.Real.Greg.Lee.

This weekend is our annual elders retreat.  Our elders are a team of 6 spiritual leaders who are ultimately responsible to GUARD and GUIDE the church.  We take one Friday-Sunday every year to escape and take a big picture look at our elders team and our church.  We’ve talked about a wide range of things – some assessment of the church, some assessment of ourselves and one another.

I told Jenny tonight on the phone how fortunate I am to serve a church with elders like this.  They think mission-first and they while they hold me accountable their posture toward me has always been supportive…even protective.  Today they poked and prodded me pretty good about how I am taking care of myself and how our family is doing.  I gave them an honest update on both fronts (areas that aren’t perfect, but I have a lot to be thankful for).

Then…one by one…each of the elders stopped to pray for me.  And for Jenny.  And for Jack and Abby.  They asked God to give me wisdom and rest and the ability to turn off church while I’m at home.  They asked Him to enrich our times as a family and make me the spiritual leader my family needs even more than the church needs.

It felt so good to talk to Jenny on the phone afterward and just say “They prayed for us.”  It’s no surprise why I love these guys.

(And if you ever come to New Buffalo, may I recommend a great burger from “Redamaks”?)

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At the Exponential Conference this week I got a pre-release copy of Dave and Jon Ferguson’s new book.  It is titled (see a theme here?) Exponential:  How you and your Friends can Start a Missional Church Movement. You’ll want to buy this book (click here to pre-order).

And you will want to turn to page 184 and 210.

I have learned from Dave and Jon for 15 years, but in the last 5 years a real friendship has been birthed as we entered a network of churches with them.

They are from Community Christian Church in Naperville so we have had Dave come speak for our “Leaders Edge” gathering.  Last year I went and spoke at their “Leadership Community.” I love their church…and apparently they love ours.

Suncrest is mentioned not only in the acknowledgements of their book (pg 210), but also in their examples of churches that are reproducing through multi-site (pg 184).

I couldn’t be more proud of you, Suncrest.  Your sacrifice and sense of mission has always been amazing.  Now, it is getting recognized.

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We are on our way home from the largest Church Planting Conference in America.  Even with Suncrest’s commitment to church planting, this was the first time I had been in a number of years and it’s funny how things have changed over the last few years for me.

I used to love conferences for these reasons:  (1) getting out of town for a few days, (2) learning the latest thinking about ministry, (3) inspiration of great worship.

Now, all of that has changed for me:  (1) I’d rather stay home than be on the road, (2) the latest thinking about ministry is found on blogs and podcasts much earlier (and cheaper!) than conferences., and (3) my worship experiences at Suncrest are just as good as what I experienced this week.

Still 3500 people were with me in Orlando this week…so there must be some reason to be there!  For me, it was all about the people I was able to connect with in person over just a few short days – I thought about typing a long list of everyone, but I want to tell the stories behind the list so I’ll space it out with some random posts over the next few weeks.

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Had some people ask me to post this so here is the video we used yesterday at both campuses.  It was put together by LifeChurch.tv from Oklahoma (and about a dozen other campuses) and taught by their lead pastor, Craig Groeschel.  Craig leads the way in sharing resources from this dynamic church for FREE.  (It’s only one of many reasons I like him!)

This is an interesting video, I presume, for anyone thinking about the issue of tattoos.  But the reason we used it and posted it was that Craig shows a great example of 3 out of 5 TXT principles we are talking about when interpreting a Bible verse from Leviticus 18.  Here he uses…

• Context (how do the verses around this verse help us understand it?)
• Background (how does the history/what is happening at the time help us understand it?)
• Genre (what should we consider going in since this verse is in an Old Testament Law book of the Bible?)

Think about it while you enjoy…”Should a Christian get a tattoo?”

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So I kind of pride myself on preparation and making sure things don’t slip through the cracks.  Sometimes stuff happens that is out of our control, but if it is just a mental breakdown…that drive me nuts about people.

In our 11:00 service I was backstage with a guy named Anthony that I was going to baptize in the service (BTW, 5 more baptisms today…love the way you keep changing lives, Suncrest).  I knew what the cue was for us to come out and I thought I had plenty of time so I started talking to Anthony about his spiritual journey.

He talked about the influence of different people on his journey and said that he had considered himself a Christian for all his life, but really just opened his heart to Christ in the last few weeks.  He started talking about the sermon Jared preached a few weeks ago on “The Shadow of Confusion” and how it just hit him like (his words) “a ton of bricks.”  He said he came forward after the service and Jared prayed with him and he knew it was the beginning of  a new journey.

Pretty cool story, eh?  Apparently I thought so too because I totally missed the cue to come out and baptize him.  Bobby Jackson did a stellar job of creating a quiet reflection time in the service, but he had to wonder after about 2 minutes if we were coming out at all!  Eventually, it hit me that no one was singing and we were late …so we made our way out.

Fortunately, me missing a cue has no effect on what God does through baptism…and Anthony experienced new life today.

So, I’ll be hearing about it this week from our staff  – who tend to usually hear about it from me 🙂

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I’m getting some good practical questions about reading the Bible so I thought this would be a good place to post an answer or 2.  I’m loving this conversation so feel free to submit questions of your own.

Yesterday someone asked me about different Bible Translations and specifically about one called “The Message.”  Here was my answer:

Basically “The Message” is a paraphrase of the Bible instead of a translation.  It simply means the person doing it (Eugene Peterson – A highly respected Christian thinker) made an effort to capture the meaning/spirit of the text, but did not make an effort to translate it word by word or even phrase by phrase from the original Greek language.

For that reason, I think it is a great resource to hear the bible in a fresh way, but I wouldn’t use it if I was trying to do intense study on a passage or theological concept.  Hope that makes sense!

Typically I use the NIV for my reading and for teaching.  Here is a chart that has almost every English Translation:

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On Sunday, we started our new series called TXT:  How to Read your Bible.  I always think this about whatever series we are in, but SERIOUSLY this is one of the most important series we have ever done.

And that became obvious on Sunday.  We gave Bibles to every person who walked in and told them to keep it as our gift to them if they did not own an understandable translation of the Bible.  We gave away almost 800 Bibles.

I’ll reflect more on the series in later posts, but for now let me share a few stories…

-Scott commented on his blog about part of his own Journey:

I had been introduced to God as a young child. I memorized prayers and learned about Jesus. However, I had never opened a Bible to read what was inside. In my teenage years, I began to slowly drift away from God eventually giving up completely on pursuing a relationship with him. Before I could ever experience it’s truth and power, I had decided that the Bible had no practical place in my life.

I look back on that time in my life as a turning point. I am so grateful for that little green book that found a way into my life at a time of need. I am so glad I decided to open the book and begin reading the words that would literally change my life.

Lisa sent me an email that said:

great message today…I must say it was so great that I bought my first NIV Bible this afternoon and I only set it down so I could type this email.  This is quite a huge step for me because as a young girl I had it embedded in me that I should only read from a KJV Bible.  I have been really wanting to invest in an ‘easier’ reading Bible, but to tell the truth, I was scared.  Scared of what?  I really don’t know.  I haven’t been reading out of my KJV Bible because I was intimidated and really wasn’t taking anything away from it.  However I am now the proud owner of an NIV Life Application Study Bible and I’ve felt closer to God’s word this afternoon than I ever have.  Thank you, honest and sincerely…

BTW, when I asked her if I could post this on my blog she said I could if I mentioned the message she wrote on her connect card.  Something about the Cubs…I can’t really remember 🙂

Dan sent me an email about how he had always been fascinated to read teachings from other religions and highlighted some stuff in those books, but never highlighted his Bible because the one he had (from his confirmation years ago) was too nice!  He took the paperback Bible we gave him and took highlighter in hand.  He said:  I can’t wait to begin reading it with the same zeal that I have taken while reading some other books.

The Bible is the most owned, least read book in the history of the world, but it was written to be read!

So this week we will tackle the second passage from Philippians — Chapter 1:12-30.  Read it today!

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Easter was different for me this year.  I’m not totally sure why, but here are a few random reflections on the last week.

• I knew Easter was different this year when Jenny asked me on Monday evening how many people were at church and I simply didn’t know the answer.  It was Easter so I knew it was big, but in past years I would find myself dying to know ASAP.
• Just being candid here…I’m not sure I can even parse all the motivations for wanting to know that number so quickly in the past, but I’m pretty sure not all of them were healthy.
• I made a change between Saturday’s service and Sunday’s services because I felt like Saturday was too heavy about the struggles we have.  And, duh, this was EASTER so the emphasis should be on HOPE that we have.
• I actually re-recorded the sermon after the Saturday service for our Hobart campus.  Our volunteers went out of their way to stay late and finalize the video to a DVD…and go buy one more mirror for me!  Our volunteers around here CONSISTENTLY go the extra mile.
• Speaking of volunteers, how about Charlie Talley?  I was glad he went out to lunch with us Sunday after church so I could at least buy him a meal!  He installed the lights and hung the cross so we could worship in it’s shadow for our Thursday/Friday Passion Services.  Then, he had it all down and reset before the Easter services and cleaned up the broken mirror after each service Saturday and Sunday.
• I like stories.  I love True Stories.  And I really love people who are willing to be honest about a tough past and the power of God transforming their old life.  I thought Scott Skowronski’s story was the essence of our Celebration.
• What is your stone?  Having some good conversations about that question with people.  Got to pray with a ton of people after the services.  Always powerful.
• Many have been very kind with their words to me about the power of the morning, but I just want to make sure everyone knows the team effort it is to create and execute all of these elements across 2 campuses/5 adult services/2 teen services.  Plus the two totally unique Passion Services.  My part was the smallest.  Our staff and many, many volunteers? Their part was huge.  God’s part?  The difference-maker.
• Everyone is talking about the mirror shattering.  It was powerful to me when I did it the first time, but i wondered after Saturday night if the shock didn’t actually take away from the teaching.  I asked one of our elders and he thought it added…so i kept it.  I’ve never felt like shock-value is any good unless it actually makes a point as powerful as the shock.
• And speaking of shock…some of you jumped out of your chairs!  The best part from the stage was seeing about 5 people in each service lean over to their spouse as soon as I picked up the rock.  My guess is they could see where this was going…
• And for those who are interested…I found out late last night the attendance was huge…another record for highest ever at our church.  More important to me, we had almost 500 people come out for our Passion Services earlier in the week.  That has grown faster than anything over the last few years.

I got a hand written note today from someone I had traded emails with earlier in week about a deep struggle.  In part, the writer said, “I can’t really explain what happened to me on Sunday other than I’ve been raised from the Dead!  The Power of Christ’s Resurrection!” Enclosed was a compact mirror with “Loved” written across it.

That’s their Story.  That’s my Story.  That’s Your Story.

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I’ve seen God change the human heart when everything else a person tried in life failed to bring real fulfillment.

But I have friends who haven’t fully experienced that yet. That’s why I’m going out of my way this week to invite people to our Easter Services.

Will some say “no”?  Yes.

Will some say “yes”?  I think so.

Will someone who says “yes” begin the renewal of their journey with God? Yes, I’ve seen it happen.

So why would I (or you) not invite people…?

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From a nuts and bolts perspective, launching a campus could be overwhelming (check out the plans below).  But for anyone who loves seeing God work through new things, it is invigorating.

Today, a team of us walked through a potential location in Highland.  Then, I had lunch with our campus pastors (Doug, Jared, and Andy) and Debby Albrecht, our new Children’s Ministry Staff member over all campuses.  As we move from 2 campuses to 4, we know we will experience the benefit of more synergy and have to work through the challenge of more complexity.

We have a good framework for it, though.  Today, we reviewed our last meeting where we outlined 30 day goals and 6 month goals.  We are in great shape for both campuses.  Still, today was a gut check to look ahead at what we need to accomplish in the next 2 weeks, the next 6 weeks, and the next 90 days.  Jared and Andy walked away with intense lists!

Will you pray for the next major areas as these campuses develop?

–Staffing – worship and children’s ministry are the key areas where we like to have at least part-time staff.

–Launch Team/Lead Team – It would be great to have 100 people on a launch team.  Everyone will need to serve as we fill out the volunteer matrix needed for launch. A smaller Lead Team of 8-10 to help the campus pastor guide the launch process.

–Facility – It would be great to have a 7 day a week facility, but we might be looking at Sunday only.  Lots of variables here!

–Funding – The Jesus Mission has been successful, but our campus pastors are also doing fundraising on their own like a church planter would.

–Outreach – We will do advertising around the opening Sunday (projected for September 26, 2010), but at this stage it is about investing in the communities.  We want to serve them and have a positive presence there before anyone sees an advertisement.

We’ll see each of these come together by both hard work and God’s hand…it happens that way all the time around here!

Posted in Suncrest