Sunday Mind Dump

Wow what a great way to kick off our family worship experiences. The kids did an awesome job and it was so much fun! We had a great time. Martha and Jackie do such an awesome job with the kids it's hard to imagine a better kids ministry. The pizza came in right on time and everyone loved hanging out and munching after the service.

• Diaggio's can pizza actually get any better?
• The kids sing their hearts out today. I was so proud!
• Tim did a great job leading on the guitar today.
• Did I mention Diaggio's has awesome pizza?
• Nice crowd today that's always cool.
  
• Really looking forward to next weeks vision 2008 message. It's going to put quite a bit of context on many of the things we are doing right now.
• We have some of the biggest servants around. How cool is that?
• Did I mention the pizza?

Really looking forward to the next family worship experience. We are planning on doing four per year. The next one is booked for the first week in April. We are getting their on the things we need for the new building. We have raised 10% of the money in the first week and we have 3 months to go. We are starting to see some of the furniture and other items come in.....how cool is that?

Post Vacation Hangover

We're back and I have a little of that post vacation hangover. I am home but things just feel out of sorts. I have a ton of stuff we are trying to get ready for the next few church services. I am really excited about them. This weekend we are doing the family worship experience and that will be sweet!

Vacation Updates

Having a great time so far. The place we rented is awesome and has all the amenities of home. Ok, more than the amenities of home. In fact, I am off to the spa in a half hour for my deep tissue massage. Gotta love that!

We have a great view. I am getting excited about getting back to the grind I have so many new things I want to get working on for the next year. Doing quite a bit of reading up here as well. That is something I do every vacation I try to read an entire book.

Looking forward to the family worship experience this weekend. It is going to be cool!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone...here is an up to date run down of our Christmas so far. We left Toledo yesterday at 8:15 we got to Pigeon Forge at 4:00. Not too shabby on time :) I tried to pay attention to most of the local laws and ordinances as we went from town to town.

So here is what we have done so far:

• Checked into the resort. The condo we have is awesome. We are on the 6th floor and have a great view.
• Had our "Traditional" Christmas eve dinner at Red Lobster.
• Went to Walgreens and overpaid for a few things we really needed. Gotta love resort towns:)
• We just finished our Christmas dinner that consisted of wonderfully prepared Stouffers French Bread Pizza. The chef really knows how to make a french bread pizza right!
• I am waiting...and waiting...and waiting....for April to finish the beautification process so we can get out of this condo and go to the park. We are going to take a driving tour today since it's Christmas and everything else is closed.
• Looking forward to dinner tonight. We get real food since most of the eatin' places open up around 4 pm.

Will update more later!

Sunday Night Mind Dump

First off, I am freaking tired. All this Christmas stuff, all the food, all the presents, makes a guy need a good nap! Had a nice service today. The message was really good and the worship went over really well. We went unplugged today with just a guitar a bass and two voices. It really helped to make Christmas songs more worshipful. I just don't like trying to rock out traditional music. For most people, those songs are too comfy and rocking them out only leaves people wishing they'd have heard them another way.

• Signed the lease on the building yesterday. That is exciting and scary at the same time. We need to raise the funds to pay for a bunch of stuff so we are doing this in faith. We'll have an updated list and progress report in a week or so about where we are in the process.
• Shelly was off the hook with the Christmas food and decorations today. The YMCA looked great and we would be lost without that girl!
• Getting ready to have Christmas with the kids. Since we are going away this week we are opening presents tonight!
• Off to Tennessee tomorrow. Looking forward to being away for a much needed mental break. Not looking forward to the eight hour drive.

Church planting is a great ride. I can't wait to see what God is going to to over the next year. I'll be talking about that in the first message of the new year. Next weekend is the kids program that got postponed last weekend because of the snow.

Christmas 2007

Got a great Christmas message ready for tomorrow. I am really pumped up about this one. It's going to be really big for some of our people. Set up was a breeze today we were done with the whole thing in just over an hour. Usually set up and band practice takes us slightly over 2 hours so we were pretty amazed that we actually had some free time when we were done!

See everyone tomorrow! Everyone that is left in town. It feels like half our church is away this Christmas!

Friday Pizza

April and I went and had pizza with Tony and his family tonight over at Diaggio's. I don't know how they do it but they clearly have the best pizza in town. That stuff is off the hook good. I am psyched that we are getting a whole mess of it for next weekends family worship experience.

We had the pepperoni delight or something like that tonight. Oh yea, plus they have some really good Gelato too. Better get off to bed we have to get up early tomorrow to set up for church Sunday!

Leadership Vs Pastoring

Been thinking quite a bit this week about myself in ministry. Six months ago I made a decision that I was going to focus more on becoming a better pastor. I wanted to focus more on people and focus less on tactical things. The problem is, if you're not careful, you can pastor yourself right out of church growth.

For me there has to be a balance between loving people and pastoring people and leading God's people to take more ground than they thought they were capable of taking.

Over the next few months and years my struggle is to find a way to pastor God's people while leading them. I have made a personal commitment to spend quite a bit of time over this next year focusing on just that. Over the last week God has hit me pretty big with some stuff.

I sat down and wrote two messages out of it. One is a leadership message. The first Sunday in January we are going to spend the morning talking about where God is going to me taking us over the next year and years. I can see that picture clearer than ever. The third Sunday in January I am going to do the pastor thing and stretch your faith big time.

If you can't tell. I am pretty fired up about it too!

Sunday Night Mind Dump

I took today as a true sabbath day. I did almost nothing (except for shovel the driveway.) It was kind of relaxing since I don't get many of those. April kept trying to get me to do stuff, I kept ignoring her:) Since we didn't have a service today I don't have all that much to dump but here goes:

• Had a business meeting yesterday we decided the building on Reynolds is a go. So we are going to be working on that.
  
• We have a TON of things to get done over the next month if we are going to move.
  
• We have to buy chairs, decorations, tables, and a host of other goodies.
• Everyone is pretty pumped about the new place.
• We rescheduled the Family Worship Experience because of the snow. It'll be two weeks from today. That's going to be a blast!!

Building Update

For all the Real Lifers that read the blog I just wanted to give you all a quick update. We did get the price and the terms that we needed from the Realtor on the rental property on Reynolds Rd. We are going to sit down Sunday before small group and take a hard look at the budget and see if it makes sense to make the move.

It's a close call financially on the building and if we do make the move we want to make sure it's the God thing to do. We are really just a baby church and taking on this kind of responsibility requires some serious prayer. So hang in there we are going to be taking a few weeks to make the call on this one.

Minding Your Own Business

Real Life is going to partner with Lifechurch.tv in January to bring the message series Minding Your Own Business. This will be an awesome time of learning and relearning how we can become better stewards of God's resources. In the series we'll learn how to look at our family finances as a business, how we can eliminate and reduce our personal debt, and how we can begin the process of giving back to God what is rightfully his.

You won't want to miss a single one of these messages. In fact, they are so good that I am going to allow Pastor Craig from Lifechurch.tv to teach them to us. This kind of thing doesn't come up nearly as often as it should in church and I am pumped to be able to do it here at Real Life. Check out the promotional video's at the top of the blog.

Sunday Night Mind Dump

A nice service today. We had a solid turn out considering the freezing rain storm which turned out to be not that big of a deal. The car was covered in ice but the roads were just wet and not really slippery at all. A couple of thoughts about today.

• John did a great job with sound. He has only done it a few times and we aren't using the perfect gear for what we are doing so just getting a good mix is a pretty good thing.
• Tiffany stepped in for Jackie today and did a nice job with the preschool class.
  
• Martha has been doing a killer job getting the kids ready for the family worship experience next weekend.
• April has been working with them teaching them a couple of songs to sing for the church and it is really cute (or so I hear!)
• Getting excited about Christmas in a few weeks. I need some time off work and it can't come too soon.
  
• We are going away for a few days over Christmas and I am really looking forward to getting some quiet time to get message ideas and do some writing!
• The building we visited yesterday looks like it might really work for us. We just need to get a deal that will work in terms of finances.
  

Everyone steps up every week and that is so cool. I am looking forward to not having to set up every week. That will be sweet!

Community

One of the values we share at Real Life is learning to live life in community with others. Why do we need to live life in community? It's simple, because alone is never a good place for us to be. All of us will struggle on occasion, all of us will fail from time to time, and all of us will need some encouragement now and then. Living a life connected to others provides a venue for that to happen.

Is it easy? Nope.

It means we have to allow ourselves to actually be open to others. It means we have to allow them to see things in us that are less than perfect. Most of us aren't willing to go there. We don't want people to see the imperfections in us. We want to put on our happy faces and let people believe the illusion that we have it all together.

Don't fall for that trap. Allow people to love you for who you are. Be who you are...but be it together.

Forgiveness: Say What?

This year we are doing a Christmas series called Christmas is... The theme of the series is that Christmas is a time when we should be seeking forgiveness from those we have hurt and offering forgiveness to those who have hurt us.

As I sat down over the last few weeks to work on these messages I got to thinking about something. When it comes to Judging people we have different standards. For, example:

• We judge other people by their actions.
• We want to be judged by our intentions.

Think about those for a second. We judge others by what they do and we want to be judged by our intentions. If we didn't mean to hurt someone then they shouldn't have taken what we said in a hurtful manner right?

Wrong. We need to realize that this runs both ways. Other people are judging you by your actions and themselves by their intentions. Remember that the next time someone is hurt by something you have said or done. That will make it easier to go to them and ask for their forgiveness.

Sunday Night Mind Dump

We had a decent service today. Music was a little rough it was almost like the band was fighting each other over the tempo. The message seemed to go over well. I saw a lot of people nodding along with me and laughing at the funny points....which is nice!

• Went and looked at a possible new location today. It's nice and looks like it might be a fit. Now the hard part getting the money stuff to work out for us. They are within a few hundred dollars of where we are at the YMCA so it's going to be close!
• I love our people. Every week I see them stepping up in a bigger and bigger way.
• My wife really puts up with a lot. It's tough to lead a worship band anyway. Let alone being the only female. She tolerates a lot of boyish behavior and jokes. Everyone should thank her!
• Last month was our second largest month in terms of giving. That is so cool, not because we think dollars equal success but because we have been self-funded from day one and God just keeps providing for our needs.
• Martha is doing a killer job with the kids. They all have their Bible memory verses down and keep coming up to people quoting them. The kids really love what she has done with that ministry.
• We still REALLY need to find a couple more singers. Ideally a guy who could sing lead and a girl who could sing harmony would give us everyone we need.
• I am really pumped about where we are as a church and where we are going.

Church planting is a huge rush! I can't imagine doing anything else in ministry. I love just watching God bring people in as we need them.

Church Planting

I read a new study put out by Ed Setzer today and I have to say if it's accurate it rocked my church planting world! His group did a study of church planting over the last ten years and they really made some sense of what most church planters are looking at. First off, according to the numbers the days of being able to send out some mailers and see large amounts of people show up are over. I can echo that. We have seen slightly less than a 1% return on them. For example if we mail out 20,000 mailers we'd see fewer than 20 people show up......for most churches the return rate is 1/3% meaning they'll see about 4-5 people per 20,000 mailers. What they were getting at is that unless God does something supernatural you can plan on growing slower than churches that were planted 15 years ago. I am feeling really good about were we are BTW!

Here are some other factoids I picked up from the study:

• The average church plant sees 10 conversions/baptisms it's first year.
• Most church plants are running under 100 people after 4 years
• Most church plants are just getting to the point where they are financially self sufficient at the 4 year mark.
• The success rate for new church plants is much higher than it was 15 years ago.

I won't tell you exactly where we are on all this yet other than to say we are beating their numbers in every area! If you want details you'll have to be at our vision 2008 service the last Sunday in December.

Writing

Doing some writing this week for the next month of messages. It's really interesting at times how God works. I get an idea about where God wants to go with something and it's not until I actually sit down and start writing does it all come out. Today was one of those days. We have some good stuff coming up soon!

Roller Coaster Week

This sure has been one of those roller coaster weeks. Very busy and all over the page in terms of emotions. As a church we are all in shock over the loss of Shelly's son TJ. We are getting ready for the funeral, in fact, I just finished the message for that. That message was one of the hardest things I have ever sat down to write. I do think that God is going to use it in some really powerful ways. In fact, it might just be my best work in ministry. How many times can you say that about a funeral message?

On the exciting side we are prepping for our Christmas series. April is getting all the new songs ready and the band will start working them out tomorrow night. For Christmas, we are doing a candlelight service that is going to be un-plugged. We'll just a guitar, a bass, and a couple of voices. I have also been thinking about doing communion as well. It's tough to do communion in a seeker friendly church for a whole host of reasons. We'll see if God gives me the Green light on that one.

Our message series is called Christmas is.... and it's all about forgiving those who have hurt us. Going to others and seeking forgiveness for our wrongs and Learning to forget what has happened in our past. I am looking forward to it. The My Secrets series was awesome but very heavy and this will be a much needed break for me personally!

Sunday mind dump

A pretty solid day at church today. We ran our first video lesson from Lifechurch.tv. I'd like to get some feedback from our people to see how they liked it. We have the opportunity to do more of that. In fact, we could go as far as becoming a network church that uses their materials every week or we could just use them now and then as a change of pace. We will be using them at least two more times with the kickoff of our series on personal finances in January.

• Music went well today. I did make one boo boo that the band will hound me about at every practice from now until the rapture. I played a song in the wrong key. I get ahead of myself and do it all the time during practice. Today was the first time I have ever done it during a service.
• People seemed to enjoy My Secrets. I really think it was much needed and several people told me how much they needed to hear some of the things we talked about.
  
• I want to thank everyone who gave a testimony during My Secrets. I know it can be tough and you really helped make the series a success.
• I missed small group tonight. I love getting together with God's people and fellowshipping. There isn't much of anything better church wise!
• We had some technology safus today with the TV and video stuff. Gotta love it. A big thank you to Tony Trezzo our resident Geek Squad go to guy.
• I pastor one of the coolest churches ever. I love this job!
• People are really starting to get into the worship more. I see more and more people singing and worshiping than when we first started. How cool is that?

On a tragic note. One of our members lost a son to a suicide today. At times like this there is nothing you can say or do to make a person feel better. We can only pray and offer to hold a hand. Right now, I'd ask everyone to pray. There are a ton of people hurting and asking a lot of questions tonight that there are no answers to. Just pray.

What am I thankful for?

I just wanted to take a second and tell everyone some of the things I am thankful for.

• I have awesome family. A great wife and two really great kids.
• I get to lead the greatest bunch of people I have every met @ Real Life.
• God blesses me over and over again even though I don't deserve it.
• I live in a place where we are free to worship as we choose.

Most of you will never know it but I thank God everyday for everyone that is a part of my life!

My Secrets: Revealed

This is the last weekend for our message series My Secret. I am really excited about this weekends message. It'll be very different from anything else we have done. It's going to be really uplifting after a few messages that were...let's face it. Pretty heavy to say the least.

This week is going to focus total on the good that comes from confessing secret sin and getting it out in the open. We are going to not just talk about changed lives, but show example after example of a changed life. This is a cool weekend. It's the kind of weekend I would do over and over again if I could.

Sunday Night Mind Dump

Not too shabby of a day today. The sound system was a little muddy and I think we need to pick ourselves up a nice EQ. That should help take care of some of our problems. The message seemed to go well and was received well which is always nice to hear.

• I needed a good football day today after Michigan got beat up yesterday. My Tampa team won 31-7 so I can be excited about them for the week. Cleveland also won a close one today so Go Browns!
• Jake did pretty solid playing the bass today. We need to work on helping him control his volume levels a bit but we'll get there.
• The kids made some really cool crafts in kids church today. I had tons of them come running up to me and showing me their trees. That is sweet!
• Setting up and tearing down the YMCA gets easier every time we do it. It'll almost be a shame when we get a more stable locale and don't have to set up every week. We are pro's already!
• Looking forward to moving into a new series after next week. Five weeks of teaching on the same basic thing seems like it goes on forever.
• We just had a great small group tonight. Small groups are one of my favorite things to do in church. I just love sitting down with a group of people and talking about the things that God has done in our lives.

We are going to be doing some big things over the next few months. I can't wait to be able to share them with everyone!!

I am so nervous!

O.k., this is going to be a huge weekend for us that is true. I am really looking forward to the message because I just know how it is going to help people make some big time changes in their lives. But I am really nervous at the same time. Not for me, I am used to playing, singing, and speaking in front of people. I am nervous for Jake. This will be the first time my 14 year old is stepping in with the house band and playing bass for us.

The boy is a pretty solid bass player. He's been playing it for a few years and has a great ear for music but this will be his first time playing in the band.

It's always harder on the parents isn't it?

Best Service Ever

This weekends service might just be our best one ever. In fact, the next two weekends might just be our best ones ever for different reasons. I am completely psyched up for this weekends message. This weekend we are talking about shame. Shame is one of Satan's finest tools. At one time or another he uses it on each of us and we usually fall hook, line, and sinker for it.

At Real Life, we are going to confront shame head on and we are going to take that tool out of Satan's bag of tricks. No more will we allow our enemy to use the past against us, no more will we allow our mistakes to drive our future, and no more will we allow ourselves to be isolated from our friends and families. We are too important to God to allow that to continue to happen to us.

This is going to be a huge weekend for us. I have been thinking about a few people specifically who are going to be completely blown away this weekend. You don't know who you are yet but God does!

Parenting

I know this is like every parents story so I just wanted to make note that I am in the same boat with you all. My kids make the dumbest choices sometimes!

Parenting can be difficult. Sometimes you do everything right and your kids still make the wrong choice. So what does that mean we are total screw ups as parents? Nope, it simply means our kids are human and they have a choice to make everyday just like you and I have a choice to make sometimes its the right choice, sometimes its the wrong choice, but there is always a choice.

Hang in there. God promises that his word doesn't come back void. We need to do the right things and trust that in the end God will work everything out for his glory.

Sunday night mind dump

A great service today. The series My Secret is going very well. Today we had Gwen Kelly come and give her testimony. It was very powerful and many people were really moved!

• The new stage set up went over really well. People could see the screen much better for power point.
• The noise levels for the band were awesome today. Very quiet and we could all hear really well. Kudos to Noah!
• Martha is doing a killer job with the kids. It's too bad she is only working with kids until we find another kids pastor! One thing is for certain, whoever the next person is that takes on that ministry is going to inherit a great program that is really set up well.
• The last two messages have been geared towards the guys in the church. Next week,it's ladies night. O.k., it's ladies Sunday. We are going to gear much of the message to you!
• Attendance was down a bit because of the bug that's going around this week. We had a ton of kids out sick.
  
• John is doing a killer job on the drums. I have seen so much growth from him over the last few months. He is really starting to think less and flow more. Which for a drummer is a very good thing!
• It's really cool to see people stepping up and volunteering to help in so many area's.
  

This whole thing is starting to come together. Sometimes we just need to get out of the way and allow God to do what only God can do. After all, it is him who is going to build his church. We are only along for the ride.......and what a sweet ride that is!

Rough Day

My Wolverines got spanked today in Wi. I was really bumming about it until our bitter rivals got beat down today to. Too bad for all you Buckeye fans. It'll be a shame to see your team lose it's last two games after being ranked #1 for almost the whole season.

Go Blue!!

Setup

Probably our best setup yet. We have done a little reconfiguration of our staging area to make it a little bigger and to get the screen up a little higher. We really liked the results today. Honestly, it was the best the band has ever done from a strictly sound standpoint so kudos to Tony & Noah!

Looking forward to tomorrow morning.

Collaboration, Church, and Lifechurch.tv

As we started off in church planting we and by we, I mostly mean me, I have longed to be able to work side by side with other churches. It's funny because we aren't competing with other churches we should be the biggest cheerleaders for them. When one church is succeeding, as pastors, we ought to be the first people on the phone telling the other pastors how happy we are for them. When they are struggling we ought to be the first ones on the phone offering to help in anyway we can.

Sadly enough it just doesn't seem to want to work that way. Over the last year I have personally called a half a dozen guys in the area and no one seems to want to put any energy into working together. Calls and emails go unanswered. Understand this, I am not griping about it. More than anything it just saddens me because the Bible tells us that "Two are better than one. When one falls the other is there to help them up." in another place the Bible tells us that "a three strand chord is not easily broken." In other words, there is something about being and working together that strengthens people and the same, I believe, is true about churches.

When churches link themselves together for prayer, worship, and teaching there are some great things that happen. That is one of the reasons I LOVE Lifechurch.tv. They're actively seeking people to partner with because they get it. There is strength in numbers. It's not about creating another denomination or sect of people that are isolated away from the rest of their community they're all about partnering together so that each church can more fully do what it was called to do in the community it was called to do it! We and they want to share resources, knowledge, and support so that all churches and ministries are as successful as the can be.

As we go through the next few months you'll be seeing more about Lifechurch.tv. Keep in mind the goal here is not to become them. The goal is to partner with them so that we are more fully equipped to do what we are called to do. That might take shape in any number of ways but one thing is for certain we are who we are, and we are going to stay who we are. The simple fact is I don't know how to be any else than who God created me to be.

Getting Pumped Up

I am getting really excited about this weekends service. I just have this hunch that this is going to be a big weekend, not only for us, but for everyone who comes out. We are hitting on some pretty touchy material this weekend (pornography and sexual sins.) Virtually everyone's life has been effected by this stuff on some level.

Most of us guys can tell you the exact time and location we saw our first naked lady photo. We can tell you because that image is burned into our brains. Those images changed our views of women. Our minds were transformed from the moment we saw them. We never looked at women the same.

This weekend we are going to hit it head on. We are going to talk about what porn does not only for us guys, but the effects that it has on women, our marriages, and our minds. This is going to be a huge weekend. Get every guy you know to church on Sunday!

A method to the madness

One of the things that has always puzzled me about church growth is that people in church leadership seem to think there is some magic formula out there. If they could just tap into that magic formula then their church would be able to grow just like that church across town that is growing. While there are some basic things every church can do to help it self grow just copying another church isn't going to make growth happen.

For us, we are going to do what we are. We are a church made up of normal everyday people. That's who we are and that is who we'll be. We do music that is stuff we'd listen to on the radio, we dress like we'd dress if we where hanging out with our friends, and we'll teach on stuff that we all need to hear. We don't need smoke and mirrors, we don't need fancy $2000 suits and slicked back hair. In fact, I loathe wearing a suit! I don't spend more than $12.00 for a haircut, and if someone were to turn on a smoke machine I'd probably have an allergic reaction to it.

At Real Life we think that church growth happens best when you are actually reaching people. When lives are being changed people get excited and when people get excited they invite their friends. When people invite their friends church growth happens. It's as simple as that.

For years I served at a church I would not invite friends to because I was too afraid they'd be offended or turned off by the churches lack of understanding of people not like them. We played music no one outside of the church would have ever listened to, we talked in church-speak, and we had a culture all our own. We wondered why we weren't growing and reaching the lost. The answer was simple, we were clueless.

We had no idea how to relate to people that were not churched because we were so far removed from them that we had no idea how to reach them. That is why at Real Life we actively seek out people that are not yet Christ followers and try to include them in what we are doing with no strings attached. It might be playing in the band, helping us set up, helping deliver food to the needy, or anything else we are doing.

At times it can be messy. They don't always say the right things or do the right things. But the payoff is huge. A month or so ago, I looked out during Sunday worship and saw someone that was as far from God as a person could be a few short months ago. That person was in tears as we sang and worshiped God. That is how a church grows.

Sunday mind dump

Ok....It's actually Monday but I thought I'd go ahead and unpack the mind from yesterdays service.

• A good service overall. We had a few issues with sound but that is to be expected from time to time.
  
• A solid turn out. We had our second highest number of attendees to date. To top that off we had our best single week offering to date.
  
• We have some cool things planed for the next month or so. First, we are doing a family fun day service December 18th. We'll be combining the kids into the adult service and the kids will get a small taste of what we do and we'll get a large taste of what they do!
• After the family fun day we are going to have a pizza party for everyone who wants to stick around and chow. It'll be a great time to get to know a few people from the church and we'll have a few minutes to mingle with some of the newer folks.
• The series my secrets is going very well. Tim Gurney shared his story about becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol. He did a great job telling us of his struggles.
• We have a surprise guest next week who'll be talking about the effects of pornography on the innocent party. You won't want to miss this one I can promise you that much.
• A great job by Noah Stone of stepping up and running the sound board with only my 3 minutes of minimal training for him! Great Job! You get the award for volunteer of the week!

Seeing all these new people gets me really excited! I say it a lot but the truth is I REALLY can't wait to see what God is going to do next.....I feel like a kid a day before Christmas.

Set your clocks back

Remember to set your clocks back tonight!

We'll know if you didn't because you'll become a part of the set up crew without even knowing it.
Looking forward to the next couple of Sundays. We have so many cool things we have coming up. I'd love to just spill it all right now but what fun would that be?

Grace

After a rather heated discussion with someone today I got to thinking about grace. What exactly is grace and how do you show someone grace? Grace is simply unearned mercy and unmerited favor. When we show kindness to another person that doesn't deserve kindness we are living a life of grace. When we love them even though they haven't earned it that is grace.

Grace is a big challenge for most of us because we want it shown to us. We want people to forgive us when we haven't earned it, to love us when we haven't been lovable, to be merciful to us when we haven't shown others mercy. When it comes to the wrongs committed against us most of us want justice instead of grace.

God is just the opposite. God commands us to love the the unloving, to forgive the unforgiving, and to give to those who haven't yet earned it. Jesus was talking one time to a woman at a well who was a known prostitute. While he was talking to her a bunch of religious folks approached wanting to stone this woman because of her wrongs. Jesus basically said. O.k. cool, whichever one of you is blameless go ahead and throw the first stone. Of course, they all went away sad.

Man that is so us some times.

We have the stones and are just looking for reasons to throw them...........remember that every time you have a stone in your hand....

The New Building

I have been out to the new building we have been checking out three times in the last four days. The last tow times I have taken tape measures and last night I took a couple of guys from our team and we have been trying to figure out a way to make the building work for us. We've been measuring and taping off where we'd put classrooms, the stage, and chairs. The hard part about this decision is that every way we have tried it's really borderline as to us actually being able to make it work and even if we can make it work would it work well enough to allow us to grow in a healthy manner attracting new people.

The more I look at this the more I believe the answer is no. The space is just too small. It would work well for the amount of people that we currently had but wouldn't allow for us to grow beyond five or six new families.

There are some other issues that need to be considered as well. Going to this location would have been a huge change in our outreach. As of now we'd been targeting people in the Holland Maumee, and South Toledo areas. Those days would have been over and we'd have had to start reaching out to Swanton and Monclova townships. That's not a bad thing, but no one from our core group lives out that way so we are asking a group of people from one community to minister to a group of people in another community. It can be done, but at times there can be a mismatch.

It would have also been a lot to ask people to drive out there more than once a week for church functions like band practice, small groups, and youth group.

At the end of the day on this one we have to look at the evidence and be confident knowing that as God closes one door he begins the process of opening another one. For now we are going to learn to be content with the YMCA and we are thankful that we have a great temporary home for holding our worship services until God provides the next location.

Sunday mind dump

Wow what a crazy busy week last week was. Much of the stuff still has yet to be decided but it is exciting at the same time. So here are a few things bouncing around the ping-pong table inside my head today.

• Had a great visit with the Lifechurch.tv network church that April and I saw last Sunday in Champaign Ill. It was a very cool thing and might really work well for us. April began to see what I see in terms of the possibilities that a partnership might bring for our church.
• Saw the building our by the airport for the first time. I wasn't blow away but there would be some things that would be nice about it. We are going to go through the processes of figuring out if it'll work. There are two central issues. First, there are some cosmetic problems which are an easy fix. The bigger issue is that the building is on the small size, by the time that we built walls for classrooms we might not have enough space for a main sanctuary.
  
• One of the cool things about the church we saw in Ill is that they actually set up in warehouse space. Their layout was perfect and they really did a killer job of making it look really good. That got me thinking about the possibility of doing that here. Retail space is 4 times more costly than warehouse space. I have done some looking and there are some warehouse spaces that would work well for us.
  
• I am really looking forward to the next few services. We are going to cover the topics of addiction and pornography. We have a guest speaker at each of the next two services that's going to tell us how their lives were almost destroyed by this stuff. It'll be cool, really cool.
  
• I have been thinking of some ways we can use technology to help us with growing our people. I am not quite ready to share it yet but it'll come soon. Lets just say I am really pumped about it.

I can't wait to see everyone next weekend for part two of My Secrets: Addictions. Be prepared to be amazed by some of the stories that you'll hear. If you have some one in your life that struggles with ANY kind of addiction do whatever you have to do and get them to church next Sunday!

Busy Weekend!

This is going to be a busy weekend for April and I. In a few minutes we are getting ready to head out for band practice. Then right after band practice we are heading out for the open house at the potential new building. Then right after that April and I are getting in the car and heading to Champaign Ill to visit with another church that is a part of the lifechurch.tv network.

We really like the stuff that lifechurch.tv does and we have kicked around becoming part of their network for while now. We are just getting to the point where we are wanting to go and physically see how things are done.

Becoming a lifechurch.tv network church could be a very cool thing for us as it would allow is to do many of the things that larger churches do really well using technology in teaching. But, it would allow us to keep the personal touch of a smaller church. This is a very exciting time for me as a pastor because I am looking all across the country and seeing the role of a pastor begin to change from being the person who taught on Sunday morning, to the pastor being an equipper that has a more personal place in the lives of his church members.

That is an exciting thought!

Stay tuned, as God sorts all of this out for us, we'll be able to paint little better picture of what he is doing in our lives and in the life of Real Life!

New location new opportunities

The YMCA has been a great place for us to start off as a church. They have been very kind to us. We get to use the building on both Saturday for setup and practice and Sunday for services for a fairly reasonable price. The problem is that that we still have setup and tear down and that process is hard on our gear and hard on the people that do the set up and tear down. No one complains about it and in fact, the process has taught us quite a few things about our people. But at the end of the day, the YMCA is not in the church business and we are.

On Saturday we are going to check out a new location for us to hold services. It's a place that needs quite a bit of work in the cleanup and making pretty department. The great thing is that the place would be ours (at least for a year at at time.) We'd be able to some things in their that we just can't do at the YMCA. It would give us a place to call home.

The other great thing about this location is that is in the fastest growing part of the county and there isn't much in the way of other churches out there. That means we'd have the chance to make a real impact in areas previously neglected by other churches. This really is an exciting time.

I am not sure if we'll even take the building but the mere fact that we have a chance at it is a miracle in and of itself. We'll be out at the place on Wilkins road from 1-2 for everyone who'd like to come and check it out. If we make this move, we want it to be something that as a church we are pretty much all comfortable with. There is a strength that being in unity brings to a church and now is the time for us to be thinking along those lines.

Sunday mind dump

I have decided I am stealing the title for this blog from another blogger I read. I just love the idea of being able to come dump out the things that are currently playing ping-pong in my head! Read and enjoy. If something I have written is about you, then let me thank you in advance, or if it's negative and it's about you, then go ahead and plug your ears while saying "not listening, not listening."

I am so proud and honored to lead the group of people we have here at Real Life! Every week someone does something that is just so cool and it just makes me light up. I thought it might be nice to clear out the brain after Sunday services.

• My Secrets started off really well. A whole bunch of people came up to me and told me how much they needed to hear that. In my mind, I am hearing a bell ring on the God scoreboard.
• Sometimes our people just blow my mind as to how generous they are with their time and talents. They don't even know how important they are to to me and this church but they are we wouldn't make it without them.
• Planting a church is hard work. The only way you will make it is if God has really called you to do it. Sometimes you measure success in terms of numbers. It's not always the best way, but you do.
  
• Sometimes God shows you how he measures success and numbers aren't that big of a part. He looks at the heart. I see huge amounts of success when I look at the hearts of some our of folks. They care so much about others is it is scary because they set the bar really high for me as a person.
  
• God blesses what he chooses to bless. Our job is to do what we need to do to be a part of what God is blessing.
• We have a lot of decisions to make over the next few months. Where to move as we outgrow the YMCA, how and who we are going to try to reach next, and looking for a more permanent worship leader and children's pastor. God will provide everything we need provided we stay connected to him as our one and only source.

Church planting......what a rush!!

Great set up today

We had a great set up today. Being a portable church is never easy. Every time you set up you face new challenges and issues. For us, we can never allow not having a seven day a week church home to become an excuse for not bringing our best to God. The new testament church didn't have buildings for over 200 years and they managed to not only sustain growth but change the face of the planet. If they can do it so can we, we're serving the same God after all! In fact, we should have it a little easier than they did. They risked being killed for believing, us not so much.

I am really looking forward to tomorrows service. This next series is going to be a huge step for many of our people. If you haven't yet come to check us out I'd highly suggest this series is a great time. Tomorrow we are going to tackle the subject of lying. Let's face it, we all do it, or have done it. We all need this message. Sadly, most people are not only telling an occasional "white lie" but they are living a lie.

Don't fall into that trap. Tomorrow we learn how to unload the burdens we carry around due to our lies.

Why church people are not friendly.

First off, let me say I love all kinds of people. Whether you go to church or not. I am just a common kinda guy. In fact, as I write this post I am sitting here in my Michigan shorts eating a bowl of cheerios and thinking about taking a nap. Thats just how simple I am. I like football, music, and comedies. I am as simple and predictable as they come.

So why are church people not friendly. First off, because the people that visit our churches tell us we're not. Visitors can look around and they can see that we love each other because we share a warmth and fellowship with each other that is obvious to anyone looking. That is very different than creating a culture of friendliness. Every church I have ever been a part of thought they were friendly, in reality not much about them actually created a warm and friendly environment.

So then why do people think that we are unfriendly. Because most of us haven't learned how to relate to people that are not yet part of us. We ask shallow awkward questions that make a person feel like an outsider. We might say "So is this your first time here?" or "You're new here what do you think so far?" or worse yet "you look new, let me introduce you to the pastor!" not that I am a bad guy mind you, but really? Who wants to be taken before the pastor?

So how can we actually go from thinking we are friendly to being friendly. Well first, we can start by actually knowing how to have a conversation with someone that makes them feel valuable. Instead of saying "you look new." You could always say "Hi, my name is Jeff, I don't think we've meet yet." Instead of pointing out that a person is new we are introducing ourselves.

So being the practical teaching pastor dude that I am I wanted to pass along some helpful pointers for starting conversations with people that you don't yet know. Again, I am a simple guy, I didn't come up with this stuff our church planting coach, who is far more creative than I am passed them along to me. Here is a great tool that is easy to use and remember ask about H.E.L.P.

• Home: Where are you from and how did you arrive here?
• Employment: What do you do for a living?
• Loved ones: Ask about their families.
• Pleasures: Ask what they like to do for fun.

Our goal is not to interrogate people it's to make them feel comfortable. We make people feel comfortable by making them feel important. A person makes up their mind about a church within the first 10 minutes of their first visit. If we don't care about them, we'll never be able to reach them.

Relaxation weekend

Woke up early today and did nothing! Which is a huge switch for me. Usually I am up way before everyone else in the house and I sit at my computer working. April and I have decided that this weekend is going to be a relaxation weekend and that we are going veg out as much as possible this weekend. We do have a few things on the agenda (band practice and visiting a church we've been meaning to visit) but other than that. It'll be movies and naps.

Oh yea.....don't forget about all the great football games this weekend too!

My Secrets: Getting Closer

I have got to say I am really excited about the next series we are kicking off called My Secrets. I just finished going through the first two messages today and they are really good. I just have this feeling that God is going to show up big time and we are going to see some great things happen. We have some cool things planned that are not a usual part of what we do at Real Life that have me really excited. We have adopted a theme song (Dirty Little Secrets-by The All American Rejects) that we are going to play every week as a kick off for the message.

I mentioned to my 14 year old that we were going to be using that song and that he'd need to practice it (he is going to play a little bass guitar with the house band next month.) As I was telling him about it he got this weird look on his face and he said "Dad you know that's not exactly a nice song for church right?" I smiled and told him of course I did and that is why we are going to be using it. We are doing a series on stuff that many people try to keep hidden from other people because if they shared that stuff they might not look so good.

I love this stuff!!

Great Sunday

What a great Sunday service we had this week. We saw several new families come check us out and we saw a few people that came to check out our last service come back. In fact, one even brought someone which is an awesome thing!!

I am getting more and more stoked about the next series we are running. I just know that we are going to reach people big time. We're kicking off in two weeks with a message on Lying. Who of us doesn't struggle with that one??

I will say I am a little bit bumming today because my favorite NFL team got spanked!!

New toys New Series

Our new mixer came in the other day and it is pretty sweet! We can do so many more things wtih this mixer that we could never do with our old one. There's really only 1 big downside to buying a new mixer, well two downsides. First, you have to pay for it. Second, the first few times you use it can be a little tricky because you have to get all the signals and sounds going in the right direction. That might sound easy but it's kind of a pain in the butt!

Once we got the board dialed in the practice went pretty well and we should be ready for today's service. I have mentioned repeatedly how excited I am about not just this week but the next month and a half. Today's message is really good and something most every person, let alone, Christian needs to hear. For our next service in two weeks, we are starting our My Secrets series. April has been working on the song "Dirty Little Secret" by the All American Rejects. We are going to be using that as an intro all five weeks of the series. We don't use secular tunes that often so it will get people's attention when they hear it. The promo stuff is going out today and I am really excited to see how it will be received!!

We also dropped out last shipment of direct mailers this week so we should hopefully see some folks from those plus a few new folks from personal invites.

I have been sensing for the last few weeks like something big is going to happen and it starts today!! How cool is that!!

Band practice and critics

April and I just got back from band practice tonight and I am pretty dog gone impressed. Tim's lead guitar stuff sounded awesome. John's drumming was spot on, and Tony is coming along really well on the bass. The band sounded great tonight. I can't wait for this weekend something just tells me this is going to be a great weekend at Real Life.

You know it's going to be a great day in a church when people complain. You know something is going right. In fact, we have had a couple of complaint phone calls today from people who recieved one of our flyers in the mail which tells me that something must be working to get people all upset over a picture of a turtle with the words "stuck" on it! I was actually waiting on the calls. I've kind of learned that anytime you do something like that people get upset that you made contact with them.

The funny thing is, it's usually other Christians who get offended at you mailing them something. The last time we did direct mailings we actually had another pastor call the church upset that one of his people got a direct mail card. He accused us of trying to build a church at the expense of his congregation. How sad!

I actually felt sorry for the guy. I reassured him that, in fact, we were trying to reach those without a church home and the only way we can do direct mail (effectively) is to get a card to everyone in a neighborhood. As I was talking to the guy I was thinking, if your not in the market for a new car it doesn't matter how many times a car dealer sends you an ad, you're not going to buy. If his people were not in the market for a new church, it shouldn't matter what his people were sent because they were not in the market.

I love church planting. What a ride!

Getting really excited

I have to admit I am getting really excited about the next few months at Real Life. We are getting ready to start the new series (My Secret) and I am just pumped about it. More than ever people are checking us out and wanting to come. We are getting ready to run some radio ads that will promo the church....This is an exciting time!

Great people make great teams!

I went to bed last night and woke up this morning just thinking about how great a team we have at Real Life. We are so blessed to have so many talented musicians, graphics people, computer techies, and teachers. If I missed something forgive me, it's early!

I just want to give a big shout out and say thank you to everyone helping out. I am so blessed to have you guys and gals. We'd be lost without all of you.

Keep up the hard work!!

Real Life: My Secret

Beginning with the October 21’st service Real Life will be kicking of a new series with the help of LifeChurch (www.lifechurch.tv) based out of Edmund Oklahoma. LifeChurch is one of the fastest growing and most innovative churches in the country having satellite campus’ all across the country and providing great teaching, networking, and resources to churches just like Real Life.

My Secret is a five week series that begins by taking a Biblical look at lying, then looks at addictions, followed by sexual sins, our secret shame, and finally how God can set us free and place us on the path to receiving healing from these things.

This series may be one of the best things we have ever done here at Real Life and I am really excited about Real Life being a part. This is one of those times you’ll have do whatever you can to bring your friends, family, and neighbors to church. I can promise you this it won’t be church as usual and after this series you’ll never be the same!

Check out the promo video's for the series in the upper left hand corner of the blog.

Some thoughts on worship.

I was sitting at my computer today thinking about how awesome it is to worship a God that allows for such freedom. In worship, we are free to worship God by raising our hands, clapping, standing quiet and listening, through sign language, in tears, and just about any other means that suits the way God wired us up.

The great thing is that we are free to worship that way right next to someone worshiping God in their own way all during the same song or prayer. The only Biblical requirement for worship is that it is done in spirit and in truth. In other words worshiping God is something that is done in the supernatural. We can’t force ourselves to worship and it's not a ritual.

The other aspect of worship is that it needs to be done in truth. In other words, you can’t fake it. Either you’re worshiping or your not. So the question looms? How do you tap into the supernatural to worship? It’s pretty easy. Take your focus off of you and put it on God. It’s that simple. Don’t think about your problems and issues just turn them and everything else over to God and you’ll be amazed at what happens!

It's the little things.

Way to often in church we think it's the big things that we do that bring people and keep people in church. The reality is that it's the little things that count. Taking the time to thank everyone that brings a dish, sets up a chair, or sings a song will go a long way in keeping your church happy and healthy. It might not seem like a lot but the fact is people will not invite their friends to a church if they feel like there is a risk they'll get burned.

I learned the hard way that we have to go out of our way to make sure that people know that they are appreciated. Take the time today to thank someone who has come along side of you and helped you with whatever it is that your doing.

Kids Ministry

My wife and I were sitting at the dinner table tonight and she was asking me to imitate some of the characters from our kids ministry program. I laughed and of course I did it. I can never miss the chance to make her smile.

I have to say I am really impressed. We purchased the curriculum from empowering kids (www.empoweringkids.net) and let me tell you it is really sweet! There are some hilariously funny scenes and the kids seemed to really come out of our kids church last weekend looking like they were having a great time.

As a Pastor that is a huge thing for me because one of the four main reasons people don't go to church is that there is nothing for their kids to do, and what there is for the kids to do is boring. Seeing our kids laughing and having fun is a good thing. I can't wait to see what is going to happen with our kids in the coming months.

Fall Bad. Football Good.

As much as I dislike leaving summer behind I love the start of the football season! For those of us who love football, and I know I am talking to 99.99982 % a male readership on this one. Is there anything better than Sunday? Getting up (not too early), going to church, worshiping God, then coming home stretching out on the couch or your favorite chair and watching the king of all sports NFL football!!

I also note. My wife has become a huge football fan over the years. Not because she cares one bit about the game. What she loves about football is that she gets a three hour nap when the games are on.

This weekend I'll be into the Tampa Bay vs St. Louis rams game. Course this weekend I'll have to TIVO the game because the band is playing in Blissfield today for another new church plant. Which by the way is pretty exciting for me. I love church planting and I get so see another one start up on day one.

Real Leadership

I was thinking about real leadership today. Real leadership is never given or taken it's always earned. When I was a kid I was in the Army, and there is one principle of leadership I learned that has stuck with me over the years. In the service you have to do things that are not always pleasant. I remember one time we had to walk 18 miles (ok, it wasn't uphill both ways.) The thing that made the walk tolerable was that our officers were right there walking beside us. They were carrying the same loads we were carrying. They were living out leadership not just talking about it. Long after we had reached our destination and us working folk were done for the day and free to relax, they were still working!

How is that a lesson in leadership. Simple! Never ask someone to do something that you're not willing to do first. Think about that one for a sec. Way to often people aspire to leadership because they think they can teach, sing, play an instrument, balance a checkbook, create a killer power point presentation, or whatever else they happen to be good at.

Real leadership is all about being a servant first. Are there times when leaders need to delegate? Without a doubt. In fact, I need to learn to delegate more so that I can be more effective but sometimes leadership means cleaning bathrooms, hauling equipment, listening to a story you've already heard, or holding a hand. Jesus was a great model of how a leader should think. His response about being put on a pedestal might surprise some. He told people that he came to serve them not to be served.

If you think you are being called into leadership that's awesome! Start by serving were you are. Use the gifts and talents God has given you to be a blessing to others. If you are called and have the ability to lead people will notice and people will follow.

Way to often us church types think leadership relieves of our duties to serve others. The reality is real leadership requires more humility, sacrifice, and service than just being a part of something. Much like the officers I saw living out leadership in the military we need more people willing to become servant-leaders.

Excitement!! Excitement!!

I have to say I am a bit stoked for the weekends church service. We had our music pratice on Weds and the band was pretty darn tight. We are doing some great music this weekend. On top of that, we are in the middle of a large marketing campain. The stuff went out this week and we are seeing a respectible spike in our web traffice which means that people are checking us out. To be honest I can't wait to see what God is going to do. The great and scary thing abour marketing a church is that...and I know this is a rough analogy but it's kind of like fishing. You throw a pole in the water and you really never know what is going to bite on your line. As in fishing you taylor your bait for what you'd like to catch. In our case we are trying to reach younger familes (and what church isn't!)

Real Life is starting to take shape as a church and it's really neat to see. Many of the things I daydreamed about years ago are starting to come to pass and it is pretty sweet how God has begun putting this whole thing together.