Weekend Review 12-21-08

What an interesting weekend.  The windchill on Sunday morning was more than -10 and the snow drifts were overwhelming.  We actually got stuck trying to get back into our driveway after church.

• I am going to start on a downer.  Clarie Howe passed away this weekend.  The funeral will be on Tuesday.  While this is depressing, in its own weird way it reminds me of Christmas.  It reminds me that the world is not the way that God intended it to be, so he sent His son to bring "shalome" here and begin to make it right.
• It is great to have Jeff back in town to lead our worship.  Our other worship leaders did a great but it is good to see Jeff back.
• I can't really say that I was pleased with my message yesterday.  I knew what I wanted to do, but I just could not seen to get it done.  I always strive to make the weekend before Christmas one of my best sermons and I came up short yesterday. 
  
• Here is why I am saying that; at the end of the message I still had people walk up to me and tell me that the message was exactly what they needed to hear.  I love serving a God who gets His message across in spite of a poor medium.  He had a message that certain people needed to hear and He made sure they heard it.  I should have been better, I should have been more polished, I should have used more scripture, but He was still perfect.
• I am really looking forward to the Christmas Eve service.  Jeff has put together quite an ordeal for the 4:00 and 5:30 services.
  

Amazing video from the former Korn guitar player

Weekend Review 12-14-08

This one will be a bit different from the past two weeks, mainly because I was not at my church.  I had a vacation Sunday left, and I decided to use it to take my family to another church here in town.  Over the past two years I have had the opportunity to worship with two other congregations, and I love this opportunity.  I do it to see what God is doing around our community and to make sure that we are not doing the same things as any other church, because if there are two churches in town doing the same thing, one of us is not needed.  Here are my thoughts on the weekend.

• We are not doing the same thing as the other three churches I have now worshipped with.  What we do is different.  We are a little edgier than the other churches that I have been with.  That is a newer accomplishment.  In years past I felt like we did a very similar service to the other larger churches in town.  this always concerned me.  This past weekend though, I went to this other church and then on Monday I watched the video of our service.  It was refreshingly different.
• I really missed my church.  I am not saying "my church" as though I own it, I am saying that because I feel so deeply connected with it.  Within the first 15 minutes of the other church's service starting, I was "homesick."  I know that they are reaching a particular audience, but I was really wanting to be back here with my FCC Family.
• Sunday night was the elders' and wives Christmas gathering.  It really is a God sighting to see those 18 people from very different backgrounds and ages just enjoy their time together.  God has blessed this church with great leadership.
• Thursday we will be doing two meals, one with all staff and one with the ministers and their wives (well, not Heather's wife, but you get the point).  I am so excited about that.
• Jeff (worship minster) comes back on Thursday as well, and I have no doubt that Friday night's concert will be great.
  

A Ministry Resume

Recently a friend asked me my opinion on what I looked for in a resume, since he was updating his. I though I would share a portion of my answer will all of you, especially those in the ministry. I am not saying that this is what everyone is looking for, but this is what makes it through the first cut of the interview process with me. It is worth what you paid for it, absolutely nothing.

Simplicity, cleanliness, creativity, originality, non-padded and longevity.

Simplicity - If it goes much over one page I won’t read it.

Cleanliness - If it does not have a clean look I won’t read it. (And by that I mean one font, three font sizes with each one being 2 points larger than the other, and enough white space on the page to make it look easy to read.)

Creativity - I need to see some creative outlet in their past and a little bit of their personality shine through the page. This can be done through a catchy one-liner in the middle of a description or it can be through any other number of means, but that one bit of creativity will allow it to stand out.

Originality - Don’t make it look like every one else’s. My least favorite part of looking over resumes was the top paragraph that was usually titled, “ministry vision” or “life purpose” or something like that. Then they would tell me how it is their dream to see people come to Christ by staying true to His Word and living as a godly example in the world.” They might as well have been Charlie Brown’s teacher. That is a waste of my time to read it and I already would not like the candidate. Who doesn’t want those things? What I want to know, if you are going to write something like that, is why you are the right fit for my church (which means you need to know a little about my church and what we are doing and how you will fit in), what makes your ministry unique from all of the other candidates (“I have the greatest collection of colored socks that you can imagine”), and what you intend to do in your ministry in the upcoming years or how your past has prepared you for this ministry (“I was left in a dumpster as a baby in the African Congo, and was raised by cannibalistic baboons. While I didn’t understand it at the time, God was using this opportunity to prepare me for Jr. High ministry).

Non-padded – Look if you don’t have a lot of ministry experience, don’t fill your resume with other jobs that have nothing to do with the job you are applying for. If you do, please show how that job has prepared you for the ministry God has called you to. Show how your extra-curricular activities have been purposefully used in preparation for your job. Something I have not seen someone do, but I would be eager to see on a resume when someone does not have a lot of experience (this is not the case with you Jon, but for others you may know) is a list of personality strengths along with proofs. For example; “Evangelistic – I have baptized 8 people over the past 5 months who had no previous church experience, while I was attending Bible College,” or something like that. Basically it works like this, if I feel that you have padded your resume just to make yourself look better, I will expect you to shirk responsibilities or throw someone else under the bus in your ministry just to save face. Be a man of influence and integrity in every interaction.

Longevity –This one is huge over the long haul in ministry (this is for future reference more than right now). It is very rare to see a ministry resume with someone staying at one location for more that 4 years as a full time employee. Then they try to convince me that that have 10 or 12 years of ministry experience. No they don’t, they have 4 years of ministry experience 3 times. This is especially prevalent in youth and worship ministries. Suck it up and stick it out, then apply for a new ministry. Show that you can handle the bumps and bruises of ministry, and make sure that when you leave a church, you have a very good reason (and not liking the Sr. Minister is an unacceptable answer because how do I know that you won’t dislike me before long). It needs to be because of the church having a different direction than you were called to go, a theological difference (but make it a big one), or God flat out said it was time to go. I don’t want to hear about how the leadership doesn’t give you freedom, or how they micromanage everything. I don’t want to hear about people being mean and manipulative. I don’t want to hear about how the church was unwilling to change. It would be nice to hear someone say that they were immature and didn’t have the strength to stick it out or how they had not honed their leadership skills enough to know how to influence the church in a godly manner. I want to hear about how my church is more in line with the ministry that you want to be a part of. I want to hear about how you are excited about being able to work under my leadership or the leadership of the elders or beside the other ministers (this is not an ego trip; it is a matter of team cohesiveness).

When I look at a resume I want to be able to see you and how you are the perfect candidate for my church, not how you are the best minister ever. I don’t need the best minister ever. I need the one who is on board with our purpose and values, can be a team player, and is here for the long haul.

I hope that helps.

Weekend Reflections 12-07-08

I have shared this idea before, but I really love the quote of Abraham Joshua Heschel when he said, "I did not ask for success, I asked for wonder . . .".  I have used this quote as sort of a life verse for my ministry and God continues to answer it.  This weekend was a great example of that.

• We are in the second of three weeks without Jeff (our worship minister) as he is out on tour.  So, Larry Smith was our worship leader instead.  In my opinion, it was the best job he has done. 
  
• The team of people who count our offerings every week were very skeptical of Brian Henry's idea to pass out a candy bar to everyone who picked up their offering envelopes this year.  The general idea was that we tried to mail them out last year, which did help, but it cost us @ $1.50 per envelope set.  For $.40 we could give out a candy bar and be able to sign up new people.  It worked in an unbelievable way.  I have never seen a line of people waiting to get offering envelopes before.  That was so cool.
• The big "wonder" moment was the attendance yesterday.  We had 710 people here.  (Please notice that I did not say, "we had an attendance of 710 yesterday," because we did not.  We had 710 PEOPLE because numbers are pointless but people are priceless.)  That is the second most people we have had on a Sunday this year, and only 7 less than Easter.  I don't know where they came from, but
  
• What really amazes me about this is that last year we went way down in attendance during Christmas, so I was kind of expecting the same thing.  And it was very cold, which can leave people in bed, but the first service had more people than the second.
• JR (our student minister) rocks.  He had 97 in The Rush service yesterday.  That is the most people has has seen in his time here.
• We had the congregational meeting last night.  Things went smooth and the snack food was fantastic.
• I am really missing having Jeff around.  I miss his worship leading, his personality and his opinions - not just his skill set (an inside joke).
  

Systems, Rhythms and Accountability

Many people have struggles and troubles in their life, whether professional, personal, or relational and they want to know how to change those items that they do not desire.

Andy Stanley gave a great message a two years ago at the Catalyst Conference (which almost every minister should go to at least once) on the necessity of "systems" within a church.  The basic premise was that if something is not going the way you like it, change the system that it functions under.  Most problems in churches are the result of broken systems, not the people.  One proof text for this is the fact that God has often designed a system to keep things running smoothly, like the circulatory system, the solar system and so forth.  I agree wholeheartedly, almost.

Rob Bell regularly speaks about rhythms.  He would argue that people need more holy rhythms in their life in order to better connect with God, such as a rhythm of Sabbath or daily study times.  His proof text for this would be the rhythm of the day and night, the motion of the ocean, the high and low tide and so forth.  I agree wholeheartedly, almost.

Many other conservative teachers would promote the need for life accountability in order to help us remain pure from the world, and in order to help us survive without losing what we strive so hard for.  I agree wholeheartedly, almost.

If you want to make a major change in your life, or even just a minor adjustment, then it will require a combination of all three of these practices.  You must have a system in place so that the rhythm can properly function and without accountability there is no way to maintain the system.

Let's play it out like this; your marriage is falling apart and you can't pinpoint one particular issue for why.  On the other hand, you do feel that if something would change, perhaps the relationship could be salvaged.  Perhaps if you and your spouse could just spend more focused time together.  So create a system that says we are going to spend two hours together going through a marriage help book.  That is a system, but it won't save your marriage.

But if you commit to adding a rhythm to the system, where you spend two hours twice a month that would allow the system adjustments to make a lasting impact in the relationship. 

Then if you make a commitment to one another that you will hold each other accountable, perhaps even with punitive results, to making sure this happens, the system and rhythm will be able to continue for any duration of time.

Change in a church works the same way, as does change in your personal life.  If something is broken, create a system to bring healing, they give that system a rhythm and hold yourself accountable to it.

One more example of how this works in an institution.  We were bothered last year that many of our church's people were not bringing their Bibles.  Our fear was that this may cripple them and cause them to become atrophied in knowing how to study for themselves.

We discovered the system flaw was not that our people were not bringing their Bibles, it was that we wrote the scriptures up on the screen making it unnecessary for them to bring their Bibles.  We changed the system by only putting the book, chapter and verse on the screen, but not writing the verses out.  Our rhythm was doing it every week, and our accountability was seen three months ago when I tried to write verses on the screen for a narrative message I was giving where I was not intending to share any specific verse but cover about three chapters instead.  I was questioned before the service by three key leaders to make sure that is what I wanted and had to give clear reasoning behind the system adjustment.

Weekend thoughts 11/30/08

I have never tried this before, but I have been following a few other ministers' blogs who spend a little time each week or so just to share their thoughts on the previous weekend.  It seemed like an interesting way to keep people connected to what's going on.  Plus, it is my desire to see our church have a much greater web impact over the next two years, and part of that will be a more consistent blog.  I figure that this is a great place to start practicing. 

• The music this weekend was done by an all-teen worship band.  This is the first time that this has happened in a number of years.  Normally, we have had at least one adult on the stage with them and have asked them to "back off" on the distortion of "edginess" of their style.  That did not happen this weekend, and I thought it was amazing.  Chance got better with each service of actually leading the people.
• Probably the one thing I appreciate the most about the teens who led the worship this weekend was that they were very open and respectful of my suggestions to them.  With Jeff (our worship minister) being out of town, I showed up at their practices to check on what they were planning.  I shared a few thoughts with them, and they humbly and respectfully did each of them.  Now that is a heart for worship.
• I know that there have been a few times this year when I have put Brian Henry (the other preacher here) in an awkward position by having him give the first sermon of a new series when I may not have fully explained the idea of the series, an issue I am working on.  That was the situation yesterday as we started our Christmas series.  Brian knocked it out of the park.  He simply and actionably (I know that is not a word, but I like it anyway) shared insights from Matthew on how people can prepare themselves to worship Jesus in the midst of the busy Christmas season.
  
• I am so blessed to be in a church where I can preach and yet can still regularly hear great preaching without having to go somewhere else.
• Jeff Bush (our worship minister) is not going to be in town for the next two Sundays and I am a little worried about that, but I know that the Christmas tour that he is on will be used by God to encourage many.
• I was also blown away by the number of new and young families that we had here yesterday.  The first service had a handful of new people even though the service seemed a little "empty".  The second service required us to set up two more rows of chairs.

So there are my candid thoughts on yesterday.