Why you're needed

Did you know that you really can make a difference? Check out this link. I found out about this from Cliff's blog and it got me thinking about church planting and specifically our church plant. We need to create the kind of environments that result in raving returners. To do that we need people who will take ownership of whatever job they have (in and out of the church) and do their job in such a way as to make people go "Wow!" I think we're going to have to use this video in our core team training.

I am not vain

Well, maybe I am vain. Today Liz and I tried to dye the gray away from my hair (It had to be done after the incident with Mitch last week! You can read about it here.). We had to do it twice and I've still got gray on the sides! I also got a real haircut at a real salon and a real style. My boys say I look like a rock star. Don't worry, I'm not letting it go to my head. But I'm glad somebody thinks I look cool!

All this hair coloring and new hair cut stuff has got me thinking. Honestly, I do care about how I look...probably too much at times...but have you ever been around people that could care less (and it shows) about their appearance? I think taking care of how we look is a stewardship of what God has given us. I also believe that appearance effects influence.

This post really isn't all about me. I think it relates to the church as well (especially at The Point). The appearance of our ministry context, whether it's children, adults, preschool, small group, whatever, is of vital importance to the perceived relevance of what is happening within the ministry context.

In other words... Appearance Matters! The right appearance can help facilitate greater influence. The wrong appearance can turn people off before they even set a foot in the door. In an attempt to do whatever we can to get rid of any and all barriers that keep people away from God, let's go all out with the things we can control... appearance is way up at the top of that list.

What's relevant?

I want The Point to be relevant. I think God wants The Point to be relevant. Unfortunatley, so often, church is perceived as irrelevant. So, that begs the question: What makes for a relevant church?

What I’m about to share is not original to me. I learned it from Andy Stanley and the main reason I’m writing this is as a reminder and motivator to me. I hope that it help you too.

For an environment, a church, a ministry to be relevant three things must be present: An appealing context, an engaging presentation and helpful content. All three MUST be present in order for things to be perceived as relevant. If any one is missing then there’s a problem. There’s too much at stake to be irrelevant. Let’s do whatever it takes to be relevant.

Along those lines here is a great post of fighting cruise control as a church.

Disappointed

I'm just going to come out and say it. I am disappointed with Lost this season. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere. They don't leave you hungry anymore. They just leave you frustrated. I'm going to keep watching for a while, but if things keep going like they've been the past two weeks I may not make it the entire 16 week season.

I'm also disappointed with my Tigers. We can't seem to pull out the close games.

On an up note, I read a great post today from Ken about some comments Erwin McManus made the other day. It's worth your time. Erwin is a prophet. I have a lot of respect for the guy.

Good growth vs. Bad growth

Did you know that not all growth is good? Deep down you know this. We see it all the time. It’s good for my boys to grow. They are supposed to grow. If they don’t grow then there’s a problem.

On the other hand, if I were to start growing it would not be a good thing because my growth would probably come around the waist. This kind of growth can result in all kinds of problems. I don’t want to grow anymore. Growth for me would be bad growth.

The same thing is true in churches. A growing church is not always a good thing.

WHAT??? ARE YOU NUTS???

Well, probably, but that’s not the point. Here’s what I’m talking about. I want The Point to grow. I believe God wants The Point to grow. In fact, we are going to grow. But I want us to have good growth. Good growth comes from unchurched people, dechurched people, and people who are far away from God. Bad growth comes when we get Christians from other churches coming because we’re the new cool church in town.

So, how do we experience good growth? It’s called invest and invite. We invest in relationships with people who are far away from God and invite them to a relevant environment where they can safely explore what faith in Jesus is all about (our Sunday Gathering is our entry point environment that we want you to invite your friends to).

My prayer is that God will use The Point to make disciples of people who are far away from God (we’ll be discussing what it means to be a disciple in a few weeks). I so much want for us to experience good growth – the kind that makes our Heavenly Father happy – the kind that sees lives changed.

Whose responsibility is Spiritual Growth?

Thanks to Tony Morgan for putting me onto this blog from Tim Stevens. Tim says the following came out of a Q & A with Bill Hybels: "The goal, Bill says (and I agree), is to slowly make believers independent. We (as a church) should focus our attention on introducing people to Christ, and then helping them grow to a certain point. After that--they should feed themselves and focus on helping the church introduce more people to Christ."

That's what I want us to do at The Point. I want us to teach people how to teach themselves. Think about it. Is it the church's responsibility to help me as a Pastor grow spiritually? I've got to feed myself. I've got to know how to study Scripture on my own. I've got to know how to work out my salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). I've got to pursue intimacy with my Heavenly Father. I've got so submit to God's Authority. I've got to submit to the authority of the Bible. I've got to learn obedience. If it's that way for me, then it should be that way for each believer?

The question now is, how do we move people to that spot? Are you there? If so, what are you doing to move someone else there?

I know there's more that can be said about this. But if there's a five year old who doesn't know how to feed themselves then there's a problem. The same is true for Christ followers. How have you been eating lately?

I LOVE small group

We’ve rearranged small groups again for the month of January. I had 8 people (besides my family) over last night for chili and a Bible Study. It was a blast. I really appreciate Sarah getting our discussion really going by admitting how hard it is to forgive others as God has forgiven us (We were discussing Colossians 3:12-14). Thanks Sarah for your honesty and for being vulnerable.

That’s what makes small groups work: Honesty and vulnerability. So often we put on a mask and nobody really knows who we are or what’s going on in our lives. But authentic Christian community is mask-less. We are to love as Christ loves us, accept as Christ accepts us, forgive as Christ forgives us, and encourage as Christ encourages us.

If you’re not involved in a small group then you are missing out! Let me know and we’ll get you hooked up. I can’t wait for nest Tuesday night. My group’s meeting at the Blackwell’s. They are great hosts (the bacon Michelle puts out to go on a salad is good stuff—it makes the salad). I can’t wait!

Dream-caster, Dream-chaser, Dream-enabler, or Dream-Killer?

I’ve been working on this Sunday’s sermon this morning and can’t wait to see how it develops. Here’s what I’ve been mulling over out of Nehemiah 2:16-20.

Each of us has a dream for our lives. Some dreams are small, some are huge, some are outlandish, some are personal, some are private. But, even more important than your dreams for your life is God’s dream for your life. Did you know that God has a dream for your life? He has a dream for every aspect of your life: Finances, family, relationships, job, health…the list could go on for a while.

Responding to each of the dreams that we have are four types of people: Dream-Casters, Dream-Chasers, Dream-Enablers and Dream-Killers. This leads to some questions: Which am I? Who in my life is in each category? Who am I listening to? How should I respond to each (especially Dream-Killers)?

We will be discussing these and other questions this week at The Point. You NEED to be there and you NEED to bring some people with you. I promise it will be worth your, and their, time.

I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts about this. Please comment.

PS If you've got some extra time check out these two posts: here and here.

A blog you should read

If there are any church planters out there reading this blog, then you need to check out Devin Hudson's blog graceisthepoint. He's been sharing the story of their Church Planting adventure in Las Vegas and what he's learned through the process. He's a great thinker and writer. It will be well worth your time.

When does a church win?

Here’s a thought... if a church is growing, seeing lives changed, growing the kingdom and making disciples, is it winning? Most of the time we would say yes. But I had a thought today. I was listening to Joseph Minchelli’s Podcast, The Starbucks Experience, and he was talking about how different branches of the same business can no longer be successful on their own, at the expense of their sister stores. He says that to be successful you must focus on the corporation as a whole. Stores must cooperate, instead of compete.

That got me thinking about the church. I know we would never say this, but churches are always in competition with one another. We compete over programs. We compete over attendance. We compete about giving. We compete about buildings. And all around us we see some churches that are growing and many more that are plateauing or declining. What we do is we focus on the individual churches (specifically, our individual church...especially if things are going well) and how they are doing instead of focusing on the whole Church in any given city or town.

Let me illustrate. I live in Spartanburg, SC. We have around 500 churches in our county. A few of them are booming and growing and are what we would call successful churches. They are seeing lives changed. People are coming to Jesus. But are they really successful? What if we were to focus on the Church, as a whole in any given region, instead of any single church? Would we say that the Church is winning? Or might we have to sweep that under the rug and only focus on the localized “success” stories? I so much want The Point to contribute to the Church as a whole. Our name, The Point, reflects that passion. A definition for Point is: A small representation of a much larger object. May we all be about building The Church. There is too much at stake for us to settle for anything less.

What do I know? This who last post could have been a waste. It was just something I was thinking about.

10 ways to not plant a church

Ben Arment had this great post on 10 ways to not plant a church. Click here to read. It encouraged me. If you are on our team may it encourage you.

The B.I.T.S. Principle

So what am I talking about? Kibble's and bits? Alpha-bits? Kilobits? Bits and Pieces?

I must confess, I stole this idea from this church planter in Las Vegas (you can what he wrote here). B.I.T.S. stands for (warning: this may be slightly offensive): Butts In The Seats.

I challenged, and have been challenging our team to invite people. It's not that I just want to have a bunch of people coming to The Point (even though that would be awesome), but if we really are going to help people who are far away from God become connected to God then we need relational inroads into the lives of people who are far away from God.

So here's how it works: I have a certain relational network. I have a few people in my relational network who are far away from God, but unfortuately, most of the people in my relational network are Christians. But let's say that I invite someone from my relational network to The Point and they come, they like what's happening (who wouldn't?) and they decide to invite other people. This original person that I invited has some people in their relational network that aren't in my relational network, so they invite someone out of their relational network. Well, the person that they invite has their own unique relational network with people who have their own unique relational networks with people who have their own unique relational networks. You get the point.

So, when I invites someone I have the potential to influence many, many more people down the line because of the potential of each person's unique relational network.

That's why the B.I.T.S. principle is so important. When we have people coming and putting their Butts In The Seat then we are increasing our potential to influence and connect with people who are far away from God.

So who can you invite? (And if you don't attend The Point this principle is universal and will work in your context too.)

Sunday night reflections

Here are a few reflections on our Gathering last night.
- We had 4 new people who were all invited by a friend. AWESOME!
- Some previously uninvolved folks committed to coming to a Dinner Group.
- A few people told me they were ready to increase their involvement.
- Our Idea Group (reading Simple Church) discussion was great.
- I shared where we, as The Point, are going and what we need to get there:

• We are going to do whatever it takes to make disciples who make disciples.
• We are going to create an engaging, relevant and irresistible worship gathering that's worth inviting our unchurched friends to.
• We are going to be incarnational and missional by creating fun, relevant and meaningful projects to serve our city and show people Jesus.
• We are going to create and exciting children's ministry that partners with parents to help them disciple their own children.
• We are going to create reproducing small groups where people can be real and genuine, and experience authentic Christian community.
• We are going to make a dent in the unchurched population of Spartanburg County by doing whatever we can to reach those who are far away from God.
• We are going to make Spartanburg a better place to live.

That's where we're going. Here's what we need to get there:

• We need Staff.
• We need you to give.
• We need and incredible band.
• We need you to invite (I'll blog later on the B.I.T.S. Principle).
• We need small group leaders.
• We need you to let us know where you can serve.

I am so pumped about where we're going and what God is doing. You can listen to the message online by clicking here.

Purposefulness

Read a great article in Entrepreneur Magazine today titled, Building the 21st Century Leader. Among qualities that are essential for a 21st century leader is Purposefulness. The article states:

Experts are split on whether having a strong vision is a good thing. "Leadership is about going somewhere," Blanchard says. "You need a clear vision that's about who you are, your picture of the future, where you're going." But Linsky counters, "Vision is as much a constraint as a resource. In my obersvation, CEO's get invested in their vision, and then they don't see contrary data." What's better these days, Linsky says, is for leaders to have a strong sense of purpose they can express to their workers--a compelling reason for everyone at the company to come to work.

This really spoke to me. I'm not as strong of a vision caster as I thought I was, but I do know the purpose behind doing what we're doing at The Point. It's to build the kingdom. I so much want my life to count for something bigger than my small, short, adventure-filled years on this planet.

And here's the thing about vision. It's a picture of a prefered future. It's really my picture of how I think the future should be. It's not a bad thing to have a picture of the future, especially when it gives you something to shoot for.

But vision is limited in that I can only see with my own limited perspective. I come to the vision with the unique background, experiences, passions, gifts and strengths that God gave me...but those are unique to me and so my vision can be short-sighted. Having purposefulness is grander than a vision. Being a part of building the kingdom is a way for my small, tiny vision to be a part of something much bigger.

Maybe this makes no sense... just something to think about.

Remarkable

There's a great blog by Seth Godin about being remarkable. You can read it here.

It got me thinking. Why isn't church that remarkable. To be remarkable means that you're able to remark about it. Jesus was remarkable. The church is His body, so we should be remarkable too, right? But so often we are far from remarkable.

I really desire The Point to be remarkable. I don't want us to just be another church that takes up a few hours in our congregation's life. I want us to be so remarkable that whether you're an athiest, a 9 year old, a homosexual, a college student or someone who's been a Christian for 25 years you walk away remarking about how God used The Point to change you.

We're not there yet, but I think we're headed in the right direction. I am excited about what's in store for us in the future.

I would love to hear your ideas about how you think the church can be remarkable.