"I have good news"

Jordan, our 4 1/2 year old had a little incident at her preschool on Monday where she hit a boy, (he had it coming). We had big talks with her after that and when i got out of a meeting this afternoon I had a voice message from Jordan (using her mom's phone), "I have good news, i didn't hit anybody today!" I guess that is good news! That's now my favorte quote as it passes, "sing it like Job."

new worship service off to a good start

This past Sunday we started our 3rd worship service (9:45) which is really our 2nd (between 8:30 & 11). It was the largest service of the day as it had over 90 in attendance. Many of those was special occasion people, some wanted to see what the service was going to be like others came to the service because it was the first one. I really believe that by this time next year because of the time, and style this will be the best attended service of the three.

We did of course have a few technical difficulties. This drives me CRAZY but whenever you have technology you have that possibility. I tested the projector and words on Saturday night to make sure everything looked like it should look. It did. Before the service we did a quick test and again everything was fine. As soon as it is time for the first song suddenly it does not work. We have to reboot the projector. Luckily we had chosen a hymn for the first song and used the hymnal and the 2nd song was the best known and over played praise song of all time and was also in the hymnal. By the 3rd song we were ready but the screen ratio was off so we sang the songs but had to guess at some of the words!

My biggest concern of the day was that our 11:00 service only had 56 people. Some went to the 9:45 and others were not there. By moving to 3 service we are most likely dividing 220 by 3 rather than by 2 and that could hurt critical mass. I think i will make the 11 more formal by (God forbid) wearing a robe, standing in the pulpit and using more liturgy.

This was good day for me. This was something i've felt called to do since i got to St. Matthew's and i feel like we are moving in the right direction.

Miracles still happen

I played golf on Wednesday with my friend Tim and i for the first time in my life i played a round without losing a ball. As a matter of fact in might be the first time i have not lost multiple balls.

A good name for a church or not?

We are vacationing in the Outer Banks this week and we saw this church trailer. We assume the name for the church is taken from Acts 2:2 and is meant to reference the Holy Spirit and the mighty winds that come off the ocean. However, that was not my first thought. What about you?

Leadership Summit 4 John Ortberg

John Ortberg who i consider to be the most consistently great preacher gave the the 3rd talk today. As usual he was awesome. The only bummer was that i had already heard him give this message and I used a lot of it in one of my sermons and even blogged on it. With that being the case still in my opinion the best talk so far.
UPDATE: Here is the page you can find the Ortberg sermon. It is the heroes of the old testament, Esther.

Leadership Summit 3 Colin Powell

Bill Hybles interviewed Colin Powell this morning and it was great. This guy should be running for president, i would then be happy about my choice. It was a presentation/interview where you were more interested in listening and soaking it in than talking notes.
Hybles would ask Powell about what called his Powellisms and then Powell would expand on them:
Promote a clash of ideas,
-even as the leader you did to discuss ideas. You make better decisions this way. He expected people to aurgue with him but then to respect the decision as if it were theirs.

Encourage a Noisy System
-Really wants to hear what you think.
-he wants what you know,

Maintain an Open Door,- said this let to a crazy office but it had many benefits.

Probe the Organization-, If people are doing their jobs they have nothing to worry about.

Reward You Best Performers Get Rid of Non Performers- The good followers are always looking, if nothing is done to correct the bad performer the good performer will follow

Be Prepared To Upset People

Check Your Ego at the Door

Have Fun in your Command

Fit No Stereotypes- expectations and sense of shame, you are of this family do not shame this family.

Optimism is a Force Multiplier-

Things Always Look Better in the Morning-

Avoid War if at All Possible- this was very touching, as he talked about the first fire fights he was in during Vietnam , and the people that died in his arms. War should be avoided not only for our young men and woman but also for the enemies young men an woman.

BE Prepared To BE Lonely- Part of being a leader means you will be lonely.


Assignment- What were some of the Powell principles that I need to work on more.

Leadership Summit 2.5 a better Summit summery

Jeff over at smart pastor is giving much better reviews about the leadership summit than i am. Check him out.

Leadership Summit 2, Marcus Buckingham

The last talk of day one was Marcus Buckingham. He was awesome. I've heard him before and he is a great communicator, great use of humor and great content. Buckingham's schtick is that we should focus more on strengths than on our weaknesses.

When asked the question, "which do you think will help you be most successful. Building on your strengths or fixing your weaknesses?" 41% of people said strengths, and 59% said weaknesses. Buckingham says there are 3 myths we need to blow up and 3 truths we need to replace them with.
Myth 1- As you grow, your personality changes
Truth 1- As you grow , you become more of who you already are.
Makes the point that most of the personality traits you have as a child you have when you grow up. We grow and mature but basic traits stay the same.

Myth 2- you grow the most in your areas where you are weakest,
Truth 2-Truth- you grow the most in your areas where you are strongest,
Gave example of Shaquille O'Neal and how instead of focusing on his bad free throws percteage the Lakers focused on his inside play. As a result he was scoring champ 3 times and won 3 championships and his free throw % improve in the process.

Myth 3-that a great team member puts aside their strengths
Truth 3– a great team member volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time.

There are 3 skills we need to maximize the use of our strengths.
1. Identify what your strengths are,
2. Change things to utilize your strengths
3. Talk about your strengths without bragging and your weaknesses without whining.

How does this affect the church? I believe many people in the church are not serving in their strengths areas. If they were they would be more joyful.

Leadership Summit 1

Today begins one of my favorite weeks of the year, as Willowcreek Community Church starts their annual leadership summit.
The highlights of this year include Bill Hybels, Carly Fiorina, Floyd Flake, Marcus Buckingham, Michael Porter, Colin Powell, John Ortberg, and Jimmy Carter.

Founding pastor Bill Hybles gave the first talk titled "Vision to Die For." His basic point was that nothing matters more to a vision than for people to have ownership of the vision. The scripture reading was from John 10 and he talked about the difference between the hired hands who watch the sheep and the owner of the sheep. Jesus said that hired hands leave when they sense trouble where as the sheep owner will do anything include give his or her life for their sheep. The vision we share about our church needs to be one that people feel like they own. If not they will not feel invested and might never be on board. When people own a vision watch out.
The process Hybles shared for a shared vision was the following:
VISION FORMATION
Don't create vision alone. Do it as a team. Ask people, "what does God want our church to look like in 5 years?" Most people don't have to have their way, they just need their way considered. This was great for me as our church is in the middle of a visioning processes. Most everything in my body wanted myself to come up with the mission and the things our church should focus on in the future. For once i listened to the part of me that was unsettled about that. It needs to be the churches vision and not Gordon Pruitt's. This was a great reminder and also shows me i need to involve more people in this process.

VISION REFINEMENT
After you get done with the first draft, have subsequent drafts and present it to different groups. Again people feel valued and the result is a better vision.

VISION DECLARATION
Vision leaks. Keep casting the vision because people forget. Celebrate the vison when the vision is being lived out. As you do this more and more ownership of the vision happens.

Are you willing to sacrifice deeply to do what God has called you to do? Are you a hired hand or a owner?

Death to self

Been reading a devotional from Dallas Willard's book, Renovation of the Heart. Here are some of the highlights from my reading today:

“A shift toward self-denial is needed to reorder the six dimensions of the human self in subordination to God. Christian spiritual formation rests on this indispensable foundation of death to self and cannot proceed except insofar as the foundation is being firmly laid and sustained.”

“Our survival cannot be the ultimate point of reference in our world. We must not treat ourselves as God. This selfless life enable us to do for the first time what we want to do: be truthful, transparent, helpful, and sacrificially loving, with joy.”

“At the beginning of my day, I commit my day to the Lord’s care while meditatively praying through the Lord’s Prayer and possibly the 23rd Psalm. Then I meet everything that happens as sent, or at least permitted, by God. I meet it resting in the hand of his care. I no longer have to manage the weather, airplanes, and people.”

what are the essential beliefs? Are there any?

A 17th century Moravian named Rupertus Meldenius said, "in essential beliefs we have unity and non-essential we have liberty." I have seen many Methodist churches quote this when talking about their beliefs or doctrines. What is interesting is that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church never shared exactly what he believed those essential beliefs were.

In the first chapter of Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis, Bell writes about a similar topic. He writes about trampoline springs and blocks. Bell says this about the springs,

"when we jump, we begin to see the need for springs. The springs help make sense of these deeper realities that drive how we live every day. The springs aren't God. The springs aren't Jesus. The springs are statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth that we are experiencing in our jumping. I would call these the doctrines of the Christian faith. They aren't the point. They help us understand the point, but they are a means and not an end."

Bell contrasts springs with bricks.
"Somebody recently gave me a videotape of a lecture given by a man who travels around speaking about the creations of the world. At one point in his lecture, he said if you deny that God created the world in six literal 24 hour days, then you are denying that Jesus ever died on the cross. It's a bizarre leap of logic to make, i would say. But he was serious. It hit me while i was watching that for him faith isn't a trampoline; it's a wall of bricks. Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble. It appears quite string and rigid, but if you begin to rethink or discuss even one brick, the whole thing is in danger. Like he said, no six-day creation equals no cross. Remove one, and the whole wall wobbles."

I think i agree with Bell but i not only have springs but i also have bricks. One spring for me is the creation story. I believe Adam and Eve were real people but if it was proved as many people believe that they are fictional characters being used to point to spiritual truth it would not change my faith or cause my faith to crumble. The creation story is a spring that helps me gain a greater understanding of who God is.

A brick in my belief system is the physical resurrection of Jesus. To me, without the resurrection, you don't have anything. If it was proven that Jesus did not resurrect that would cause my faith to crumble.

Below are 2 slides from Dan Kimbell's blog from a few weeks ago that touches on the same topic that i agree with for the most part.

What are your essentials and non-essentials?

Put down the bottled water and pick up the tap water

This month's fast company has an article about the $50 billion bottled water business. Here are some of the highlights (low lights) and quotes.
-24% of bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi
-Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water.
-We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic.
-Worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water.
"Bottled water isn't healthier, or safer, than tap water. Indeed, while the United States is the single biggest consumer in the world's $50 billion bottled water market, it is the only one of the top four- the others are Brazil, China, and Mexico--that has universally reliable tap water. Tap water in this country, with rare exceptions, is impressively safe. It is monitored constantly, and the test results made public."

The article closes, "once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it's reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just 'does the value to me equal the 99 cents I'm about to spend?' but 'does the value equal the impact I'm about to leave behind?' Simply asking the question takes the carelessness out of the transaction. And once you understand where the water comes from, and how it got here, it's hard to look at that bottle in the same way again."

I figure 50 Billion dollars could solve the world's water problems. What do you think?

2 home runs in one night

The first home run came at our worship committee meeting as we agreed to move forward with a 3rd worship gathering! This worship gathering (service) will be alternative, contemporary, postmodern, nonorgan, type of thing. I'm pumped as i have waited 2 years to do this! This service will be at 9:45 and will start in September. Will keep you posted.
After the meeting i rushed to our church softball game, (i missed the first one because of the meeting). First at bat i doubled, second at bat with the bases loaded i flied out but it was a sacrifice fly. Last at bat i go yard with the bases empty. As i stepped on home plate, the question start coming, "why didn't you do that with the bases loaded?" They started calling me A Rod. I quickly pointed out that ARod would not homer in a 1 run game like i did but only in a game that was already decided. Where is the love? It's sad when the church softball team doesn't give you any grace. We won by 3.

Good News for Insomniacs!

My sermons are now available online. Well they have been for a while, I've just been waiting for a good one and I've realized that's not going to happen. Also you can get them on itunes.
Also we have created a church blog during lent was a daily devotion type of thing that matches up with the sermon. Let me know what you think.

Northern Virginia and khakis

Dan Kimbell's has a great post about observations he made this week while being in Northern Virginia. Everywhere he looked he saw guys wearing khakis, a blue blazer, an oxford shirt, and a tie.

"I felt like there is some supernatural unspoken dress code, or that we were in some school district uniforms were required. But we weren't. "

I must confess, this is my ideal choose of clothing and do consider northern VA home. If i had my way i would never wear a tie. Unfortuantely no body asked me and i our church is not there yet. So when i have to dress up i try to dress down as much as possible which is why i often wear khakis, a blue blazer. I still dream of the day where i won't have to wear a tie at St. Matthew's.

Hope for the United Methodist Church

Bishop Scott Jones of the Kansas East and West conference believes the United Methodist future is bright. Thank you Andrew for the reference.

Bill Hybels (or Hebels as i like to call him) Rocks

This is a post from the Jesus Creed today. It's about Bill Hybels pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. I subscribe to Willow's podcast and it was on my computer this morning. I've searched their website and itunes and can't find it. If i do i will let you know.

Anniversary Trip to Myrtle Beach

Leigh Ann and I finally celebrated our anniversary last week. We went to Myrtle Beach for 3 nights and had a blast. Did i mention, the kids stayed home! We stayed at the Marriott's Ocean Watch Villas.
Several months ago we received a phone call from Marriott offering us one of these 3 nights for $200 type of deals. The catch is you have to go to an hour presentation where they try to sell you a time share. Our room, or apartment (3 beds, and a sofa bed, kitchen and washer dryer )was normally $300 a night out of season and $600 in. Our guy took "no" pretty well and did not pester us. If you get a chance to do this, do it.

Here are a few pictures, one from our room, (we were on the 6th floor to the far left of the center building) and the other from the beach.

Don't Try This At Home

While playing with the girls on Sunday i took one of their bath toys and stuck it to my head. It was very funny until i looked in the mirror later in the day and again this morning. I now have hickeys on my head. Did i mention i have a funeral on Wednesday? Enjoy the photos, one is a reenactment and the other is the result. The good news is i am sure i can use this in a sermon at some point.

Resurrected

Jesus was not the only resurrection I celebrated on Sunday, though Jesus' resurrection was the most important. My pants, my wrinkle free Dockers have been resurrected!! Only $6 and you can't even tell that they were ripped.
My pants have risen, they have risen indeed!