Challenged Pt. 2

I feel a blog streak coming on. Read THIS before continuing. Today, as I was praying about this leadership stuff I REALLY sought God on some help in the area of leadership. As soon as I prayed it I was reminded of a conversation Adam and I had yesterday. Adam had just watched Evan Almighty (great flick) and was commenting on an awesome line from that movie. (I then heard Jen Thomas quote the same thing today) God (played by Morgan Freeman) told Evans wife "Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?" WOW! When I pray for leadership, does God just give it? Or does He give me opportunities to lead as He wants me too. HA! Now that's crazy. I think so often we pray for something thinking He'll just ZAP us with what we ask, when in reality He may just give us the opportunity to do what we prayed for. I tend to think that everything we need is already within us, it just needs to be awakened, or needs the opportunity to rise from within. If you are a believer, the SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD lives within you and HE holds ALL that we'll ever need. Sure, there is divine cooperation where we must act, interact, and react with the Spirit. Sure, there are different personalities, different gifts, different purposes for different people. BUT, I KNOW that when God is moving on my heart to ask for something, he might just want me to act when the opportunity arises. Hmmm, a little something to ruminate on. lol

Challenged,

Jeff

Challenged

Ever go through stretches in life where you REALLY feel challenged? Not challenged like "Man, this is a challenge!" But challenged like "Man, something needs to change". Not anything bad. Not something sinful, just change. For the better. Well, regardless whether you have, I'm going through that right now. I am feeling very, VERY challenged in my leadership skills. I want to be able to lead Element Church to wherever God wants to take it. I know that God is NOT limited in what He can do. However, I do believe that as the leader of one of His churches I can limit where He wants to take Element Church. That is convicting and challenging! I want to be the leader that God wants for this church. I don't want to limit any direction, plan, vision or dream God has. That in mind, sure seems like in my daily prayer and Bible time God has REALLY been leading me this direction. It's making me ask some SERIOUS questions about how I'm leading and how I want our team to lead. We've grown SO rapidly (not complaining) that I feel my leadership hasn't caught up. And that is probably totally my fault. I don't EVER want my pastoring or our ministry to go through the motions. I don't EVER want us to take lightly the way we present the Gospel. The way we worship. The way we serve. I don't EVER want to stop serving in incredibly creative and relevant ways. And I don't EVER EVER EVER want to hold back my WICKED AWESOME team of staff, our volunteers or Element Church. I've been processing some things in my head about how I can make this next level of leadership. Adam and I are headed to a conference in D.C. next week and we've already planned on processing some of these issues. Anyway, that was heavy on my heart and mind and had to get it off. Unfortunately, you caught it! I LOVE Element Church! I LOVE serving in ministry! I LOVE leading my team. I just want to do it in the fullest extent of God's dreaming, not mine. And God can dream big...look at the universe. lol

Challenged,

Jeff

5 reasons NOT to start a church...

...or any other ministry. Just because you've been to (insert name of church) and REALLY LIKED it doesn't mean you should start one yourself OR that your town needs one. I know, coming from someone who started a church that is ironic. Just because (insert name of church) started a ministry DOESN'T MEAN your church needs to start one. I've fallen for the trap in ministry before, maybe you have to, of seeing something work somewhere else and AUTOMATICALLY thinking "If we do that we'll get the same results." I've implemented programs, ministries, strategies and the like into youth ministries and churches I've led thinking they will give me the same results (insert church name) got. SO, that being said, here are my top 5 reasons NOT to start a church or any other ministry.

#5 I'm tired of being told what church should be like. HA. We start a church because we're tired of being told how church should be like, so we're going to do it how WE think it should be like. You know what happens as soon as, oh I don't know, five people are coming to your church? SOMEONE IS GOING TO TELL YOU HOW CHURCH SHOULD BE LIKE. Even with the success of Element, we've got our fair share of people, FROM OUR CHURCH, telling us how they think church should be done. That will never go away. EVER! People have opinions, they have preferences, that doesn't make them evil OR give you license to start a new church OR ministry.

#4 I was a good youth pastor (or staff pastor). LOL Funny thing is I WAS A YOUTH PASTOR before this. If you think you want to start a church because you were a good youth pastor and/or you could do church better, DON'T. A lot of guys start churches because they think they can do church better than the one they are already serving in. Did I always agree with my sr. pastor? No. Would I have done some things differently? Yes. Is that my reason for starting a new church. ABSOLUTELY, 100% NO!

#3 (insert name) thinks I could start a church. (insert name) likes my idea. Umm, unless GOD thinks you could start a church and GOD likes your idea you shouldn't do it. And if you are serving in a church and your pastor/leadership team doesn't feel "led" or "called" to do what your idea is, maybe they aren't the ones with the wrong vision. Just saying. Too many churches start and fail, and too many ministries start and stale because someone supports "MY" idea. Note "MY" idea.

#2 It worked for... Willow Creek, Saddleback, Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, Perry Noble. I don't care if it worked for the Apostle Paul it doesn't mean we'll get the same results. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked "What model of church are you?" What they want to know is, are you doing church like Willow, Saddleback, NewSpring, Mars Hill (either one), or any other successful church. Why can't we do church like Element? I've been influenced by MANY churches and pastors, and most of them you would never know their name. I know of people who attend a church like one listed above, come back to their town and because their town doesn't have one of "those" churches they think one should be started. WHY? Maybe God doesn't want one of those churches in town. He may want you to start one but ONE THAT IS YOU AND NOT RICK WARREN! Now I have used ideas, principles and approaches from guys and churches like I mentioned, but THEY ARE NOT A REASON TO START A CHURCH OR A MINISTRY! What's funny is, typically when someone says we need a (insert name) type church or ministry, they start it and it's NOTHING like (insert name) would have done it. In fact they probably would hate it.

#1 I don't like..."...any churches in my town." "the ministries in our church." "my pastor." "my job." I'll take the last one first. If you don't like your job STARTING A CHURCH WON'T FIX THAT! Nuff' said. I've heard of and spoken to so many guys who use the "I don't like..." method of church planting or ministry adding. You know what? When it comes to something as serious as planting a church or starting a ministry, GOD COULD CARE LESS ABOUT WHAT YOU LIKE? He cares about what YOUR CITY and what YOUR CHURCH umm... I don't know NEEDS! And maybe, JUST MAYBE we don't always know what our church or city needs. If you don't like your pastor try PRAYING FOR HIM, or SUPPORTING HIM. If you don't like the ministries in the church try SERVING IN THEM TO MAKE THEM BETTER. If you don't like any churches in your town, well, tough cookies. It's not a reason to start one. This is by far THE MOST ABUSED REASON for starting churches and ministries in America.

Why did I start a church? Why SHOULD I start a church (or ministry)? Only...ONLY because the voice of God stirs my heart. ONLY! It was scary enough for me to start this church KNOWING that the only reason was that God was asking me to. If I were doing it for any of these other reasons I would be DOOMED to fail and KNOW IT from day one. NONE of those reasons are reasons to start a church. Ok, I'm done. That's been on my heart lately.

For more read this and this.

Listening for the call,

Jeff

When they catch it...

Hey Element Church! I love it when people catch what you're throwing. And no, I'm not talking about baseball, football or cow chip tossing. I'm talking about vision, leadership, example. I saw this lived out in one of my children yesterday and that REALLY excites me.

There is nothing more frustrating as a pastor or a parent (they can feel amazingly similar depending on what church you are in, lol) than the people you are leading not catching what you're throwing. Now, I know many a parent and MANY a pastor who get upset when people don't catch what they throw, the problem is that those same parents and pastors wouldn't catch it themselves if someone threw it to them. The parent/or pastor challenges the children/or people to do something, or be something, or go somewhere, etc. that they themselves won't or wouldn't do or go. Amazing how folks can see through that pretty quick. However, when people DO catch it, it's so cool to watch. Back to my child.

We got some snow on Sunday night into Monday morning that left a small but decent coating over the ground. I was at work and Sabrina was working around the house as Jonah headed outside to play. A few minutes later Sabrina poked her head out of the front door to see what the guy was up to and he was at our neighbors shoveling their driveway. He got it cleaned off as best he could then went to the next one. He then did the walks. He came back in and Sabrina said "What were you doing out there?" Jonah answered "Shoveling the neighbors driveways." She asked "why?" His response (I LOVE THIS) "There was snow on it." HA! I LOVE it. A few months ago I took Jonah with me to clean off some neighbors walks and drives. When he asked me "why?" my response was pretty similar. "Their is snow on it so we want to help!"

I don't know if Jonah would have done that on his own without first me throwing it to him. In the church it's the same thing. The people won't get out and serve unless we serve first. They won't love unless we love first. They won't live unless we live first. They won't catch it when we throw it unless we catch it first! And by the way, Element is catching it!

When they catch it...

Jeff

Voice trumps budget every time!

Hey Element Church! This has been on my heart lately, and after this weekend I felt I needed to blog it. I don't claim to be a church leadership, church planting, or church in general expert, but I do feel that through this process of planting a church I have learned a TON of stuff! WOW has this been a learning process. One of the things I have learned the most about doing church is the value of listening to God's voice OVER the budget when the two conflict. Does that mean we don't have a budget. NO! We developed a budget pretty early in the process but I learned very quickly that the voice of God doesn't always come to us when a budget is being made. (I also learned that the budget of a growing church plant changes weekly lol) Sometimes the voice of God comes at a time when it APPEARS there is no money. Hmm, there in lies the conundrum. I TRULY believe that many churches around our country do not reach their maximum impact in their community because they listen to the budget first, and the voice of God second specifically when the two conflict. Now I know that we can use this TOTALLY as an excuse to spend money willy nilly on stuff that is NOT of God, HOWEVER, it is an issue we must address. Already in the life of our very young church I feel God has asked us to do some things that if we we listened solely to our budget, we wouldn't have done them. At the heart of our DNA at Element is serving our city. This already has created voice vs. budget issues. In May of last year we really felt like our opening service project to the city should be a gas buydown. This made NO sense when we had less than 20 people committed to our church. It didn't make sense financially or voluntarily BUT God's voice trumped budget. AND IT WAS HUGE! It didn't make sense in September to do another gas buydown before we launched our services, but voice trumped budget. It didn't make sense in January to give one weeks entire offering away so our people could serve others, but voice trumped budget. We moved into February and we quickly outgrowing our space. Our lead team sat down and talked about options. The ONLY options that would work included MAJOR financial risks for us, HOWEVER, voice automatically trumped budget when it came to reaching our city for Christ. When we did our budget last November we didn't plan on adding an entire service in another venue and seeing 370 people come to church. What if we would have set the precedent of listening to the budget and not the voice? A third service with the price tag it had would have been shut down pretty quick. What about the egg drop? That came out of NOWHERE for us. HOWEVER, our DNA is to serve EVEN if it costs money. We knew God wanted us to do an Easter outreach and when the opportunity arose VOICE TRUMPED BUDGET. We committed financially to the drop and what happened? FREE HELICOPTERS! If we would have listened to the budget we would have NEVER had the opportunity to watch God provide like that. This calls for some SERIOUS prayer for wisdom and discernment as Element continues to minister and serve. As I continue to lead this church, my prayer is that We/I will ALWAYS listen to the voice and NOT the budget. Voice trumps budget every time. Now I probably made some people mad. (the ones that listen to the budget) lol

Following Christ,

Jeff