How's Your Seal Looking?

I was reading the other morning during my devotional time and came across 1 Corinthians 9:2, “…For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord”. It reminded me of the answer to the question, “How do you know if you’re a leader?” If people are following you, you are the leader. If no one is following you, you’re just on a walk.

I’ve been a part of leadership circles in the past where titles were very important. It seemed that everyone had an official title: Apostle, Prophetess, Bishop, etc. I don’t have a problem with giving respect to anyone who occupies a position of authority or leadership. I do think that we have to be careful not to hang a title without that person producing the fruit of the position. The Bible instructs that deacons, for example, should first be tested (1 Timothy 3:10).

When Paul was speaking to the Corinthian church, he was saying that whatever they were at this point, they were a reflection of his apostleship. I’ve been told that once a pastor has been at the same church for five years, the church is a reflection of his leadership. The first couple of years, he can blame the problems on the former guy. But after the five year mark, it’s all him baby!

Another word for seal is certification. Restaurants are given certification grades by the department of health as to the cleanliness of the facility, quality of the food served, etc. A restaurant may receive a grade of A, B, or C. They may even be required to close until the problems are addressed. If someone were to view the fruit of your leadership and ministry at this point, what seal or certification would you receive?

Opportunity Honks!

Just read a recent blog entry by Pastor Steven Furtick...good stuff:

The Lifetime of the Opportunity

“The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.”Leonard Ravenhill

Every opportunity has an expiration date. Exceptional people, churches, and businesses possess the agility to move at the speed of God. This usually means merging into oncoming traffic at breakneck speed.

A lot of people I know are more fearful of making a wrong move than making no move at all. Not me. I’ve been alive long enough to know that if I just sit at the intersection after God has given a green light, He’ll only honk a few times before He passes me by in the other lane. Doesn’t mean He’ll stop loving me or stop using me. It just means that that opportunity is gone. Forever.

If you are currently considering an great, godly, risky opportunity, consider this:The cost of missing out can be greater than the cost of messing up.The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity.

This caused me to remember times in my life when I have sat through the green light or shouted out, "Go around". How about you?

Spiritual Fertility

Just read a great post from Ben Arment about preparing the ground before planting a church. Here it is:

The Stuff Legends are Made of

Church planters are notorious for thinking that a great dream + hard work + insight = a thriving church. But church planters fail all the time with this formula.

What's missing is spiritual fertility. Every area has an established degree of receptivity to the Gospel, which can make or break a chruch plant before it ever gets off the ground. I'm not saying we shouldn't plant churches in difficult areas. I'm saying that in these cases, we should change our primary activity from planting an organization to cultivating relationships.

If you've read The Purpose Driven Church, you know that Rick Warren prayed for a church to pastor for the rest of his life. You know that he scoured maps in his basement, looking for the fastest-growing areas across the country and discovered Orange County. And you know that he sent a letter to a California missions director at the same time that director sent a letter to him.

Now that's the stuff legends are made of. And it's enough to send tens of thousands of church planters charging head-long over the cliff. What we fail to consider is that before Rick planted Saddleback Commmunity Church, he attended and then taught at California Baptist University in Riverside, California for years. But get this - he preached over 100 revivals throughout the Riverside area, which is just a 30-minute drive from where the Saddleback campus currently sits.

Now do you think... that just maybe... he might have helped cultivate this area for a church plant? I'm thinking it might have been the true first base.

I write this because I have a huge heart for the struggling church planter. I think they need to know about spiritual fertility and how it impacts whether a church plant will work.

Just finished a book on this subject, which will hopefully be out by spring. More to come...

I wish I had known about this principle before we planted our last church. God was still faithful, but it reminds me of when the Sonics drafted Jermaine O'Neal. He sat the bench for several years before he was able to contribute. So it was with our church plant. It took us several years of becoming a part of the community before we began to make an impact.

The Journey Ends

Okay…this will conclude our Journey to a New Church…for two reasons. My wife commented that this blog is making me sound like a very critical person and that’s not the person she knows and loves. Second, we have found a great church and hopefully will be able to invest ourselves.

So...let’s do this! The second church that we visited was a very contemporary church that did not seem to care if you came or not. Again…not much interaction at the door before or after. The worship was very pathetic, bland and not very moving. The message was given by the senior pastor and was quite good. The pastor was engaging, creative and overall very effective. I really liked this guy and his method. Unfortunately the sermon is just one spoke in the wheel. It takes a village (sorry)…it takes a team to pull off a great worship experience. Just one area functioning the way it should is not enough. In our previous church plants our team goal was always to make the experience from the car to the seat and back again a positive experience.

We did attend this particular fellowship for two Sundays just to make sure, but the results were the same, so we moved on.

The third church had been recommended by many people, so our expectations were high. We were greeted in the parking lot by a very friendly fellow driving a golf cart who offered to take us to the door. He was actually the small group pastor on staff and was very engaging. The greeters were also very engaging and helpful. The foyer was packed with people, which was actually exciting. There was coffee and donuts and folks handing out bulletins. So our expectations began to rise.

The sanctuary was darkened, the stage was lit with colored lights and the overall mood was very cool. A young man in jeans picked up a guitar and the band joined in with several upbeat worship songs. The worship leader was very passionate, which was a nice change from our previous adventures. However (you knew this was coming…right?), the body did not seem to notice or care or engage in the worship. I felt bad for the guy, because he was really anointed and was pouring his heart into it, but no one else cared to join him. In fact, I felt like if I had sung out loud, everyone would have turned around to see the idiot who was singing.

At the conclusion, a video was shown with testimonies of some of the members and their experiences since attending this fellowship. Some were funny, some were very moving. Overall…a great way to introduce the body to someone visiting for the first time. The pastor then entered the stage. He was a middle-aged fellow with a kind face. He began to speak and introduced the message which was one of a series that he had begun a couple of weeks before. As I listened, it was obvious that he was using many simple and cliché phrases. I kept waiting for him to “ramp” it up, but he continued in his monotone manner for 35 minutes.

The conclusion was a standing invitation for anyone to receive Christ. The worship leader sang for a few moments and then everyone was dismissed. The exit was again very swift for most everyone.

We attended a couple more times just to make sure, but again, there was really nothing here to engage us. So we decided to continue on our journey. As I stated in the beginning, we have finally found a very engaging body. It is a campus of a multi-site church with awesome worship on stage and in the body. The sermons are very effective and are shown on the big screen (which I thought initially would be weird, but now, it’s like going to a good movie). We have been approached on several occasions already about joining different small groups. And the atmosphere on Sundays is very open, exciting and just plain fun. At the same time, I think I’ve ended up crying during every worship service so far!

So ends our journey to a new church. My prayer is that a pastor or church leader will use our observations and experiences and be able to examine their own church environment through the eyes of visitors.

Friendly Church Not Very Friendly

The journey for a new church continues. We decided to visit a “friendly church”. One church that advertised itself as a friendly church was unfortunately not very friendly.

As we turned into the parking lot, we noticed several orange cones near a side door. This was actually the main entrance as the church was meeting in the back of a warehouse. This was not a problem for us; we’re pretty cool with unusual places. One of our church plants in the past was in a storefront shared with a plumbing business. However the signage at this friendly church was either inadequate or non existent. There was no one to greet us in the parking lot or to help with directions.

As we entered through the door, we found the pastor pacing back and forth in the lobby. I recognized him from scanning the church’s website prior to visiting. He briefly spoke because we literally ran into him. But no one else greeted us before or after the service even though there were several people in the lobby.

The lobby was very nicely decorated, however, the signage indicating the location of the sanctuary was non existent. There were several doors that were similar since it was a remodeled warehouse. No one volunteered to assist us, so after finally checking a couple of doors, I found one that opened to the sanctuary.

The lights were dim, which was cool like a club, but it was hard to see the lay of the land and where to sit. Again no one, such as an usher, volunteered to help us find a seat. The young lady who led the worship seemed angry and shouted the lyrics. All of the band members seemed to be going through the motions. There was a short video about some kind of small group event. Then the pastor entered the stage.

He was dressed in blue jeans, long hair, converse, and a jacket. He kept his hands in his pockets a lot and again, paced back and forth on the stage. His sermon seemed disjointed and he preached about all the things that the friendly church was going to do. The service ended with him saying a prayer and then he sat down.

A young man stepped onto the stage and began to talk about another event at a park that everyone was invited to attend. Then another prayer and we were all dismissed. Everyone seemed to file out quickly and I didn’t notice anyone hanging around to talk.

The overall atmosphere seemed to be one of a body that was struggling to find its identity. According to the website, the church had recently renamed itself and re-launched under this new name. I don’t think they have yet to find their voice.

It was a strange experience for someone that is used to more interaction and fellowship. It was ironic that the church billed itself as friendly. I wonder if they were trying to speak into existence, rather than try and model it. We did not feel the need to attend another time.

Next stop…a church with a very creative communicator.

Journey to a New Church

Well, we've been searching for a new church the last couple of months. No, I will not say anything negative about our last church that we attended for over 4 years. They have a wonderful pastor and we pray blessings on them. But it was time to search for our next post.My wife asked me what it was that we were looking for in a new church. After some quiet time I realized that it all boiled down to three things.

1. Practical Word: A word that is not only rooted in God’s Word, but one that could be relevant and practical for me today. And it wouldn't hurt if it was also communicated in a way that was animated or at least interesting.

2. Passionate Worship: Worship needs to be practiced and I know, somewhat scripted. But there’s also an element of spontaneity that “flows with the Spirit”. And it doesn’t hurt if the worship leaders on stage look like they are really enjoying the presence of the Lord and not just a performance.

3. People that Care: I believe that the church should be built on a foundation of not only the Word, and worship, but also a authentic, caring fellowship among the body.You would think that based on these three simple points; there would be a bunch of churches that could fit the bill. After visiting four churches, (and in all fairness we tried to stay within a five mile radius of our home…one word: gasoline!) on more than one Sunday (everybody has a one bad day), I’ve come to realize what a rarity it is to find a church that has these three basics.

Over the next couple of posts, I will relay our experiences visiting these churches. Stay tuned.