Thank you for too much.

I'm watching my little girl eat a happy meal right now. Her mom just gave her some ketchup and she said, "Thank you for too much." She likes a lot of ketchup. That's really my attitude toward God right now. I've got lots of things on my plate that take lots of time, I've had a bad hot water heater this week, a bad car battery, and lots of other incidentals. But, I'm so so blessed. God has given me so many good things. What a family! What a job! What incredible people to work with and for! I say, "Thank you for too much!"

Network News

When I came on staff here at Highlands, our executive pastor told me about a networking opportunity with area pastors but I was, frankly, uninterested. “I’ve got so much to do, there’s just so many hours in the day, etc.” Later, I went back to him and said “hey, I think I’ll reconsider that, perhaps I might would like to connect to learn and share. Except for answering a couple of emails, I haven’t done a thing with this though. Just this week I received an email from a nice lady on staff at Saddleback inviting me to a meeting of “regional point persons” while I’m out at the small group conference later this February. Related to that, I’m reading a book right now called “Never Eat Alone” by Ferrazzi on the importance of building relationships to help accomplish goals. So, my thinking is that events are conspiring to help me learn how to build relationships for growth. I’m open to it. I have no idea what I’m doing yet but I think I’ll start by just trying to help people in this region and go from there.

The Door

I've been reading a great book lately called the Bible. It's probably the best book I've ever read. Ha! Anyway, i was reading in Genesis 6 about the flood and I read the words "make a door". Isn't God amazing. When there is judgment there is always a way of escape. I'm so glad that has been true in my life.

kickoff party

I'm real excited about our Kickoff Party for LifeGroups this Thursday night. All three campuses! It's going to be a blast. I hope you can make it. 7pm. Come get in a small group!

Winter stinks

Ok. I admit that at one point this summer, I was looking forward to getting some snow. But now I can't wait for spring. I'm not used to having actual seasons. In SC there is about 4 weeks of ice, then its in the 70s for about 2 weeks, then, its in the 90s the rest of the year. Well, that may be a little bit of an exaggeration. Well this is Virginia and it seems that it has been snowing for 2 months straight. No accumulation to speak of. Just cold, snow, sleet, ice, grey and nasty. Where are you Spring?

New Volunteer Process

I'm excited about the new volunteer process that we are rolling out this week. I’m sure we’ll have some tweaks to make in the next couple of weeks but overall I think we’re ready. Basically, we want to make it as easy as possible for someone to become a volunteer at Highlands. That means we are ramping up Volunteer Central as the hub for our volunteer activities. Now, at first, this will impact our First Impressions ministry the most, but eventually, I’d like to see all of our Sunday teams enjoying the benefits of this volunteer hub. We are going to make the area a little bit more visible to passers by so that they are drawn into what we are doing. We are staffing VC with more volunteers to show the love to our dedicated volunteers. Our Volunteer Central Hosts will be welcoming new volunteers, training, and equipping them to serve right there in Volunteer Central. We are attempting to make a seamless process from start to serve. We are moving some people into key spots to make this happen. We are moving furniture. We are upping the stakes. We want folks to experience the joy of serving Jesus!

Change is Hard

Change is hard for everyone. We create patterns and habits in our lives and those patterns and habits are comforting in an ever-changing world. No matter how visionary you are, you desire sameness in some area of your life, whether its that evening cup of coffee or that specialized routine that you go through every morning (alarm, toilet, shower, deodorant, shave, teeth, contact lenses, clothes, kiss the wife, out the door). God has built some of us to enjoy and generate change more than others and that is where most all the tension exists in an organism like the church. Since it is a living thing, it is growing and changing constantly and when that process stops, decay and death begin. However uncomfortable change is, it is the avenue for growth. Can you imagine how uncomfortable it must be for a crustacean to shed its exoskeleton? They are getting rid of their house! For a time, they are vulnerable and defensive. Just as the crustacean must shed its exoskeleton to make room for new growth, we must put away old systems and processes and habits that keep us where we are, so that we can reach our potential.

Bitter Cold

Yea, I’m whining about the cold. Yes, I should have expected Virginia to be cold. I remember it being cold when I was a little boy. But oh my goodness! Single digits? You’ve got to be kidding me.

By the way, I’m journeying through the bible, and here is a powerful verse that I ran across this morning…
“Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door: it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

That’s pretty robust for a Monday morning…it goes right along with the cold☺

choices

Here’s a bit of a fascinating blog post by Tony Morgan on offering choices.

“In one experiment, they set up a tasting booth at a grocery store. They offered 24 different exotic flavors of jams for people to taste in one instance. In a separate instance, they only offered 6 varieties. Customers who stopped by the booth received a coupon for a dollar off the purchase of a jar. In this experiment:
More people stopped at the booth that offered more choices; however, folks tasted the same number of jams in both locations.
More importantly, 30% of the people with a choice of 6 jams actually purchased a jar. Only 3% of the people with a choice of 24 jams made a purchase. Fewer choices generated more purchases.”

He is offering this as a lesson in church programming but as I began to think about it over the last couple of days, it occurs to me that the implications of having so many options affects our personal lives as well. I think that as we lead ourselves well, we have to ask the question, “Are we spreading ourselves too thin.” I’m not really talking about work, although that certainly plays a big part of our lives. I was talking to a good friend about church the other day and he said that they were going to focus on Sunday experience, groups, and kids and that was it. That’s the hyper-focus we should all desire in our personal lives. Saying, “I’m going to focus on God, family, and work,” would keep a lot of us from over committing our lives and being ineffective. I talk to people all the time who say, “I’m going to volunteer at church when everything slows down.” When will that be? Learning to say “no” to good things in favor of the best things is a very hard thing. When we say “no” to those things, we have room to say “yes” to the right things.

Sunday Reflect

Another great Sunday at Highlands! We broke 3000 for the 3rd consecutive week. Amazing! Pastor Jimmie brought it yet again with a message on stewardship and tithing. We finished the day at the Abingdon location with all 4 classes offered. Pastor Jimmie taught 101, Pastor Bill 201, I taught 301, and Pastor Brian taught 401. We all had lots of help teaching. In 301, we had seven volunteers give testimonies while people were eating lunch. They all had these diverse experiences but in every case, you could see their passion for ministry and the desire to have new people on their team. I thought the testimonies were a great addition to the class. David Brightbill, who is an all-star volunteer leader in First Impressions, split the class up with me and did an outstanding job. I came away from yesterday so impressed by our volunteers and the job the do every Sunday. We really have a group of volunteers who “get it”.

Purpose Coaching

We’ve decided to take a little bit different approach to coaching in 2008. Well, really, it’s a very different approach to coaching in our LifeGroups. In the past, we’ve asked a coach to connect with 5 group leaders for support, encouragement, and accountability. We’ve found that it is insane to ask a coach to be an expert in all the things that a group leader needs in the course of their group leading experience. We want to empower coaches to lead group leaders and empower group leaders to lead the people of Highlands. With that in mind, we came up with this idea of Purpose Coaches. The basic concept is that coaches are becoming the purpose champions for our small group ministry. We’ve tasked each coach with a specific responsibility and they are becoming experts in that area. Now group leaders have an entire network of people they can call on when questions arise. For example, when a leader feels stuck in the area of discipleship, they will be calling the coach that deals with that area. When they are looking for a project in the community but are stuck, they will call the P.E.A.C.E. coach. We’re manning the bases, we’re allowing coaches to operate within their S.H.A.P.E. and we’re giving group leaders the resources they need to succeed. I’m hopeful. 2008 is going to be a great year for groups at Highlands.

Teaching my son

Last night I started reading to Jae out of the Message Bible. We started in Genesis. That’s a good place to start. Here’s what I consider the greatest stretching opportunity for me this year…How do I communicate the truth of God’s word to a seven year old? As we read and he asked questions I realized that the explanations I give adults for things won’t work for him. So… that got me thinking, maybe the explanations I give adults for things needs to be simpler: after all, we are to receive things of the kingdom like a child. We read Genesis 1-3 and I made a feeble attempt at explaining sin and separation from God. I plan to prepare better for my time with my son. He is the greatest discipleship opportunity and challenge that I have.

Here’s an example of how profound a child’s thinking is…how unbelievably profound. His mom is telling him the story of Gideon and how Gideon’s army was trimmed from thousands down to 300. She explained to him that God was on their side. His response was “so, really it was 301”. Now that is big time thinking from a seven year old. I’m so looking to see how I learn from Jae as Jae learns about God. Going to be fun.

Bible Journey

Bible Journey

Today begins a new walk through the bible for me. I’m going to be reading a chapter in the Old Testament, a chapter in the New Testament, one Psalm, and one Proverb each day until I’m done. I’m excited about chasing God this year, maybe more than ever. I feel that this will be another great year of learning. I want to be sensitive to his guidance and not rush this but squeeze a little juice out of each chapter. Should be fun. God is preparing my heart for something great… humbling me, making me teachable. I want to hear his voice clearly like never before. So…In the beginning…

301

This coming Sunday I'm getting a chance to teach our 301 class which is all about finding purpose and significance through ministry. It focuses on spiritual gifts (we all have one). Meanwhile, I'm chipping slowly away at an older book called "Training of the Twelve". This book is all about leadership development from the greatest leadership guru of all time...Jesus Christ. It’s all about the 12’s spiritual formation. As I read the book, it occurs to me that spiritual gifts are sometimes hidden and must be revealed or unleashed. I'm thinking of a sculptor who can look at a block of marble and see inside some incredible masterpiece but only through a painstaking process of chipping, sanding, grinding can that masterpiece be revealed. I’ve found that I haven’t always been open to that kind of shaping because it doesn’t always feel good to find out what you’re not good at or gifted in. Anyway, this Sunday should be fun. I’m hoping to learn a little bit more about myself and those I’m leading. Come if you can.

Sunday wrap up

It was a great day yesterday as we began our new series "What If". Pastor Jimmie brought an great message "What if we were devoted". He fired both barrels. What a challenging message!

We saw 3190 in attendance across the three campuses. Incredible!

Yesterday at the Abingdon campus, we began interviews with our LifeGroup coaches. This year is going to be a great year for newness and change. Our coaching structure is undergoing some positive change and growth. More on that soon. It is awesome to hear from our coaches the passion they have for people and God. That was fun.

What does your volunteer structure look like?