last resort.  What do you do when you have a child/teen/adult who is a threat to the other children/people who attend your church?

Our A-team member said,  “You would have to handle that very tenderly.”

This is an issue that the church body needs to address.  We are a small congregation with limited resources.  I came from a very large church with great resources including a class called “The Friendship class” which is geared towards children/adults with special needs.  However, they too have their limits when it comes to the safety of the other people within the church.

We work hard to protect our children from harm due to predators, machinery, and automobiles in the parking lot.  How do we protect them from a child whose impulses are to punch, bite, kick, swear, or yell at them?

How do you bring the message of the Gospel to that particular individual while maintaining an environment for other people to receive the same message?

Tough questions that need wise answers.

How Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news

You might not think that looking at the 3 of their feet would be beautiful, but they are indeed.

Yesterday Karen, Nate and Tina gave their mission report to our congregation.  As I was sitting in my seat watching these 3 young people; who stepped out of their comfort zone to go to Huaricola, Peru (which by the way is 2 miles up in the mountains) to help build a church in that village, I was struck by 3 very powerful things.

1.  This trip changed them.  The change was immediately obvious the first time I saw them.  Karen, put the change into words….”The next time I go, I will pack differently, less for me and more for them.” They came face to face with poverty…not just poverty of material goods, though there was plenty of that, but poverty of spirit.  They were able to be the hands and feet that brought the Gospel message of love and hope to a mountain Peruvian village. This message was in their willingness to grab a pick axe and dig up dirt to make the adobe walls and paint the roof sections. These were the feet that ran around and played ‘duck, duck, goose’ with the children.

2. The good news was shared and one village man who came towards the end of the project as they were putting the tin roof on the adobe walls, came down off the roof, stepped into that newly built church and gave his life to Christ.  How beautiful were the feet of those who brought the good news of Jesus Christ to that man.  Nate says “We will go back and build them a bigger church.”

3. The good news was shared with our congregation and God moved on the hearts of the people sitting in the congregation.  We had made the decision to give away our offering this Sunday.  We believe you cannot out-give God.  Our give-away was going to be split between Peru and Haiti.  The people gave over $1,300 for us to give to the work in these 2 places.  God will multiply this because every American dollar is as $3 in those places.

How beautiful indeed are the feet that bring good news.  We are celebrating at Crosspoint today.

Building projects

So we are finally wrapping our deck around the house.  We have set aside 2 weeks to tear of the existing decking boards and build an extension on the existing structure to  wrap it from one end of our addition to the other.

There are so many similarities in re-building a deck and re-building a church. Some of the work is easier and other parts are more difficult. But, like the guy at the lumber yard said to us…when the project is done you want it to look like it was meant to be there all along.

To make it look like it is supposed to look this way you have to:

~ Tear out the old decking boards and examine them to determine which ones are salvageable and which ones need to be discarded.  Tearing away old programs and ideologies and keeping the ones that work with the new plan needs to be done.

~ Digging new post holes that will line up with the existing posts takes alot of preliminary measuring, marking, and re-checking so that the new deck will line up with the existing frame…hours of work with very little to show for it…just a bunch of holes.  Digging into minutes, creating new policies, setting up a structure to work along side some existing structures, lots and lots of work, with not a lot of visible results showing…sometimes,  just a bunch of holes.

It’s the preliminary work…that takes so much time with very little visibile results…but if it’s not done right,  the end result is a bad match.  But, if we continue to check the drawings and keep at the preliminary work, while keeping the end result in mind, one day we will enjoy the fruit of our labor…the holes filled with concrete will hold the new posts which will hold up the deck.  The holes found in ministry areas…will be filled with the right people to provide the  strength to build up  a congregation.

I’m excited to begin filling the holes… soon.

Do Not Stop Him!

Sometimes church people can be like the Apostle John.

Lord, we stopped this guy because he was not one of us. (my paraphrase of Mark 9:38).  I hear so many people say to others ‘STOP‘, you can’t do that…you’re not a Christian, part of our church, mature enough…or other words very similar.  Or they tell me as the pastor….so and so shouldn’t do this or that because they aren’t ….fill in the blank with the above phrases.

Jesus said “Do not stop him.”

“No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”

So, if I am following my leader Jesus then I have to say the same thing to the “churched” people.

I’m not stopping them….because whoever is not against us….is for us.

Now this doesn’t mean put them in positions of leadership or to teach…but if they want to go out and do good things for the kingdom….

Don’t stop them!!!

The Battlefield

I never thought that the little table in our office would be  such a battlefield.

As I think back over the past 2 years and that little table in our pastors office, I am amazed at the battles it has endured. There  have been battles of words, battles of egos, power struggles and battles for souls.

Words were spoken across that table that drew lines of division between people.  Other words have drawn lines between powers and principalities.  God’s word spoken and strongholds broken down, barriers broken through.  All of this around one little table.

As I sat with a mid 20 year old yesterday at the little table in our office and watched and prayed and counseled through a powerful  spiritual battle, I was privileged to observe the victory and the power of Jesus Christ.  The Name above all names.

And another name was added to the Book of Life.

The table stands, ready for the next battle it will provide space for.

Priest’s Pressure

I am in the thick of the Book of Leviticus.

Boy, it was tough to be a priest for God.

Leviticus 10:

1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command.
2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: “‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’” Aaron remained silent.

6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire.
7 Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting or you will die, because the LORD’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses said.

I found myself kind of mad at God this morning.  I read this and I hurt for Aaron.  His two oldest sons killed and he has to have his younger brother tell him “Hey God was serious here.  He will be honored, your kids broke the rules.”

If that is not hard enough, he is not allowed to mourn for them because he still has to be the priest.  He still has to perform the sacrifices.  He has to stay put because he has the anointing oil on him.

As I was wrestling through this I wondered what Aaron was thinking as he sat at the entrance of the tent of meeting.  I wondered how sad he must have been.  Then it was this little nudging…almost difficult to detect…it was a question…

“How do you think I felt?”

I can’t imagine how God felt or feels because I realize I still relate more to human emotion than to God’s emotions.  Once again, I am reminded how far God’s thoughts are from my thoughts.

There is a great deal of pressure to remain true to God when you are devastated by hard things and are commissioned to remain in his service.

God went on to tell Aaron

9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
10 You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean,
11 and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses.”

Priests had to set apart the holy from the unholy and then teach others to obey.  Talk about pressure…

More great comments from first timers

We have had quite a few “first time ever in a church” guests over the past several weeks.  Wow is this ever an eye opening experience for me.  I am sooooooo churched it’s sickening sometimes.  I have to have someone from a completely different culture help me to speak or explain things I take for granted.  So here are the top 5 of the past few weeks, questions/comments.

1.  In our study group after reading a passage in the Book of Acts chapter 26.  “What are our 12 tribes?”  I answered,  “They are the 12 tribes of Israel.”  A couple of blinks and then  “Well ….this might be a dumb question but…who are the 12 tribes of Israel?’

2.  After a Scripture reading in church when John the Baptist said  “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  A woman walks up to me and says…”I don’t get it?”  Why would that guy John call Jesus a Lamb, I’m sure it means something?

3.  After the collection plate went by..and our worship pastor said “If you are a guest here today, please understand there is no obligation to give, this is for our members and regular attenders,”  a guest of one of our members asked her if she had to pay her membership dues every week.  He thought we were like the Rotary club.

3. Question asked after the service ” Do you have to stand up to sing?  Or is it so you can see the words on the wall from the power point”?

4. From a college student who is looking for a moral compass…told to his friend who invited him to check out the church…after we gave him a coupon for a cup of coffee…”That just creeped me right out…why would the church want to give me something for free?”

5.  All time great comment to me to date was asked of me this afternoon…regarding  a reading from Joshua read in church this past Sunday when Joshua said “Choose this day whom you will serve”   a first time ever in a church person said to me  “Do you Christians have to be told who to follow, don’t you already know? “

I am so happy that we have first timers checking us out.  I am thrilled with the church for inviting them.  We truly want people to know we want them to come as they are so they don’t have to stay where they are!

The best part of this is that they are asking questions…they are telling us what they think and most importantly they are being told the greatest story ever told and they are listening.  I am praying for 5 people specifically to grab hold of  Jesus, because I know that Christ can change their lives.

So what kinds of questions are people asking you?

Why Audacious?

I have had quite a few people ask me why I use the term “audacious” pastor. I was pondering this the past few days as I limped and gimped my way through  ordination service Friday night and my MDIV graduation on Saturday afternoon.

I was not going to let a torn calf muscle keep me from kneeling down before the bishop for my commission or walking across the stage to receive my hood.  I had worked too hard; battled too long with prejudice, antagonism, mockers, exhaustion, Greek, the early Church Fathers, Wesleyan theology, and my own demons…who sometimes overtly, but mostly quietly, whispered doubt to me.

The word “audacious” was spoken at a bible study we were having over a year ago.  We were reading and discussing Jacob.  Jacob was a wrestler.  Jacob was wrestling with God, his family, his neighbors,  it seemed as if Jacob wrestled with almost everyone he came in contact with.  But this one particular wrestling match ended with Jacob  limping.  However,  Jacob would not let go until he received God’s blessing.  Now that is ‘audacious’, someone spoke up.

Audacious indeed.  Not letting go, not giving up until the blessing is received.  I’m not giving up.  Though I am walking with a limp still today, I have been touched, I have been blessed.  I intend to continue to press on until my last breath snatching people from the fire and bringing them towards the Kingdom of Heaven.

Audacious indeed!

Strategic Planning next steps

What a great time to be doing the business of God.  I love this stuff and I get to use all that I’ve learned plus how I’m wired to expand the Kingdom.

We polled our board and the pastors and now we are ready to bring in some passionate people from our congregation to help us look ahead and plan ahead for rapidly expanding the Kingdom of God in our community.

5 things emerged in our first set of surveys.

1. We all want to be God honoring in everything we do.

2. We will uphold Scripture.

3. We want people to know we care.

4. We want to do everything with excellence.

5. We want to share what we have with those who don’t have.

That’s some great values right off the bat.

I am excited to be part of a church that is forward thinking.  We added a strategic planning position on our Board and our Strategic Planning Leader is off to a great start. Now we bring more into the circle. Now we begin to put structure around our passion.  We will answer the questions.  How will this look?  How long will it take?  What do we need?  When will we begin?

An ever widening circle with Christ at the center, now this is how to do Church! 

I can’t wait to hear what he and his team come up with in the months ahead.