Me, a missionary???

My passion is that each one of us would see ourselves as missionaries to Spartanburg. This is where God has put us. We are were we are on purpose, for a purpose. So that begs the question: Who are you influencing towards Jesus? Who in your circle of influence are you investing in relationally with the goal of them one day (hopefully soon) becoming a follower, a disciple, of Jesus?

My passion is that God will use The Point to reach people. Well, you are The Point. You are our body. You are our marketing. You are our outreach program. You're it! No pressure, just fact.

Now that you know that you're it, what are you going to do about it? Who can you bring with you this week? Who are you developing a relationship with so that you can invite them in a month? God wants to use you. Each encounter you have with another person is an opportunity. Be intentional. You are where you are on purpose, for a purpose.

Jonathan Herron had a great post that relates to this here. Check it out.

Sunday night reflections

Can we say eventful???

That is the word that I would use to describe our Super Bowl Party. The Colts won (which was good). We laughed at some of the commercials. There was plenty of food. We had some new folks that were invited by our regulars (KEEP INVITING!). We had a drug addict show up, steal some stuff, had to call the cops, another drug addict showed up, I thought I might get beat up...eventful. Ah...the joys of meeting where we're meeting, when we're meeting.

Kudos to Scott, Susan and Janae who handled the theft and ensuing drama with much grace and courage. They really kept their cool in a tense situation. I've never had to call the cops out to church before. Oh well, anybody who says coming to church is boring just needs to hang out with us for a while!

We need to see about getting a police officer to come hang out around the building.

We also had a group go out Prayer Driving yesterday morning. We were going to Prayer Walk, but the windchill was below freezing and we're a bunch of wimps! God used that to open our eyes to some unique observations. I'll be sharing more about those observations in a later post.

I want to go ahead and tell you that I am looking forward to this coming Sunday. It would be a great day to invite folks. We're going to have an acoustic band!!! I'm going to be talking about how we respond to the rollercoaster-ride of following Jesus. You are going to want to be there, and you know someone who needs to be there. Who can you bring with you to The Point on Sunday?

Review of The Blogging Church

I really can’t say enough good things about The Blogging Church, by Brian Bailey. This book has opened up a whole new world to me. I was already blogging and reading some blogs, but this book allowed me to take my blogging experience to a different level.

The book is easy to read. It is practical. It is convincing. It is well thought out. Church leaders who care about communication and authenticity would do well to read the book. Personally, I can’t wait to see how the blog I’ve created ends up being used by God to build the kingdom.

My only critique would be that the book was not as detailed in some of its instructions as I would have liked for it to have been. This is probably a result of my own technological dysfunction. And even with that critique I still learned more than I thought I would. I say that this is a must read book for church leaders of our day.

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.

Sunday @ The Point

Are you ready for some football? Are you ready for some food? This Sunday we're having a Super Bowl Party at The Point. We'll be showing the game on the big screen, and we'll have lots of food to munch on. If you're not a football fan you have no need to worry. We'll have lots of games to play and you can still eat the food! I am looking forward to hanging out with our church. It should be fun. Bring a friend, and go Colts!

What makes me sad

When I woke up this morning I was sad. The snow, for the most part, had melted. Yesterday when I woke up and looked out the window I had this child-like enthusiasm run through my blood. Waking up to snow on the ground is so cool, and since the last time it snowed here in upstate SC was March of 2005, yesterday's snow was really cool. My boys got to sled, eat snow and throw snowballs. But today the snow has disappeared. Boo, Hoo. Oh well, maybe we'll see the white stuff sometime again in 2009.

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.

One of those days...Leadership Lessons 1 & 2

Today is one of those days when I’ve been slapped in the face with my leadership inadequacies. I feel as if there is so much left for me to learn, and I have so far to go to become the leader that God has called and created me to be. Here’s Leadership Lesson #1: Have the tough conversations sooner rather than later. Leadership Lesson #2: Be clear about expectations and the consequences for not meeting those expectations.

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.

Sunday night reflections

Last night we did a bit of follow up from the previous week's message. You can listen online here. I shared how we need to Investigate before we Initiate (thank you Andy Stanley). What I mean by that is this: If we really are going to make disciples who make disciples, if we really are going to connect people who are far away from God to God, if we really are going to create an engaging, relevant and irresistible gathering that's worth inviting our unchurched friends to, if we are going to make a dent in the unchurched population of Spartanburg County, then it makes sense for us to do a little investigation to discover the hopes, dreams, stresses, concerns, fears and needs of the people who are unchurched. To do that I said we need to do three things:

1. We need ask the right question of God: God, if you had your will and your way, what would this church look like in relation to the people you want us to reach (I stole that from Putman and Stetzer's book Breaking the Missional Code)?
2. We need to talk with and listen to God on behalf of the people we are trying to reach. (This coming Sunday we're going to Prayer Walk at 11 AM as a start).
3. We need to ask the right questions of the right people. The right people aren't those who already are a part of a church. The right people are those who are unchurched.

I am looking forward to us discovering the answers to those questions together so that we can make disciples who make disciples.

I'm trying to be cautious and not get my expectations too high, but I feel like we've got a new hope at The Point. Last night we had 4 new people (all came because they were invited by friends) and it feels like we've got a little momentum going.

It's really God's doing, so I want to give Him the credit. But he's using some of you to do it. You are the ones inviting people. You are the ones volunteering. I want to give a big shout out to Scott and Janae for stepping up and asking, "Where do you want me to serve?" That is huge. May God continue to grant us favor!

Dinner Groups

For the month of January we've been doing small groups a bit differently. We've been getting together each week with a different mix of people to eat, laugh, talk, share and get to know each other a bit better.

Tonight we got invited to the Argo's house. They were great hosts and it was amazing how open people were. (Who knew that William was scared of falling?) Thanks to the Argos, the Kinzies, the Blackwells and my wife for opening their homes and providing food for the sake of community. You are AMAZING!!! The Point is blessed to have you on its team.

An Unleash Invite

I wanted to invite everyone from our team to go with me to Unleash. It's a conference being put on by Newspring on March 15. I will be going and would love if some of you would join me.

Comfort: Ours or theirs

Anyone who's been a part of The Point for any length of time will recognize these verses: Listen! I Hear the voice of someone shouting, "Make a highway for the Lord through the wilderness. Make a straight, smooth road through the desert for our God. Fill the valleys and level the hills. Straighten out the curves and smooth off the rough spots. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together (Isaiah 40:3-5 NLT emphasis mine).

I love that passage because I think it gets to the heart of who we are and who we will always be as a church. We want to do whatever it takes to bring people who are far away from God to a place where they are disciples who are making disciples.

But so often we, as Christians, get in the way of that because it can be very uncomfortable for us. We want to be comfortable in church...after all, we're the one's who are on the inside, right? (Churchplanters.com has a great post on that that you can read here.) But the thing we've got to remember is that our heavenly Father's heart is for those who are on the outside.

So let's work to create a church where outsiders feel comfortable. Let's be like our heavenly Father. Let's be less concerned with our comfort and more concerned with those who don't yet have what we have.

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.)

I am a bad pastor

I’ve got a confession to make. I am a bad pastor. I still feel a little funny when someone introduces me as their pastor. It’s just a bit weird. Here’s one reason why I’m a bad pastor. When people are sick or when they have family that is sick, I’m not really as sympathetic as I should be. Don’t get me wrong, I do care for these people and their families. I’ll pray for them and their families, but I think I’m missing that pastoral gene that most pastors have.

Maybe that’s why God is allowing me to go through this medical mystery with my dad. For those of you who don’t know, my dad’s been on a 4 month journey to figure out if he has cancer. I think they are closer now to discovering something, but any firm diagnosis gets pushed back until they do another test. Actually, I’m writing this post from the waiting room in Augusta, GA as my dad has a Bronchoscopy.

Over the past few months I’ve had to experience what others have experienced. I think God is using this experience to soften my heart.

Now, I’m still a bad pastor, but God is giving me a new lens through which to view other’s pain and suffering. I just wish I didn’t have to learn this lesson at my dad’s expense.

One more thing about Heroes

This is a show that I would like to be on. I’d love to be a character with a cool power that ends up dying in some valiant fashion saving other heroes. If anyone reading this blog has connections and could hook me up…

Heroes - Chapter 12

Man! I love Heroes. I think my three favorite, can’t miss shows on TV are Heroes, Lost and 24. It bites that 24 and Heroes now share a time slot. I’ve chosen Heroes. Maybe I can get my prehistoric VCR to work and record 24 (or somebody nice could send me a Tivo, I heard they are really cool!). But for now it’s Heroes.

Kudos to Wofford

Nathan, Matthew and I went to the Wofford/UT Chattanooga basketball game on Saturday night. It was Upwards night so we got in for $4 a piece. The game was exciting, the cost was great, but the real fun came with about 7 minutes left to go in the game.

Matthew, my three and a half year old, was approached about pedaling a race car across the court during a timeout. He was all for it. So Matthew, and three other little boys, got their names called out over the intercom and raced across the gym. I wish I had a picture.

I know they were just trying to get kids involved and the crowd excited, but they gave my family a memory that we'll never forget, and for that I say kudos and thanks!

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.

Wanna share

Do you like to share? I'm ok with sharing some things. I'll let Liz use my iPod. I'm not to hot on sharing food, but I like when others share their food with me :). Well, The Point has an opportunity to share something that's not ours.

Got a phone call from Chris Pollard, pastor of The Journey Church here in Spartanburg. It's a church that is reaching out to those who struggle with addictions and who are on the path to recovery. They are going to be meeting at the B on Sunday mornings and he wanted to know what he could do to make setup for both of us easier.

I've just got to say that I am thankful that there's a place that both of us can meet and use. I believe God is using The Journey Church and am glad that we're connected through a facility. Pray for The Journey Church.

Coming this Sunday...

I can't wait for this Sunday night at The Point. As you know we've been "gleaning" some lessons from Nehemiah. From chapter 1:1-4 we learned When you don't know the way, mourn, fast and pray. And from Neh. 1:5-11 we learned we need to Pray like is all depends on God and Work like it all depends on us.

This coming Sunday (6 PM @ the B) we're going to be looking at Neh. 2:1-10 and I'll be laying our where we are going and what it's going to take to get there.

You need to be there and you need to bring 5 people with you! I am exploding with anticipation!

A few comments

I know this has nothing to do with The Point, but last night was the conclusion of the 4 hour premiere of 24. It was amazing. Things started a bit slow on Sunday night, but the explosion at the end of last nights episode left me speechless. Who knew? The problem now is that it comes on at the same time as Heroes. What am I going to do?

Read a great post today from Dave Ferguson entitled Dream of God. You can check it out here.

Sermons Online

I am so excited to announce that our sermons are now online. Just go to The Point's website and the link is at the bottom of the home page. I just posted the talk from January 7. It seems that yesterday's talk didn't record for one reason or another, so if I posted it you'd only get to hear silence (which might not be a bad thing).

Sunday night reflections

I have to say this...I love it when new people come. We had two new guests come to check us out last night. I love it even more when we have people come back. Having returners is a very good thing. Everyone who came for the first time last week came back this week. Very, very cool. I've got to give God the credit.

I honestly think they came back for Levi. He was passed around like a cold last night. We'll use whatever means possible to get people to come back. :)

Here's an interesting observation...the people we've been attracting lately seem to be radiating out from Crossroads Coffee. Crossroads is a local, college student owned and run coffee shop. They provide our coffee and now it looks like we're connecting with a group of people that work or patron the place. What's God up to? I don't know, but it is interesting.

Another observation... most of our new people are single or newly-married. We're not really connecting with families yet. I'm not complaining, just making an observation. I passionately want us to connect with families (partly because I have one), but I am so thankful to be connecting with a group that is normally ignored by churches.

Like I said last night, I feel like I'm in way over my head. I am way out of my league in this whole church planting thing. I need God to show up and help me and use me and speak to me and work through me more than I ever have before. I know that sounds cheesy and spiritual, but I feel like a middle schooler being asked to be the lead architect for the new Freedom Tower in NYC. I would appreciate your prayers.

Three wise men

Mystery quote

Christianity is not about the bless-me club. It's not about the holy huddle. It's about others.

Ok, who do you think said that? Got any guesses? Bono, the lead singer for U2 said this. Isn't it kind of sad that Bono realizes something that so many Christians in America don't?

Another FREE book has arrived

Just got my complementary copy of The Blogging Church by Brian Bailey. Since The Point is less than a year old I was able to win a copy. All I've got to do is write a review about the book. I am so thankful for generous people who pass along resources for free. Levi and I can't wait to start reading. I figure I need to start him off on this whole blogging thing at an early age. At first glance it looks like it will be a great read, and besides, it was free!!!

Crazy Love

I was listening to Erwin McManus from Mosaic the other day and he said this (I'm paraphrasing):

Did you know that our Gatherings aren't just for those of us who are followers of Christ just to come and enjoy each other and enjoy God. If we don't open up our lives to the people in the world around us we are wasting our time. Most of us, when we're looking for a church, we look for a church that's convenient for us. We look for something that fits into our lives and our schedules, with our likes and with people who are like us. But we need to transition to being the church that's crazy about people, that is characterized by Crazy Love.

I love the idea of Crazy Love. That's really what the Heavenly Father showed us when he sent his Son to die for our sins. That's pretty crazy. I'm sure DSS would get called today if a father did that. It's really crazy to invest in people who might reject you. It really crazy to love people who don't love you. It's really crazy to, as a church, prioritize those who don't believe what we believe.

I resonate with what Erwin said. That is my passion. We don't need another church that just becomes a holy club for the already rescued. We need a church that exists to rescue those who are far away from God. Will you partner with The Point to do that?

That might mean that you are a bit uncomfortable. It involves developing relationships with people who are far away from God. It involves inviting them, and quite possibly, or probably being rejected, but being willing to continue the relationship in the face of rejection. So, who can you invite? This Sunday would be a great time to take a risk and invite somebody.

Reviewing The Fred Factor

Just finished reading The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn. It's a good little book on how passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

I love that phrase: Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Life is so ordinary. Most people are so ordinary. Church is so ordinary. The way we do our jobs is ordinary. We've got ordinary family and ordinary friends. But what if we weren't satisfied with the ordinary? What if we began striving to make each day extraordinary? Do you think people would notice? How do you think your coworkers, your family, your neighbors, your friends would respond?

Sanborn says it really all boils down to love, service and putting others before yourself. Seems to me like he might have stolen that from some Rabbi that lived about 2000 years ago. It just goes to show you how relevant and practical following Jesus really is.

But back to the review...I want to share four principles for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary:
1. Everyone makes a difference. Duh! The only question at the end of the day is "What kind of difference did you make?" I love this quote: Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional.
2. Everything is built on relationships. We've all heard it said that "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Relationships are key because it's only through a relationship that you can get to know someone enough to serve them in a way that's helpful and meaningful. Sanborn says, relationship building is the most important objective because the quality of the relationship determines the quality of service.
3. You must continually create value for others. We usually want others to value us, but Fred's do the opposite. Use the imagination that God gave you (and yes he did give you an imagination...it just might be dormant) to out-think others and to come up with creative ways to bless other people (I use the word "bless," not Mark, but blessing people is the best way that Christ followers can create value for others).
4. You can reinvent yourself regularly. No matter what job you hold, what industry you work in or where you live in the world, you wake up every morning with a blank slate, and you can make your business and your life anything you choose. In other words, I have a choice as to whether I settle for the ordinary or I turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. The choice is yours: Choose wisely.

The Fred Factor has some good Kingdom reminders about how to treat others all the trappings of a secular business book. Love, Serve, Value, Bless, go the extra mile...turn your ordinary into the extraordinary.

Chase the lion manifesto

I read this on Mark Batterson's blog today. I think it has a lot to say to everyone on our church planting team:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Grab life by the mane. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!

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.

Sunday night thoughts

Tonight was pretty rockin'. We had our first service at our new time and back at the BCM building. It was weird at first only having a gathering at night, but I think God shined some favor our way. We had some new folks, all of whom said they are coming back. There was just a good feel. People talked. God was good. I've got to give Him the credit for a good evening. I can't wait to see what He wants to do and I'm just glad I get to be a part.

BTW: I need to send out a big thanks to Kevin and Susan. We got to go out to dinner last night at PF Changs with them. Good food. Great friends. I am so thankful to have them on our team and as friends (and besides that Kevin says he reads my blog, that two whole people reading this thing). Afterwards we came back to our house to play electronic Clue. I'm not a game person, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a blast (and I almost won!). One thing this church planting experience has done is allow us to develop some new friendships with some awesome folks.

Great creativity

Just found a hilarious commercial for a The Stone's Christmas Eve service in Canton, GA. You've got to check this out.

The 7 B's of Relationships

Life's really all about relationships. We have relationships with family, relationships with friends, relationships with enemies, a relationship with God. Relationships are important. We were created for relationships. The problem is not our need for relationships, but our inability to form decent relationships.

One of our values at The Point is Authentic Community. That means that we have real relationships, that means that we care enough to pursue new relationships.

To be effective for the Kingdom we've got to get better at developing relationships with people. In The Fred Factor, by Mark Sanborn, Mark gives the 7 B's of Relationships. I thought I'd pass them on to you.

1. Be Real. Sounds simple, but so often we end up being someone other that who God created us to be. Genuineness, transparency and authenticity are the first steps to good relationships.
2. Be interested (not just interesting). This is huge. If you're like me then you like to toot your own horn so that you look impressive. That doesn't do much for relationship building. But being interested in others, caring for others and showing interest in their life, family, job, etc. is a huge contributor to real relationships.
3. Be a better listener. I like for people to listen to me, but in order to build a relationship with another person I need to put them first. I think this is one reason James says, Be quick to listen, slow to speak....
4. Be empathetic. After you listen you can better put yourself in another person's shoes. We don't know what others are going through.
5. Be honest. I love how Sanborn says it: Say what you'll do, and do what you say. In other words, don't make promises you can't keep. Don't create expectations you can't fulfill. Avoid overrepresenting and overpromising. Be a man, woman, or organizations of your word. That's integrity.
6. Be helpful. Who have you helped today? Enough said.
7. Be prompt. This is a big one for a time Nazi like me. Being on time for appointments, meetings, small group, worship, school, whatever says to others that you value them or what they are doing.

In our quest for Authentic Community let us be known as people who care enough to take the first step to developing relationships with others.

Connect, Discover, Respond

Listened to a short podcast this AM as I was working out. It's entitled, The Starbucks Experience Podcast. It's some short lessons on leadership learnings from Starbucks. No matter what you opinion of Starbucks is, there is a lot to learn from the coffee gurus.

This morning the guy talked about this customer service issue. Good customer service comes when we connect with the customer, discover what they need, and respond accordingly. The customer becomes the focus and the employee becomes the servant.

I think that has a lot to say to us as Christians. How often are we so focused on our own agendas or wants or wishes that we forget to really care for and meet the needs of the people around us?

A book I'm currently reading, The Fred Factor, talks about this. I highly recommend the book. It talks about how Freds make extraordinary out of the ordinary.

What am I trying to say? We need to care for people. When someone comes to The Point we need to connect with them (get to know their name, what they do for a living, etc.), discover what their needs are (do they have kids, are they away from home at college, are they Christians), and finally we need to respond accordingly (show them where their kids go, invite them to sit with us, have them over for dinner, invite them to your small group).

I believe in you

I believe in you...those words are some of the most powerful words in the world. They motivate us. They inspire us. They keep us going. All of us need people in our lives that believe in us.

But here's the problem...most us us have people in our lives that unintentionally say the opposite. They don't mean to, at least I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe they don't say anything, which is as good as saying "I don't believe in you."

My favorite speakers to listen to are those who's talks have "I believe in you" peppered throughout.

As pastor and church planter of The Point I need people who will speak, "I believe in you" into my life. This isn't a shameless plug for encouragement, but a confession of a need. It's also a reminder to me about the kind of person I want to be.

So what does God want you to do? What are you called to do? I believe in you. I believe in you.

Some learnings...

Here's what I've been working on today.

We've been trying to get people to come to our Gathering, and while we've had a few people come and a few people stay, we haven't had much success. I've been wondering why and here's an idea.

I think there's some stuff we have to do before people will come to our Front Door (our Gathering). Here's the continuum: It starts with our Relational Networks. These are our friends, neighbors, classmates, family, co-workers, team-mates, etc... you get the picture. These are important. They provide the first step for us to impact people.

Next come Direct Touches. These work best within our relational networks, but don't have to exclusively be within those networks. They can be doors to new relational networks. There are things like giveaways, block parties, backyard BBQ's, coaching your kid's team, volunteering on a city team...you get the picture.

Out of that comes Advertising. As we've discovered, Advertising can be tricky (or fruitless). But when it flows to people who have a relational connection with us it has more impact. There's an emotional connection.

Finally, all of this leads to our being able to get people to our Front Door, our Gathering.

More on this later...my boys are begging for some Dad time.

'Twas the week before Christmas...

Twas the week before Christmas
And all ‘round the town
People of the point were getting ready
For a donut show-down

Free donuts at three
For those who must work
A dozen per person
(They might counter-act some jerk)

Then we’ll gather at five
To remember the King
Christmas cookies, communion
The Christmas story and we’ll sing

So, where will you be?
Who’s coming with you?
Will you join us on Sunday?
We want to see you!

Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. Sunday’s a big day. It’s Christmas Eve. Santa is putting the last presents into his sack. The reindeer are prepped. We’re going to hand out a lot of donuts. We’ll be Gathering to remember Jesus. It’s a BIG day!

That’s right. This Sunday is our 2nd Annual Donut Giveaway. We’re going to meet at the BCM building (529 N. Church St.) at 3 PM to hand out donuts to people who have to work on Christmas Eve. Come share God’s love with us.

Then at 5 PM we’ll be having our first ever Christmas Eve Worship gathering. Join us as we take a few minutes to focus on Jesus. Invite your family and friends. You don’t have to come to the giveaway to come to the Gathering.

FYI: We won’t be meeting on December 31.

And now for the BIG news. Beginning January 7th we’ll be meeting in a new location, at a new time and a new frequency. Our new (temporary) location is going to be the BCM building. Our new time will be 6 PM. Our new frequency will be weekly.

Will we still Scatter? Yes, but only once a month and with more intentionality.

If you have any questions please contact me. Also, I need you to spread the word. Let people know about Christmas Eve. Let people know about our new location and time in January. I’m counting on you to get the word out. Forward this e-mail. Write your friends. Create a MySpace or Facebook page. Make a video and put it on YouTube. I am excited about what God is up to.

Have a great week and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Why?

Why does everything have to be so hard?

This morning I turned on my computer, dialed up internet access and saw that I had some automatic updates from Microsoft. I just clicked yes and next and finished, and come to find out I had downloaded the new version of Windows Internet Explorer. I was excited. I like new stuff. The problem was that when I tried to get on the internet it said I couldn't get on the internet because I wasn't connected. I was connected but it wasn't recognizing my connection. This was extrememly frustrating for me because now I had to take some of my time and call Earthlink and try and get this fixed. Well, I called earthlink and after going through 20 minutes of automated mazes I finally got to speak to a nice lady from India. She told me I just needed to remove the new Internet Explorer because it was just a beta version. All I wanted to do was get online, but it took 6 hours to do it.

Then I called BellSouth to see about getting a phone line for The Point installed in my home. Why do the sales people assume you want every bell and wistle possible? Why won't they just give you the lowest cost possible. Why did I spend 30 minutes talking to a guy and just end up frustrated? Why does it have to be so hard?

The whole church planting thing is hard. I wish it weren't so, but it is. And well wishing people, people with good motives say nice things, but those seem trite when what you've thougth about and dreamed about for years just isn't panning out like it is supposed to. But I've been focusing on a few verses that say "hope in God." I'm not sure what that looks like exactly, but I do want to hope in God. I want to focus on Him... but that's hard too.

No real answers today, just a note to wonder why things have to be so hard. It's really Adam's fault and that darned curse that we all share. My hope is in the fact that God is who he says he is and he'll do all he has promised to do.

Some things I've learned so far

I really should use this blog to un-internalize all that's going on in my mind about our church plant. There is so much I have learned over the past few months.

I've learned that Jesus was really good at using hyperbole in his teaching, but I'm not good at it at all. In saying that we are a church for people who don't go to church I think I've turned people away before they even had a chance to check us out.

I've learned that some people are better at inviting than others and that we need more of those "connectors," as Malcolm Tidwell calls them. Not that this is a negative statement on any of the people that we have. It's just an observation. This is frustrating for me, but it's really a reflection on me and my personality. I'm not a connector. I'm not extroverted. I don't have huge relational circles. I am learning that it's true that the church will look more like it's leaders than like the picture the leaders want to produce. Thus, we need some leaders who are different than me (more below).

I've learned that disciples just don't happen. You have to have a process for making disciples. I'm working on what that process is going to be for The Point right now with the goal of taking the month of January to teach and explain it.

I've learned that I am very limited as a leader. There is only so much that I can do. I'm a git jealous of those guys who can do everything (or so it seems that they can do everything). But that's not me. With this in mind I need some staff. I'm thinking two staff would be a good start. It would help if we had the money to hire these staff, but we don't, so I'm asking God to intervene. Got any suggestions? Want to contribute?

I've learned that I might internalize my thoughts and plans a bit too much, and that I need to keep the lines of communication open by communicating more and not less. This is really a tough one for me because I am not the best at putting what's in my head into words. Liz is much better at this than me.

I've learned that being a leader means you've got to have tough conversations with people. I'm not saying I've done that yet or that I can do that, but as the leader I need to be courageous enough to have tough conversations, to hold people accountable, to dismiss people when they don't do what their supposed to do, to challenge people to greater responsibility and to coach. I suck at all of the above, but I want to get better and believe that for us to be the church that God is calling us to be I've got to step it up. It's true, "Everything rises and falls on leadership."

I've learned that blanket marketing seems like a good quick fix, but that it's really a waste of money and time. There's a reason why advertisers spend enourmous amounts of dough researching their target audience. We haven't really done any real research. We need to pick our target audience, do research to find out what they are like, then market to them, reach out to them.

This really is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things I'm learning, but it's all I can put in words at this time.

Now, about the Bible...

Yesterday I had lunch with two guys from Thomas Nelson Publishing. They are working with a bunch of postmodern writers, artists and scholars to create a new translation of the Bible called The Voice. I am excited about this translation project because its goal is getting people into Scripture. Check out www.hearthevoice.com to find out more and join in the conversation.

My question for you is: How have you been getting into Scripture lately? There is enormous value to spending time in God’s Word on a daily basis. We’ve all got excuses for not making time to read the Bible. “I don’t understand it.” “It’s irrelevant.” It’s an outdated book.” “I don’t have time.” But here’s the deal. We keep watching Lost even though we don’t understand what’s going on. We make time for what’s important to us. We eat, we sleep, we watch TV, we listen to music. We’ve got time for all of those things, but not time to allow God to speak to us and transform us through His Word?

This is important to me because one of our values at The Point is Biblical Authority. That means that we believe that God has spoken to us, and speaks to us, through the Bible and recognize it as the ultimate authority in our lives. I’ve heard it said this way: The Bible is trustable truth that summons me to live differently.

So, do you trust God’s word enough to spend time reading it and allowing it to change the way you live?

This Sunday we’ll be Gathering. I can’t wait! It’s the first part of our Surviving Christmas series. You don’t want to miss it (and besides that, everyone that comes gets a free Christmas ornament and who couldn’t use another ornament on their tree?). I bet you know someone who needs to be there. Take a risk and invite them.

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Saddened

Two things saddened me greatly as I read the news this morning. First I read about 300 prayer requests that washed ashore on and Atlantic City beach. What saddens me about that is that those requests came from real people with real issues and having them washed up on shore makes it look like the requests were forgotten or tossed out. I am thankful that our Heavenly Father knows our needs before we ask for them, which means that He knew about these requests and was at work in each situation even as they floated around the ocean. I am also saddened by the impression this gives that people don't care, and even though Christians sometimes come across as uncaring there are some of us who do care. And even more important than that is that there is a God who cares.

Secondly, I am saddened by the accusations brought against Ted Haggard, the pastor of a church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals. I'm not sure what is true and what is false, but I am saddened by the fact that we live is such a broken and fragile world. It is true that our enemy roams around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. More than ever I feel the need for protection from my Heavenly Father (lead me not into temptation and deliver me from evil).

I'm ready for some good news.

Spiritual Enabling

John Ortberg writes in the nov/dec edition of Rev magazine: It could either turn out to be a fantastic success or one whopper of a failure. We started praying even more. We sought God's guidance, wisdom, providence and protection. Again, Richard Foster's words from Stream of Living Water rang true: "In prayer, we wait in the power of God for the evil to dissipate and the good to rise up. By prayer, we receive spiritual enabling."

I am so there as a church planter and as someone trying to follow God's call/invitation/adventure. The Point really could be a fantastic success or a whopper of a failure, which leads me to prayer. We do need God's guidance, wisdom, providence and protection. We are waiting. I am waiting. We need a spiritual enabling from our Heavenly Father.

I just wanted to pass on that quote for you to meditate on. May it motivate you to prayer.

How 'bout them Tigers!!!

All I can say is: That was crazy! I've been going to Death Valley for years, but last night may have been the most excited I've seen the crowd ever. It was a good win.

I'm really writing this to give a shout out to Chris Buccafusco. I hope you're not too depressed. Matt and I were worried about you last night.

The only downer was the parking at Clemson. When is the staff going to get that fixed. Parking lot 4 had about 2000 more cars than spaces. And where are the parkers directing traffic getting in and getting out?

On another note...Today we're going home from the hospital. Real life begins with three boys. I told Levi that I hope he's enjoyed his stay in the hospital because this is a quiet as his life will ever be! (FYI: He was awake during the game last night and watched it with Liz).

New Clemson Fan

Just wanted everyone to know that we have started him off right. He's ready for tonight's Clemson/Georgia Tech game. Go Tigers!!!

Loving Brothers

These are some excited big brothers. They are ready for Levi to come home.

The Stork has Landed

Well he's here! Levi Harris Everette was born at 4:34 AM on Friday, October 20. He was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20 and 1/2 inches long. He's doing great. Liz and I are a bit tired (Liz is much more tired than me since she just celebrated a literal Labor Day. Big brothers are doing good and ready to wrestle with Levi. I think we'll wait a few days. I'll post some more pictures later.

I love this wireless access at the Hospital!!!

Speaking of the hospital...the staff at Spartanburg Regional has been AWESOME. I haven't ever been able to be such a part of my newborn's life immediately after birth. I got to spend the first 30 minutes of his air-breathing life chatting with him, weighing him and getting him warm with no medical professionals hovering around.

Now for some rest!

Not yet

I feel like we're on some sicko ride at the amusment part. Liz's contractions go from strong and consistent to almost non-existent. Who knows when this baby's going to get here. Today would be a good day, however. My Grandpa turns 91 today. Pretty cool!

Can you imagine being 91? I'm working on a sermon now that has Jeremiah 29:4-7 as its main text. The idea is that "You are where you are on purpose, for a purpose." My hope is that if I get to live 91 years or 41 years I'll be able to look back knowing that I made the most of my time.

Maybe today we'll make the most of our time by getting this baby out into the real world. We'll see.

Maybe today

This could be the day for Levi to enter into the world. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to stick some pictures into this blog. More later...

The honesty response

Who knew what kind of response a little honesty can bring.

Oh, that's right, you may not even know what I'm talking about, so here it is: I send out a prayer request update each week (well, almost each week) to a group of about 100 people who've said they would pray for me, my family and our The Point. The update I sent out yesterday contained some bluntness about the difficulty of this church planting journey. I mentioned that after our gathering on Sunday I was ready to quit. I then said that although I was having visions of leaving early, that there is nothing I'd rather be doing than planting this church.

Here's the thing, people were so responsive to my honesty. Why was that? Maybe it's because we so rarely see honesty. It's so easy to put on the happy face and act like everything is fine. It's definitely easy for a "pastor" to fall into that trap.

I guess why it's so easy for me to fall into this is because I don't want to be a failure. Who does? The thing about it, however, is that the standards that I use and that other pastors use to rate our success have nothing to do with the standards that God mentions in Scripture. We use numbers, money and momentum. I think God uses things like faithfulness, trust, obedience and perserverance.

But those don't always look as good as the other stuff.

Now let me say: Numbers, cash and momentum aren't bad. They can be evidence of God's hand. They could be the result of our hard work. I really don't understand that anyway.

All I know is that I want to be faithful, obedient and someone who finishes well. I'm not sure how well I'm doing. Ask me in a week. I'll try and be honest.

Growth

You know, I think that every church in America could be growing but the Kingdom not be. What's this preoccupation with growing our churches? Where does the Kingdom come into the picutre?

I know what some of you will say (if anybody reads this), "If my church is growing then that means people are coming into the Kingdom." I disagree. Your church can be growing and people could know nothing of the Kingdom. They are coming into your church, not the Kingdom.

I want to be about growing the Kingdom. Sure, I want The Point to grow, but I want The Point is not the destination. The Kingdom is. May we be about what Jesus was about and may we lay aside our selfishness, pride, arrogance and egos that keep the Kingdom out of and away from most of our churches. Until next time...

Prayer

I feel like a terrible pray-er. Do you ever feel like that? It seems like I get so busy with life and church work and family, that I can't seem to make time to pray. Sure I spend time with God in the mornings, but it's not the same as taking extended periods of time to just pray. I read those stories of Christians who get up at four in the morning to pray for four hours and those who spend hours and hours on their knees and all I can manage is a measly 15 minutes (if that), and I end up feeling guilty, which further distracts me and keeps me from praying.

Why am I so easily distracted? Why is it so easy to forget to pray? For those of you who don't know, I'm the lead Pastor of this team that's trying to plant a new church in Spartanburg. Planting a church requires a lot of work. This work seems to always be getting in the way of praying. It's distracting. It's keeping me from depending on God.

So here's what I did. No one was home this morning so I walked around my house, cleaned the bathrooms and talked out loud to God. It felt good. If feels good to complain to God, to tell God thank you, to ask for help, to acknowledge that things really are up to Him. Why can't I do that more often?

If you read this, I want you to come up to me or call me and ask if I've been praying lately. I'll probably be tempted to lie or make up an excuse, but hopefully I'll be able to say, "Yes." And know that this church planting thing is God's doing.

This probably made no sense whatsoever. If that's the case, I'm sorry. Until next time...

Recovery

I think I've recovered. Notice I said I think I have recovered, not that I know I have recovered.

Sunday was the launch of The Point. It was pretty cool. We had been looking forward to that day for over 3 years. And did I say it was pretty cool?

If I was a real blogger I would have written about this on Sunday afternoon. The problem is I haven't recovered enough from our big day to write until now. So here it is.

We wouldn't have been able to pull things off without the GREAT team that has decided to join us on this adventure. God has sent us some incredible people with a passion to serve and do whatever it takes to start a new church.

I don't know if anyone reads this thing, but if you do, I want to invite you to come hang out with us this Sunday. We meet at Dawkins Middle School off Blackstock Rd.. You can google the school for directions. I would love to know what you think.

Maybe I'll be more with it to write tomorrow. Until next time...

Fatih

You really shouldn't read books. They mess with your mind and cause you to think.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all into thinking, but reading books, especially books with different perspectives than my right perspective, give me what psychologists call "cognitive dissonance."

I'm reading a book right now titled "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claibourne. I don't recomend this book at all because it might just give you a clearer picture of God and church and life. And really, none of us want clearer pictures of those things. We are just content to keep the picture that we have put together in our heads. That way God looks more like us than us risking who we are by beginning to look more like him.

Shane talks about actually getting to know the poor and not just throwing money their way to appease our satisfied consciousnesses. He talks about a lot of other stuff as well that you don't need to read because after all, you are already satisfied with what you know and what you believe and why go and mess up what you've thought to be right your whole life?

Yesterday I was reading and he started talking about FAITH. No not the witnessing program, but faith in God. He defines faith as loyalty. I haven't been able to get that out of my mind. We usually think of faith as belief. We don't teach this, but for most of us faith is a head knowledge. We believe that Jesus died, rose, is coming back one day. We believe the Bible is true. We believe, we know, we intellectually affirm all this stuff. The problem is we don't do anything with what we know.

I heard Andy Stanley say one time that we don't need to know more. We need to put into practice what we know. Just do it, as Nike says. That's why I love thinking of faith as loyalty. Our alegiance, our loyalty is to a Jesus way of life. To follow him is to be loyal to living as he did and taught.

I'm still chewing on this whole faith thought, but what if the whole faith think is more than we've been taught or made up? I'll have to think about this for a little bit longer.

Until next time...

And Counting

Who's idea was it to plant a church in Spartanburg? I need to give him a call.

Oh, it was God's idea.

Knowing that this adventure that we're on was God's idea sure is an encouraging thought. I love that Jesus says, "I will build my church." It's his church and he will build it. We just get to come along for the ride.

Talking about a ride...I want to invite you to join in our adventure on August 13. We're meeting at Dawkins Middle School (comment if you need directions). We've got 11 days and counting. Maybe I'll have more time to write in the coming days.

Until next time...

The Answer?

I'm not sure if this is the answer, but we're going to experiment with it.

Yesterday I said that I have struggled with how we, as The Point, can be the church. Really, what is going to keep us from slipping into another "come and see us" organization? How can we BE the church, BE the hands and feet of Jesus, BE a forceful agent for faith, hope and love in Spartanburg?

Here's what we're going to try: As some of you know, our church is going to launch/begin/start on August 13. We're meeting at Dawkings Middle School (please come!). Most churches meet every week. Actually, most churches meet multiple times a week. We're going to meet every week too, but each week we're going to have a different focus. We're calling it: Gather and Scatter. On the first and third Sundays of each month, begining in September, we are going to Gather. On the second and fourth Sundays of each month we are going to scatter.

Now let me explain what I mean by each. On our Gather Sundays we are going to meet at Dawkins Middle School to create and carve out some time (10:30-11:30) where we can connect with God. It is a place for unchurched (we really want to be a church for people who don't go to church) people to come, connect with some other people, have a cup of coffee and a donut, and explore what following Jesus is all about.

On our Scatter Sundays we are going to meet at Dawkins Middle School at 10:30 (we'll still have donuts and coffee) and then go out, Scatter out, to do communty service. Our goal is to be working with the homeless, doing free car washes, loving people with AIDS, brightening the lives of Senior citizens, partnering with the city of Spartanburg, giving out free water, the list goes on and on and on and on. The goal is for us to actually BE the hands and feet of Jesus in our community. We'll have projects that whole families (birth-death) can participate in, as well as some projects that might be best for adults only.

Is this the answer to us Being the church in Spartanburg. I'm not arrogant (at least not at the moment) enough to say that it is THE answer, but it is our attempt at the answer and we're trusting God to see what He might do.

Would you consider joining us on this adventure? I hope so. See you August 13th!!!

Until next time...

The Question

I am plagued by the questions, How can we be the church?

Here's the deal: I see a lot of churches doing church, and they are doing church well. The problem is: I don't see anyone really being the church, at least not on a grand scale.

We at The Point are going to try a little experiment to figure out how we might could "be" the church in Spartanburg.

I'll tell you what that experiment is tomorrow. Until then...

Jump

It is so cool...we've got a swimming pool in our neighborhood. I feel like I'm living in luxury. All we have to do is walk down the street, turn left, walk 160 yards, and we are in swim heaven. The pool is a great size and there's nice pool-side furniture.

None of that is why I'm writing, though. Here's why I'm writing: Have you ever seen a child when he realizes the water isn't going to eat him up, but that it's like a big interactive toy? My boys have both hit that sweet spot. My oldest did last week and my three year old did yesterday.

Last week, Nathan realized he could put his whole body under the water and float and swim around, and that it was acturally fun. Yesterday, Matthew realized he could float along with his bubble on. Next Nathan found the fun in jumping off of the side of the pool into the cool blue water. Matthew also found jumping to be worth the risk. He kept wanting to do it over and over and over and each time he jumped he had this huge smile on his face like this was the most amazing thing ever thought of. I wish you could have been there. It was pure joy for a father to watch.

Their reckless abandon got me thinking about life, our lives, and God. Really, life is all about jumping, at least the parts of life worth living. It's a jump to go to our first day of school, it's a jump when we move off to college, it's a jump when we get our first job, it's a jump to drive the car solo for the first time, it's a jump getting married, it's a jump having kids, it's a jump becoming a Christ follower, it's a jump being obedient to the voice of God.

The reason those are all jumps is because they each come with risk and the possiblity failure. They move us out of our comfort zones and into a place of uncertainty. But at the same time, I think that God loves to watch us jump.

As Matthew was flinging himself into the pool I just laughed and laughed. It was hillarious to see his excitement and abandon. I think God might look at you and me the same way when we plunge into life with the same passion and abandonment. I would write more, but my boys just woke up. My encouragement to all of us is to jump. Then listen and I think you'll hear God laugh and know that he is pleased with you. Until next time...