to reach people that no one is reaching….

…you have to do things that no one is doing.  The message doesn’t change but the methods MUST.  Check out this clip from Craig Groeschel.

its former glory…..

I had a meeting with the Augusta Symphony about a website so I met with them a few weeks ago.  They are housed at Sacred Heart Cultural center in downtown Augusta.  Sacred Heart was a church that closed in 1971 and was renovated and restored in 1987 as a cultural center for the community to rent.  It also houses several organizations.  I have looked at this building a lot in my days as it is right beside Curtis Baptist Church and School, two places where I spend A LOT of time growing up.  My older brothers use to sneak across the street during church into the old abandoned building and would often explore through it.

I wasn’t sure where exactly their offices were located so I slipped in through a door I saw open.  Straight ahead of me I saw a sign that said “Auditorium Entrance”.  I hadn’t been in Sacred Heart since shortly after it reopened in the late 80’s and just had to see it.  So, I snuck in through the auditorium door and when I walked through a small corridor, there I was on the stage at Sacred Heart.  If you have never been inside this building, you must see it (here’s a photographer’s site that I came across that had some great shots of the interior – Shawna Herring & here is a photo gallery on the sacred heart site).  As I looked around, it literally took my breath away…I was just blown away!  Just an incredible sight.  The summer sun was pouring in through the stain glass windows and the architecture, paint, the craftsmanship…just unbelievable.  I just stood there for a while taking it in.

As I stood there, all of the sudden this thought hit me:

This use to be a place where people came expecting God to move, expecting to worship, encountering Jesus.

My mood changed.  I felt crushed as I began to think about that.  I was reminded that this church was like so many others that I’ve seen and know: Churches that at one time were thriving with life and were impacting the community around them.  Over time they had lost that focus on Jesus, lost what it meant to present and be the Gospel in the context of their community at that time.  So many churches are just dying…just empty buildings.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am thrilled that this beautiful building is being used so effectively in the community.  But as I was driving back to Aiken I thought a lot about those two extremes of emotion that I had just experienced.  It made me wonder about Cedar Creek, and other churches that right now are making an impact in their community and the world.  Here are some questions:

• What will our church/churches look like in 40 years?  In 5 years?  Will these churches keep their focus on Jesus or will they cease to exist?
• Will we hold to our styles and methodologies as sacred and become culturally irrelevant?
• As the “contemporary churches” become the new traditional churches (by the way, that is happening all over in churches that were birthed out of the Saddleback and Willow Creek models), will they be willing to ask the hard questions and make the even tougher decisions that it takes to change their methods (not the message) as needed over time?

Twitter in Ministry

Had a chance earlier this week to speak with Kelly Jasper with the Augusta Chronicle for an article in today’s paper.  The article was on the use of social media in ministry, in particular Twitter.  You can check it out here.  At the bottom of the article, they give a listing of local pastors and notables that are on twitter, too.

the right fit

I was reading Steven Furtick’s blog earlier this week, and he had a post on how growth happens at Elevation Church.  As soon as I read it I thought “If I had to describe what I would perceive as the perfect fit for me in ministry, it would be to help make what he describes here happen on a Sunday morning.”  Here’s the content of that post:

How Church Growth Happens:

We enable experiences and interactions that leave our people saying:
I love my church

So they’ll tell their friends:
You’ve got to come check out my church

The friends come.
We worship Jesus and preach the Gospel with excellence.

The friends leave saying:
I really like this church

Inspiring them to come back again and again until they say:
I love my church

And tell their friends:
You’ve got to come check out my church…

multi-site church or a church with multi-sites

When it comes to doing small groups in churches, there are two paradigms that exist: Churches OF Small Groups and Churches WITH Small Groups.  Churches WITH small groups see small groups as another ministry that their church does.  Churches OF small groups view them as core essential of who they are. It plays out in all phases of that church (everything from children, student ministry and beyond).  Cedar Creek is a church OF  small groups.  That’s been a reality that was in our DNA from day one.  In fact, it would be easier to count the messages that don’t have any mention of being plugged into a small group vs the ones that do.  The pastor of a church of small groups doesn’t see it as a burden or non essential but rather champions the importance of getting plugged into one.

Now, take that same idea of “With” vs “Of” and apply that to multi sites.  Whether a video venue, web campus or a campus that has in-person teaching, it seems that churches are falling into one of those two camps:  Churches WITH multi-sites and Churches OF multi-sites.  We are now about 6 months into our first multi-site campus with our second multi site campus about to launch sometime this summer.  The staff here at CCC have been living it for over a year as it took much time and effort to prepare.  It is the newest phase (some say “fad” but I don’t think that is accurate…to most anyway) in church growth.  It allows churches really of any size to consider expansion and growth without having to necessarily depend on a new building.

I would say that Cedar Creek right now is somewhere in between a church WITH and a church OF multi-sites.  I think we’re probably leaning more toward the OF side.  I don’t think we’re fully there yet, however.  Consistent vision, communication and leadership is critical to change any culture within a church.  I think while most of our staff are getting there to where we are thinking “multi-site”, I would say that it takes a little bit longer for the church as a whole to think in that mindset.  I think that is the natural progression where you have to constantly and consistently communicate vision over and over again.  Here are some of my observations of the multi-site movement, both here at CCC and abroad.

• Multi-Site is leadership critical.  If you don’t have the right leader in place as a campus pastor and in key leadership areas, I believe you have already begun at a HUGE disadvantage.
• Multi-site does change everything.  You no longer just create a video piece for example.  You first have to filter a lot of elements through “Will this work on every campus?”
• I think a church must wrestle with the question of why would they do multi-site?  Is it because it sounds like a really good idea or is it because we believe that is where God is leading us?  Have we exhausted all of the worship possibilities on this campus yet?
• I don’t know if “freeing up seats” should be the main reason for doing multi-site.  From what I’ve observed, I’m not sure how many seats you will really free up.
• Multi-site is A LOT of work.  Let me say that again. Multi-site is A LOT of work.  It will stretch your staff and your volunteers.
• Constantly communicating vision is critical….over and over.  Just when you think people are getting tired of hearing about it, that’ probably the point where it is just starting to connect with them.  From the sermon series, to web and printed pieces, “one church in multiple locations” has to become a part of the everyday lingo of the staff and the church alike.

Here’s a book I would recommend as a primer for multi-site strategy: The Multi-Site Church Revolution

the cussing pastor

confession: I have a draft in my draft folder of my blog called “The Cussing Pastor”….it’s been there for around 8 months.

It’s not about anyone in particular at all, but just a growing trend that has emerged among pastors, leaders and communicators.  I didn’t finish the draft and probably won’t.  I think Ed Young nails what I was thinking.

Quotable: Perry Noble

Saw this quote in a post from Perry Noble today and I’m still chewing on it.

“God is ALWAYS setting His church up for a WIN…we’ve just got to be willing to listen to His voice and do what He says.”

get wisdom

Today I was reading through Proverbs 4, and there was a series of verses that just grabbed me….I mean as soon as I read them it was like a tractor beam.  These are verses that I had read and even underlined.  I knew them well.  Before I tell you what they were, I need to confess something: I lack wisdom..or at least I feel like I do a lot of the time.  I’m not sure if you can relate, but sometimes my prayers are, “God, I’m an idiot. Show me what you want me to do.”  I’ve been claiming and praying James 1:5 a lot lately it seems.  You know, the verse that says if you lack wisdom, ask God for it and He’ll give it (my paraphrase).  I’ve been asking, “God, give me wisdom.  I need your wisdom.  Wisdom to be a good dad, husband, minister.  Wisdom to follow Jesus’ lead.  God, help me to not screw this thing up.  Give me wisdom to make the right decisions.”

Then, this morning I read these verses out of Proverbs 4:5-7:

⁵ Get wisdom, get understanding;
do not forget my words or swerve from them.

⁶ Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
love her, and she will watch over you.

⁷ Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

I’ve been asking God to give me wisdom He promises to give. The flip side of that is that he tell us to go after wisdom…that’s something that He won’t do for me. He won’t make me pursue wisdom.  I have to pursue it. He’ll give it, but I’ve got to also value and pursue it (to the point that it hurts – “Though it cost all you have….”)to be the leader in my life that I need to be.  What does a pursuit of wisdom look like?  I don’t know exactly for sure, but here are some thoughts and ideas that I’ve been processing through:

1. constant attitude of learning – I think it was Rick Warren that said, “Leaders are learners.  If you stop learning, you stop leading.”  It just seems that the leaders that I know that seem wise just have this attitude of wanting to gain understanding and never resting on “What Was” or even “What Is”  They understand that current success is no guarantee for future success.

2. humility – kind of hand in hand with number 1, wise leaders ooze humility.

3. internalizing the Bible – if we believe that the Bible is God-breathed, then it stands to reason that wisdom is going to come from getting THAT on the inside.  Okay, that’s the small-group-no-brainer answer.  What has me thinking much more is what that process looks like.  I’m coming to conclusion more and more that THAT process looks different for everyone.  I haven’t landed on what that looks like exactly for me.  Just know I’ve got to get the Word and get some more.

4. different – I need people in my life who are different from me.  That may sound elementary, but the tendency, I think in most of us, is to gravitate toward the familiar.  We quote that “iron sharpens iron” scripture a lot, but I think that sharpening process is more than just going through a serendipity bible study with people very much like me.  That roughing up process is what sharpens…  I think it sometimes in the clash of ideas where wisdom can also be gained.

my clifton strengths finder results

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Clifton Strengths Finder test and wanted to take it to see what it said about my strengths.  I was a little nervous in taking the test..you know, the whole pointing the mirror at yourself introspection.  As I was taking it, I was waiting at any moment for this pop up window (you take it online) to say “Dude, what are you smokin?”  Anyway, here are the results, the good and the bad.  These are what it said my strengths are.  So, is it me?  I think it is pretty close….scary close in some ways.  Don’t be hatin!

You Are Here

This is the opener for Catalyst on the West Coast this past month.  Strong.  Check it.

http://www.vimeo.com/4316077