I just read a review of All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin. I may be picking this one up at it has some very interesting insights. These are from a discussion board of other church leaders. This is what they said...

• “Either you’re going to tell stories that spread, or you will become irrelevant.”
  
• “Stories are shortcuts we use because we’re too overwhelmed by data to discover all the details.” [Think about the parables of Jesus.]
• “People pick and choose. Everyone will not listen to everything.” [So don't try to be everything for everyone.]
• “You can no longer force people to pay attention.” [Why do we even have bulletin announcements?]
• “The best marketing techniques are the simple stories that are the most likely to break through, the most likely to be understood and the most likely to spread.” [People don't talk about Connections, they talk to me about the people who have been changed at Connections.]
• “When we encounter something for the first time, we compare it to the status quo. If it’s now new, we ignore it.” [New is better. Different is better.]
• “If a consumer figures something out or discovers it on her own, she’s a thousand times more likely to believe it than if it’s just something you claim.” [This resonates with my own experience, and is why I continually resist neat and tidy "pre-packaged" Christian growth/ discipleship programs. This is counter to the discipleship strategy of almost every church.]
• “If you want to grow, make something worth talking about. Not the hype, not the ads, but the thing. If your idea is good, it’ll spread.” [If it requires an announcement from the platform and a bulletin insert to succeed, then it's probably not "worth talking about" and it probably won't grow.]
• “Your goal should not be to create a story that is quick, involves no risks and is without controversy. Boredom will not help you grow.” [One "secular" article on public speaking gave this recommendation that has really stuck with me: if you have to choose between information and entertainment, pick entertainment. But if you can communicate your information in an entertaining way, even better!]
• “It’s hard to be remarkable when you and your organization insist on not changing the status quo.”

Interesting things to ponder as we move into our second year and feel a growing confidence in the mission of our church. More and more people want to "promote" Connections. The question isn't that we need to do it (we do need to share the story of Jesus with the world),

the question is how we do it.

We're a Year!

A year ago this past Sunday Connections Community Church did not meet. We were holding our preview services in the fall of 2007 but had not officially launched.

We "launched" on the first Sunday of 2008. And we haven't missed a Sunday since.
As I look back I'm struck by the feeling most of us get as we travel down memory lane: in some ways it feel like ages ago. But in other ways it feels just like yesterday. (for time-bound creatures, we humans have such a funny way of experiencing the past)

Here are some of the highlights, simply off the top of my head:

Our first series was "Resolutions Worth Keeping." We talked about four occasions in the bible when some made a resolution, which is defined, "to be fixed in purpose." We took from these stories four resolutions for our church, all based on the desire to "seek first God's kingdom." (Matthew 6:33)

• To grow our worship service;
• To increase our volunteer based to 100 people;
• To launch our Connection Groups ministry in the fall with 200 participants;
• To see 52 people give their lives to Jesus- one for every week of the year.

I've prayed for, wrestled with, and thought about those goals all year long. Were they audacious enough? We they too small? Were they tangible enough that we could gauge our progress? Were they my hopes, or God's plans? Well, here's where we sit a year later:

• We grew to see over 200 people coming to worship with us Sunday mornings this fall. But we haven't felt the need to offer a second service.
• We increased our volunteer base to nearly 125 people. So more than half of the folks that worship at Connections also volunteers at Connections.
• We launched our Connection Groups with more than 100 people registered.
• We've seen many people tell us they have committed or re-committed their lives to Jesus, but this one is hard to gauge. It's very personal, plus, we don't want to "force" or manipulate people or decisions. Yet we want to be very intentional. So, by way of our communication cards or other direct communication, I've had 12 people tell me they made a first time commitment or re-commitment to Jesus.

In February we had what I thought was our most fun series of the year- "How to Look Good Naked." I've been tempted to try to turn this series into a book. I really think God was up to something in those messages.

In March we began a series that took us through Easter, "Vantage Point." We looked at the different points-of-view that many had about Jesus during his life, and today. (I also went on a ski trip in March and made a video sermon that was pretty fun, and went over fairly well.)

We called April our "Volunteer Appreciation Month" and gave out t-shirts to all our peeps. We moved into our Signs of Belonging series, which talked about what it looks like to be a part of a church, and part of the body of Christ.

• Soaring in Worship- making worship a priority, corporately and in all our lives.
• Studying God's Word- setting aside time 5 days a week to read the bible and pray.
• Stewarding God's Gifts- out time, our talents and our treasure (yes, money). Joining a Connection Group is a great way to help us in this area.
• Serving God's People- signing up for a ministry team, or helping us create new teams for our church and community.
• Sharing God's Love- picking 2 people we can intentionally pray for and invite into our lives.

We threw in there our "Connections Gives Back" mini-series where we highlighted the work of the International Justice Mission and our own crew of people who were going to bike across the US and Canada in "Sea-2-Sea: Ending the Cycle of Poverty." John Vandersteen, Mike Talsma and Thea Hiemstra together raised over $20,000 and joined more than 200 people, together raising over 2.1 million dollars. This was an AWESOME cause for our church to feel a part. I pray things like this will become the norm for Connections and our people. We also welcomed back Kat Zietsma who had been serving in mission to India and New Zealand.

When we hit the summer season we launched into a study of the book of Philippians that we called "Breakout." As a preacher/teacher I love series like this because it frees me to simply go where the bible text leads. I didn't have to think to far ahead. I was able to just come to each passage and say, "God- teach me." This is going to become my routine for the foreseeable future- each summer we'll work through a whole book or section of the bible- just taking the whole thing apart piece by piece.

In August we ran a series called "Into the Wild." I was blown away by the feedback I got from this series. We had four people commit/recommit their lives to Jesus. Plus, the band did the coolest cover of Hard Sun ever!

In the Fall we kicked things off with "Wiii Church." This is when we really seemed to get into the zone at Connections. Numbers came up, folks were getting involved, the family ministry was flourishing with Sarah DeVries at the helm, I put a renewed focus on our Media ministry, and we formally launched our Connection Group ministry.

More than 100 signed up as we started a semester approach to home-groups based on three guiding values: Common Purpose, Common Place, Common Possessions. Our purpose is Connections, our place is as neighbors in homes, and our life is to be shared together, even through caring for the material and physical needs of one another, in addiction to emotional and spiritual support. I could write for days about this, but suffice to say- we got off to a great start!

We also had our first Communion and Baptism service. No promises on what this will look like in the future, but for now, it's enough to see folks stepping forward and making this public profession of faith in Jesus and participation in His church.

All through October we sported some cool t-shirts as we went on the faith journey from: Petri(fied) to Justi(fied) to Sancti(fied) to Glori(fied). I thought it was super cool, maybe more than anyone else. Thanks for indulging my goofy ideas.

Our Game of Life series saw some great feedback and response. I got to make everyone uncomfortable as I talked about sex. Then I got to be uncomfortable as I talked about money. I already have plans to do a Game of Life series, Part 2 (there are just so many great games out there can we can use to dive into some great topics. Spoiler alert- Taboo is gonna make you all squirm!)

Finally, we ended 2008 with "The Advent Conspiracy." Worship Fully- Spend Less- Give More- Love All. Whatever our particular needs were, we hoped and prayed and planned for a great celebration of the incarnation of God, the birth of the Christ, Jesus.

Like Gerry Garcia once sang, "What a strange trip it's been."
Actually, it's been wonderful. I am humbled and awed
by all that God has done,
by all our volunteers have done,
by the incredible things we've pulled off,
by the worship the Music Teams draws us into,
by the love and care of our Family Ministry,
by the hospitality of our First Impression Team,
by the creativity of our Media gurus,
by the faith of our Prayer Ministry,
by all of our Connection Group facilitators and hosts,
by the reports of love and support our folks extend to one-another and neighbors,
by the work of people like Mike Talsma, without whom Connections would fall apart. (I could name others, but Mike does so much behind the scenes, I thought you needed to know.)

And more, I'm blown away to genuinely feel that we've only just begun. To feel that we've just taken our second step as a church plant. The first step was just getting started. The second step was getting this year under our belt.

I so excited to experience all the God has in store for us in 2009. If God could a simple idea (share God's love with people) and an equally simple plan (meet in a theatre to worship) and take us this far in one year, imagine what He can do with us now!

In January we'll be spelling the Soul Revolution that gonna change lives!

I Love Survey Monkey!

If you ever need to get some information from a group check out surveymonkey.com

I wanted to get detailed information on how our Connection Groups ran this past semester. It was our first attempt at running home groups in a semester format. And while I'm biased to want the semester format work, I wanted some honest feedback, insight and response.

Of course you can please everyone all the time. This was never my intent. But with the survey I hope we can make the semester approach approachable and understandable for the most people.

Anyways, the results that are coming in are great. A few surprises, but mostly conformation that we are headed in the right direction. Here are some of the initial results...

• Most people were totally committed to their group.
• Most people had an amazing or great experience.
• Unfortunately a few people had a lousy experience.

Now some interesting analysis...

• Nearly 100% of the folks that reported a great or amazing experience also reported a very tight or strong connection with God.
• Nearly 100% of the folks who report a strong connection with God reported strong relationships with the people in their group.
• And, as you can guess, those that reported the strong relationships in the group had teh best overall experience.

What isn't surprising is the correlation between the overall experience and relationships in teh group. What is more interesting is the strong correlation between interpersonal repationships and feeling a connection with God.

What I didn't have space to ask this time, which I will next time, is to gauge a correlation between the Sunday worship experience, Connection groups, and how folks gauge their relationship with God.

Other interesting things:

• Considerations in signing up for a group from most to least important:
• Day- Time- Location- Leader
• Most folks are signing up again! Sweeeeeeet!
• Some of our leaders need a break, and the semester format is an easy way for them to step out for a term.
• While it wasn't a direct question, because it's not up for grabs, many folks added they liked the sermon-based curriculum.
• A few folks did indicate that a "focus" group would better serve their needs. Some want an age or stage specific group, others would like a more "academic" curriculum. While sermon based, intergeneration, community centered groups will be our "standard," we will be offering some other groups as folks step up to lead.

That's enough for now- we still have some surveys to analyze. I would have never guessed I'd become a stats geek!

Responding and Creating Growth

I've been thinking about next steps for Connections a lot lately. I finally figured out one piece of the puzzle. And while this may be obvious for you, this was a huge breakthrough for me.

Here's the background:
One area where we need to continue our growth is in the Sunday worship experience. I was convinced before we started Connections that there is biblical precedence and cultural relevance for the public gathering of worship and exposition of God's word (That's fancy preacher talk for preaching).

Basically, I put it this way- I think having a great worship service still works! I like worship, and I like "events," so I like a worship experience that feels like an event- a tight order of service, excellent music, a relevant biblical message, great use of media arts to help the experience flow, etc. People love this stuff!

Anyways, you know this, because this is what we do. And now we are seeing results. Attendance has grown, people have been bringing friends, and lives are being changed. We've had the baptisms to "prove it." People are going deeper into our church community. All of this is very exciting to me.

So, on to the break through...
What do we do with growth?

First- we must "RESPOND" to growth in the morning service when this becomes necessary. At some point the theatre will just feel too packed, probably when we are consitently breaking 250 in worship. We respond by moving to two identical services, or a video-broadcast service at the same time in the theatre. (There is of course the option to move to another venue, but for now I'm thinking about how we make the theatre work). This is an improvement/expansion of what we are already doing. This is one step.

Second- we must "CREATE" new growth by offering a new venue. If we add another service, at another time and location we have the oppotunity to reach a whole other group of people far from God. This is what I'm praying about, and where I need direction.

Right now I have no idea where this venue exists, but I think it's out there in London. I think there is a huge group of people that want to know God and gather in community, but who simply aren't going to get up and out in the morning. I think that if we offered a venue that felt raw and real, they would be open to checking it out.

London has nothing like this- no church that meets in a club, in the middle of the night life, that meets Sunday night, that can offer what we want to offer. I can't adequately articulate what it is, but I know it isn't out there yet.

I want Connections to offer it, because I want these folks to know and expereince the love of God that all of us Sunday morning folks are already experiencing.

Let me know if you find the perfect spot!

Bring at Fork!

I double booked myself for Monday night.

I was all flustered about what to do. My friend Mike asked if was going to be at the Prayer meeting we host the third Monday of every month.
I was stuck between to very worthy things to do. Then a moment later my other friend Hilk set me straight.
He asked me if I was going to be at the prayer meeting.
I said I double booked myself and had to make a decision.
He said,

"Well George, I hope you can be at the Prayer Gathering, it's going to be a very important meeting."

He didn't have to guilt me or coerce me.
He just simply and factually reminded me- it's going to be a very important meeting.

Setting aside time for prayer is always a very important meeting.
And I want to be present when something very important is happening.

I was so inspired I've invited everyone I was double-booked with to join us for prayer.
And I'm even going to up the ante-

Consider joining me for a day of fasting in preparation for the prayer meeting.
Let us come to God hungry for His Word.
Hungry for His Spirit to fill us.
Hungry for the banquet that only our God can provide.
Hungry and ready to be satisfied in Him alone.

7:30pm, 1326 Hastings Drive.
Bring a fork!

T.E.A.M.s

T.E.A.M.s

I was invited to join up with a group of fellow pastors. Mostly guys in church plants, or other "progressive" (for lack of a better word) churches. Connections is definitely the baby in the group.
It's nice to be invited to the group as it appears that these guys see something they like in Connections.

Anyways, the point is to share some of the valuable learning I gleened from our time together yesterday. The most fruitful portion was a discussion on the real need to foster a volunteer culture through ministry or service teams. Essentially, we all agreed that you need to create numerous "sticking points" in your church for people to be involved. We actually challenged our churches to create a ratio where 50% of your attenders can always find a ministry team to be a part of.

Two points of clarity- this doesn't mean you volunteer every day or week. But it should mean you voluteer at least once a month. This means some people need to stop doing so man things, and it means others need to take on a role so they really feel like a contributor to the church.

Second, this doesn't mean the ministry teams become more complex. We don't need to create all sorts of new roles. It means the more people we have, the more greeters, ushers, children's ministry volunteers we need. Growth for Connections will not mean becoming a more complex organism.

But finally, in our discussion, we talked about the things that are essential to leading a successful team. We boiled it down to four things, and I put them into the TEAM acrostic, just to help me remember this stuff. SO these are 4 essentials qualities to leading a team...

T. Task- know, understand, and complete your ministry task, whatever it may be.
E. Empower your team to understand their role on the team, to own it, and to do it.
A. Adore what you do, Adore who you do it with. It's really about caring for each other.
M. Multiply- always add to your group! Recruit like mad!

So there you go- my new BIG thing for our ministry TEAMs. It's kind of messy, some words are nouns, others are verbs, but hey, serving in ministry is kinda messy too!

Jesus, help me love your followers

I'm just having one of those days.
This Wiii Church series really has me thinking about the nature of the church.
What we could be.
What we should be.
What we will be.
And, what we are.

Something you should know that I can say almost generically for all church planters (at least those of us who start a new church for the right reasons, and I've meet some who start churches for all the wrong reasons, but that's another blog)...

We have a love/hate relationship with the church.
It should be obvious that I am a part of and in love with the church, as we are the body of Christ, the hope of the world. But there are certainly "expressions" of the church, or people in the church, that drive me nuts.

When I see those expressions appear at Connections, I really gets under my skin.

• The person who meddles in other people business
• The one who gossips and pretends it showing "concern"
• Anybody who feels they've "earned the right..."
• People who miss the whole point and start nit-picking when we start to actually fulfill our mission!

We are beginning to see the promises of Jesus coming true at Connections. We are seeing people far from God come close to God as we share the good news of Jesus. We are seeing broken and hurting people starting to understand and apply God's plan for their lives. We are starting to see people who never went to church worshiping more faithfully, and more expressively, than people who are "mature in faith."

But really the mature in faith are often those who are just used to the faith,
and used to things happening a certain way,
and used to things going their way.
And as these people begin to brush up against new believers and those still exploring belief, they just don't know how to deal with them.
So they say and do things they shouldn't.

But I have to love them just as much as those far from God.
In fact, that's really how those far from God will begin to see and understand the love of God working itself out.

But I need strength.
I need Jesus to help me love some of his followers.
Because they are driving me crazy.
And threaten His mission when they stir up trouble.
And they must be called out at times.
That's what we do in the body of Christ.

Music, Message and MEDIA

When we were getting ready to start our preview services last fall I had a slogan I started using to inspire, describe and invite people to worship.

"You'll hear great music, a great message and have a great cup of coffee- on the house!"

We are going to keep the great coffee. In fact, we are taking it up a notch and will be serving not just fair trade organic coffee, but will enter a program to actually support a coffee grower in a developing country (find out more at www.fireroastedcoffee.com and join us for a coffee tasting tonight, Wednesday August 20 at 6pm).

But this fall I'm unveiling my new motto....

"Inspiring Media, Music and Message."

It's taken me the past few months and a lot of failures and frustrations to recognize the importance of our Media elements. Now this is not to belittle the amazing work our volunteers have done. They got this thing going, and we started at a level superior to many organizations. But we just haven't taken to the level we can go.

• I've learned that putting on a p.p. presentation is easy, but going the next step is enormously difficult.
• I've learned that too many cooks spoil the recipe.
• I've learned that media has more power to reach people than I previously imagined.

Great media, on our great big screen, with our great big projector, is absolutely captivating.

So this is where we're going with the service. It means finding focused leadership to provide the unified consistency of excellent media elements. It means working on "branding" our entire church. It means branding each series. It means branding each and every service. It means working far enough ahead to find the right media elements. It means finding the talents and resources to make our own media elements wherever needed.

But ultimately, I believe, it means we'll make a stronger impression and more powerful impact on people. They will be drawn into a seamless and flawless experience. Barriers to the gospel will be removed. Lives will be changed.

To use a Trinitarian analogy- the media elements are like the Holy Spirit, the music is like Jesus, and the message like the Father. The Holy Spirit builds the church to the glory of Jesus Christ, and Jesus' mission was to glorify the Father. So in our service the Media will be like glue, or the spirit, that holds the whole service together. The music is like Jesus, drawing people to the Father. The message will always make clear the grace and love of our God.

Anyways, the point is this- Connections is going high tech, because high tech has the power to present the good news of Jesus in awesome ways!

Every Word Matters

EVERY WORD you say to someone matters.
We tend to remember this after it's too late.
Like James says, the tongue is a tiny thing, but the damage it can do is terrifying.

Because EVERY WORD MATTERS.
(If I had time I'd add some creative illustration where in I'd leave out a word, and the whole meaning of an idea would be changed.)

I know I VERY OFTEN make comments that are intended to break the ice, get a laugh, and start a conversation. Sometimes this is taken in completely the wrong way. We have all said things to people in our lives that we wish we could take back.
But you can't.
You can only apologize.

You must be very careful and use SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT!!

Prayerfully guard EVERY WORD you say- especially in a worship service.

Now somebody reading this is thinking that if someone leaves the church because of one word it's just a sign of their stubbornness.
Yes it is.
But I guarantee you that YOU are that stubborn too.

How many times have you been in a situation where you were just begging for an excuse to turn around, to walk out, to have your preconceived idea confirmed.

Guess what- people walk into church with the attitude, "Just give me an excuse to turn around and walk out."

Guess why- they are human.
And all of us humans approach most anything new or different in this way.

As a volunteer at a worship service you represent the Church.
And you represent God.
And Connections is to be represented as a gathering of people, all types of people, who want to find out about Jesus or who already love Him.

Don't give them any excuse to walk out saying I knew they didn't care, I knew they were no different, I knew they...

Never turn people off to church because they don't share your race, culture, or for that matter- your values, your tastes, you likes or dislikes, or anything else at all!

This is an AWESOME responsibility that none of us can take lightly.

It is truly a matter of life and death for people that do not know and call upon Jesus as their savior.

You talking to me?

This is the upcoming series at a church I like. Really. They are growing like crazy and doing awesome things. They polled their church and these are the top questions their people have…

July 13th - What Is Sexual Sin? (6th most popular question)
July 20th - Can I Lose My Salvation? (5th most popular question)
July 27th - How Do I Know God’s Will For My Life? (4th most popular question)
August 3rd - Is It OK For A Christian To Drink Alcohol? (3rd most popular question)
August 10th - How Can I Enjoy Entertainment/Culture (movies, television, music, etc.) without distracting myself from Jesus? (2nd most popular question)
August 17th - Are We Living In The End Times? (BY FAR the most popular question)

If I understand the culture I'm working in, and the people we're reaching out to,
these are NOT the questions they are asking.

It is very apparent that this church, while reaching many lost persons, is definitely steeped in a "Christian sub-culture" and that the congregation is primarily the "already converted."

Connections is not trying to be another church for Christians. We are a mission to the lost.
This is my modified list of how I think the people we are trying to reach with the love of God might respond to these questions.
(Again, this is how I think people far from God would respond to these questions. These are not my responses, but how someone who doesn't know Jesus and who didn't grow up in the church would read these questions)

6. "What is sexual sin?" What are you talking about? Sex between consenting adults is not a sin. What's sin anyways? Why are you Christians so stuck in the past?!
5. "Can I lose my salvation?" I didn't know I need saved. Saved from what- boredom, my family, poverty, the church? I definitely needed saved from religious people!
4. "How can I know God's will for my life?" This might be interesting. I'm actually pretty fatalistic, but would like to hear more about this. (George's note: I think that wanting to know God's will for one's life is the one universal longing found in this list. This could preach at Connections.)
3. "Is it OK for a Christian to drink alcohol?" Well, I'm not a Christian, so why does this matter? And what does it have to do with faith? Didn't Jesus turn water into wine? I assume he drank it afterwards!
2. "Can Christians watch movies and TV?" Again, I'm not a Christian, so I'm not sure this applies to me. But it's funny how, on one hand, Christians boycott movies, but then some of the
sleaziest guys on TV are preachers. Incidentally, does this mean Christians shouldn't own computers or surf the internet?
1. "Are we living in the end times?" Of course we are! At the current rate of environmental degradation the earth will not be able to sustain life for future generations. If we don't radically change the way things are done, these truly are the last days.
But I think Christians might have something else entirely in mind in asking this question.

So that's how I think many in our church would respond to these topics if they were approached in the usual "church" way. They want to talk about sex and finding purpose in life, but they wouldn’t frame the questions the way Christians do. Half these questions totally miss where they are at and what they believe are their needs.

If we want to attract people who are far from God to a worship service, we have to answer the questions they are asking. What we don't have to do is try to answer the questions that Christians have been asking for generations, for which they have often already formed their opinion, and for which there usually isn't a definitive/authoritative answer. This is, as the bible says, a chasing after the wind.

Know who you are trying to win over- those far from God, or those trying to find the church that they think is perfect. We are working to win the lost.

Bottleneck

This first year of Connections we got a lot done because I simply made the decisions. No Committees, no process, often no discussion. Just, "Do this, here's how." But this freedom is starting to become our prison. Too many things are happening for me to manage it all.

Actually, to many things are not happening. I can't make all the decisions anymore. I don't have the administrative or organizational gifts to wrap my head around everything that needs to happen.

• I need to share our vision and values and draw people in.
• I need to start projects/ministries so they can be handed off to others. (Note: I've learned the difference between asking somebody to do something, and giving somebody something to do. The later is better in nearly every case. You come along side someone, show them what's being done, tell them what you want done, hand the privilege of taking over to them.)
• I need to empower more people to own more of the ministry.

And I do mean people. Not committees. Committees don't advance mission. God advances his mission through his Spirit through his people. We need people, small groups of people with one or two people leading, advancing the mission of our church.

We need to advance our Connection Groups
A volunteer coordinator
A volunteer handbook
A Creative Arts Team
A Stewardship Team
A new Advisory Team
A Marketing Team (or community awareness team, or some group, whatever their name, that will prayerful engage the best ways to make our church known in our community)
A Community Service Team

It's all part of the reinventing process of launching a church. What worked to get us started won't work us into our second year. My ownership got the ball rolling. Now others owning the mission will take to exponentially higher places. Through prayer, discernment, and engagement we will position ourselves for a great second year of growth.

Tenacious Audacious Prayers

The prayers I make really specific for Connections often seem to be answered. I guess this has something to do with praying the way Jesus taught us! So this is me getting specific. Now God can tell me if I'm off base, or answer them and show we are on target.

• First, I really would like to break the 200 barrier this summer. How cool would that be! While everyone says churches can't grow in the summer in Canada, we can just give God the glory for doing something awesome!
• An Administrative Director. Plans have fallen through for the guy we thought could come on staff, and actually be our first 1/2 time position. Does this mean we continue with the volunteer culture, or look else where? I'm keeping my eyes open for someone else in our community who might step into this role. After all, it is biblical (1 Cor. 12:28).
• A Ministry Centre. I have a great office down town for a great price- FREE! Can it serve as an office for our church? I don't know. But if we can get someone else to give us free office space, that would answer the question!
• 52 Commitments to Jesus Christ- one for every week of ministry this year. Since we're halfway through the year I'm praying for an outpouring!
  

These are the things I'm praying about that have less specific and outward answers. But I'm praying for them tenaciously:

• The revamping of my advisory team
• Putting together a stewardship team
• Finalizing our second year plan
• Launching our Connection Groups plan

Thoughts on moving forward

One of my past blogs raised some questions on how we will make the move to hiring staff at Connections. Here are some of my thoughts at this point (I know this will at least help me clarify my plans):

First, none of our positions can start at full-time pay. We aren't there financially. We haven't even begun to talk about stewardship. We are still just a group of folks with a mission and me as the pastor/planter/leader. We will need to transition people into full time work. Over what period of time, I don't know. My hope is that we can almost simultaneously move to several part time positions.

Second, I realize this approach has some advantages and limitations. A serious limitation is in getting folks that have experience and education in these areas. In other words, the "outside expert" model of staffing. Interestingly, this is how I was "hired." Funds were secured to pay a planter/pastor like myself.

As the vision and mission of Connections came together, I soon realized I wanted to grow a culture of leadership within the church, so that future staffing would come from within the church. This makes me a product of the ecclesiastical model going back to more congregational approach. It also flows a bit like the biblical model in Acts where the Apostles came into a city to plant a church, but trained the people of that city to run the church.

Third, the advantage for Connections is that we can move quickly into a more "staff-led" approach to our ministry. In other words, it's cheaper to hire four people at quarter-time than one person at full-time. This is a hard move because people need to be in a position in life where they can work only part-time, or can piece together multiple part-time positions.

My preferred part time positions are: Administration, Worship Director, Family Minsitry Director and Media/Arts Director. (A year ago would have probably said: Worship Director, Family Ministry Director, Small Groups Director, Community Outreach Director. I know more about our mission now.)

Fourth, the way to move people into part-time positions is basically through making themselves invaluable to the church as volunteers. We already have key folks without whom we could not function at the level we do as a church. Administration, worship and family ministry are particularly dependent on a few individuals.

It's interesting how these positions of influence have grown out of our mission. Competent church administration is vital, because we are reaching out to unchurched people. These folks don't know how to run a church organizationally. So we rely on the few folks we have that know "church administration." With worship it's a matter of excellence and consistency. With Family Minsitry it's a matter of professionalism and motivation. With media, it's about creating the worship experience we envision.

Fifth, and finally, there's a old saying in the church that pastors should work themselves out of a job. I know what they mean, but it's misleading.

We should work ourselves forward in our jobs/calling. I need to get out of the way so others can step into roles I'm currently filling. But this doesn't mean I'm out of a job; it means I move to the next one. This way the mission grows.

So do you want a job at Connections? Make yourself absolutely vital. Then move your job forward so others can get involved as they become equipped and empowered to take over.

There's a lot more to be said and learned. But at least that helps me organize my priorities.

Choice Points

I've been reading a book that makes reference to an obscure computer programming term called "choice points." These are points of change in a decision tree. We might call them forks in the road. This writer applied the term to churches and described them as, "points in time when a formal or informal, and sometimes unconscious, decision is made regarding a value, preference, attitude or response."

There are hundreds of "choice points" we've faced in our lives. Most go unnoticed and are not reflected up. Some are insignificant. Of course, so change everything.

Church planting involves choice points all the time. Perhaps the foremost one is this,

Action vs. Inaction
Someone once said, "Start and the job is half done." That is so true. Thinking, planning, preparing, praying are all necessary things. I'm not advocating doing things poorly or in a rush. But just getting something started is often the key to getting it done.

How many great ideas, plans, hopes and dreams go unbirthed simply because they were never started? Some ideas are so good they are worth starting, even poorly, just to make sure they get started. I embraced this idea from the start. I knew we could have planned for years and never covered all the bases of anew church. I also knew we would have killed the dream and missed the moment God had opened. There are natural "windows" to start a new church. The two obvious ones being the new school year, and the new year. I knew we wouldn't have everything in place by Fall 2007, so we started "Sneak Preview" services. This ended up being a great strategy. We were able to launch fully in January 2008 with most of the snags worked out.

Is there something God wants you to take action on? If so, you are being faced with a choice point. Plan for it. Prepare for it. And definitely pray for it. But most of all, start it! Take action- make the call, sign to contract, set the date, seal the deal and "get-r-done!"

Invite Me!

I mentioned briefly in yesterday's sermon the difference between telling someone about Jesus, or church, and inviting them to meet Jesus, or church.

Here's what I've realized about many of my conversations.
I am always telling people about Connections Community Church. I'm the pastor, I love our people, our worship, our mission, everything about Connections. It comes naturally for me to share what I love.

BUT, I often fool myself into thinking that just because I've TOLD somebody about Connections, that I've INVITED them.
But I haven't.

Saying, "We're an awesome church! I'd love for you to come to our church sometime," is great thing to say if we mean it. But it isn't an invitation. It's too open ended. Just like, "We should have lunch sometime." I've never had lunch with someone after saying we should have lunch. But I've had plenty of lunches with people after I said, "We should have lunch tomorrow."

Try saying, "I love my church! What are doing THIS Sunday? Could I bring you to church with me?"

THAT'S an INVITATION.

Why is that scary? It's not. They are going to say yes or no. If they say yes, great, your invitation was accepted.
If they say no, fine, at least they know you wanted to include them in something you love.

I was invited to join a softball league. I said no. But I really appreciated the invitation.
I was invited to play hockey yesterday. I already had plans. But I loved being invited.

Here's the thing- I know, I KNOW that there are hordes of people out there who are just about screaming, "INVITE ME!" They want to find community, friendship, worship, meaning, purpose, excitement, adventure- all the things we offer at Connections.

So don't just tell them about Connections. Invite them. Actually commit yourself and invite them. You have nothing to lose, and they have everything to gain.

3 cards= 3 lives

Yesterday we celebrated another milestone at Connections.
We had three people take a step of faith in Jesus.
How do I know? I'll explain.

This central to our mission- Connecting with God through Jesus Christ.
Our hope is to see people far from God connect to God.

We want to figure out the best ways to fulfill this mission- in our singing, praying, preaching and processes.

Our most essential tool in our process is our Communication Card.

Our card is much like you'll find at any church- name, regular attender, address, comments, etc.
One other feature is the bottom line (yes, it's symbolic even in it's placement) which reads,

"I made a decision to Connect with God today and would like to know the next steps."

Here's how we do this (starting yesterday!):

First, we make a big deal about this line.
We let people know that this is vitally important to us. We want people to know that we believe there is a way to connect with God and enter a relationship with him through accepting Jesus as Lord and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's not a footnote at the end of the service, it's central to what we are doing with the worship service.

Then, after explaining the card, and the significance of the bottom line, we give people an opportunity. If they've made that connection, for the first time or in a fresh way, we want want to celebrate that with them and help them in any way we can.

So we give them the opportunity (no manipulation involved here) to take the Card to our Welcome Centre and receive a free bible (good ones, leather bound!) and an information packet with resources and CD's.

When people do accept this gift it serves two purposes:
First, it helps them to "seal the deal" and make this step of faith in Jesus more meaningful. Jesus spoken often of confessing him before other people, and how this public declaration has a spiritual effect on our lives.

Second, we can then gauge our ministry to see if it is helping people make this first step.

In this process of using cards, handing them in, giving and receiving these gifts, we get beyond numbers and on to people. In this way I don't have to throw out anything generic like,

"We saw a bunch of people make a first step to connect with God this week!"

Too often churches inflate their "numbers" with these vague references.

I can say,

"We saw three people make a step toward God this week as they put their faith in Jesus. I know because my volunteers told me they received their cards, gave them bibles, and talke with them. I know because I know their names and we can continue to connect with them."

Did others connect with God? I hope so. But that's between them and God for now. All I know is God brought three people to him yesterday, and we had the PRIVILEGE of taking part.

Easter Preparations

Easter is still two weeks away, and I'm already looking ahead.

That's because I love what comes after- the book of ACTS.

Acts quickly becomes a very special book to everyone planting a church. It literally picks up where the gospels leave off, immediately following Jesus' resurrection. Just when all looks lost, Jesus defeats death, and instead of his movement being wiped out, it just begins. The mantle is passed on to us, the followers of Jesus, and the church is born.

Acts chapter 1 ends where a lot of churches start, and end…a group of 120 people praying and seeking God. That's a great start to a church and a movement, but it's just the start. In the next chapter we see 3,000 people receiving Christ and being baptized. It's interesting that someone counted. But more interesting, and wonderful, is how it happened. It all began with people praying. Then they gathered a crowd. Then they shared the good news of Jesus. THen the Holy Spirit showed up and did his thing.

Prayer isn’t just a good idea when we can’t think of anything else to do. It isn’t something to tack on to every Christian meeting to make us feel better about ourselves. It should never take a backseat to anything…it should be THE THING that guides the people in the church on a personal basis.

Prayer works–we've already seen it at work at Connections. When we've really needed something, we've prayed, and when we've really prayed, God has provided. I believe that prayer is what's going to take us to the next level. And I hope we can get there this Easter.

So I invite you to pray with us, invite some friends, hear the good news, and watch as the Holy Spirit does his thing.

Ask, Seek, Knock...

I've written several times now about the amazing things God has provided at just the right time- people, resources, open doors.
I've truly found that there power in openly asking for our wants and needs. I say wants and needs because frankly, I can't always tell the difference. But more often I think I put actual needs in the "want" category. I lean toward not asking for enough. Really.

I somehow feel it's not humble, but in reality it's very humbling to ask anyone for anything.
I feel we can "get by" with what we have.
I fear rejection, like most.
Daily I must convince myself to be bold for Jesus and for this church. It really does stretch me.

But I digress- let me praise God with a few updates, then share some real needs.

• We have on site storage! Did I mention this yet? The cold was killing our equipment. We needed heated storage. I said the best option would be just leave it at the theatre. They said fine! They even gave us two rooms to hold all our gear. Amazing.
• With better storage we felt free to order more monitors and mics.
• We had our first Communion service as a church, and I don't even care what others thought- I was blessed. Nearly 40 folks came out on a dark and cold night.

Now some genuine needs:

• First Impression Team (FIT): I need to ask someone to head this up. Someone with great organizational skills and a passion for creating hospitality.
• Facility Setup Team (FaST): We need more folks helping to set up. We need 2-3 people who will really take ownership of learning our setup process to guide and improve our process.
• Family Ministry: We just need to expand our list of volunteers and pinpoint someone to help us expand the children's program.
• Multi-Media:

1. We need at least 2 folks to own our lighting system and maximize it.
2. We need 1 more person to share the load of running the video.
3. We need 1 more skilled camera person.

The list could go on, but I know beyond any doubt that we need these people in place ASAP. So say a prayer that I'd either be bold enough to ask the right person, or the right person will be bold enough to ask.

Breaking the 200 Barrier

I mentioned publicly at the beginning of the year our resolutions for 2008.
The first was getting the Sunday service started. We are doing it! Awesome.

Now we move onto our next resolution:
Seeing 200 people in worship by Easter.
Easter is only 4 weeks away.
We've had as many as 160.
We better get bringing!

Why do I care about breaking the 200 barrier? I'm glad I asked myself that again, because too quickly this can become a numbers game. Here are some reasons...

• Every number represents a person, and we are all about people.
• More than 300,000 PEOPLE in London never go to church, and therefore we can only assume have never been invited to worship, feel far from God, and are craving a connection with God and people.
• Our team works really hard, and I think everyone in London would be blessed by our service.
  
• Because I love our church I can genuinely say that I just want to share in a good thing, is that so wrong?!
  
• Our auditorium seats 350- why not want to fill it up?
• The theatre has 9 other auditoriums seating over 1000, why not fill them up?
  
• I like big events! I like the energy. The more the merrier I say.
• God desires worship- the more the merrier He says! (Revelation 5:13)
• We want to see people far from God come close to God- getting an invitation and being brought to worship is a great way to make that happen.
  
• As the service grows it's proof that we are making more connections with the community.
  

Lastly, let me say why the push to break 200 right at the start of our church-

It's really easy to get stuck in a rut. 200 people is a very manageable rut. Getting out means breaking molds. You have to let go of the reins and expand the organization- staff must be hired, roles clarified, responsibilities divided, etc.

Getting past 200, I believe, will almost guarantee that our church will continue to grow. It's kind of the "all or nothing" principle. If we can't keep our church all wrapped up in a little group, then we might as well let nothing stop our growth! 200, 2000, whatever- we might as well keep moving forward!

Inviters and Bringers

So far we've build this church as a grassroots movement: people connecting with people. Eventually we'll get to advertising.

But before we do that I want to be sure that we've firmly established a culture of "Inviter/Bringers."

Inviters invite their neighbors to Connections. This is good.
Bringers take it the next step and actually offer to bring them.

We can already tell the story of people who have brought and friend, and how those friends made a connection with Jesus. That's what it's all about people.

Inviting is great. It's what we're all about.
But bringing is simply the best thing anyone of us can do to build this church.

PS...
I read about half a dozen blogs and often resist passing them on ( I figure if folks want to read other blogs, they'll read other blogs). But this one helps emphasize the point I'm making...

A Conversation In The Gym…

Posted: 21 Feb 2008 06:00 AM CST

Last Saturday I was about three seconds away from a heart attack in the gym (for those who do not know–I am an absolute freak when it comes to working out!)

While I was resting between sets a lady came up to me and introduced herself and her family and said they just wanted to say hey and that they were members of NewSpring.

I asked them, “How did you begin attending NewSpring Church?’ Their answer was incredible…I’ve heard it a thousand times before…and I rejoice every time I hear it.

They told me that their neighbors invited them…and not just once, but consistently. After a while they decided that they would finally try it out…and haven’t hardly missed a Sunday since.

We talked for a few minutes and then they walked away when it hit me…there is hardly anything more powerful when it comes to reaching the lost and unchurched population as someone being willing to step out of their comfort zone and invite someone to attend church with them.

We take this VERY seriously at NewSpring Church. We know that hundreds and thousands of people in our community do not attend church anywhere…we know that the people who attend every week know who the majority of these people are…and the deal we make with our congregation is this…if you will do your best & go all out to get people here–we will make sure they hear about Jesus in a way that is relevant to their lives.

Conversation after conversation it’s always the same, “So and so invited me to NewSpring and…”

Sure, we do billboards, direct mail, newspaper ads…all of that; however, NOTHING can substitute for the power of personal invitation…nothing at all.

I said all of that to say this–hey NewSpringer’s–who is it that you need to invite THIS SUNDAY? Seriously, you’ve said something to them in the past–they hinted that they “might” come, but you haven’t seen them here yet? I personally believe that THIS SUNDAY would be a great one to do all that you can to get them here.

AND…when inviting them…don’t play games. Tell them you will come pick them up…and actually BRING them with you. Tell them you will buy them lunch afterwards. Do all that you can to get them here…because, I honestly believe that we serve a God that has never given up on us–therefore we should never give up on others.

Over and over I see it–someone invites someone & they meet Jesus…and LIFECHANGE happens. It’s one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen…and I know there are more and more people to be reached. YOUR family members. YOUR neighbors. YOUR friends. THIS weekend is YOUR opportunity–don’t give up!!!