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My good friend Jason Reviewed my book Watermark on his blog here. My original intent was just to write the book for our church and explain baptism in very simple terms. But what has been exciting is how many other churches are using it for those who want to be baptized.
Shameless plug alert: If you want to order multiple copies, don't pay Amazon.com prices. Email me and we'll hook it up...
"To make it easy for them, it's going to be a little harder for us." - John Solaroli (Assistant Pastor @ Calvary Fellowship with Yoda-esque wisdom)
Our goal is to see people take their next steps in their walk with Jesus. So we try to give people opportunities to do so (Baptism, small groups, classes, etc...). So we give them different ways to sign up and take that step (email, web, connection center @ church, our connection card).
Does this make the system more effort to manage? Yes, but we think it's worth it because our desire is to make it easy for the person, not us, to take the next step.
A couple of bloggers visited our church on Sunday:
Bill LaMorey, who used to be on staff with us and is now the Lead Pastor of Calvary Fellowship in Hartford, CT. Here's his thoughts...
Lew Graff, who is on a church tour of sorts, shared on his experience at CF. Here's his thoughts...
The the challenge that every generation and person faces if the lure of living our lives out of the past. Instead of encountering our own experience with God, we live off of someone else's faith, someone else's stories, and someone else's relationship with God. I think that church leaders are primarily susceptible to this. Because our history is so rich, we can rely solely of that and not on where God wants to take us next.
It's so easy for this to happen. We start making decisions like this:
- "What did they do back then?"
- "How would they do it?"
- "Well _________ never did it like that."
- "If _____ never did it like that, then that's not how God works!"
And we never ask the most important question: "What does God want me to do?"
As I'm reading through Judges, the children of Israel followed the Lord until a generation arose who didn't see His miraculous works and provision. Because they didn't have their own relationship with God, they ended up straying from the Lord because you can't live off of someone else's faith forever. We've got to get our own faith. We need to appreciate our past and how we are linked to it, and then see how God is leading us into the future...
I just got send a manuscript from Nelson Searcy, Pastor of The Journey in NYC. He has a new book coming out called Fusion on the subject of assimilation and he asked if I'd write an endorsement for it (my first thought was, "I think he emailed the wrong person :). I'm a big fan of Nelson's and have gotten to know him over the last year. I love his strategic thinking and passion for people far from God.
Anyway, I read the book in just a couples of days and it's fantastic! I sent in my endorsement, but I want to encourage you, if you're a church leader, buy this book!
I really believe that as church leaders the most important stewardship we have is the stewardship of people. This book can help us think through some important steps in helping those that God brings to us so they can reach full maturity in Christ. You can already pre-order the book here. If you really can't wait, you can buy the assimilation seminar here.
The exciting part is that at least there will be 1 book out there with my name someone in it that people are actually reading :)
My favorite thing in the world is when the door to my office opens and it's Carey and Mia. We had lunch together. Carey took care of a few things she needed to for this weekend. Mia just made everyone in the office happier with her presence.
I love being a dad!!!
We normally do our baptisms at a Baptist church down the street and have everyone being baptized share their story before they go into the water. But this past Saturday we went back to the beach and I'm torn. I prayed as each person came forward and asked God to give me a word for them. So as they walked up, I prayed for them and spoke into their lives something that God had put in my heart.
The "indoor" baptisms are great because each person's family and friends are able to hear them tell the story of how Jesus has changed their lives. But I loved the intimacy of being able to pray with each person and share something personal with them.
Either way, what does amaze me is the lives that are being changed by Jesus. That never gets old!
The Unity Factor was recommended to me and I picked it up. I have heard a lot about what God is doing at North Coast, so I wanted to read something that Larry had written. The book wasn't what I expected, but I still really enjoyed it.
The book is about how to develop a board of directors primarily, but there are principles to leading a team that are useful in any context. I got a lot out of it from a team building perspective. I was encouraged and affirmed in that I am already doing much of this with my board right now.
This book is really useful to a person just developing a board or walking into a situation where the board was there before the Pastor (which was Larry's story). So there's plenty of wisdom here.
There also some great stuff on staffing. The last chapter "What game are we playing?" is worth the cost of the book. It deals with the changes within a staff as a church grows larger.
For me, I'll take a book written by a practitioner over a theorist any day. Larry is getting it done and I want to read books by guys who are getting it done!
Warning: Some Pastors may be insulted by this even though it's true...
I have watched people's habits of choosing a church for many years now and here's what I have discovered: People choose a church the same way we choose a supermarket to frequent. It's got to be good and close. There might be one better that we know of, but if it's not good and close, chances are we'll be infrequent attenders at best.
Case in point: My wife and I love Whole Foods. If we could choose 1 place to buy everything, Whole Foods would be it. So why don't we go to Whole Foods then? Because the nearest Whole Foods is all the way across town in North Miami Beach (which is about 30-45 minutes away depending on traffic). Sometimes, Carey and I will plan our day out there so we can do our shopping at Whole Foods, but the truth of the matter is that the Publix across the street gets most of our business. Why? Not because it's the best, but because it's good and close. Whole Foods has all the best organic stuff that we want. But Publix gets our business because it's right across the street.
Here's why this is important: people want to be avant-garde and plant churches in areas of cities where no one lives. That's not a good plan. You've got to go where people live. Because people choose a church like they choose their supermarket. They want one that's good and close.
If hundreds of thousands of people live in the cities, then go where they are. If everyone lives in the surrounding areas (which by the way, is the case in Miami. People work downtown, but few live there), then go there. Because while people will drive 45 minutes for work, they won't do it to go to church. And even if per chance they do, it will next to impossible for them to be part of the life of the church when they live so far away. I'm not saying location is everything, but I am saying it matters a lot.
I'm a verse by verse type of teacher. We do some topical series throughout the year, but I mainly preach through books of the Bible. I think it's a great way for people to learn, but also it's how I teach best. (Rule #1 for communicators: know thyself)
Yet here's one of the strengths that preaching expositionally has, you hit topics you might not normally hit on a strictly topical diet. Last Sunday as I am preaching through Mark, I taught on the beheading on John the Baptist (besides that John the baptist is my favorite Bible character - of which I hear there's a decent book out on his life :)
Expositional teaching also makes me start with the text, then adding creative elements. Putting the creative elements before the Scriptures to me is like putting the cart before the horse. Creativity is about communicating the Scriptures, not having an idea and then finding the Scriptures that could work in that context.
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