church planters needed
If this video gets your blood going you MIGHT be a church planter… trust me though this is much easier listening to on a video, than it is to execute.
hope in His love
but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Ps 147:11
The Lord takes pleasure in 2 things.
1. Fear
Fear is a healthy understanding that we are not God. We will never be God and this is a good thing. No matter how great you think you are there will be a day when all of your skills, talent and ability will be worthless. On that day a God that is greater than us will clearly be a good thing.
2. Hope in His steadfast love
There is a lot of stuff that we can put our hope in. Ourselves, our families, our jobs, our bank accounts, our property and possessions, our hobbies, our religion… All of these things as good as they are will let us down someday. Only His steadfast love will never leave us.
grace
Simon Peter hung out with Jesus for 3 years. If anyone should have never denied Jesus it would have been Peter. But Peter in the most critical moment dug out on Jesus. Peter denied Jesus 3 times. This kind of fumble on any team would probably land you a secure position on the bench. You probably wont be the 1st candidate to take over the company.
This is not what Jesus had in mind. After dying on the cross and coming back to life Jesus was ready and willing to put Peter back in the game. Not only was Peter back in the game, Peter became one of the key players in Gods plan to save the world.
Not many of this would have reacted to Peter like this, but I guess that is the difference between us and God. God understands grace. God doesnt see things the same way as us. I dont know about you, but I am sure glad that even though I fall short, God still chooses to give me a second chance.
People will always let us down, it is up to us to continue to choose to believe that God has a plan for these people.
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” John 21:17-18
not that good
Success in ministry is easy to feel good about. To be apart of what God is doing is definitely an honor.
The challenge is remembering that this success really has little to do with us and a lot to do with God. Despite our brilliant strategies and ministry skills God is the one who should and needs to get the credit. God is the one who has given us the skills and abilities. God is the one who deserves glory.
Although this might seem like an obvious thought, if you are anything like me you forget this on a regular basis.
Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 2 Cor 3:5
control or growth
Rick Warren posted this on twitter a few weeks ago and I cant get it out of my head.
“you must decide whether you want control or growth. Exponential growth by its very nature is uncontrollable.”
I think most people if asked would say that they are not people who control. The true test of control comes when you have to let go of stuff that you are in control of. Most times we dont even realize we are controlling something until we have to give up that control.
As leaders we need to always be looking for areas where we can release control so that we can experience growth. here are some questions for thought.
-do i need to know everything that is happening in the organization?
-do i feel like no one can do the job as good as I can?
-do people in the organization grab the ball and run with ideas or do i need to be in every meeting?
-is there one central table that controls all of the decisions?
-are ideas other than mine praised and welcomed or are they criticized and shut down?
-are ideas shut down because “we already tried that and it didnt work”?
-are meetings dominated by one guy at the top with great ideas or are ideas birthed on a grass roots level without the input of the top leader?
This is all i got for now. I might add or take away from these questions, but it does help me to gauge how much control i am leading with.
welch on vision
each year SEU hosts a leadership forum gathering some fantastic leaders from around the nation. This past year Jack Welch
was interviewed by Bill Hybels, where Jack made a comment that really grabbed me. This is not a word for word quote, but this is what I took away…
on communicating vision… ”leaders need to communicate vision until they are absolutely sick of saying it, then at that point the communication has only begun”
I am sure Jack said this much better that I did, but you get the point. For some of us our vision changes so often we dont even get a chance to say it until we are sick. For others of us we have so many visions we never get sick of saying the same thing because there are so many things to say. Some of our visions are stated in a 10 page document so confusing you need a seminary degree to understand it. I dont know about you, but I definitely have made all of these mistakes.
here are a few questions to think about
-can it be said in one word?
-is there one vision that is repeated EVERY week in your church?
-if a new person walked through the doors are they guaranteed to hear it?
-how many times has the vision changed in the past 5 years?
-have you had to say no to other things to protect this vision? (if not you probably changed when you should have stayed the course)
-has your vision been so clear it has caused people to leave your church?
-do you have metrics centered around your vision to measure growth?
-if asked would people besides the staff be able to state the vision in one word?
discipleship culture
“when the culture is is right, almost any method will work. when the culture is toxic, even the best method will fail.” 
Steve Murrell
loved this thought from the Accidental Missionary. Most leaders are smart enough to come up with some great strategies, but the majority of these leaders are not patient enough to create the culture needed to see these strategies succeed.
the question that remains then is how can we create a culture? here are some of my thoughts:
1. do it. I have to learn to model the culture personally. I have to go out and make disciples. I have to take individuals through essentials. I have to recruit people into encounter weekend.
2. talk about consistently. our methods needs to be talked about at every meeting and to every person. people have to hear us asking the same questions over and over again.
-have you done essentials?
-have you been through an encounter weekend?
-are you in a small group?
3. learn to say no. practically every day there are opportunities of a lifetime to make the church magically grow. most leaders jump on these opportunities of a lifetime and jump off of the focus to make disciples. if the opportunity is not helping every member to make disciples dont do it. events dont make disciples.
4. trust. a culture of discipleship is more than a few pastor making disciples. this is going to mean trusting people to make disciples. even though they might make more mistakes than disciples I have to learn to trust anyways. are people in the church honored that they get an opportunity or are they burdened that they have to do something? if the answer is the later maybe we took to long to trust people.
I am sure there is a lot more to creating a discipleship culture, but this should keep me busy for a few years.
EN2010
worshipping our God with people from 50 different nations, timely messages, divine connections and reconnections,
are a few of the many highlights from EN2010, but for me the highlight definitely was hanging out with this guy.
For the first time I attended one of these conferences as a dad. In a world where I am usually working during church meetings it was a nice change of pace to be able to sit in the back with this guy. Within a few years Benaiah will need to be with his peers in kids church, but as for EN2010 he got to stay with us. I may have not taken as many notes as I usually do, but for this year it is ok.
here are some of my lessons from EN2010:
-My number 1 priority besides Jesus is my wife, and if I can help her out I need to
-My number 2 priority is Benaiah and ministry can not come in the way of this very important priority
-even though it is a lot of work sometimes I am blessed to have a amazing wife and a terrific son.
-I pray that even though I am called to full time ministry, my kids will have a choice. I pray that we can live a “normal” life that is not centered around church meetings.
breathe
i dont know much about ministry, but one thing that I am realizing is that there is always something to do. planning,
navigating a transition, pushing for a goal, evaluating mission, discipleship, counseling. these are stuff that will never go away. even if we finish one task you can bet that another one is just around the corner.
this is why good leaders know how to breathe. good leaders know GODS church does not need me to survive. if we step back for a week or 2 Gods plans will continue and His church wont fall apart.
As obvious as this sounds I definitely for get this constantly and need to remind myself who is really in charge.
This is a picture from our seats at a padres game last week in our attempt to BREATHE.
things above
It was easy for me to live in sin. Drugs, beer, partying, gambling, money is fun and easy to do. It was easy to start
going to church.
It was super hard to keep on living a Holy life. I struggle to this day making daily decisions to live a life that chases after Christ. Anyone can claim to love Jesus. It is difficult to walk with Christ in Holiness. One way that the bible instructs us to live a Holy life is to “set our hearts on things above”
This idea of setting my heart on things above challenged me to look at the things in my life that consume my time. Often times it is not the things that stir my affections for Jesus that fill my schedule. Here is a list of things that push me toward being Christ minded and not Dane minded.
-reading
-praying
-dating the wife
-time with my son
-spending time with those far from Christ
-world missions
-exercise
-giving money away
-helping people get stuff done
these are all earthly things, but for me these things stir my affections toward Jesus. These things drive me to remember and recognize the unreal thing that Jesus did for me on the Cross.
what are the things that stir your affections toward Jesus? are these things a part of your daily and weekly routine?
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:1-2
Trust and Clarity
Been reading a bunch of stuff written by Peter Drucker recently that have been pretty mind stretching. Here are a few quotes on trust from Drucker that got me thinking. 
“Trust is mutual understanding. Not mutual love, not even mutual respect”
“People assume that they are all dedicated to the same cause”
“Delegation requires that the delegated task be clearly defined, that there are mutually understood goals and mutually agreed-on deadlines, both for progress reports and for the accomplishment of the task”.
Building trust is about bringing clarity. Many times we assume people within our organization know what the organization is about. Especially in churches people think that answering the question “what is the organization about” is simple. The truth is that many times this is not a simple question to answer. Here is a list of some of the stuff that churches are about:
-educational classes
-Sunday School
-outreach events
-christmas programs
-elementary and high school
-community service projects
-sports. (softball, basketball)
-feeding the poor
-partnering with businesses in the community
-singles ministry
-couples ministry
-mens ministry
-womens ministry
-evangelism
-political issues
and the list could go on and on. dont get me wrong I think ALL of these things are great, and that all of them can bring glory to Jesus. The problem however is that if we focus on all of these things there is no way we will be effective. When we fail to clarify what the church is about we fail to build trust within our membership and our leadership.
Here is a question for our churches to see if there is clarity: In one statement what is this church about?
AT GBCK WE ARE ALL ABOUT 3 THINGS:
1. FAITH
2. CONNECTION
3. LIFE
systematic vision: giving
Listened to a great talk this past tuesday at our staff meeting by Nelson Searcy. Nelson talked about the need to clearly cast vision when it comes to giving.
vision is important when it comes to giving, but it is also important when it comes to leading team.
the church NEEDS to be more than people simply doing tasks. our job as leaders is to pour vision into people on a regular basis. People need to know where they are giving their time and money. Many people are very faithful, but over time they forget what they are working for. As leaders we must constantly and systematically pour vision into people.
Nelson laid out some great ideas how we can systematically put the vision of giving in front of people:
-thank you letters for 1st time givers
-automated regular bank withdrawal option
-quarterly giving report
-quarterly outlining plans for organization. Letter to be mailed with giving report
-end of year giving campaign
-teach on giving from the pulpit. we must understand that tithing is a part of discipleship.
systems part 2
blogged a few days ago about systems. This idea of systems keep bouncing around in my head. I love the idea that systems create behaviors. As a leader I can not simply blame people for poor behaviors. I have to first ask if I created systems that allow this person to succeed.
to break this down further here are some questions we as leaders can ask ourselves regarding our organizations:
1. what behaviors do we wish people in our organization would do?
2. what are we doing in our daily/weekly/monthly/yearly rhythm to make this behavior happen?
3. what are we doing in our daily/weekly/monthly/yearly rhythm opposite of this desired behavior?
systems
recently listened to a fantastic talk on systems by a pretty smart dude.
if we want to see certain behaviors in our oganization we must create systems or cultures that allow these behaviors to happen. systems create behaviors. scolding people doesnt, videos dont, announcements dont, threatening people doest. SYSTEMS DO.
Here are 4 areas we as leaders must be clear in as we develop systems:
1. expectations: maybe people dont do what we want them to do because they dont know what to do.
2. rewards: maybe people dont do what we want them to do because they have no reason to.
3. consequences: same as rewards
4. communication: have i made 1-3 clear in the minds of every person in the organization, or did i send an email expecting everyone to get it?
fly wheel #3: leadership
Here is the last installment of this series on the fly wheels that the church needs to focus on. Here is a
quick recap.
Fly wheel #1: discipleship
Fly wheel #2: sunday
The last fly wheel I think we need to focus on is leadership development. Leadership is the engine that drives the church as an organization.
Our job as pastors and leaders is to provide clear objectives and vision that allow people to lead. A lack of clarity makes it impossible for people to lead. People who do not know what they are supposed to do will be unproductive, unfruitful, and frustrated.
As we develop leaders at gbck this is what we try to focus on. “To equip and empower people to lead at their highest potential.”
fly wheel #2: Sunday
Started a new series on the blog. Here is an intro to the series. Here is the 1st blog talking about discipleship. 
Fly wheel #2 is what goes down on Sunday…..
Our faith is not only about Sunday. The work of a minister goes way beyond Sunday.
If we were however to ask people who don’t go to church what they thought of when they thought of Christianity I am almost sure Sunday would show up at the top of their list.
People are looking for a non threatening environment to “check out” church. People are looking at our venue, music, kids program, and preaching. Although these are very superficial stuff and may not seem spiritual to you this is the stuff new people are looking at.
The bottom line. If we want our churches to grow Sunday has to be good.
flywheel #1: discipleship
Here is part 1 of my flywheel series.
The role of the church is to help people get closer to Jesus. I don’t care what kind of message series, campaigns, slick outreaches, food, or website we have. If we are not making disciples we are not doing what we are supposed to do.
Discipleship is a command that Jesus gave to ALL believers.
Discipleship is not dictating what people should or should not do. Making disciples is not about being the sin police.
Discipleship is about influencing and inspiring others toward faith, connection, and life with Jesus.
fly wheels
A super smart guy and his friends wrote a book on organizational leadership talking about a principle he calls the fly
wheel principle.
Working for the church full time I have to ask myself what are the fly wheels that we as the church should be constantly improving. What are the “same old boring strokes” that we should work at every day?
Countless hours are wasted by many church workers because this question can not be clearly answered. In some cases we are able to answer the question, but lack the discipline to focus on these activities.
Over the next few days I will take the time to share what I think these flywheels are that we as pastors and church leaders should be focusing on.
too many choices
A few nights ago we went to dinner with the family at one of our favorite resturaunts in Aiea. 
I have been coming here since I was a kid, and since I am not much of try something new kind of guy I knew exactly what I wanted without looking at the menu.
Liz on the other hand had been here once before and seemed to have been a little lost. The menu had a million and 1 choices on it, and all of these choices made decision making pretty tuff. Granted the food all looked good, but the menu was so complex she didn’t know what to do.
Sometimes we make church like this. We have ministries, activities, outreaches, events, groups, meetings, teams, community projects and a bunch of other stuff packed into our church. Granted most of this stuff is good stuff, but people are lost when they enter our church world.
Of all the stuff that a church does I think the MOST IMPORTANT action of the church is discipleship. Our job is to help people get closer to Jesus. Everything else is secondary. Our job is to lay out a simple and clear process that people can follow that will help them build and develop their relationship with Jesus.
Here is our process at GBCK:
1. Develop my faith
2. Deepen my connections
3. Devote my life
Primal Download
When I was 17 years old I came to a realization that the way I was living life was leading me no where fast. At this point I
made a decision to leave all of my old mindsets behind and begin to discover a new set of paradigms based on Jesus. This decision opened a world of opportunity for me. I went not knowing if I would be dead or alive in a year to knowing that my life was going to be used for something great.
Primal challenges us to do what I did 10 years ago. Sometimes in order see God do the miraculous in our lives it means shedding all of the extra stuff that keep us from a pure relationship with Him. In a world with a million worries, concerns, philosophies, and ambitions constantly pulling at us, I love how Mark hits the pause button in our lives to look at what is really important.
Here is what I got:
1. The heart of Christianity is living in humble compassion for ALL people.
2. The soul of Christianity is living in wonder and awe of God. Knowing that I am not all powerful, and am nothing without Him is a good place to be.
3. The mind of Christianity is being curious about everything. I need to learn how to get rid of the curse of knowledge and know that anything is possible. There is no idea, thought or dream that is unachievable for God.
4. My life can make a huge impact in this world if I would simply do stuff. If I demonstrate compassion, express my wonder, and explore my curiosity God can and will use my life. God gave me a new life. The least I can do is tell others about this miracle.
Walking into a new year and a new decade we all should take a few minutes to pause and discover what it means to be a primal Christian.
Primal Preview
Last week I got my advanced copy of Mark Batterson’s newest book “Primal” in the mail. Mark is a pastor in Washington
DC and is doing some pretty cool stuff for Jesus.
While reading Mark’s first book “In a pit with a lion on a snowy day” we came up with the name of our son Benaiah.
I have read through most of the book and must say love it. Mark does an excellent job of taking us to the foundations of what it means to be a Christian. God has been using this book to bring me back to some foundational truths that I believe are essential to everyone
check back tomorrow for my official download of “Primal”
links 10/03/09
Reading blogs written by leaders who I respect allow me to grow my own leadership. Recently I fell behind on reading these blogs, and as I caught up I thought I would post a few links of some good stuff people are doing.
If your organization has a website you need to check out what this marketing genius has to say.
@paolopun has been doing a unreal job providing twitter updates regarding relief effort in the Philippines. Check out his prayer. I am super amazed by the leadership.
If you want to help the relief effort in Manila check out this 89 second video.
1life2live:Day12
If you found out that you would die in 30 days how would you live your life?
Our management team has committed to blog daily for 30 days as we unpack this question.
If we want to love completely we must learn and understand how to manage conflict. We need to understand that relationships are not about being right, relationships are about being in agreement.
mansfield: keltic theology
still processing meetings with a pretty smart dude.
Day 3 of our meetings Mansfield outlined 7 ministry philosophies that he found in the ministry of St Patrick as Ireland saw transformation. I love the missional components in these ideas.
Here they are with my 2 sense:
Tap into heritage
-what good is in the history of our target people?
-at some point people care about who they are
-understanding people means knowing their past
Understand their pain
-what is the greatest challenge our target people face?
-compassion is essential in reaching people
-we must learn how to demonstrate true care and love
Affirm their righteous hope
-What are the deep desires of our target people?
-we need to know what people hope
-a persons hope is their passion
Understand that if God is reaching someone they are in some kind of trouble
-without God all people are missing something
-God usually needs to make us desperate in order to get our attention
Create a vehicle for relationship
-how can people build community in our context?
-relationship + community = discipleship
Figure out how to package content so that it is culturally relevant
-what are the needs of the culture?
-Are we explaining truth so that people can understand it?
Understand that our church culture is our net
-What are the cultures we are creating in our churches? Serving? loving? compassion? growing? learning? genuine relationships?
-Do we have negative cultures? overworking? control?
-Culture takes constant clear communication of vision and values. In 1 word can you describe what your church is about?
