Relative Truths

Ok, so yesterday was an exhausting day. It was great, but it was exhausting. As I mentioned in my previous post, we announced my big move to the church Sunday morning. This would have made the day emotional anyway, but add the fact that I was preaching and it was an interesting combination. Rob Morris (could I respect him anymore than I do???) was very kind in announcing my move to the church (I got applause at 9:30, so that was kind of overwhelming). Overall, I really enjoyed that sermon. It allowed me to point out a few things about evangelism and about knowing God’s heart. I have had a few conversations with people since then that have affirmed that people understood what I was trying to get across. That is a good feeling. The truth is that when people understand the message God has laid on your heart then you have succeeded in being faithful to God’s word that was laid on your heart.

We had Sweet Talk last night. That is a time for prospective members to come and share some snacks with the pastors in a comfortable and casual setting. It was a great collection of people and they asked some great questions last night. I have really enjoyed those events in my time here. I will miss participating in them. The truth is that as a pastor I love talking to people about vision and direction of the church. I can’t wait to be talking about the vision and direction of Connection Church full-time.

I watched the Braves blow a 9^th inning comeback with a walk-off homerun to Ryan Zimmerman last night. Hopefully the 2 runs they scored is not typical of their offense. The truth is they need a solid offense to compete in this division.

That’s all from yesterday. Hope you had a great Sunday!

Ok, so we made the announcement today at church.  In June I am being appointed to start a new church in the Suwanee area!  I am very excited (as well as pretty nervous) about this.  I have been wanting to plant a church for about three years now.  I went through the New Church Leadership Academy in 2005, and I came to FUMC knowing I would probably leave to plant a church.

I get asked a lot, "Why Suwanee?  Aren't there other places that need a church more?"  Well, maybe there are.  However, the reason I have felt called to Suwanee dates back to my first week at FUMC.  I was driving out to George Pierce Park in Suwanee to play a church-league softball game (thanks Carrie for putting me on that team.  I owe you).  Anyway, as I was driving to the park, I noticed a green space development on the corner of Lawrenceville-Suwanee Rd and Buford Hwy.  The whole area was full of families playing Frisbee, walking dogs, having picnics, etc.  It was awesome.  I thought that it was cool that this community has such a community feel.  I went back to the office the next day and looked up the stats.  I saw that of the 51000+ people in Suwanee, 37% of the house holds have no faith involvement, while 30% have a moderate faith involvement (that means they go a few times a year).  That equates to over two-thirds of the community not having a strong faith involvement.  I started feeling called to do something about it.  That was almost three years ago, and now in June, I will be able to do something about it


I am pretty set on calling the new church Connection Church .  Before you start to think that is really weird, understand the reason for the name.  I think that church should be a place that allows people to gain a true connection to God.  I feel that a worship service should be an experience where people experience a life-transforming connection with God.  I feel that a church should be a place where people gain Christ-centered connections with others and that a church should facilitate a Christ-sharing connection with its surrounding community.  Hey, guess what word pops up a lot in those statements?  That’s right: Connection.  So, why not name the church the word that is best associated with what I think its mission is.  Anyway, soon you will be able to see our potential logo.  This logo is curtesy of my favorite graphic artist (Amy Keller rules). 


As I said this is exciting and a little bit nerve-racking.  Rebekah and I have seen first hand what it takes to start a new church.  We ask that you keep this new mission in your prayers.  And hey, if you know anyone that lives in Suwanee and hasn’t found a connection to God yet, tell them to call me. 

 

Ok, so today I got to have lunch (sort of) with a good friend of mine, Erin Blonshine.  The reason this is great is because I don’t get to hang out with Erin too much.  Erin was diagnosed in December with Leukemia.  Throughout the whole thing, she has been an inspiration to everybody about faith and trust.  Being able to hang out with her at Dominick’s and then DQ made my day (at least until Rebekah gets home).

The truth in this experience today is to have faith.  Every time I see Erin, I am reminded of faith.  She trusts in God in a powerful way that is truly inspiring.  Let me ask you, who is a model of faith to you?  Do they know that?  Are you able to inspire faith to anyone else?  Truthfully, we all need to be a model of faith to someone.   

Ok, so I have to admit I did something today.  As I have mentioned on previous posts, confession is good for the soul (so good that my brother seeks confession on his blog).  Anyway, I stole something today.  That’s right, I took something that wasn’t mine this morning.  Yup, I took something that didn’t belong to me earlier.

You are now probably asking, “What did you steal?”  I am glad you asked.  I stole some time with my wife.  I went to St. Joseph’s for a hospital visit.  My wife is working at a client in Norcross that is about 5 minutes away from I-285.  So, I decided I would steal some time with her.  I pulled of the interstate, headed down 141, called her, and ate lunch with her.  It was awesome.  This morning, I didn’t think I would see her again until late tonight.  Well, I decided to do something about that on my way home.  

I have written several blogs about spending time with loved ones, friends, etc.  Well, today I decided to put my money where my mouth is.  I had a great time with my wife and even spent some time with two of her coworkers (now I feel kind of like I am a part of her world).  

The truth is, it is ok to steal when it is in terms of time with special people in your life.  Find a way to steal some time soon.  You might not get another opportunity.

Ok, so today was the second to last Wednesday of our Wednesday night dinners.  When the dinners start for the season, it seems like a never ending program.  However, as it progresses, I realize how much fun the fellowship is during the dinner and how much I enjoy teaching classes.  Now that my class is over and the dinners are almost done, I will really miss them.  We have groups in our church that continue to have dinner together, but it is not the same.  

I guess what I am realizing is how much I enjoy the fellowship with the different groups.  We have a fairly large church.  We also have three different worship services.  In a church our size, with three different services, three congregations are almost formed.  On Sunday, I usually get to worship with one congregation (except for this week, I will be worshipping with all three because I am preaching, please come).  It is rare that I get to spend quality time with people from all three services.  Wednesday night dinners are one of those times.  Tonight, I had conversations with people from all three services.  It was great to remain connected with people whom I don’t get to see every week.  

I guess the truth that I learned is that sometimes things that seem like they are a burden or never-ending turn out to be things we desire and miss when gone.  I will miss this season without having Wednesday night dinners.  The activity that in January seemed long and time consuming is exactly what I, as a pastor, needed.  Make sure you are intentional about spending time with people, and don’t take those times for granted.  

Ok, so I have a prayer request for you.  Tomorrow, the Senior Pastor at FUMC, Davis Chappell, will defend his dissertation.  He has been in a doctoral program at SMU for 5 years.  He completed his course work in 2006 and has been crafting his dissertation since then.  His program was about Evangelism, and his dissertation is about a mother church birthing a daughter church.

He has worked pretty hard on this thing.  I have been a part of the staff for the bulk of this program, and I know we all wish him the best on his defense.  Please pray for him tomorrow at 10 am our time.  He has Parks Davis (Director of Church Development) as his field advisor and Charles Farr (a retired pastor in our congregation) as his reader with him.  Pray for them as well in this process.  Also, they are flying home tomorrow and a safe trip would be a good thing.  That's all.  Just wanted to throw that out to you all.  What prayers can I lift up for you?

Ok, so last week I mentioned about Unleash (you can see both of the sessions here).  I wanted to pass along something I learned in one of the break out sessions.  I attended the session on worship planning hosted by Shane Duffy who is the creative arts pastor at Newspring (you can read the transcript of it here).  Shane stressed a major point that I wanted to share.

He hit hard core on being prepared.  At Newspring, they are at least 4 weeks out in planning.  That means on Monday, they are fine tuning the service in 4 weeks!  Can you imagine being so prepared for Sunday that you are working on the service in four weeks?  They also run through their entire service Sunday morning before their first actual service.  I can tell you as someone who has been to their worship services; it is very evident they are prepared. 

Now, understand that I have been preaching pretty regularly since I was 17.  There have been weeks where I didn’t feel prepared and I had to do too much work on Saturday for the next day’s message.  There have also been weeks where I was ready early in the week and Saturday was just the hundredth run through.  Trust me; there is a difference in those two scenarios.  When you aren’t prepared you don’t feel like you gave your best on Sunday.  When you know that you are telling people about the greatest story ever told, knowing you didn’t give your best is a sad feeling. 

However, Shane extended the theme of preparation to more than just sermon planning.  He spoke of the importance in an entire worship service.  When a service is planned thoroughly, the sermon, the music, everything promotes the theme of worship.  People are able to really get involved and find a real connection with God.  You know God is truly glorified because the Holy Spirit really blesses preparation and you know you gave your best. 

Know that when you are doing something, put all the possible effort you can into it.  If you are doing something for God, do it well.  After all, God perfectly secured our salvation, and offers perfect love to us all.  He created you for something special, so give all you have, plan well, and make sure that God is glorified. 

Ok, so we had yesterday off from work (I mentioned this in yesterday’s post).  Allen, Andrew, my brother, and I went to play golf at Chateau Elan.  A very generous person in my church gave me a coupon for a free foursome, so it was awesome.  Anyway, it was pretty eventful, so here are a few insights I learned along the way.

It snowed!  Seriously, while we were playing, there were snow flurries.  At first, I thought it was pollen or something from a tree, and then I realized it was actually snow.  Come on, snow!  I have had this foursome for about 7 months, and the day we finally use it, there is snow.  The truth is be prepared for anything in life.  You never know what will happen, including snow in Georgia on March 24^th.

Free golf really is the best.  I haven’t played since October when my clubs were stolen.  So, not playing in 7 months and playing for the first time with new clubs (thanks Richard) are not a good combination.  However, no matter how bad I played, it was free.  The truth is you can feel a little bit better about taking 5 putts from 2 feet out when you know you didn’t pay for it (ok, that is an exaggeration, it only took 4 putts).

Finally, hanging with friends is a great way to spend a day.  I had a free day.  There were no expectations.  I didn’t need to go to work, I didn’t have to drive around anywhere, and I didn’t have any evening meetings.  I got to spend time with some great friends (the three mentioned earlier and my favorite graphic artist Amy).  The truth is that when you have some free time, make the most of it.  Make sure you do something you wouldn’t normally do.  That’s what makes it special.   

Ok, so I am sorry that I never posted about the meaning of Maundy Thursday.  If you are curious about the history behind the day we celebrate the beginning of communion, click here.  Anyway, Easter was yesterday and I wanted to reflect on that for a moment.

We had four overall services yesterday.  We held a sunrise service at the camp grounds.  Thomas James preached and I am thankful that FUMC has someone like him.  It takes a special person to want to step-up and preach at 7 am outside in the cold.  It takes special people who want to celebrate Easter that early in the cold.  The truth is, be thankful for those people.

The other three services were held at the church at the normal worship hours.  It looked like we had as many people at 8 as we normally do at 11.  It is great to see that many people in worship.  I hope and pray that everyone had a real connection to God on Sunday.  After all, the truth is that the point of worship is to honor God and to truly connect to Him. 

Finally, it was the second Easter worship service at my brother’s church, The Vine.  They had almost 300 adults!  The truth in that is, they need a new space.  It is great to see a church that is not quite a year old fill up the space they have.  I am proud of what my brother and his team have done for the kingdom of God in the Braselton area.

Anyway, we have had today off from work (a reward for surviving Holy Week).  I will have a post tomorrow about that.  How did you celebrate Easter?  Any truths revealed to you yesterday? 

Ok, so I was going to publish this yesterday, but Allen wanted fully-pledged face time on the blog.  So, I am putting it up now.  Last week was crazy busy and I went to a conference called Unleash (Allen went with me and it was great to have his thoughts on that as well).  I have been hyping Unleash for the last few weeks, and it was awesome.  Unleash is hosted by Newspring Church in Anderson, SC (by the way, here is a link to a very funny, and quite sad, video about a minister calling Newspring liberal.  If you have ever heard Perry Noble, I don’t think liberal is a word you would associate with him).  I wanted to take a few posts talking about some stuff I heard at Unleash.  I will mix in some Easter things as well. 

One thing that Perry talked about extensively is that pastors should lean on their staffs and not the other way around.  Now, for most of you, that statement might not mean much (if you are not a pastor or on a church staff).  However, I think that is a truth that can be applied to so many settings.  In all areas of our life (work, school, home, etc.) we are either the one leading or we are one that follows a leader. 

If you are a leader, make sure you give those in your influence a reason to trust when you lean on them.  I have found that if you treat people with respect, trust, and honesty, many differences can be overcome.  You don’t have to agree with everything about those who follow you, but if they trust you, they will believe in you.  When people believe in a leader they will want that leader to lean on them because it helps the team achieve the goal.  Think about the NFL (that is what I do most of the time).  How many times does a strong-arm quarterback fail in the league when a guy with lesser talent can win a Super Bowl?  Normally it is because the team doesn’t trust in its leader, and they won’t allow him to lean on them.  When a leader is humble in his gifts (and to be a leader, you are gifted) and respects and appreciates those who follow and support, there will be success.  That’s true.

If you are a follower (meaning that you are part of a staff or team, but not the main leader; and please understand that everyone must be a follower of Christ, so being a follower is not a bad thing, and many followers are leaders in other areas) then let your leader lean on you.  If you don’t trust your leader enough for him/her to do that, then you need to be on another team.  Now, you might not always agree with your leader, but if you are on that team, then give respect and let them lean on you.  I don’t agree with everything Davis says and does.  He makes mistakes and I understand that.  However, my goal in three years has been to be an associate that he can lean on when he needs it.  If he needs to take a few weeks to finish his dissertation, I want him to feel like he can lean on me to handle things.  If he needs advice about a decision, I want him to feel like he can lean on me to help.  That is what I am called to do in this role.  One day, when I am the lead pastor, and I have associates, you better believe I will only hire people that I feel I can lean on, and folks that want me to lean on them.  The truth is that a team is most successful when people are on the same page.  If you are not the primary leader, make sure whoever is can lean on you when they need to. 

This was a wordy blog.  Sorry about that.  I haven’t posted in awhile, so I had a lot to say.  Hope you are having a great Holy Week.  I plan to have a post later today about what Thursday means.  I pray that you experience God in something powerful this weekend.