Rhythms of Grace

I recently visited this passage again after feeling a little ... out of rhythm. For a drummer, that's not good. My tempo has been reset by these words.

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matt.11:28-30 - The Message

What do you do to reset your life tempo?

Top 3 Benefits

I asked about 30 people that I know in ministry to give me their Top 3 Benefits of being in the ministry. The group of people are in various roles and stages in ministry. Some just a few years, some with 30 plus years of experience, and everywhere in between.

Some things can't be measured but only felt. This straw poll is in no way scientific but it was heartfelt. I wanted to hear the whys, feelings, and thoughts of those who, given the specific challenges (as with every responsibility), sacrifice yet continually are motivated to pursue and fulfill their calling.

TAKEAWAYS:
Most enjoyed being involved with or around people's lives. This was a common denominator. Flexibility of time, working on a team, and knowing there was obedience to God all motivated some in their calling.

Thanks to all 25 who were able to participate.

For a complete list click here!

Working on it!

There's been a lot of buzz on FOR WHAT IT's WORTH regarding my recent post where I listed several stats regarding pastors, etc. I asked for and received a comment|feedback yesterday from Anne Jackson. I asked her for her three benefits (keep reading), which she shared, but also shed light on the statistics.

Her comment was, "what is encouraging is...even though these stats are from reliable sources, they're not scientific." In doing the research for her book, she tackled the allure of these stats especially to those in the ministry. I must confess ... I am guilty of Info. Porn! Check this article out when you get a chance - which she references some of the same stats. I know that is her opinion, and I agree with it regarding this stuff.

By the way, Anne's new book Mad Church Disease drops in February of 2009. I am looking forward to the read regarding overcoming the burnout epidemic.

I mentioned at the end of the Pastor Stats post that I was thinking about blogging about the top three joys / benefits of being in the ministry. I started by emailing a bunch of my friends who are in the ministry and have received some great input.

Although the results of my straw poll will not be scientific, my hope is that we can shed light on some of the good that ministers enounter doing what they do. I am collecting and decifering the info. and my hope is to post something on Friday.

The bottom line for me with all this is to raise awareness that we all need each other. It's when we isolate and conceal that some of those stats (scientific or not) can become a reality in our own lives.

Survey Says .... The Stats!

This past weekend we surveyed The Crossroads regarding groups / service / specific demographic information we requested to better serve. We will run the survey / signup sheet for the next couple of weeks. Here are a few of the results of the first weekend (of 90+ surveys turned in):

STATS:
**36% are not currently in a group, but want to be.
**71% mentioned Balanced Biblical Teaching as the or one of the reasons they attend The Crossroads.
**52% were in the 25-45 age group.
**57% want to know more about discipleship.
**47% were currently serving in some capacity, 27% wanted to find their place in serving some way.

I am looking forward to the follow up with this information. Any advice

One Year and counting

June 1st came and went. I just realized that I've been a part of the Crossroads team for one year. It went by so quickly! I am thankful to God for directing me and teaming me up with the Roadsters!

After celebrating our third anniversary this past January, we moved into our new office/cafe. As you can see from the pics . . . it's a pretty cool place. The coffee shop will be full service, hopefully in mid-August.

Today - one of our neighbor business owners used our Cafe to conduct an interview. That is exactly what we've been hoping for. I was able to talk with the interviewee . . . whose family is moving here from Flagstaff. I enjoyed meeting Tina and was even more happy we are becoming a third place for our community.

One Prayer

Originally posted on Typepad - March 31
This sounds like a revolution! Count me in this prayer!

The Move

This week is known as the week of passion, the week of celebration not only Jesus' death but also his resurrection.  I am grateful!

We at The Crossroads moved into our new office / cafe this week.  Transition is not always easy. Communication and keeping positive are key components in helping ease tensions of change.  I am reminded of a couple of Charles Swindoll quotes:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

What is the hardest part to deal with when we have no control over a situation?

Stuck in a Small World

Originally posted on Typepad - March 07, 2008

My pastor and friend is a writer. This week his new book dropped called Stuck in a Small World. It will be a soft launch of the book but we are planning to roll it out in conjunction with the opening of our Koina Cafe (hopefully by the end of the month). Here is a brief look at the book:

"With the economy in limbo and life zooming at an out of control pace, the family unit is under attack. Common circumstances have plagued our society for years.

Wyatt tackles these issues head on addressing such issues as single-parent families, sibling rivalry, emotionally distant fathers, blended families, families with special needs children, and many more.

Stuck in a Small World came out of a personal experience, when at Disneyland the Wyatt’s found them selves literally stuck on the ride It’s a Small World. The boat stopped, but the annoying music did not. Meanwhile, the loudspeaker kept blaring, “Please! Do not exit your boats!”

With a painfully honest take on his own families stuckness, Wyatt offers a hopeful look at how we can break the cycle of dysfunction and rewrite the music of our family’s repetitive song."

I am looking forward to reading it.

What will Church look like?

Originally posted on Typepad - March 05, 2008

Barna released a report recently identifying five segments of church attendance.

From the report:
“The fact that millions of people are now involved in multiple faith communities - for instance, attending a conventional church one week, a house church the next, and interacting with an online faith community in-between - has rendered the standard measures of “churched” and “unchurched” much less precise.”

so, out of the following…which segment do you identify with more? if you would rather remain unidentified, just type in anonymous for your name and don’t link back to your blog.

Unattached - people who had attended neither a conventional church nor an organic faith community (e.g., house church, simple church, intentional community) during the past year. Some of these people use religious media, but they have had no personal interaction with a regularly-convened faith community. This segment represents one out of every four adults (23%) in America. About one-third of the segment was people who have never attended a church at any time in their life.

Intermittents - these adults are essentially “under-churched” - i.e., people who have participated in either a conventional church or an organic faith community within the past year, but not during the past month. Such people constitute about one out of every seven adults (15%). About two-thirds of this group had attended at least one church event at some time within the past six months.

Homebodies - people who had not attended a conventional church during the past month, but had attended a meeting of a house church (3%).

Blenders - adults who had attended both a conventional church and a house church during the past month. Most of these people attend a conventional church as their primary church, but many are experimenting with new forms of faith community. In total, Blenders represent 3% of the adult population.

Conventionals - adults who had attended a conventional church (i.e., a congregational-style, local church) during the past month but had not attended a house church. Almost three out of every five adults (56%) fit this description. This participation includes attending any of a wide variety of conventional-church events, such as weekend services, mid-week services, special events, or church-based classes.

What does going to church look like for you? how do you think “going to church” will look over the next ten or twenty years as our world gets smaller with technology?"


Thanks for Anne Jackson for the info.

Challenges in Church Planting

All church plants have challenges . . . some same and some different in nature.  

One of my friends (yes, I have more than one!) lives in Iowa.  He is on staff at a church plant there and well . . . it snows in Iowa.  Not sure I would like snow to as one of our challenges at The Crossroads!

Here's a pic of setting up church, in January, in Iowa!

Being Three is cool!

Our church turned three this weekend. We had CCV pastor Don Wilson speak. Being a church plant, CCV helped our start and we feel great being an extension of what God is doing through that body.

The Crossroads also commissioned it's first group of elders. Here is a quote I ran across a couple days ago that helps describe our group. "An imperfect system filled with men and women of integrity will function far better than a perfect system filled with men and women who lack integrity." That is what we have at The Crossroads.

I am glad to be a part of what God is doing in the Northwest Valley of Phoenix. Here are some pics of the weekend.

30 Days

I spoke on 30 Days to Live: Living life in High Def. I really enjoyed it. I have yet to hear the responses from our iCare space. It was great having my parents with us in service. It was a great service to end the year.

I ended the message with Making Peace with your Relationships. I showed this video and had a great response to it.

We all want to belong | Fit in!

This came from the Director of Community at a church in the Midwest. It was a wake up call to be aware of the obvious - and aware that people matter and want to belong. It's up to us to help facilitate that.

"At 8:15 this past Sunday morning, I see this guy wandering in the area near staff mailboxes and the bathrooms. He doesn't seem like he's waiting for anyone. He doesn't stop anyone to ask for direction. (I was one of at least 3 people who walked by him.) He is definitely looking around. Yeah, he is out of place. I don't stop him. I don't inquire. I just noticed. (Not my proudest Director of Community moment!)

Less than 5 minutes later, I now see him in the atrium wandering but definitely uncomfortable. The only other people are a few staff and volunteer leaders setting up for the day, and some GCC regulars meeting early for coffee. He stood out again. He's looking around. Weird. What is he doing?

Wait. He's making a move. He starts walking toward the exit doors with determination. For whatever reason, I now decide that if he has just stalked the place, I should probably say something to let him know he was noticed.

Just as he's opening the second set of doors to reach the cold air, I reach him. "Can I help you find anything?" With a slight dialect of another language, "Well, I was supposed to serve today. It was my first time, but I can't find where I'm supposed to go. So..." Feeling like a complete schmuck, "Ohhhh. We can find the team. Let me help you." Within 2 minutes, we found the team leader, made the introduction, and poof! Connection made! I saw him later that morning serving confidently.

People are uncomfortable when they take a step. It's new. They don't know what to expect. They don't do what seems obvious to us who are already connected. Really! Yes, I know it doesn't make sense. Virtually everyone in the building at that time could have helped him. He only needed to ask. He did not feel comfortable to stop anyone.

Taking a step is a big deal. I want to be noticed - to be significant - to connect - to fit in. At the same time, I don't want to be noticed as different - as not fitting in. I am glad I had this glimpse into the experience of our people. It gives me passion to do all that we can to make it easy for them."

Bad Day!

I saw this on one of the streets in the French Quarter. Now that's a bad day!

New Orleans - Day Three

Today was a quick but hard days work. We worked on The Gathering - a new church that will serve the Chalemette area. It was completely gutted and needs a new roof. Our mission today was to tear off a portion of the roof. Portion was good cause it was difficult. It felt good finish it and know we got the renovation off to a good start.

We toured the Crossroads Missions Headquarters. It was a few blocks from Lake Ponchartrain (that overflowed so heavily). We also toured the 9th Ward again (in daylight). It was devastated. Harry Connick Jr.'s effort at Musicians Village was interesting too.

Enjoyed my time in New Orleans and hope others will get the opportunity to do the same. Next time, should I get to go, I hope to get to hear the stories of people Katrina effected.

Got home at 11:30 pm last night. I am a little sore today but glad to be home.

New Orleans - Day One and Two!

I am here for a few days helping a group of guys restoring houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I really didn't know what to expect. It amazes me that there are houses that have been completely abandoned with no guarantee the owner will come back and restore it. Many have and many haven't.

I like the helpfulness of the neighbors and neighborhoods - at least in the areas we are working in. It's a Three Musketteers "All for One, One for All" kind of tude. I would say that New Orleans is back on it's feet but it has a huge limp! I think the housing situation will be a huge hurdle. Businesses are coming in and the population is growing but the unclaimed houses will be an issue of when and how they will be occupied again.

Saw the Pink Campaign helped by Jolie and Pitt. 9th Ward is . . . . wow!

Matt Woodward is planting a church called The Gathering. We are helping him renovate a claimed bowling alley tomorrow. He will do a great work here in Chalemette.

I enjoyed touring the Quarter tonight. Bourbon street was narrow and dirty. I liked the antiquity of the city, the history. Definitely would not want to live here. That's me. Looking forward to coming home tomorrow.

N'awlens

Leaving on a Jet Plane . . . . going to New Orleans on a short term missions trip. Not sure what to expect. I am hoping to get some good footage for missions promotion. Also, I am looking forward to meeting some new people and get to know some of the Crossroaders (already there serving) a little better.

I will miss my family... I have a lot to look forward to coming back home!

Know yourself

I read this recently from the Pastor's Coach Newsletter and it really resonants with me. Steve and I recently had a discussion about knowing what you are good at and knowing what you are not gifted at - and being OK with both.

"The heart of a good coach is honest about personal strengths and weaknesses.
Maturely embracing the phrase “know thyself” is core to good coaching. A good coach is self-aware but not self-absorbed. There is a huge difference between the two. When you are self-aware, you know what you are good at and what you are not good at, and you are comfortable with that. When you are self-absorbed, you obsess over what you are not good at and seek attention for what you are good at. When you are self-aware you have a solid appreciation of yourself as you are. When you are self-absorbed, you have a selfish (or even narcissistic) love of self. This is often a false love based on personal insecurities.

John Maxwell has coached me for many years. And though John is highly gifted he will quickly admit what he is not good at. For a general example, when it comes to coaching someone in something that is very intuitive to him, something that comes as natural as breathing, he doesn't coach others in that very well. For a specific example, he knows that counseling or therapy is not his gift! So, he's comfortable saying he's not able to coach you in that skill. Far too often people attempt to coach in an area they know very little about and therefore the coaching is ineffective."

Guest Services of the future

I saw this on the internet and thought how cool to have more of these roaming malls, churches, amusement parks. Having a set place is good for map purposes but . . . I know which one is more inviting for me.

What about you?

We like me ... and others like me.

I saw this picture from a friend's blog today:

It's just another reminder of how businesses work hard to find things in common with their audiences. How can a church or should a church work harder at it, too?

It can be done in the most simple ways...got milk?