New Series!

It’s late Thursday night . . . and I’m sitting at my computer looking over Eric’s notes for this weeks’ message.  I’m really excited about this next series . . .

We’re talking about PRAYER.  Ok, before you put your head down and catch some Z’s . . . Seriously.  I am PUMPED about this series.

I grew up in church.  I was around praying people my whole life.  But my second year of college, my entire perspective on my faith changed.  I had a roommate, Jonas, who was an incredible intercessor.  Anyone who knew Jonas would say, “You can’t be in prayer for 10 minutes with Jonas without your prayer life changing forever.”  For me, living with Jonas for 9 months didn’t only change my prayer life, it changed my entire life.

I’m really pumped about this series.  I might be sharing some of my own story about my changed perspective toward prayer as I prepare the Travel Guides in the coming weeks.  We’ll have to see what direction we go . . .

I’m also jacked up because this series is leading up to EASTER, which is only 4 Sundays away!  Who are you praying for that is far from God?  Who are you praying and inviting to Journey for Easter Sunday?

Boosting Momentum

Two big prayer requests coming up for our future in Baltimore:

1. This weekend, March 2-5, we will be a part of a North American Missions Conference at Lakeview Baptist in Auburn.  Lakeview is one of a handful of churches that has committed to supporting us as we step out to plant a church in Baltimore.  I was a member of the church for about 12 years before becoming a part of Journey.  I was on staff as an intern while I was in seminary . . . so this is both a homecoming and a support-raising venture for us.  This gives me a very real deadline to get some literature put together. Pray that God would help me cast the vision for our church effectively.
2. We are going “scouting” in Baltimore!  The Embrace Baltimore folks are having us come up to Baltimore in the middle of the month to look at some potential communities.  I am really pumped up about it.  I got the airline tickets, car reservation, and hotel reservation tonight.  That’s pretty cool.  A little dose of reality.

Late Start to a Busy Day . . .

It’s now 8am on Tuesday.  I haven’t left for work yet.  I got up at my normal time and did my normal morning routine, but a line of severe thunderstorms decided to line I-85 just a few minutes before I would normally leave the house.  Ordinarily, this wouldn’t bug me at all.  I’d just work at home for a while and go in late, which is what I am doing today.

However, today, I have a series of meetings starting at 1:30 that I still have to finish preparations for.  So, the storms are now tapering off, and I am about to hit the road so I can get to work.

I’m just thankful the storms hit just before I left, instead waiting until I was halfway there.

Anyway, off to work.

Saturday Evening Post

Woo Hoo!  It’s Saturday Night at 10:30pm, and I just finished uploading this weeks’ Travel Guide for Growth Groups!

It’s been around midnight when I’ve gotten it complete several times lately, so this is a HUGE relief this week.  I’m actually going to get a halfway decent night’s sleep in tonight to be ready for church tomorrow.

All-in-all, Emily and I have had a great Saturday.  We had breakfast together (our usual Saturday morning thing, just an hour or so earlier today.) I worked some on Growth Groups, and then we took a walk with the dog and watched some TV together.  I caught up on about 36 blogs in my Google Reader, answered some emails, did some shopping with Emily, ate some Pizza, and finished the Travel Guides.

I think I’m going to shut down, read a few pages in a book to unwind, and then slide on in to bed for the night.

Quote of the Day

I’ve mentioned before that I have a “quote of the day” section on my iGoogle home page.

I couldn’t resist today’s quote:

Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?  - James Thurber

The more I’m around Church Planters, the more I realize that this quote speaks to all of us.  Church Planting is about starting new churches that do not conform to the image of other churches so that those far from God can have a place to belong.  Essentially, church plants are a place where nonconformists can gather to nonconform together.  Kind of ironic, isn’t it?

Evolving . . . more

It is Wednesday today.  That means that the ChurchPlanters.com conference is now over.

Day two was not a disapointment.  Everything that was said this year really challenged me as a leader.  Everything was still very practical and helpful, but this year, everything seemed to be so much more than that.  It seemed like every speaker challenged us in some way to be more than great leaders, but to deepen our spiritual walk.  That sounds like a no-brainer for a bunch of pastors . . . but we get distracted just as easily as anyone else (actually, most church planters are seriously A.D.D. so disctraction may be easier.)

Darrin Patrick reminded us that the people we lead will be a lot like us.  Not that they start out that way . . . they become that way.  So, if we are great Christ-followers, they will be.  If we are half-hearted workaholics, they will be.  THAT, my friends, is VERY SCARY!  Makes me think and pray long and hard about who I am as I prepare to step out as a leader.

There was so much awesome stuff from the conference.  It’s going to take a little while for me to sort through all my notes and pray through how each thing I learn will impact the vision we have for Baltimore.

For now, I just have to get back in the grind of designing buildings, and praying and thinking as I work . . .

Evolving Day 1 Recap

We’re in Atlanta. Day one of the ChurchPlanters.com EVOLVE! conference is now complete.

Before I do a recap . . . continue to pray for our friends in Prattville . . . Mike Mozingo stayed at home, but he sent some of his staff. They don’t really want to be here. The conference is great, but there’s a heart-wrenching need at home. There are a few families in the church that got hit hard by the tornado. There’s also a big opportunity to reach out to disconnected folks. Mike and the parts of the staff that did not come have rallied the church and are making an effort to reach out to the community in a time of need.

Back to the conference:

In the main sessions, Shawn Lovejoy and Steven Furtick both really challenged me. 

Shawn challenged me to raise the bar on self-discipline.  I couldn’t survive in architecture, while working as Growth Groups Coordinator at Journey Church, and still work on a vision for a new church in another state if I wasn’t somewhat disciplined.  I’ve been working hard over the past several months to develop a more standardized schedule to keep my life in order.  Shawn’s talk challenged me to continue the efforts I have been making, and to seriously think about a couple more things I can do. 

Steven slapped me silly today.  In his breakout session, he challenged us about growth.  Our problem isn’t capability.  It’s capacity.  Using an illustration from the Old Testament, he challenged us that God will keep the oil of annointing flowing as long as we keep bringing empty jars to fill.  If we aren’t seeing the result we believe God wants to bless us with, it’s because we ran out of jars before God got done blessing.  Sometimes I find myself coming to God with a mug that will fit conveniently in my cupholder, asking Him to fill it with oil to bless what I am doing.  He’s faithful.  He fills it.  Quite often, my cup overflows.  But, it’s still just a cup.  When was the last time I looked at my convenient little mug, punted it, and found a keg for God to overflow?  Why not a swimming pool?  I’ve been reading a lot lately to sharpen my skills as a leaders.  This is good and needed . . . but more than anything, I need God to enlarge the capacity of my heart to handle the blessings he wants to pour out into me to transform a city and culture with His love, compassion, and wonderful news of abundant life in Jesus!

But Steven didn’t stop there . . . OH, NO . . . Steven had a major session to follow . . . I’ve been working on the vision for a church plant in Baltimore for about 9 months now.  I ought to be ready to birth a baby.  BUT, I got thinking.  Most people know that I am a principle-driven person.  I’m not going to copy what someone else is doing just because it’s cool.  I’m going to look at the principles behind what they are doing and try to reinterpret the principlesto fit my context and giftedness.  But as I sat and listened to Steven today . . . I started to wonder . . . is that far enough?

The vision that develops in me for a church in Baltimore needs to be a vision placed inside me by God.  It needs to ring with my heart, my giftedness, my passions, my personality, and most importantly - MY FAITH IN GOD.  Is the vision I am working with now truly from deep within me, a burning passion wrought by God?  Or is it a creative compilation of a smorgasbord of principles I’ve seen other places, with a “stamp of biblical approval” attached to it?

I’m honestly a little scared to admit that I don’t know the answer to that question at this moment in time.  The very fact that I do not know without a shadow of a doubt the answer to that question, to me is a sign to get on my face before God and do some real business.

Things I do know:

1. I have a burning passion to plant a church.  I got away from it for almost 5 years, but each time even a hint of church planting brushes across the radar screen, my life has gone crazy.  I just can’t get away from it.  I physically can do other things, like design church buildings . . . But I can never be fully content doing it.  I’ve tried to fool myself into it.  It just hasn’t worked.  I know without a shadow of a doubt the God has called me to build His church, and the church is NOT the building . . .
2. I want to plant a church that is focused on one goal: Take people who are far from God and connect them to God and His church.
3. Connecting to the Church is more than attending functions.  I yearn for authentic community. The Church for too long had confused spending time together with community.  Community is so much more than just doing stuff.  It is genuine care and concern.  It is sharing dreams and visions and helping each other accomplish those dreams.
4. This one goal can not be focused on a single community.  God has marked me with a passion for the nations.
5. I can not do it alone.  God has wired me to influence influencers.  I have mentored guys whose ministry has outgrown mine.  I consider this a blessing.
6. I’ve been a wimp about calling others to grab hold of the vision.  I have a network of folks who have said, “I’ll pray about it.”  You know what that really is?  That’s Christianese for, “You have more faith than I do.  I can’t take that big of a step.  I’ll pray for you, but my life is fine just the way it is.”  That means: I am not challenging peoples’ faith enough.  WARNING:  The next time one of those prospective team members tells me, “I’ll pray about it,”  they’re liable to get a Sam’s Club-sized can of, “When are you going to allow your prayers to stop being a hindrance to the answer to your prayers?“  Get off your knees and do something!  Take a step of faith!  I’m a HUGE fan of praying things through . . . but you gotta start seeking and knocking and not just asking!
7. Hypocrisy is not an option.  If I’m going to call people to take a leap of faith, I have to jump off a few cliffs along the way.
8. I have taken way too much time to write this extremely long post.

more to come tomorrow.

Sunday evening thoughts

We had a good Sunday today.  We’re looking forward to getting up early to go to Georgia for the ChurchPlanters.com EVOLVE! conference.  Emily went to bed a little early to catch up on some rest, so I went into my office to pray, think, and look forward to the week ahead.

I spent a good bit of time praying through some compassion-related stuff that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.  As I have been praying about what our “target segment” will be in Baltimore, I am also praying through the most effective way to reach such a segment.  I can’t escape the “target segment” that Jesus had during his ministry.

But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt 9:12-13)

We have committed ourselves to intentionally develop a church plant that will focus on people who are far from God.  We don’t want to plant a church for Christians.  But, in a culture that is increasingly antagonistic toward the Church (not necessarily the Gospel, but the Church), how can you reach people who are far from God?

Jesus knew the answer.  People with big needs are more receptive than those who don’t have needs.  As we focus on our “target segment,” we need to prayerfully consider a “subtarget” of people with a big need.  Whether that need is related to alcohol/drugs, financial issues, loneliness, or whatever . . . concentrating on a significant need will help us gain respect among our larger segment, and will draw people closer to Jesus . . . Because we are BEING Jesus to them, not just PREACHING Jesus to them.

I’m not a mercy-driven person.  I think back to my time in seminary as my colleagues would laugh at my inability to identify with shut-ins and people in the hospital.  The humor I once found now is a bit tragic.  God gives different people different spiritual gifts.  I will never change my position on that.  It’s Biblical.  BUT, we should never use our lack of giftedness as an excuse to be un-Christ-like!  I have done this as it relates to compassion.  I’ve allowed my heart to become hard.  I’m praying earnestly for God to soften my heart toward a specific need in the target segment of Baltimore He is calling us to.

As I write this, I am watching the news.  Less than a mile away from Journey Church, Millbrook, AL, an apparent tornado has ripped through Prattville, AL.  A person I consider a good friend and mentor, Mike Mozingo is the pastor of Journey Church in Millbrook.  We are supposed to meet up at the conference this week. As I read the news online and watched it on TV, I had to pause and pray for Mike and his ministry.  I don’t know if the situation in his area will keep him from making it to the conference or not.  I imagine that if it does, the opportunities he may have helping the people in Prattville and Millbrook at this time may be immensely more valuable than a bunch of big-wig church planters talking about the good stuff God is doing in their ministries.

I’m looking forward to hearing from these guys.  I usually go to these conferences listening for some great leadership principle I can seek to apply to my life.  Leadership principles are good, but I have a little bit different ears on this year.  I want to hear how their churches are “being Jesus” in what they are doing.  Is their success the result of “being Jesus” to their area?  I know Gary Lamb and some of the other guys are really reaching disconnected people.  I want to listen for the clues to making that step . . . not how to build a bigger and better church . . . but how to reach those far from God!  I grew up as a church nerd.  I need help!

Woah!  This post got kinda long!

Another Long Saturday

Emily and I have committed to having a dinner date on Thursdays and a stay-home together night on Fridays.  We made this decision several weeks ago and are pretty much sticking to it.  With me essentially working 3 jobs right now, my Saturdays are very busy.  Emily accepts that as reality for now.  She’s cool with it, because she knows she has me on Friday nights.  That’s her night, and I look forward to giving it to her each week.  She’s definitely worth it.  Actually, she’s worth a whole lot more than I could ever give her.

Well, today was a typically busy Saturday.  I completed my first-ever monthly report for the Baltimore association.  Filling out the form probably helped me realize how much we have to do than it did help me feel like we’ve gotten a lot accomplished.  However, I feel like part of the team in some small way. 

I also did my usual Travel Guide and got it online for the Growth Groups at Journey.

AND, Emily and I cleaned the house up enough to get some pictures taken and I uploaded them to our InfoTube listing site.  As I worked on my computer in the office, I saw several people pick up brochures today.  It sure would be nice if we could sell our house soon.  It would be a huge step in moving into church planting quickly.

I’m looking forward to a couple days off from architecture to go to the ChurchPlanters.com conference.  I’m ready to EVOLVE!

Well, it is now midnight.  I’m off to bed.

Book Updates

Earlier this week, I finally finished unChristian.  This is a MUST READ for every Christ Follower in 21st century America.  I came out of a traditional church where I was beginning to realize the decreasing influence of the church and increasing difficulty in sharing the Gospel with upcoming generations.  Over the past year and a half, I have been in a new church plant and networked with several other church planters.  This has helped me understand a little of the “why,” but there’s still so much more.  This book breaks it down.  It attacks our “Christian” subculture with facts.  This is not a propositional book.  This is an in-depth study at the reputation the Church has in 21st century America.  It’s an indictment.  It’s a call to change.  And it doesn’t leave us short.  It gives us practical suggestions on how to move forward.  If you haven’t read it . . . click on it, buy it, and read it!

My next book, that I started reading on Tuesday, is Dangerous Surrender, by Kay Warren.  Several pastor friends have suggested I read it, so I’m diving in.  It’s pretty good so far.  I’ll have to give a review later.

** Don’t forget, clicking on any book link on APK’s Attic leading to a purchase from ChristianBook.com will result in 10% earnings for us as we prepare to plant a church.  You can support us by buying and reading books that will grow your faith and influence!