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A Week of Thanksgiving – People Who Helped You Professionally

By Call to Ministry, Church, Church Planting, Encouragement, Leadership

Thanksgiving should be more than a day.

In the United States, we set aside one day a year to ceremonially show our appreciation for all we have been given. No one would disagree that this practice shouldn’t be limited to just once day. With that in mind, I thought I’d use part of my blog this week to share a little gratitude. Throughout this week I’ll be sharing some things and people I’m thankful for in my life.

Today I want to talk about people who have had a huge impact on me professionally. I’m a pastor now. I haven’t always been one. I was in the business world for many years before God called me into ministry. When I think of the process God used to prepare me for ministry, three men immediately come to mind. There are many people along the way who have helped me, but these three made significant investments in my spiritual maturity and preparation for ministry.

Here are three people who helped me be where I am today professionally:

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November 22, 2010
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Great Leaders Don’t Take Opportunities Just Because They Can

By Business, Church Planting, Innovation, Leadership

Part of being a good leader is not taking opportunities even though you can. Sometimes letting your staff do something you could do, maybe even would like to do, is a better for the entire team.

When we launched our church eleven couples took a risk on a dream we felt God was leading us to pursue. We empowered this core team to do things the way they felt best doing them, as long as they were achieving the vision we knew God was calling us to achieve. We encouraged them to explore new ideas, become experts in their field of interest, and then released them to dream and build. It became part of our DNA and we are still allowing people to explore new opportunities.

For example,

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November 15, 2010
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Was I Thinking Of You This Morning?

By Christians, Church Planting, Encouragement, Faith, Fear, Vision

I was thinking about you this morning. Maybe not you specifically, but I was thinking of someone like you…that is if you are someone who is sitting on the sidelines afraid to pursue your God-given dreams, watching the world pass you by. Was I thinking of you?

Maybe it’s because I encounter many people at their point of desperation…when they are tempted to give up…

It could be because I’m wired to dream big dreams…or because I’ve been sidelined for a time…watching everyone else pursuing their dreams except me…

But, for whatever the reason, I continually sense the need to encourage people to move forward with their dreams and aspirations.

Have you thought lately about the legacy you are leaving? Will you leave a legacy of having followed the dreams you had for your life?

If that’s your desire for a legacy…you may have to:

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November 6, 2010
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Preparing to Recover in the Moment

By Business, Church, Church Planting, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

Yesterday morning I was scheduled to do the welcome at Grace Community Church. After the first song, I was scheduled to come on stage, welcome people to the service, and we would continue worship. It was that simple. Before the second service, I was in a meeting in another part of the building. All of a sudden I thought to look at the time. The service had started and I was late. I jumped up and started running for the auditorium. I arrived just in time to hear one of our worship leaders covering for my absence. I was mortified. Thankfully, Dustin covered for me.

The incident, however, served a purpose, because I was reminded of an important principle

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November 1, 2010
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Public Recognition Makes a Difference

By Church, Church Planting, Encouragement

We have an all staff retreat yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday). A couple times a year we get away to dream, plan, evaluate, critique, and stretch ourselves. A great part of that is the relationship-building that takes place as we are in the same place for hours at a time. Friday night our spouses joined us for a meal and fellowship and Saturday morning we have a session with staff and spouses. It helps us get buy-in from the families of Grace staff.

One of the take-away challenges for us today was to encourage another staff member. We drew names of everyone in the room and were asked to email that name with an encouragement, including everyone else to see the email. I picked the name Katrina Watts. Katrina leads our preschool ministry. Here is the email I sent Katrina:

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October 30, 2010
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What if We Did Church Like This?

By Change, Church Planting, Culture

I love the partnership I have been able to have with Catalyst Conferences. I enjoyed blogging from there earlier this month. (You can read my posts HERE.) One of the things I love most about Catalyst is that I’ve met many of the people behind the scenes. They are authentic, transparent, and passionate about Christ and helping the church better reach a lost world. Jesse Phillips is one of those guys. I’ve had several opportunities to hang out with him and I absolutely love his heart. He has some passionate ideas about the church today. I think one of the thing my generation needs to do a better job with is listening to his generation. So, recently I asked him to guest post some of his current thoughts on the church here on my blog.

HERE is a guest post from Jesse Phillips of Catalyst:

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October 24, 2010
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Friday Discussion: Racial Diversity in the Church

By Church Planting, Culture

I’m curious about something. I’ve been curious a long time. This is not new subject for me. Over the years my wife and I have visited dozens of churches. We’ve visited in most mainline denominations. We’ve visited predominantly white churches and predominantly black churches. I’m white (in case you didn’t know…and the more the seasons change the whiter I become), but some of my very best friends are black. I’ve even been privileged to speak in predominately black churches. I’ve never really understood the whole racial division thing. I love people. I think our culture is, at least in some ways, getting more accepting of other cultures and colors of skins. I won’t pretend racial prejudice has ended, because I know it hasn’t, especially in other parts of the world, but, things are better today than they once were in my lifetime.

But, that’s where my curiosity begins. I see improvement everywhere except in the church. Why is that?

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October 22, 2010
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