You Can Know God

Thoughts from Romans

Over the past month, I've been reading through the book of Romans. Here are some thoughts or verses that I jotted down in my Moleskine.

• God often says, "If that's what you want, then that's what you'll get."


• When you don't really know God, you don't really know how to be human.


• God will judge our secrets (2:16). That's pretty serious stuff.


• It's not what you hear; It's what you do that counts.


• Paul struggled with son. He knew he was dead to sin and it didn't control him. He knew that we always have a choice to sin.


• "It is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it."


• God is angry and patient. I understand this a little bit as a parent of three kids. But God is still such a paradox to me.


• I should be honest in self evaluation - don't think it's better than the truth.  Be realistic.


• All authority comes from God, even the authority that you disagree with. Romans 13.


• I will give an account for my life and ministry to God, not to some guy with a blog.


• You can tear apart the work of God with silly arguments. Romans 14:20. This reminds me of all those stupid Bible translation debates.


• Thinking about something can lead to participation. This is how people get into trouble sometimes. But it's also how people start hiding God's word in their heart.

10,000 Invites

We printed about 10,000 invite cards for the new Confessions series. We encouraged people to give them out on Halloween...the only night where people in your neighborhood will knock on your door looking for something. You can invite all the cheerleaders, Buzz Lightyears, Jack Sparrows, Hannah Montanah and evil the ghosts and witches to Oak Leaf Church!

We're also going to give out a couple thousand invite cards in Downtown Cartersville this afternoon. We'll also give out helium balloons and operate a moon walk. We want to do everything we can to get people to this next series. Who can you invite?

Ten Confessions, Part 2

The other day, I confessed ten things I don't do as the pastor of Oak Leaf Church. Today, let me talk about ten things I actually do. In fact, here's a PDF of my actual job description if you care to take a look.

1. I study a lot. I block off time in my calendar to study. Sometimes, I leave the office and go to Starbucks to study.

2. I lead the church. This is the big picture kind of stuff. I'm thinking through our fist financial campaign, if and where we're going to build, what kind of spiritual initiatives we need to do. I'm the big picture guy, the chart the course guy and the overall leader of this church.

3. I work hard on my teaching. For any given sermon series, I may read 6-8 different books. I study other teachers. I watch messages online and listen to podcasts - for personal growth but also for ways to become better. I read books about public speaking. I have a teaching calendar that is complete through all of 2008 and think long and hard about what I'm going to say on Sunday. I'll change up the teaching calendar based on what God is saying to me, but I take teaching very seriously. That's one of the reasons I don't do some of the things I do...so I can devote the proper amount of time to this mission.

4. I spend time with the staff. I help develop our staff as leaders and spend a good bit of time with these great people. We are a staff led church, and I want our staff to constantly be developing and growing as leaders. I try to help them dream big and accomplish their mission.

5. I read a lot of books and blogs. I'm currently tracking 54 blogs via bloglines. I try to stay up with some pastors of churches so I can stay sharp.  I read magazines and articles a lot.  I think leaders have to keep learning or we'll just dry up.

6. I think and dream and plan. I'm the big picture, dreamer guy on our staff.  I think about the question, "What if..."  Questions like, "what if we did a Sunday night service at the local bar?" I'm constantly creating plans and strategies.  I have to go through lots of good ideas until you get to the great idea.

7. I meet with key people in our church and in the community. I should be more involved in the community, and I'm trying to do more of this.  I'm asking our staff to pick up a few things so I can get more involved with local organizations like the Chamber of Commerce.

8. I take charge of our marketing and communication. Until we hire a communications director, I write most every letter that comes out from our church. I've created just about every postcard that we've sent out. I develop our marketing and branding strategy. That may change in the future, but for now, this is one of the things that I own. This is more work than most people realize, which is why I have a special place in my heart for graphics people and communications people.  I read a lot of marketing stuff and rip out cool things from design and print magazines.

9. I listen to God. In the Bible, the pastor was the shepherd...the spiritual leader. I take that pretty seriously. I know God speaks to all people...and that people don't have to go through some kind of holy man to get to God. They have direct access too. But I believe the job of a pastor is to hear from God and lead the people. It's pretty serious business. When I stand up on Sunday, I want people to know that I'm not just making up stuff or passing on something I heard from Dr. Phil or Joel Osteen. I want people to know that I've heard from God.

10. I meet with church planters. I can't do this with everyone, but I probably connect with a church planter or leader once a week. I'm humbled and honored that people would come to us for advice. We did a ton of that when we first started (still do!), so I'm happy to pass on what we've learned. That's one reason I write this blog and share our successes and failures at Behind the Leaf.

There you go. Of course, there's other crazy stuff that just comes up in my schedule, but this is what I really do week in and week out.

Tony’s Thoughts

As I mentioned yesterday, Tony Morgan and his family visited Oak Leaf Church yesterday and we had the chance to chat a good bit.  He posted some thoughts about his visit on his blog.  I'm really proud of our production team, hospitality team and kids teams!

Confessions Preview #1

Video via Youtube.  Enjoy.

Sunday Recap

We finished off "The Games of Life" series this morning.  Here are some highlights from today's service.

Message: Using the 70 x 7 passage and the corresponding story that Jesus told, we talked about the need to forgive others and the need to receive God's forgiveness. About 20 people indicated that they received God's forgiveness for the first time. If Angels in heaven rejoice over one, there must be a hoe down or a rave going on now. You'll be able to watch the message by visiting the media gallery at oakleafchurch.com.

Music: Take Me In (one of Will's tunes), How Marvelous, Amazing Love, Amazing Grace.

Notes: We had Tony Morgan and his entire family with us in the service. We asked Tony to come and do some consulting for us. He walked around, took lots of notes, and is going to tell us some ways that we can improve. Our church is 14 months old, and I felt like it was time for a little check up, so we brought in this outside opinion. Tony did not ask me to cough or take my blood pressure.

Friday Five - Running Songs

Sometimes, I get up early and run a few miles. Here's my top five songs that I jam to while I'm running.

1. Sweet Child of Mine. The intro to that song is the best intro to any song. Period.

2. Wild, Wild West. Wiki, wiki, wiki. Any decent running play list must include Will Smith, aka the Fresh Prince.

3. Ignition by Toby Mac. Toby Mac is about one of 10 Christian artists that has enough talent to not be a Christian artist. His latest album is full up rockin' songs and this one is great to keep you moving.

4. Reach up for the Sunshine. Old School. Duran Duran. Love that hair.

5. Since You've Been Gone. Yes. It's true. This is a Kelly Clarkson song. I'm a closet fan, but I'm coming out. Perhaps I will confess this during the Confessions of a Pastor series in November. That chick can sing, and this song can get you through at least three tenths of a mile.

Original

It's been said that God hasn't called to us be original, but to accomplish His mission. When I moved to Cartersville, I didn't come here to reinvent the wheel. And during our first 14 months as a church, I don't think we've done anything that's unique to the church planting movement.

Hey, we should have a band. Along with 10,000 other churches.
Hey, let's meet in a movie theater. Thousands of others.
Let's do a series on the family. Genius idea.

Sometimes, we're accused of copying other churches. I am honored to be in contact with some great churches that have great ideas. And when we talk to these churches, we find out that they got great ideas from other churches.

We're not the only church in the country that has a kids policy like we do. It's not original. We're not going to be the first to drop eggs out of a helicopter.  We got the idea from Elevation (and we'll change it up to meet our needs).  When I stand up to teach about grace, forgiveness, the Trinity, or theHoly Spirit, I do so knowing thousands of people have already done it before me.

Ideas come from all places, but in reality, they all come from God THROUGH other places.  The fact that there are some great people and great churches to learn from doesn't negate the fact that I have to hear from God.  That I have to pray.  That I have to seek His will.  That I don't become a copycat, but become a steward.

Some Numbers

271.  That's how many volunteers serve at Oak Leaf Church at least once a month.  This is about 50% of our current adult attendance.  Our preschool director began her update with this statement:  "We have enough volunteers."  I don't know too many kids leaders that can say that.  People are stepping up big-time at Oak Leaf Church.  I'm proud to be the pastor of such an amazing church.  There's always room for people on the Production team, Hospitality team, Limelight team, or KidVenture team.

44.  That's how many middle school and high school students are signed up to be in student journey groups that are beginning this week.  We've been running about 90 students at our once a month student service, so this is a great start.  Middle school small groups will meet on campus on Sunday mornings; high school small groups are meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

28.  Jacky Amos was 28 years old and had been attending Oak Leaf Church for a little while.  He had joined a ministry team and was about to get plugged into a small group.  He had recently started reading his Bible like crazy and was inviting a ton of people to come to Oak Leaf Church.  He was killed by a drunk driver and Tim performed the graveside funeral service last week.  I understand that some of his family will be coming to Oak Leaf this week, because they were impressed by the change that they had seen in his life over the past few months.

Ten Confessions

As we get ready to kick of a new series called Confessions of a Pastor, I wanted to write about ten things that I don't do or don't like to do as the pastor of Oak Leaf Church. Some are philosophical - some are just my personality.

1. I don't like to do weddings. I've been known to do a wedding or two, but I have to really like you. :)

2. I don't counsel people.  It's not that I don't think it's important, or needed.  I'm just no good at it.  At all. Trust me...you don't want me to counsel you. It's not my gift and I'm not trained in the field. After listening to you for five minutes, I'd interrupt and give you a list of three things you need to do to fix the problem and send you on your way. I have several people on our staff and recommend a couple professionals, because they would do much better than me.

3. I don't know everything that happens in the church. In some churches or in small churches, the pastors knows everything. I, on the other hand, don't. We have a great staff and a great volunteer team and they handle so many thing. I don't know it all when it comes to what is happening in the church.

4. I'm probably not the person you need to talk to. My job description is pretty short - lead, teach, and develop relationships with community people. When you need something from the church, most of the time I will refer you to someone. I'm not the person that handles most things in our church.

5. I don't like to be called Pastor. I know some pastors like to be called Pastor Freddy. Though I've never met a dentist that liked to be called Dentist Harvey. Hello Teacher Melissa. Hello accountant Bob. And please, I'm probably not your brother. You can just call me Michael.

6. I don't like to talk to people. I'm actually working on this one, but I don't really like to talk to people. I kind of like to keep to myself, and it's out of my comfort zone to walk through the lobby and talk to people and meet people. I'm more comfortable in front of 1,000 people than I am in a room with five new people. Please don't jump on me for this...I'm just being honest.

7. I don't manage the money of the church. I know how much we have in the bank, how much we have in savings, and know what the budget says, but I don't handle the finances. Not only am I not good at those kind of things, I just don't want to do it. I can't sign checks or log into our online banking account.

8. I don't answer my phone on the weekends or after 6 PM. I don't have a home number and I don't give out my cell phone number to many people. After 6 and on the weekends, I'll probably only take a call from my wife or from Anthony. I will check messages and respond in the event of an emergency, but I'm not going to talk about church business 24 hours of the day. These are my self-imposed boundaries.

9. I don't visit people in the hospital. We have a network of small groups and small group leaders - that's how care and prayer happen in our church. That's one reason everyone needs to be connected to a group. When something bad happens, those people will spring into action because they know you and care about you, not because they work at a church and are paid to do it. If I come to visit you in the hospital...it's bad.

10. My wife is not the second in command or the first lady of the church. You can't get to me by getting to her. So don't try and use her as a go between or think she works at the church like I do. She doesn't lead the women's ministry or the children's ministry. She goes to church and volunteers. On Sunday morning, she's a real person, a regular person, and a mom with kids.

So there you go. You may read this list and think I'm not a real pastor. I'm sorry. You may wonder what I actually do (that list is coming soon). They say confession is good for the soul, so I figured I'd get these confessions off my chest. :)