Leaving Well!

If you've been a part of a church for any period of time, you know that leaving a church can be very hard. Relationships are at stake. Families are involved. Feelings get hurt. Intentions are criticized. Tempers rise. Anger mounts. Territories are defined and "true colors" are seen for the first time. In fact, many feel that if they ever left "their" church, they would never be welcomed back again.

I think it's sad and frankly unacceptable, that "the church", people who are supposed to be known by their love for one another, can't leave well.

Adam and Laurie have been a part of NewSpective Church since day one. Adam led our worship, assisted with purchasing equipment, held practices at his house, hauled equipment around, set up and packed up the church each and every week & served on our leadership team. Laurie . . . Supported Adam! Any man in ministry will tell you that support like that is a Full Time Gig.

However, God has other plans for Adam & Laurie. This past weekend we had the chance to say goodbye. We did it well. We publicly thanked Adam & Laurie for their time with us and service to God at NewSpective. We gave them a gift and prayed over them. It' wasn't a big ordeal but It was good for NewSpective to see that leaving a church doesn't have to be ugly. It doesn't have to be long and drawn out with trash talking and storytelling.

You see, when God is the focus of what you are doing, it's so much easier to accept His will. We may not understand it, we may not like it, but God is God and we . . . are not!!! God moves people from one post to another. He knows what He's doing and He's ALWAYS right!!

I wish Adam and Laurie the best and pray that God speaks clearly as to what their next post will be.

I also pray that "the church" would learn from this example and understand that Leaving Well is part of this command.

G3,

An Apple A Day . . .

As many of you know I'm slowly becoming a "Mac Guy." Having lived in the Microsoft After Market for almost 10 years, even I find this hard to believe.

Today I read a quote from Apple co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, that exemplifies where I'm at in my life and my ministry. Here's the quote:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

In my 15+ years of church ministry, I've had more than my fair share of "opinions" presented to me. It's so easy to let the opinions, comments & misconceptions of other, drown out the voice of God. It's easy to get upset and want to walk away, when people misinterpret your heart or don't care enough to find out the truth. The reality is, our time is limited. I can't afford to waste my time living someone else's life or being trapped and manipulated by what other people think.

God has given me a passion to communicate truth from His word and to Connect People with God through Life In Christ. It's really that simple. . . and . . . Everything else is secondary.

There, I feel much better now.

G3,

Great Weekend

Here's a quick recap of the weekend. In no specific order.

- Our connecting point gets better each week. Patrick is doing a great job leading and the discussion has been awesome. David gets to join us this week, which will be cool.
- Holyfire Rocks
- Pulled the church trailer for the first time and our Buick did a great job.
- Our setup team is getting better and better each week.
- I didn't get to see any of the Daytona 500 yesterday but the M&M's car came in 4th. Looks like it could be a great year for Mars.
- Yesterday our service was great. Mark rocked the kit and the Holy Spirt spoke loud and clear. I can't wait until this weekend.

More later this week.

G3,

Holyfire - Be There!

One of my favorite bands, that not enough people know about, is coming to Nazareth this Saturday night. I'm so pumped about being able to experience their music and worship with them this weekend.

So, here's my suggestion. If you don't have anything to do, Saturday at 7:00pm, make plans to be at The Carpenter's Church to experience the ministry of Holyfire. If you do have other plans for Saturday night . . . Change Them! Change them NOW! And make plans to be at this concert. It's going to be amazing and could be life changing.

And let me clarify one thing. Tucker did not ask me to pimp this concert on my blog. Holyfire is simply that good!

G3,

Leading By Example

Steven, from Elevation, had a great post today on taking care of your staff. One day, NewSpective will be in the position to take care of our staff in a similar fashion. It's critically important.

Check it out HERE!

G3,

Eli the Church Planter

With less than 3 minutes to go in the "big game" Eli Manning was given the football and began the winning drive in Super Bowl XLII. As the quarterback, the game was all on his shoulders. Standing on the 17 yard line, he had 83 yards to go. The only option was to score a touchdown. The Giants were down by 4 points, so a field goal would do no good. While the pressure was all on him, the Team needed to step up and move the ball. Every team member had to do their job. The line had to block, the receivers had to run their routes, the running backs had to move the ball and Eli . . . well, Eli had to get rid of the ball. Eli spent that last two and a half minutes handing the ball off to other people and throwing it down field.

As a church planter my job is exactly like Eli's. I have to learn how to hand the ball off. I can't score all the points, I can't pull the trailer, unload the trailer, prepare every message, produce all the videos, prepare all the graphics, send every e-mail, update the database, maintain the web site, print the worship guides, man the welcome center, teach NewKids, lead worship, preach, take the offering, set up the sound and lights, secure trailer storage, update the giving records, pay every bill and balance the check book. My job is to equip the people for ministry. When our Team all does their part, the entire team wins and God is glorified.

I received a text message from Mark, telling me that he took care of the trailer storage today, so that I don't have to worry about that on Friday. You can't imagine how that one little thing can have such a large impact on my week. It was a hand off and the team moved the ball closer to the goal line.

As each member of our Team does his/her own tasks and as I hand the ball off to those more qualified then myself, the Team will win. God will be glorified, people will come to know Christ and this valley will never be the same.

Who's ready to take a hand off? It's the 4th quarter and time is running out.

G3,
Steven

Great Stuff From Perry

Perry Noble, pastor at NewSpring, had a great blog post today. I don't want to add to it or take away from it so . . . .

Click Here and read it for yourself.

Then, come back here and leave a comment and let me know what you think. I believe he and his team are spot on and every church in America should be asking the same question.

G3,

A Day Off?

So, yesterday I kind of took a "Day Off."

What I mean is that I worked my day job and then came home and spent time with my wife and kids. We played some DS and Wii and then Jennifer and I watched a movie. The only thing I did for the church was to purchase some tickets for this conference. We're going to take 5 of our leaders and I believe it's going to sell out so I wanted to get the tickets.

As a church planter I find myself working 8-9 hours a day to make a living and then spending 3+ hours at night working on "church stuff." So, it was nice to only spend 3 min ordering tickets and then actually relaxing with my family.

Have a great week.

G3,