Great Weekend

Came into the weekend already exhausted, but somehow doing what I love and being with people that I enjoy sharing life with, is rejuvenating.

After traveling back and forth to Montgomery Co for the viewing and funeral of my good friend Chris Patton, and speaking at his funeral, I then spent 2 days in DC at Unplugged Conference (notes coming soon).

Saturday we celebrated with our new pastoral couple, Joe and Lois, on their 50th wedding anniversary. To hear more about them, look back about 2 posts and watch their youtube video. How cool to have pastors with tons of life and marriage experience coaching and guiding a young pastor and church. How refreshing that they are willing to embrace changing styles without losing the passion for the Truth.

Onto Sunday, I preached my heart out. I give it my all every week, but not every week feels like my best. But for "On the Shoulders of Giants: Courage" I left it all at Lifehouse. Looked at Acts 1:8 and read chapter 3. These disciples of Jesus were transformed from cowering students to courageous leaders.

Our challenge: BE BOLD by relying on God's power and as witness of Jesus. The commitment I asked for: talk with at least ONE person about Jesus and invite someone to Lifehouse next week.

BUSY DAYS

These are busy days for me. Not saying it's good, but the last 3 nights I've been miserable, because I did what I hate doing... coming home and kissing my girls on the check while they're asleep. Getting home between 10-12 each night is not a healthy pattern. But we'll make up for it soon with vacation. The girls are begging to spend time with daddy. So, I really owe it to them to get home early. I also owe it to Lifehouse, since my family's my first ministry, and if their not happy no one's going to be happy.

I'm in DC today finishing up a conference called Unplugged at capital hill. It's a great informal setup for conversational development among church planters. I'll blog more later.

New Tech Stuff Going Live

This is an arena that I think is a giant waste of time, but really do hope somebody reads it and uses it. If not, I'll truly feel as though I wasted a lot of time with little impact. So, help me out- if use facebook, I just set up and account. Go ahead and check it out.

Also, I'm trying to figure out how to add an rss feed chicklet to my posts. And soon, we should have podcasting up live both on my blog and at our website.

Finally, after much work, several of my most recent sermons are now available at our website here.

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?

I was just doing some reading between my morning swim and our prayer time as a staff, and came across this news story. Here's the brief: Americans are becoming increasingly less exclusive in their views about their own faith and path to heaven. A majority believe that there are many ways to heaven, and that their personal faith doesn't have a handle on heaven, nor the right to suggest that if a person doesn't follow their faith, that they will end up in hell. Alright, just read the article...

Tolerance is very trendy and 21st Century and American. It makes people feel good and doesn't put others in a disparaging light. And therefore, it makes the holder of those views more civilized and sophisticated for not holding to a "narrow", bigoted theology.

However, when I was in college calculus and was asked a question, the goal wasn't to make all my classmates feel good about their varying and opposing answers. I wanted to know the right answer and how that answer was derived. Same in chemistry, in English, in history, in physics, and in just about every academic and life pursuit I've studied.

It is primarily because people don't like the premise of being wrong about something so profoundly life-altering as their personal faith, that they expected others to "lighten up" on their theology, and give them a pass or let them off the hook. I'm not being harsh, just honest.

I'm confident that the Bible doesn't just contain A way, but THE Way to an eternity in heaven. I believer passionately in Jesus and His LOVE for all mankind, that I'm willing to risk offense, my own reputation, and even a little "political correctness" backlash, to communicate as broadly and as relevantly as possible that Jesus is the Answer that ALL people are looking for.

And He is the ONLY way! If you don't like it, that's okay... my classmates didn't like it when they got the answer wrong and I had it write on the final either, only this time there's a lot more at stake. The beauty of this final is we are all willing to share the answers and even show everyone how to come to the same answer.

ON THE SHOULDERS sermon media

how many faces can you find in the clouds?

If you missed yesterday's message at Lifehouse East, to bad for you...

No, it was great. These are the times when I feel like I'm preaching as a third-party. It feels like I'm watching myself preach. The message is so powerful, the content so BIG, that I quickly realize I'm a very small part of this amazing Cause of Jesus. Here's some media stuff and the videos from yesterday. Watch both to see the contrast.

This is good:


Now for the better, more powerful video:

WE ARE ONE VERSE IN THE SONG...

If you can't tell, I'm having a blast preaching this message series "On the Shoulders of Giants". It's amazing to put our life into the broader context of history. It forces me to get my eyes off of myself and onto what I've been given by the heroes/ giants before me and what is expected of me.

It's an incredible challenge to think about your part as a verse in the song of redemption, a chapter in the book of Life, a stanza in the great love poem of God. We're responsible to carry with wisdom a baton that has been handed to us by giants like Abraham (no last name needed), Moses, David, Gideon, Samuel, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Peter, John, James, Paul, JESUS himself, Ignatius, Polycarp, Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine, Martin Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, Wesley brothers, and Billy Graham, just to name a very small few. Who among us will rise up and be counted? Who will we pass the baton to? How well will we have apprenticed them and model for them what it means to be a Christ-follower?

A side note: every time a start preparing for a sermon series, which is usually a few months in advance, I think that I'll never come up with something more creative or as powerful as the one I'm in at the moment. So, I'm constantly amazed by the reality that God is the other of creativity, and He is omni-creative. Never runs out of ideas and always offers us new insight to present the same powerful message of God's love in new, fresh, and powerful ways.

POLITICAL OPINING

Here's my thoughts from Memorial Day weekend, and I shared this on Sunday morning...

I have been careful to keep my political opinions to myself and my personal views personal. But NOW, for this weekend only, I'm putting it all out there, my thoughts, allegiances, and voting patterns.

I AM...


an American. That's right! First and foremost, I am an America. Not a Republican or Democrat, not voting for one party or another. I'm an ardent patriot, and passionately believe in the United States of America. I believer that we live in the greatest nation in the world. I believe in protecting the freedoms of our nation and her citizens. This nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values based on the Bible and heralded by God-fearing Jesus-followers. When studying American history, I am amazed by the deep Christian roots of America. And so, I love America.

It is always appropriate to honor those who have served our great nation and say THANK YOU! Thank you to ALL who have served to protect freedom both in the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement. THANK YOU!

DO CHURCH-GOERS ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THEIR PASTORS?

I'm a little annoyed (ok, more than slightly annoyed) by the premise in the news that people can attend a church for a long period of time, completely disagree with their pastor's teaching and ideology, and not be impacting in any way by his messages.

Why do I say this? Thanks for asking. Allow me to explain so that I can make the point.

It's old news, and that's why I've waited this long to say anything. My comments are not political in nature. But, if you've been listening to the news about Barak Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, you'd know what I mean and why I'm ticked. Here's the thing: Obama and his family sat under Mr. Wright's pastoral teaching and leadership for 20+years. His rhetoric, vitriol, and hate-centered talk have made the headlines recently. I actually listened to one of his sermons nearly in its entirety, and it was disturbing.

And I don't care about your political bent, we are after-all one America, one nation under God. But no matter your tradition, this kind of speech is wrong, contrary to Scripture, and a horrific, if not entirely sac-religious interpretation of the Bible. And this isn't even the point of my blog...

And what is Obama's out? How did he get away with attending and sitting under this kind of hate-filled preaching?

He said things like:
-I wasn't there that day.
-I never heard him say that stuff
-He's my pastor but his teachings have no impact on my personal beliefs and values
-yea, he's a little out there, but I don't really get effected by anything he says
-yes, he did our wedding, dedicated our children, and I've attended regularly for 20 years, but I don't think anything like him and actually disagree with most of what he says

Those aren't exact quotes, but down-right close.

WHAT'S MY POINT?

If anyone who sits under my leadership, teaching, and preaching regular is as equally un-impacted, un-transformed, un-challenged and un-changed by your experience at church and under my leadership. You need a new church. I'm not doing my job. I've failed. If anyone says that about the ministry of Lifehouse East, even after only 2 years, I'd be devastated.

I hope that people are so changed, transformed and impacted by their experience at Lifehouse East, my teaching, and God's love that they are dramatically different. That your thinking, living, and values have so changed that it's undeniable.

May it be OBVIOUS to everyone around you and may it be provable in the court of Law that we are JESUS-FOLLOWERS. By the way, I'm a die-hard Lifehousers. And I'll stand behind our teachings, experience, and family!

RECENT NEWS

We're on the news... maybe you saw the story last night on NBC 25 or at Hagerstown Magazine.

I'm also doing an interview with WGTS 91.9 this afternoon to tell the Lifehouse and give project story. These news stories and interviews always make me nervous, because I want to present the message of Jesus and say all the right things. And when I'm done, it never came out quite right.

We have gotten emails of people who read or heard our story and felt challenged. People all over the US are giving and helping others. Let's keep following Jesus!

SUNDAY in the REARVIEW MIRROR

What a blast!

Enjoyed the excitement of leaders, volunteers, and the response from all who invited over 50 first-time guests out to Lifehouse Church East yesterday. I thought everything from the cafe to the rocking opening song to the atmosphere was incredible. Okay, we'll have to overlook the extra 2 seconds on the video clip and the references to other religions, but... hopefully all there (about 300) will extend grace. We had 6 people commit their lives to following Jesus! Wow!

And I spent the afternoon with my family at a neighbors house hanging out with some of my other neighbors who came out to church. Now, to all who did similarly- YOU ROCK! Way to BE THE CHURCH!

My Greatest Leadership Challenge:

I recently posted this on another blog where the author asked what pastors' greatest leadership challenges were:

Balancing the biggest priorities! Allow me to explain:

I love being a husband, father, church planter, and leader. Most of the time, I'm red-hot passionate, even in dealing with tough stuff. My on-going greatest challenges is balancing my passions for family, ministry, and leadership. To me it's not "work" planting, leading, and pastoring our church. I love what I do (and that's not because we haven't been through tough stuff).

I believe firmly the core value communicated well by Martin Luther, "pray like everything depends on God work like everything depends on you". But type A, entrepreneurs will finish praying and keep on working.

I'm learning to balance putting down what I'm passionate about and what I'm called to and prioritize my marriage and family.

• What are yours?
  

It's Scary When...

The worst thing possible for me is to be stuck in a rut or consumed with details and administrative responsibilities. It stifles my passion and fire. And as you know, I want to stay fired up, focused on God's purposes for my life and at Lifehouse Church East.

Recently, when reviewing my weekly schedule with our administrator, I noticed that I'm actually in control of my weeks... wow! I can plan meetings, schedule sermon prep and event prep and set aside time to plan, read, pray, meet with lots of leaders, organize ministries, or even meet with other pastors. My schedule and the urgent aren't driving me.

And that's when it gets scary. Oh, not for me... but for everyone else on our team. Why you ask? Because the more time I have to think, pray, plan, study, and lead leaders, the more passionate I get, the more our vision grows for Lifehouse East, the more I'm convinced that we've only just begun, and the more I know that we've only seen the tip-of-the-iceberg of God's favor working through us to impact this city.

Let's change the world. Not just make a difference, but make it different. That's what I'm praying and planning for. I've got red-hot vision and passion running through me. And I don't want to just spew it all over this blog. So, little by little you'll be hearing of the ways we are going to continue to organize and strategize to impact this city, region, and world for Christ.

FRIEND DAY promo...

Here's our video promo for Friend Day. This is crazy, fun, and incredibly biblical. Don't know why we didn't think of it sooner, but tons of kudos to Melody, our administrator for the idea (heaven will be populated differenlty because of this event and because Lifehousers will "be the Church").

Check it out:



Here's the plan:

• on May 4th we're asking that all Lifehousers invite 4 people/ families to church
• then out to lunch- whether over for a BBQ or to a restaurant.
  
• Hang out with them, build relationships. That's it.
  

HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?

Often I will challenge people with a what seems like a brash statement, "I think you have a wimpy God!" or the question, "How big is the God YOU believe in?" Why? I don't think Christians have a very magnified view of God. We do the God-of-All-Creation a serious disservice. Now, before I vent too much, please forgive me too... I'm in the same boat. There are many times when my view of God is pitifully small.

Maybe if we believed what we say we believed about God, we would pray bigger prayers, take impossible risk-steps of faith, sacrifice anything, dream anything, and actually follow his plan.

Do you need a glimpse into God's vastness? Here's something I shared in a sermon recently from Isaiah 40, and couldn't tell you where I borrowed it from:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand: He can hold the oceans of the earth in the smallest part of his palm. That’s a few drops of water 841 miles in diameter.

or with the span of his hand marked off the heavens? He measures the universe with His hand, meaning from tip of His pinky-finger to the tip of his thumb. Imagine this- just what you can see with your naked-eye off the horizon is 28 billion light years wide. Light travels 186,000 miles per second. Light takes 8.5 minutes to go 96 million miles from the Sun to Earth. And travels about 6 trillion miles per year. That means that God’s hand is at least 28 billion x 6 trillion miles wide.

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?

Can you compare God to anything? Can you compare him to an image of anything?

Who created all these stars? … The Lord is the God who lives forever, who created all the world.

He does not become tired or need to rest.

So, let me ask YOU: HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?

I'll be kicking off a new sermon series this week called, "Magnum Opus Dei" meaning "the great work of God". Excited and can't wait to preach it and lead our church in discovering that they are and their life is the masterpiece of God. God has placed Destiny into our very DNA. As we live according to God's plan, our life is becoming a significant part of His Magnum Opus.

I hope each of us have open hearts and mind to follow God's design for our life.

Here's the design we had created to go along with the series.

Being Proactive

As a kid I used to hope for the best and then not plan at all, counting on the fact that what I hoped would happen actually would happen. You know, so some kid was mean to me, I hope he would just go away. Or I needed to write a paper, get some chores done, and study for a test- I just hoped school would get canceled. You see what I mean.

What I'm learning is to be proactive, plan ahead, pray for and hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. We are responsible to do all that is humanly possible, then leave the impossible up to God. Many people suffer from doing only part of what's possible and then expect God to come through- not only on what's impossible, but also what's possible.

Here are some areas to consider becoming more proactive in (and I'm listing them because I feel like I'm being proactive in these areas as an example, and the one's I'm not doing, I didn't list:)

• Taxes (for those who are panicking, waiting in long lines, my apologizes), but Laura and I try to file our taxes as soon as all the necessary paperwork arrives. Ok, seems impossible, you can do it.
• Savings and retirement: the Bible teaches that a righteous man leaves and inheritance to his children's children. We should plan ahead, save, and invest for retirement. Don't hope that money will be there to live on, plan for it and save.
• Life insurance and wills: Laura and I just got this one taken care of, and it was scary. We sat down and had a will, living will, and all that done. I hated answering some of the questions, but it's necessary. I hope that if you read this, and you haven't set up a will, living will, etc that you'll do it very soon. I actually have this thought that if I've prepared and got everything in order, I'll never need it.
• Conflict resolution: NO! the tension won't just go away, we've got to talk about it, look people in the eye and deal with issues. Go out of your way to make things right with others, and take personal responsibility for the tension. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt. Make the phone call. Go visit them. It will pay off!

again, be proactive. Things won't just take care of themselves!

FRIEND DAY- MAY 4
Here's the plan:

We're asking everyone at Lifehouse to invite 4 friends, families, co-workers, neighbors, who-ever, who don't currently go to church TO Lifehouse on Sunday, May 4. AND invite them to lunch, either at their home or out to eat. That's it!!

It's so brilliantly simple, and biblical! Here's the thing, we're challenging Lifehousers not to make a big deal about the meal. Don't stay up Saturday cleaning the whole house or cooking for hours. Just invite people over and hang out. You can even ask people to bring something. Matter of fact, I'd HIGHLY recommend asking those you invite to bring something, they're significantly more likely to come over.

All right, so start connecting and inviting friends. I'm busy inviting my neighbors and friends.

Spring Cleaning

One of the great things about living in a townhouse is that it takes about two days a year to landscape and keep my property looking good. So, the other day I bought and laid mulch, trimmed my bushes, and cleaned up my lawn. Oh... in about 4 hours. It's called "spring cleaning" to most people.

I'm doing some other spring cleaning. It's my time to evaluate my health, get more consistent in my diet, my work-out regimen, get back outside where I love to pray, make time for personal solitude and fasting, and spend more time with Laura and my girls outside enjoying the fresh air.

It's also time for connecting with neighbors and the community. I'm really excited about our upcoming FRIEND DAY on May 4 at 10am. I think our plan is both BIBLICAL and BRILLIANT. I blog that next.

CONFESSION TIME

First, I have this really annoying habit of buying lots of books, reading 1 or 2 chapters, then piling them on top of each other, and going on to another book. So, I have about 10 half read books on my desk. Eventually, I'll finish the ones I like or feel are valuable. But the challenge, if they don't grab me, I don't bother...

Yesterday, I cracked open one that's been waiting to be read, The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. Laura was out with some ladies and the girls were in bed, so, with some alone time, I sat down to read. Right off the bat- wow!

Now, for my confession. I love the quote and have made it a core value at Lifehouse Church: Pray like everything depends on God, work like everything depends on you (Martin Luther). My tendency is to pray, then work, and if that's not enough, I'll work harder and harder. So, I'll put in too many hours.

I know that I must train leaders, give away ministry responsibilities, and I'm doing that to the best of my ability. However, while reading the first chapter, Stanley challenges the reader to evaluate what 2 or 3 things you are good at and are passionate about doing and do that. Give everything else away to others!

I thought I'd already done this, but it's time to re-evaluate. My new mission is to evaluate better what I'm currently doing, narrow down my scope of ministry to only a few things, then develop other leaders to do what they love doing and trust them with ministry.

Here's my list of things I'm passionate about and will focus my energy on at Lifehouse:

1. Preaching- to relevantly and creatively communicate the Truth of the Bible,
2. Vision casting- to lead Lifehouse in toward our God-given Cause and to inspire as many people as possible to join us in fulfilling this cause,
   
3. Leadership development- to raise up new leaders as pastors, ministry leaders, and influencers; also, to develop new church planter.

Stanley states that if leaders will do what they're best at, we will be most effective and the whole church will grow and be significantly more impactful.

So, here's what we need:

• pastor or leader of pastoral care- counseling, pre-marriage counseling, visitation, hospital visits, personal mentoring, etc.
• administrative assistant/ book-keeper.
  

Valentine's Day

I get the quite the privileged Valentine's Day (actually we're going out on Friday)- take several ladies out for Valentine's and come home with all of them. Laura and I have decided that Valentine's is a great opportunity to model love to our girls. So, I ask each one of them if they'll be my date and my Valentine, then we all go out to the Olive Garden. Looking forward to wearing my tie this evening. I wasn't even sure if I had one left... ha!


This is also an opportunity to honor my bride. Here's what I think of Laura:

After 15 Valentine's Days, we actually have perspective of life to look back on, and here's what I've learned about Laura. I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for her.

She's believed in God and me against impossible odds and without actually seeing the dreams herself. That takes great faith. It's one thing when God speaks to YOU, to believe and follow. It's another thing altogether, for God to lead your husband and you still believe and follow.

I wouldn't be the person, the leader, the pastor, the husband or the father I am without my wife. She's offered strength when I wanted to give up, hope when I despaired, perspective when I had tunnel vision, laughter when I was to serious, wisdom when I was blind, tenderness when I was hurting, and a model of gentle power.

Oh, some people meet Laura and think that she's quiet and mild-natured. That's true... partially. Laura is very strong, capable, and full of will-power. She doesn't give up easily and rarely is shaken. It takes a very strong woman to temper my passionate approach to life.

Thank you Laura for being my bride, wife, best friend, and partner in life and the adventures of ministry!!