We’ve concluded our crash course on Romans and I hope that you’ve found some value in going through this book that is so core to all the rest of the Bible. I can’t encourage people enough to decide to become lifetime students of Romans. It will help as much as anything you can do to to dig a very deep foundation for your faith.
True Biblical Community:
Is inspired by MERCY
Thrives on HUMILITY
Sober judgment – Interest in others
Gives others LIBERTY
Demands MATURITY
Is built INTENTIONALLY
Following Dave Ramsey’s “Life. Money. Hope.” I’m pumped – but cautious. Ramsey is beautifully relatable while being fully biblical and helpful. We are making the video series available to life Groups – watch them everyone! The Bible says wisdom is sweet to your soul like honey is sweet to the taste. That’s the way this stuff came across. It was correcting me but filling me with vision and hope. I not only wanted to correct my financial mistakes, I felt like I really could do it.
November 8, 2008 my title and responsibility changed to “Lead Pastor”.
Continue reading ‘Living out Life. Money. Hope.’
We might as well say it: we’re in a weird spot with more questions than answers at this point.
Edge growth at 11 is stuck for the time being. It’s prime time and we have filled it. Edge 9 has enabled us to move more people in and we should continue to do what we can do to fill it too. Then what? Where do we go in the short term? Do we invest in setting up another site even before the mall? The mall is currently beyond our reach financially. We have to grow into it.
And, it’s no secret – the Summit is in decline.
Continue reading ‘Summit-Edge Vision Questions’
My Leadership “Signposts”
I’m not sure why I decided to call them by that name, but I have for the last several years. I counsel people all the time: when confused or in need of direction from God, always look BACK to the “signposts” –those times when you WERE clear and had direction from the Lord in a special way. I maintain that most of us have had moments when the sense of being directed is very strong and very clear. Sometimes prayer moments seem to “connect” on a special and memorable level. I’ve learned to make special note of those moments, especially when life crowds up with stresses and conflicting priorities. Although some days I do it much deeper than others, as a leader, I DAILY try to check my “guidance systems” for where the Lord not only wants me to go but where He is wanting to go with the church.
Tonight I decided to be more methodical and specific and write down, in a new format, all of those critical moments from the last few years. I highly recommend the practice. It was very helpful. It served to simplify matters in my mind. Church life in a place the size of BTCC can get pretty complicated. The problems and challenges can be overwhelming just in their dizzying variety. Honestly, from time to time it will make you want to go live in a van down by the river! But, as I looked back on those “signpost” moments, I was reminded of my big picture priorities.
I may tell the story around each one of them someday (if anyone cares). A couple of the stories I’ve told from the pulpit. The “pray until the lights come on” while in Kabul is an example. For now though, I am more interested in the result:
When I distilled the signposts down to the fundamentals, they all came down to 5 basic “callings” I am very confident should guide my leadership (each of them have details underneath the surface statement):
1) Make sure we pursue worship services that “inspire extravagant worship” and run that vision all the way to children’s ministry.
2) “Projects” – productions designed to “make the case for the faith” as if unbelievers are the only ones in the room.
3) Missions: the “one to one” relationship with the least reached countries of the world, especially partnering with the Chinese and their dream of taking the gospel Back to Jerusalem.
4) Doing it all, not only as a Lead Pastor, but with my family deeply engaged.
5) Honoring the heritage of our church –realizing I am of the generation that is living off of the generosity and faithfulness of others.
All of these are to be under-girded and guided by the values of: intellectual integrity, spiritual power & artistic sensibility.
Those are the biggies for me. As I lead, those are the guidance systems that will always be signs planted in the road to give perspective and direction no matter what comes.
I think it’s important to keep the Mall in perspective especially since it’s been run on local news twice.
A couple of years ago an architect who does a lot of work with churches looked at the Mall and made the case that seemed logical all along. . . nearly unlimited space AND parking. Hard to beat.
Over ten years of prayer seemed confirmed. When my job shifted over to Lead Pastor I felt a new sense of responsibility for the future and growth of BT. That, coupled with the fact the Edge really seemed to hit a new stride since the beginning of the year, my greatest concern then became – how do we keep moving? I then pitched a proposal to our Senior Leadership Team, Trustees, representatives of our GPS about moving the Edge to the Mall in an effort to let it stretch its wings to its full potential. At the same time, we could give the Summit a prime time spot in the new building. I have to repeat – it was a proposal. I put it in formal form so the idea would be weighed deeply and seriously, not so it would become immediate policy.
The idea has many merits and I am personally convinced Washington Square would make a great place for a growing church. However, we all need to keep in mind that wisdom and due diligence must rule the day. We are in the middle of asking a lot of questions. Can we, should we try to keep Lincoln and the Mall? Should we stay where we are? Should the whole operation move to the Mall? Should we secure the Mall or is it too premature to make that kind of commitment? At what point have we truly pushed the current property to its limits? The list goes on and on.
We will keep moving forward, praying like crazy to hear what God may be saying, act with all the wisdom years of experience have taught all of our leaders and see what happens. In the meantime, regardless of what building we’re in, we need to transplant ourselves in the community by going through the process church plants go through. REMEMBER THE SURVEYS GANG!
Some things to think about when deciding which service to go to this Easter Sunday.
Maybe a few BTer’s saw it. . .
You never can tell if being on the news is a blessing or a curse. I hate talking on camera. There’s a near paralyzing fear you’re going to say something that comes off wrong. Then, there’s the old effect that hearing your own voice recorded always has: “do I really sound like that?”. In this case – “do I really look AND sound like that?” To me I looked grim and overweight. Not sure if the grim thing was seen by all – but one friend confirmed the overweight part! So, a fat, basically unhappy Pastor. Glad I could represent us all well! Now I see why national level people have “handlers”.
On the other hand, I love the free publicity for the church. For the handful that may have seen it, it’s getting pretty wild that our vision and hopes for the mall are making local news. The reporter told me the station had been getting many calls. Maybe I’m naïve, but it’s hard to imagine why anyone would call a TV station to report what we’re doing. On the other hand; just before Easter, it’s nice to put ourselves in front of eyes that don’t normally see us. Maybe someone will choose to come this Sunday after seeing the piece.
I told a team of Edgers at the beginning of the year, I believe the Lord is calling us to a new day of being placed “on a stand” as in when Jesus said, “no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl or hides it under a bed. He puts it on a stand. . .” We are still kind of “hidden”. No one looking at our building or hearing our name would assume that we do the things we do. It seems we’re suited to a mall rather than a building that looks like a normal church. And, there is no doubt, if we WERE to move into the mall we can know that we will be up on a stand.
The wildest thing of all is; all of this was nothing but unseen prayer over the last decade. Now it is creeping into “seen” reality. Fun stuff.
I’m still on the after-burn of Vision Day. It is always SO life and faith affirming when God does that special “thing’ He does.
It’s made me wonder about a lot of things: one is – why did we have about 200 – 300 more people than average that day? Was it because of Palm Sunday? Was it the meal at the mall? Was it the idea of a “vision day”? It also has me wondering what God is up to.
On one hand, I often have a confidence that he has shown me next steps and even the really BIG picture, but there is always this middle part that is clouded in an intriguing kind of fog: How will all of this play out? What does He want us to do? What can only He do? How do you process the difference between bold faith and stupid ideas? How do we maintain the balance between practical wisdom and trusting God?
While Washington Square Mall is not the vision, it has always been a part of it, going back over 10 years in my own life. It’s just been a regular prayer. Sometimes it would fade off, sometimes it would ramp up, but it would never go away. In the beginning, church in Washington Square Mall felt like a really crazy thing, but inspiring enough to dare to pray about. Now it feels like a real possibility I’m in danger of getting too impatient with. Now, the weird feeling is – it feels inches away but miles and miles at the same time. While the fog sometimes drives me up a wall – I wouldn’t trade this “life to the full” thing Jesus does for anything.
Vision Sunday Follow-up from 1LifeDigital on Vimeo.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
Some thoughts on our vision for Washington Square Mall and some explanation on the Community Surveys.
