You Can Know God

iPhone

In 15 minutes, thousands of people will be buying an iPhone.  I confess...I'm a bet of a gadget freak and I love some of the things this phone is supposed to do.  Like choosing which voicemail I want to hear and syncing with iCal and iMail.  If it wasn't for the fact that I don't like Cingular/AT&T, then I would probably switch sooner.  As it is now, I want to wait and see that the reviews say after some of the buzz dies down.

On a side note, Apple should show live streaming video from some of their major stores.  I'd love to see what the Apple store in New York is looking like now.

Computer Woes

Less than a month after my hard drive crashing and losing most of my data, last night, a cup of coffee got spilled all over my keyboard resulting in a freaked out computer that wouldn't boot up. A trip to the apple store did no good, as liquid damages are not covered by Apple Care. So my two recent issues were not covered by the "great" extended warranty.

So a person in the church, who shall remain nameless but who may or may not have been responsible for the coffee spillage in the first place, appears to have taken it apart, dried it out, and gotten everything working.

I think my phone got as the touch screen requires more of a hit than a touch to operate properly.

30 Years

Back before we held our first preview service, I had a thought.  I've had some thoughts since then, of course, but this particular thought has stuck with me.  We've got a limited amount of time in our lives to make a difference.  We've got a certain amount of time to reach people, serve people, and lead people to Jesus.  As a Christian and as a pastor, there's a finish line...a point when we can't do any more.

No matter where you work, where you go to school, or what you do with your life, it's going to be over.  Same goes for our church.  I think all churches have a life cycle.  They are born, they grow, and a lot of them level off.  Some of them die.  What's the oldest effective church you can think of?  500 year old churches in Europe are museums now.

So what if we just wrote it in the bylaws of Oak Leaf Church that we would just shut down after 30 years.  Lord willing, I could be the pastor of this church that long.  Who knows?  But what if we just accepted the life cycle and leverage all we can for 30 years.  What if, at the end of 30 years, our bylaws called for everything to be sold, divided up, and given to 5 new church plants.  Growth by explosion.

If we operated like we had a limited amount of time, then we'd probably be more concerned with doing ministry than buildings buildings.  Does a church ever really NEED a $20 Million facility?  If we just had the mindset that it's all going to fade away, then it might force us to focus on people rather than programs.

Crazy thought.

Question for Andy Stanley

First of all, let me say that I am a huge Andy Stanley fan.  I think he is hands down THE best teacher on the planet today.  I am also a big fan of the philosophy, strategy and excellence of Northpoint Community Church.  We have learned a TON from them.

But if I could sit down with Andy for coffee, I would love to talk about their church planting strategy.  Northpoint Church has the main campus, a campus in Buckhead, and a new campus in Cumming.  Andy is live at the main campus and appears via video at the other campuses. This is pretty common in the mega-church world these days.

But Northpoint also has a strategic partner program.  They launch partner churches in different areas - there's one in Alabama, several in Georgia, even one way up north.  These church plants have a planter/leader, but the teaching comes from Andy via video.  They aren't managed the same way Buckhead and Browns Bridge are managed - they are their own entities. They just align with Northpoints mission, adopt their programs, and operate the same way.  These churches can choose from different series that Northpoint has done.  So while there may be a planter or a leader, the teaching comes from Northpoint the majority of the year. 

But here is my question.  What happens when Andy retires?  He has such a following (and rightfully so).  His teaching really seems to drive these partner churches.  Northpoint does such a great job reproducing bands and worship leaders - where is that when it comes to developing teachers and pastors?  I heard Andy say at a Drive conference that there are people on his staff that could deliver his messages with excellence.  Why not send them out, as real pastors/planters, to start churches?  Why build or launch a strategic partner around video?  Though he's the best teacher around in my opinion, can we not find other qualified teachers and leaders to start these churches?

Starting video campuses seems to be duplication, not multiplication or even reproduction.  Again, understand that I hold Andy Stanley and Northpoint in the highest regard.  They are mentors from a distance for us.  I'd absolutely love to dialogue about this, because it's something near and dear to me.  As a church planter and pastor, I want to develop other teachers who could go out and teach as well as I can.  I want to help another guy go out from here and launch a self-sufficient, reproducing church.

In my world, you don't pick on the likes of Andy, Bill, and Perry.  That won't make the blog readership go up.  I'm not trying to do that - just openly discuss some strategy.  No strategy is perfect, and as we look to the future, we're formulating our identity as well.  This post is me thinking out loud, and I welcome your comments.

The curse of the CC

We're really trying to streamline and focus around the office these days.  We try to keep programs and ministries to a minimum in order to focus on Sundays.  We want people to focus in on their particular area and devote 90% of their energy towards their ministry.  So today, Anthony talked about the curse of the CC during our lead team staff meeting.

You know how this works.  Maybe there is someone on your team or in your office that cc's you on every e-mail.  A couple of things can happen here, even if the e-mail doesn't really apply to you.  First, you read it, and that takes time.  Secondly, you think about it, and that takes time and energy.  And finally, you may send a response.  Again...time, energy and mental RAM. 

But the biggest danger is getting someone into the loop that doesn't really need to be there.  CC'ing can prevent streamlining and hinder action.  It could lead to a whole bunch of people knowing about something, but nobody actually doing something.  As Executive Pastor, Anthony is helping to guard my time and focus by making sure that every e-mail doesn't get cc'd to me.  I don't need to know everything about small groups and children's ministry.  I don't need to be in that loop.  Chances are, if I were to get the e-mail, I'd formulate a response and share my opinion.  Which means, I'm not doing what I am really called to do.

I ask our small groups pastor to lead an ever growing network of small groups - to be the champion of groups, and to make sure that every adult gets in one.   I don't need him thinking about youth ministry, children's ministry or the finances in his spare time.

As we continue to grow as an organization and have more and more people in the office, it becomes more and more important to specialize.  In the beginning, we were all generalists.  But with 8 or 9 people on the staff team, we can specialize and focus.  And we can stop cc'ing everyone on every single e-mail.

Truck Wanted

Okay, so we find ourselves having to get rid of our pod and we're looking at consolidating a pod and a trailer or two into a big old box truck.  Maybe 26 feet.  Anybody know of anything?  For some reason, I also overheard "where do you buy a semi" in the office today. So if you have a semi or a box truck for sale, let me know.  We're definitely serious about the box truck and slightly serious about the semi part.

Connection Card Comment

My favorite comment from one of Sunday's guest cards...Not what I expected, and I mean that in a good way.

To everyone that helps set up, play music, create environments, works with kids and load it all back in the pod...THANKS!

Summer of Fun

After a week on vacation, it was good to be at church yesterday.  One couple told me in between services that they were staying for the second service because the first one was so good.  Another guy told me after the service that he started tithing a couple of weeks ago and this was the first time he'd ever done that.  He said I was a good salesman. :)

The God @ the Movies series is going to be fun.  In coming weeks, we'll use The Incredibles, School of Rock and Transformers to help make some spiritual points.  The band is sounding better and better every week. 

God is really doing some things.  Our attendance has been strong, even during the summer.  We're going to be so busy in July getting ready to launch a third service.  We're reinventing our kids areas.  We're hitting the streets and getting back in the community.  We're doing a lot of behind the scenes stuff that will get us ready to make a huge difference here in Cartersville.

On Wednesday morning at 7 AM, we're starting something called thirty30.  We're going to read the Bible for 30 minutes and then pray for 30 minutes.  No talking or discussing things...just reading God's word.  No sharing prayer requests or talking about prayer...just prayer.  Hearing from God and talking to God...what could be more important.  You're invited to join us if you like.

Introducing…

This week, I want to introduce you to some of the fine people that work at Oak Leaf Church.  I'll tell you a little about how they got here and what they do.

First up, meet Anthony Gratto.  Anthony and I talked on the phone the week before our first preview service back in June of 2006.  I think he was fishing at the time.  They moved to Georgia thinking he might plant a church in Paulding County.  Then he realized everybody had the same idea.  So he just stuck with us.

So he came over to help us as a volunteer with "whatever."  He's helped set up, helped lead teams of voluntters.  He's participated in staff meeting on a volunteer basis, all while teaching business at East Paulding High School.  I originally thought Anthony would move from Director of Volunteers to an administrative pastor, but when he officially joined our team a few weeks ago, he did so as our Executive Pastor.

Anthony will basically run the church.  All the staff report to him.  He leads staff meeting and is responsible for implementation and operations around here.  Bringing on Anthony in this role will allow me to focus on my gifts - leading and teaching.  If I'm the head coach, he's the quarterback.  He's taking a lot of things off of my plate and will help everybody else on staff focus in.  Anthony has an organized mind and he's a systems guy.  So instead of just hiring him as admin pastor and promoting him to Executive Pastor later, I just bit the bullet now.

Anthony is my right hand guy.  He's been with us from the beginning and knows how we work and is getting pretty good at knowing how I think.  He'll be able to speak for me in meetings and he'll represent our church well.

I even convinced him to switch from his silly Dell to a MacBook Pro.  Now if I could only get him to blog.

God @ The Movies Welcome Video

Courtesy of Will Goodwin, our Creative Arts Pastor, whose wife said that he did the voice over at least 100 times.