Sunday, June 24, 2007

Ancient-Future Worship?




These are pictures from a ministry in Boston called LIFT. It is called "catholic worship for a new generation." It is taking the ancient practices of the faith and joining them with the cultural relevant methods.













Friday, June 15, 2007

Church Signs?


"Going to Church" VS. "Being the Church-Scott Hodge

This is from Scott Hodge's blog. Scott is the Pastor of The Orchard.




I can't seem to get enough of this conversation...
Is church supposed to be a place that you GO TO or BELONG TO? Or...............is it more about BEING something or someone?


It seems to me that the early church was more about people than it was about buildings and programs. (Not that I’m anti-building, we have a pretty nice one that has proven to be a tremendous TOOL – but that’s all it really is - a "tool.")


Think about this - if you take away the people, what do you have? A building! Some sound equipment. Perhaps a nice place to have a piano recital. That's it!


We discussed this in our staff meeting last week and about how we need to intentionally build this kind of thinking into our church community - all the way from the little kids to the adults - because the more I see church as something "I AM", the less I will see it as "all about me and my needs." And the less I see it as being all about ME - the less consumeristic I will be in my thinking and the more I will be able to contribute towards making it about those who don't know God.


My dad used to always say - "When you realize that it's not all about you, you will find that your needs will be taken care of." Simple, yet so true. Yet, this thinking slaps the living daylights out of the consumeristic mentality that so many American churches are full of. It's the mentality that says, "Feed me, give me this program, give me this, give me, me, me, me, me..."
I'm really praying that God would help us to be the kind of church community that realizes that we are not here for ourselves - but for others. The kind of church community that realizes that church isn't something we "go to" - but something we ARE on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc...


That means that I need to be focused on BEING the church - loving and accepting people, reaching out in care to others within our church community, focused on being the hands and feet of Jesus right here in our local community and then even further out in our global community.
So let me throw this one out there... What do you see as the purpose of church? How do we help people stay focused on BEING the church VS. seeing church as something you ATTEND or GO TO?

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Leadership Development-Tony Morgan

This is a blog entry from Tony Morgan. Check out his blog from the sidebar link.

Leadership Development

Several of us had a great conversation the other day related to the launch of our Greenville campus. We were talking about the importance of leadership development. After our conversation, these realities have been challenging my thinking:

Leaders can't be recruited from the platform. We have to challenge them one-on-one.

Leaders won't be fulfilled performing tasks. We need to give them responsibility.

Leaders don't follow doers. We need to make sure they're connected to another strong leader.

Leaders don't want to be micromanaged. We have to eliminate the tendency to control the process and, instead, hold people accountable for the outcomes.

Leaders won't commit to ambiguity. We need to offer a clear vision. (And, it better be big.)
Leaders don't just show up. We have to be intentional about leadership development.

John Maxwell challenged us in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership with this statement:
"When a leader can't or won't empower others, he creates barriers within the organization that people cannot overcome. If the barriers remain long enough, then the people give up, or they move on to another organization where they can maximize their potential."
He went on to explain, "Only secure leaders give power to others." In other words, failure to empower other leaders is a sign of insecurity.
This stuff is smacking me in the face. Where are my insecurities limiting the leaders around me? What changes do I need to make to empower new leaders? How does our ministry need to change in order to improve leadership development?