What if we planted disposable churches?

I’ve been thinking about a different perspective lately. Don’t get mad at me – I’m just thinking (get real… the people who get mad about stuff look for things to get mad at and won’t take “don’t get mad at me” as anything but a red-flag in front of a bull)

Here’s what I’m thinking… what if we planted “disposable churches”? I know that’s an inflammatory phrase – hear me out. What if we pulled out the stops in Church planting and chose to only assume that the churches we planted needed only last 10 years and then they would cease to exist? What if we asked church planters to consider giving us the best 10 years of their careers? What if we asked donors to get behind us while we rocked it – like CRAZY – for 10 years? What if we started churches with a sense of URGENCY for the gospel instead of a quest for stability?

A church plant that only needs to last for 10 years would run dramatically different than one that is thought to survive for the next century! Think about it… What would we do differently?

Here’s what we WOULDN’T be doing:

• We wouldn’t be thinking of how quickly we would build.
• We wouldn’t be thinking of how long our equipment would last.
• We wouldn’t be worrying about how long our teams can keep this up.
• We wouldn’t be side-tracked with ridiculous discussions of “where does this church stand on…?”
• We wouldn’t worry if the people in our churches had enough means to keep the financial engine running or not.
• We wouldn’t worry about planting AWESOME churches in not-so-awesome communities.
• We wouldn’t hear words like “return on investment”
• We wouldn’t hear stories of churches that are great museums of what happened 100 years ago.

Here’s what we WOULD be doing:

• We would live every day as a church with a sincere sense of “do or die”
• We would make decisions based on who was coming to Jesus and where they were going RIGHT NOW.
• We would be freed up to LOVE PEOPLE who don’t have anything to offer.
• We could feed the hungry with our LAST FREAKING DIME because we wouldn’t be worried about “sustaining” – who cares if a disposable church goes under at 9 1/2 years feeding the hungry or 10 years with a party?
• We would PLANT CHURCHES like crazy!
• We would take risks for the gospel unlike anything we’ve ever seen!

Think about it this way… if you were 22 and diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only 10 years to live… what would you do? I don’t know about you, but I would TAKE RISK, MAKE BABIES AND LOVE LIFE!!!

What if we approached the gospel and life with that kind of reckless abandon?

People look at life like it’s a series of mountains and valleys – ups and downs. What if life was more like a roller coaster… ups… downs… sideways… upside down… cork-screw… jerks forward and sudden stops… there are parts where you raise your hands and parts when you want to puke… parts where you want to jump off and parts where you can’t wait to see what’s next! Mike Yaconelli (an amazing leader who is now with Jesus) used to talk about that kind of life and how he wanted to finish the ride, gather his wits about him and look Jesus in the eye and say “WHAT A RIDE!!!!”

What keeps us from that kind of service to the king? I’ll tell you what it is… STABILITY!

Peace,

Jeremy

I don’t often… re-blog

I don’t often “re-blog” (just repost something that someone else wrote) – but I really dig it when others do.  So, for the morning, I’m going to re-post something that a good friend of mine, Todd Rhoades re-posted (at www.toddrhoades.com) from Will Mancini (you guessed it – www.willmancini.com).  Both of these guys are incredible… so much wisdom and experience – you should definitely check them out.

But – in the meantime, here’s the article… it makes TOTAL SENSE (and I love the “journey” kind of language!!!)

It’s a delight to watch teams get clear on the future. But it’s a fright to see that hard work of visioning go south when it comes to execution. If the work of visioning can be compared to taking a journey, there are six mistakes I see most:

#1 Spinning Wheel Decision-making. Sometimes a team can have a great vision process only to get bogged down in complex or ineffective decision-making after the fact. On a car ride of a thousand miles, the spark plugs fire a thousands times each mile. If the little steps to make the vision happen don’t fire, you’ll only putter along.

#2 Courage-on-empty: Clarity is no good if there isn’t courage and conviction to act on it. Sometimes the team or the point leader get fired up about the next ministry chapter or new direction only to hit the brakes if a few people push back. This lack of courage may be just another way to describe approval addiction.

#3 Ego Side Trips: Sometimes a team of strong leaders create sideways energy. Maybe two senior leaders have different operating philosophies. Or, maybe youthful vigor on the team insists on going in its own direction. Sometimes leaders gets distracted with building their platform outside of the organization or use a ministry position in a way that promotes personal hobbies and interests. While I don’t often run into ill intent in ministry, I do see lots of strong egos that don’t harness together well.

#4 Communication Breakdown: The best vision in the world will die fast if people are left out of the loop. Meaningful connection to the vision must be sustained by dialogue, vision-soaked media, and vision dripping from the core leadership. After you map out the vision, make sure you map out your communication processes and systems.

#5 False Start: Every now and then, I see a team so anxious to execute that they move to quickly. It may be inexperience, or over-optimism. Sometimes a leader grows to or moves to a larger organization, where implementation requires more steps and nuances to bring everyone along. Sometimes a leader has a mountaintop experience and fails to get the key lieutenants together and on board for a great start.

#6 Running Too Hot: Having clear vision is one thing. Getting there in God’s time is another. Sometimes leaders have the right vision but want to achieve it too fast. In their drivenness, people suffer from burn-out. In times of stress and extreme performance other temptations come to the table. It’s critically important not to let the work for God hinder the work of God in the personal lives of the team. God’s vision should never eclipse the godliness of the visionary.

Can questions not be asked?

I don’t think it’s a recent development, but it seems like pastors have become a lot bigger jerks about it lately.  There have always been disagreements over theology… usually some issue where one guy is bent out of shape because another guy wrote or said something that another guy disagrees with, so guy #1 writes a blog article outing the other guy for being a heretic. Then the firestorm begins… Christians arguing about stuff that ALMOST NOBODY UNDERSTANDS – - AND EVEN FEWER CARE!

When did it become wrong to just disagree – have a healthy discussion and move on with your life?  Why do we sometimes become enamored with some ancillary issue and COMPLETELY IGNORE the fact that people around us are literally DYING AND GOING TO HELL (speaking of Hell, I get it when we have to call our sides on subjects that Scripture is clear about… but that doesn’t mean that we need to spend all of our time outing people for being wrong… what about teaching people what is right?)

The other thing that cracks me up is when pastors and church leaders won’t associate with other pastors or leaders (or the conferences they hold) because they have their theological panties in a wad over some issue.  GET OVER IT!  Healthy discussion is helpful… are you SO convinced that YOUR PERSPECTIVE is right that you’re willing to discount all that God could accomplish through another leader?  Gimme a break and GET OVER YOURSELF!

Look – there are people I agree with – and people I don’t. There are perspectives that I share – and some that I don’t affirm.  There are people that are wrong about their opinions… and I’ve learned that at times, that person is me!

In the enduring words of Rodney King,

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?…It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything.”

Hey – we’re pastors after all – - – I think I read something somewhere about unity, love and reconciliation… somebody should write a book about that!

Jeremy

Sunday Mind Dump

What a day!! Started out a bit weird… I usually get to FunZone about 6:15 or so in the morning (after a quick stop by Starbucks) so that I can make some last minute tweeks to the message and do the final video setup (set up the computer and aim the projectors)… the weirdest thing happened… normally, I spend about 10 minutes aiming the projectors, but as soon as I turned them on, they were accidentally pointed and focused ALMOST PERFECTLY!  That was a great start to a great day!

Here are a few thoughts that come to mind from this morning:

• I love watching how God’s Spirit has been teaching our church to worship through music!  It’s so amazing to see how God has brought people from SO MANY different backgrounds – some from years of church from every imaginable perspective – and many others who either have never been a part of church or have been away from church for years.  It’s amazing to hear those voices begin to unite as we sing!!  It stinkin’ ROCKS – just sayin!
• Speaking of music, Regina McCormick did an AMAZING job leading us in worship this morning!  She and her husband Jeff have been an amazing blessing to Journey Church! 
• It was STINKIN COOL to hear the band really bring it together this morning!  Mark Hartley held the rhythm down while Nathan and Robert held the notes together!  It was awesome to hear the whole thing come together!! Great job, guys!
• Sometimes it’s easy for me to overlook the hard work that Chuck (our Family Pastor) and his team put into making our Elementz, Pre-School and Nursery an effective ministry to our kids!  I got a chance to work with JD and Lindsey Barnes for a second this morning and see what they had planned – - I kinda wanted to skip out on church and hang out over there!  Great job, guys!!
• I love preaching!  I don’t know if it shows, but I LOVE helping people take their “next step” – it’s a complete pleasure!!!
• After church we had our 1st “First Steps” class of 2012!  I think they just keep getting better!! I LOVE hearing the stories of all that God is doing in people’s lives… we had a nearly 70 year-old lady who is celebrating her FIRST spiritual birthday (she was saved here at Journey Church almost exactly a year ago… and for the record, she says she LOVES THE MUSIC!!)  There were stories of people’s renewed faith – stories of God saving people from their past and calling them to a NEW future with Him!!  Not to mention COUNTLESS stories of how WELCOMED people feel when they visit Journey Church!  These stories wouldn’t be told without everything that each one of you do to make this place a reality!!!
• I got a chance to spend the last few hours with many of the musicians that God has invested in Journey Church!! They and their families are some of the hardest working and sacrificial servants I have ever met!  Did you know that many of our musicians serve EVERY SINGLE WEEK – and that doesn’t just mean that they play their instrument!  If a musician plays on Sunday morning, they almost always also are there on Saturday night to tear down jumpers, set up the platform, sound equipment and their instrument before they practice together for Sunday morning (not to mention the 8 AM practice on Sunday morning!)  WOW!!!

So, now I’m up late monitoring the TV for the family watching to see if we’re going to spend a few minutes in the storm shelter with our neighbors!  Gonna be fun!

 

JB

Think Family!

So, we’re two weeks into (with three weeks left) our “Think Family” series!  We’ve been talking about the “core values” of Journey Church and how they should find their way into our “home” families!

Think about this:  What would it look like if your family at home was “Biblically Sound”?  What would your children’s life be like?  What would be different?   What would your family be like if you were “Uncommonly Generous”?  What lives would change around you?  Who would one day see you as having significantly changed their life?  What would your kids learn?  Would they be selfish and entitled or would they love and serve others?

This Sunday, we’re talking about being “RELATIONALLY SHAPED” – it’s a core value for us to shape our structure, our staff and our approach to our mission (“helping people take their “next step” toward Jesus – - it’s really about discipleship) in a RELATIONAL CONTEXT!  But consider this… what would YOUR FAMILY look like if you were to shape your influence on your family relationally?  What would change if you taught your kids to value their RELATIONSHIP with you more than just getting what they want?  What if you considered FEELINGS as much as performance?  What would happen if they looked at others (neighbors, people at school) as PEOPLE who need a relationship with Jesus? 

If we THINK FAMILY, our “home” family would change our “church” family… then we could change our “community” family… and then the world!

Don’t miss this Sunday – 10AM @ Funzone in Three Way!!

Dreams… even in the midst of bitterness

So, it’s somewhat surreal to consider all that Martin Luther King Jr stood for… even moreso when you consider the condition of this great land when he did so.

This past Summer, Sheila and I went to a movie together – she chose “the Help” (she heard it was funny and I let her choose).  I had no idea what I was in for.  While the story is, at times, hilarious, the condition of the lives of people at that time was not.  Racial hatred (not simply prejudice) was rampant in the streets. It was a safe place for me to be reminded of what we’re still coming through as a nation… judging people more by the color of their skin than the “content of their character.”

Since then, we’ve allowed Marissa and Makayla to both see “the Help” (despite the language issues, we believed it to be an important film and a way to introduce them to an understanding of how far we’ve come as a nation – - and how much is still left to go.

This morning, I took a moment to read the words (rather than watch the video) of the “I Have a Dream” speech that Dr. King delivered on August 28, 1963.  The moments were surreal… considering that the wonderful African-American lady who works at Panera would have been considered less than the God-created-image-bearing lady that she is less than 60 years ago (which I’m guessing she was a little girl as the speech was delivered). 

People… today (and every day), we need to remember that all men – black men and white men – are created equal!  It was a dream that one man… and a nation of African-American men and women… and our nation’s leaders had the guts to dream just a few decades back.  

Let me ask you this… what reality do you have the guts to dream regardless of the current situation?  What injustice will you stand in the face of regardless of the opposition?  What dream do you have the guts to have even though you are dealing with the bitterness in your life? 

Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr for your life of dreams that we summarize in one speech.  Thank you for the example, both in racial equality and a life well-lived for the glory of God!

Peace!

Jeremy

 

Sunday Mind Dump

So… we’re 3 Sundays into 2012 and Journey Church is ROCKIN’!!!!

Here are just a FEW things that stuck out to me about today…

• First – I hate the stomach thing that’s going around… we really missed Mark Hartley today on drums (and we’ll probably miss him from our small group) bummer on both accounts!  But, I’m thankful for Steven Pulley who subbed at the last minute on drums (and thanks to Ash Bower’s for hookin’ us up!!)
• Nathan led the band to completely ROCK today! It never ceases to amaze me how God has resourced this church to MELT FACES with God glorifying ROCKIN’ worship music!!
• I love preaching through our core values… and I REALLY love talking about how our families would be different if we could be generous with our money, time, talent… and anything else God’s given us!  Talking about our core values is kind of like talking about your kid’s recital… I’m just SO PROUD of our church and what God’s doing!!!
• It’s always awesome to see people who are returning to God walk through the doors!!!
• I had a couple of great conversations about “life” today with people… it’s amazing to be a part of a church that’s honestly ok with people being real!  And I LOVE the opportunity to help people take their “next step” through the rough things in their life!  I talked with a guy today who’s going through a rough divorce (praying for peace in his life) – and another family who has been experiencing one victory over sin after another as they get their life “on track” with God after years away!  It’s amazing to be able to watch as people find their way back to God!
• I’m absolutely certain that God is about to do something BIG!  I’d say hold on to your seats, but that won’t do you any good… HE’S ABOUT TO MOBILIZE THIS CHURCH!!! I LOVE THIS PLACE!  6 days 7 hours and 24 minutes until part 3 of the “THINK FAMILY” series!!!

The Voices in My Head

I think one of the most telling indicators in a leaders life is when you can understand the voices that speak into his or her life.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of having a number of significant voices speak into my life.  I have the sincere honor to have worked with 5 different Senior leaders at the churches where I served in a student ministry role – each one of them took the time (in different ways) to both help me grow in my role as we served the church, but also took time to challenge me to grow as a person.  I’m so thankful for everything I’ve learned from them… time management from Jim, honor for Scripture from Bill, Pastoral care from Fred, love for people from Mark and mountains of organizational ideas and many character and leadership lessons from George (who by the way is handing the torch off after 25 years of faithful service to the church… an honor I hope to have one day at Journey!)

BOOKS.  I can’t overstate the importance of being a reader as a leader.  It’s never been a real strong suit for me – in fact, I’m a very poor reader – it takes me forever to read a page only to get to the end and have NO IDEA what I just read.  It’s a challenge, but things that are worth doing are difficult… get over it.  I’ve always been amazed at how you feel personally connected to an author after you read their thoughts about how to do something you’re passionate about (I’m not a big fan of fiction – - I want to read it, I just can’t – - I’m going to try to read either “the Girl with the Draggon Tattoo” this year or there’s a book my sister in law told me about… something about survival games… it sounds interesting).  What I’m getting at is that books are a great way to allow people to speak into your life… grab one and see what I mean!

FRIENDS.  I can’t even possibly express the importance of trustworthy friends who will speak truth into your life.  It’s important to keep their character in mind before you allow them to speak into your life! Are their values and priorities the same as yours?  Do they believe the same way you do?  I can’t count the number of times I’ve been thinking of doing something like quitting a ministry (or ministry all together) only to have a friend talk sense into me!  What if they wouldn’t have valued the same things I did?  What if they just thought life was about being “happy”?  I’m so thankful to get to spend a couple of days this month with a few pastors (all of newer church plants in the last 7 years or so) – I look forward to their speaking into my life… and my opportunity to speak into theirs.

So, here’s the question for you… Who is speaking into your life?  What voices are you hearing? (not those voices… the real ones)  Are those voices encouraging you to become more like Jesus or less?  They’re all encouraging you to take a step… is it your “next step” toward Jesus or your first step away?  The voices you hear are important… the ones you listen to are VITAL!

 

2012 – a new year for blogging

Ok – so I think up blog posts all the time! They come up in conversations, they swim around in my head and keep me from sleeping, they’re the rabbit trails in my sermons, they’re the sermons that made the “cutting room floor” – they’re the things that make me mad on facebook – they’re the things that get me excited about the church that I’ve had the pleasure to birth and serve.  The problem is… I keep forgetting to actually write them!!!

2011 was such a crazy year for our church!  I WAY underestimated how busy our first full calendar year would be… and blogging was the first thing to get pinched.

Judging from the first 9 days, 2012 isn’t looking like it’s going to get any easier… in fact, it’s shaping up to be a WHIRLWIND.  But, I think that this kind of expression (blogging) is helpful for me… and I know it helps our people and our supporters understand where we’re going and rally behind it.  I’ve said it before – there are 3 kinds of people at Journey Church…. those who we’re reaching – those who are reaching the people we’re reaching and those who will probably find a new church in a couple of months.  We’re a church on the move… when you’re looking at a moving train, it’s best to either get on or get away… standing in the way is hazardous to your own health.

Anyway – I want to blog more… and people tell me that I need to blog more… so, I’m going to blog more… not because I have something so important to say, but because what God is doing in our lives and our churches is important to talk about!

I’m looking forward to all that God has in store for us in 2012!  See you in the blog-o-spere!

JB

How to daily keep up on 125+ different blogs

My friend Bobby Moss posted this on his blog – - great ideas!  Reading blogs is one of the easiest ways to keep up on the things that interest you:

Last week I shared a large list of many of the blogs that I follow on a regular basis. The type of blogs I peruse are normally in the topic range of ministry, tech, culture, leadership, art/creativity, theology/Bible, and then various people who inspire and challenge me. If you still haven’t checked out Seth Godin’s blog, you are missing out! He’s had some real killer posts lately.

All in all, I follow over 125 different blogs, for the most part on a daily basis. It’s not impossible, it’s actually pretty easy. Here’s how you do it:

Read more here…

http://bobbymoss.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-daily-keep-up-on-125-different.html