Act Your Wage - Part II

I am getting pretty excited about tomorrow. Most people go about paying down debt all wrong and as a result don't get nearly as far as they should. Tomorrow you'll hear about the debt snowball. If you can stay focused and follow the plan you can pay down large amounts of debt pretty quickly without actually paying out much more than you are paying right now......imagine that....no schemes....no loans.....just paying down your consumer debt with basically the payments your paying right now and actually having them make an impact on the overall amount of debt....It's called the debt snowball and it's going to knock your socks off.

See you tomorrow!

Some things just stink!

I have been working on church finances all morning trying to get a new online version of our accounting program up to speed. This program can do literally ANYTHING you would need as a church. The problem is that since everything is linked together if one little thing is off suddenly everything is off.......Sometimes technology is great sometimes it's a royal pain in the rear........It looks like we are going to keep two separate systems. One for church finances and record keeping and another for individual donor records. I really wanted to not do that but..........if I don't my brain might explode.....and you all know how much April hates a mess.

Mind Your Own Business - Act Your Wage

Week two of Mind Your Own Business might just be my favorite week. This week Pastor Craig is going to hit consumer debt head on and hard. Most of us have little to no clue about the real costs of our consumer debt. We tend to ask how much the payments are or what the down payment is instead of what the real cost of the item is if we use credit to pay for it.

The average American spends $1.22 for every $1.00 they earn. That just doesn't work for long. The average American also has $8500 in credit card debt. If a person paid the minimum payments it would take them forty years of paying $141.00 per month on that debt. That $8500 has a real cost of $70,000 over all those years. Consumer debt will wipe you out. We have to learn to live under our means.

You can start finding out how this weekend. See You Sunday!!

Sunday/Monday Mind Dump

Sunday was a great day at Real Life. The band played really well together and everyone was having a great time worshiping God. We are really starting to come into our own with who God has called us to be as a church and that is a pretty cool thing. So let's dump:

• Attendance and giving have been steadily rising. Not that those are solely measures of success but they are measures of ownership in a church and that is a good thing.
  
• The band is getting really good and I love being a part.
• The message yesterday by Pastor Craig was awesome and a little more in your face than people are used to. That's a tough pill for some to swallow but it's a message that so many people needed to hear.
  
• Really excited about the rest of the series Mind Your Own Business. There are some great things to come and people are going to see some life change if they can get a hold of it.
• The super bowl party was a lot of fun and I am already looking forward to next year and doing it again.
• John Myers won the grand prize. I am bummed but the guy can make some Chili!

Be ready. Next week we are going to flat out bring it in terms of learning to become and live debt free!!!!

Gary Nails One

Gary Lamb pastors a church down in Georgia. I read his blog daily and he really does an awesome job in detailing the life we in ministry lead. Most of the stuff we see and deal with we are not at liberty to talk about. For those who think we work for a few hours on Sunday mornings and sit around drinking coffee the rest of the week......you might want to read this week in the life of Gary Lamb......if you are thinking and dreaming of a ministry reaching the lost print this and make as many copies as you can......put it everywhere as a reminder of what is in store for you..

This was taken directly from his blog....check it out for yourself www.garylamb.org

The Title is: Allow me to Rant.....

Every church planter I meet says they are starting their church to reach those that are disconnected from God. Many of them grew up in church, became Christians at a early age, and don’t even have a relationship with someone far from God, but they are going to reach those far from God. I listen to a lot of podcasts, watch a lot of videos from other churches, and it breaks my heart to know they are doing a lot of things and a lot of things well, but reaching those far from God is NOT one of them.

I have learned that most church planters REALLY don’t want to reach those far from God, they really want to do church in a cool way. There is a difference. Just because you have great video, loud music, dress casual, and use movie clips doesn’t mean you are reaching those far from God.

I honestly believe most planters would freak out if they started having to deal with the issues that come from reaching truly unchurched people. It is messy, ugly, scary, and actually can keep you from growing because it scares the hell out of those who grew up in church.

We had a person on our staff a couple of years ago who came here because he wanted to be part of a church that reached unchurched people. The first time his wife sat next to a couple of lesbians, he was rethinking that. This guy was a nice guy, but he couldn’t handle the ugliness that comes with reaching those that are far from God. He literally walked around the church on Sundays with a look of terror in his eyes. He didn’t want to reach lost people, he wanted a church where he could come and wear whatever he wanted and impress other Christians because he was at an church with a little edge. It wasn’t long before he was running for the hills. He couldn’t handle the messiness of reaching those with problems. The sad thing is he isn’t alone. Most guys can’t handle it.

When I say it is messy, I don’t think most guys understand what I mean, so allow me to walk you through my week that just got done. This is a pretty typical week at Revolution and the side 99% never see.

• I have a bottle of pain pills worth about $400 on the streets sitting in my desk that one of our people’s spouse brought me after finding them. The name on the prescription isn’t the name of the person who brought them because they were bought on the street.
• I had another one of our people lose their job for stealing thousands of dollars from the company they work for.
• I have a addict in our church who has relapsed and in the process is about to lose EVERYTHING and he doesn’t even know it.
• I set up an intervention for an addict that will take place this week. This is his last chance and he doesn’t even know it.
• Last night I was at the ER until 3 in the morning because one of our people took a razor blade and slit both his wrists, his neck, and took around 80 sleeping pills. He’s alive, but I have to say it was the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life.

All of that was just from this week. That is the life of reaching those disconnected from God. None of those people care how “cool” our church will be tomorrow. All they care about is we have created a place where they can come with all their crap and feel loved and connected.

I’ll be honest and tell you that there are times when pastoring Revolution freaks me out. There are times when I think it would be easier to do what most guys do and plant a church that really is a place for other Christians to come hang out and talk about how we are reaching unchurched people instead of doing it. I think that would be easier, but we would not be charging the gates of hell with that mindset. There are enough guys around doing that and doing it well.

Canton didn’t need another church. Canton didn’t need another church with loud music, casual dress, and “relevant” teaching. Neither do most of the towns where guys are planting. However, Canton did need a place that was loving the unlovable. It needed a place that was willing to get it’s hands dirty and deal with the messy crap that takes place in the lives of those far from God.

When a guy wants to tell me they are starting a church to reach the disconnected, I always ask them if they are sure they want to do that. I don’t think they understand the cost that comes with it. It literally can almost kill you at times.

BUT, if they do understand the cost, they will realize it is nothing compared to the reward of seeing lives changed with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is worth whatever cost there is. I would put everything on the line to continue to do what we do because the payoff is so huge.

Most guys won’t.

end rant.

Volunteer of the Week - Erica Stone

Erica Stone kicked butt this week!

We needed some color in our new sanctuary and we decided that some valances would do the trick. Not only did she shop for the material, she sewed them all by hand. I am a pretty typical guy and would normally not pay much attention to stuff like that but those things look really good.

Make sure you tell Erica how nice they are!

Those Days

There are those days that help define ministry. I think for us as a church this whole month we are going to have one of those days. I cannot put into words just how excited I am for the teaching series this month. IT IS going to be life changing to some people and I love it because life change is what a church should do best.

This weekend will just be the tip of the iceberg. The big stuff is coming and people are going to be blown away I can promise you that!

Get ready Real Life! Change is a coming!