.Real.Greg.Lee.

We had a blast on Saturday in the snow.  The kids were excited the moment they rolled out of bed and looked outside.  After a quick Dunkin Donuts run, we went out to play. 

The kids LOVE playing on the swing set in the snow.  Who would have guessed it?  The Slide is faster, they have more padding, and what kid doesn’t dream of blasting through a pile of snow.  (There was also that time Abby flipped off the swing into the snow…she laughs about it now!)

And…this was hands down the best snow we have ever had for building snowmen.  I thought our first one was big…but Jack wanted to go even bigger!

Full Week ahead with Christmas.  I was glad to get to spend most of this day making memories.

And

Here are the pictures

Posted in Suncrest

Last night, a quietly monumental thing happened in our church.  John Stas walked out of an elders meeting and he won’t be back next month.  Most of you probably don’t know John Stas.  You may not even know much about our elders…so I thought I’d write a little bit about them today. 

We don’t call a lot of public attention to our “elders” – the group of spiritual leaders who are responsible to God for the health and direction of our church.  Our terminology is that they GUARD and GUIDE our church.  They mostly serve behind the scenes, but they were identified and selected as elders because of their deep maturity in the faith, their love for the church, their wisdom and discernment, and that unique combination of strong convictions with a gentle spirit.  I’m one of the group, but the rest are made up from our church body – among them are a managers, an appliance installer, a school psychologist, a small business owner, and more.

What do they do?  They guide our decision-making about major initiatives.  They guard our values and our mission.  They both support me and hold me accountable as the Lead Pastor.  They serve in their own areas of passion – right now some are community group leaders, serving in missions, children’s ministry, celebrate recovery, worship leadership.  Together we all are part of the team that takes communion people each Sunday who can’t get out to church for health or other reasons.  They study theological issues that affect us.  They intervene when someone in the church is being divisive.  They pray for our church – as a whole and with individuals.  They take the lead in developing future leaders.

There is a lot more, but everything I just wrote has John Stas’ fingerprints all over it.  Our system allows for both stability and refreshment among elders so it’s typical for elders to take a break from this role after three – or at the most 6 – years.  But John Stas was willing to be an exception to that and is the only person who has served on the team since we transitioned to this leadership structure over 7 years ago.  Over John’s time as an elder, Suncrest has baptized over 350 people, saw community group involvement go from about 15% to over 50%, launched a 2nd campus (he and his family were part of the launch team),  clarified our discipleship strategy (the 4C’s), and doubled in size. 

That’s amazing to reflect on, but as anyone in leadership knows not every meeting is overflowing with vision and blessings.  There are challenges to be met, issues to deal with, tough conversations to be had alongside the experiences that are so full of joy.  John has handled each one with integrity and grace.  After last night’s meeting, he’s committed to taking the next year off…but I for one hope he’ll come back and serve in this way again. 

If you want to get to know John a little better, I did do a blog about him last year that you can find here:  

https://greglee.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/introducing-our-elders/

Thanks, John!

Posted in Suncrest

I made a decision sunday to not go on a scheduled out-of-town trip for a few different factors and the result was an open evening on my schedule.  I’d been promising Jack – our 6 year old – dinner out with just he and I for a while so it was the perfect opportunity.  We’ve done this a couple times (and yes, Abby’s time is coming).  They are always experiences I’ll never forget.

-I gave Jack 3 options on where to go.  He chose Culver’s.  I know it was partially because he wondered if Fred from church (the owner) would be there, but his explanation to me centered on this:  He knows Abby can’t have ice cream so he thought it would be good to go to a place with ice cream since it was just the two of us and she wouldn’t have to feel bad if we got ice cream.

-Jack loves Root Beer (he gets some pop, but NO caffeine) and totally wanted to be “the man” getting it himself at the fountain.

-Our conversation went everywhere.  The best part?  We were talking about his school and he told me he might like to be a teacher someday, but would really like to be a principal, “because they are in charge”.  Uh…no surprise there.

-I took the conversation to the next level and by the end he decided he wanted to be the Superintendent!  We actually had a wonderful 3 minutes talking about what it means to have a lot of authority and influence and how to you can use that for good in this world (not just to be in charge!)

-We got ice cream (actually frozen custard) to finish off the night.  He went to the counter and asked if his free scoop (from the kids meal) could have “some vanilla, some chocolate with sprinkles and M&M’s on top”.  The wonderful man behind the counter agreed to each request and then had trouble with all the M&M’s falling off — so he just gave us a cup of M&M’s to put on after he ate some of the ice cream.  Jack was loving this…along with all the pecans he was swiping out of my turtle-flavored ice cream.

-The best part…he decided to call his mom to see if she wanted us to bring her some ice cream.  I only heard his half of the conversation as he was trying to talk her into the Turtle flavor, suggesting she would love it because “it has some sweet pecans”.  Then…he decided to save most of the M&M’s he had been given in a bowl and take them home to his sister since we were taking mom ice cream and Abby couldn’t have that.

Got to get the next outing on my calendar now…

Posted in Suncrest

I can’t wait for our new worship series to kick-off on Sunday.  I’m super-excited about each of the messages.   They apply to Christ’s coming and the season of Christmas, but they would each stand on their own outside of a Christmas series too.

And to top it off, we are going to have a lot of fun with the series playing off the titles of some well-known songs by the Beatles (and our bands doing their best “covers” of those songs in our services).  Every time I see the subtitle for the series it cracks me up — “A story told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo”

This is going to be a blast!  Make sure you are here Sunday for “Nothin’s Gonna Change my World”.

Posted in Suncrest

Some Random Thoughts from the last 7 days…

1.  I’m totally committed to family time over the holidays and we got a full dose of it at Thanksgiving.  Our family took off Wednesday afternoon and made a loop around the Midwest getting back on Sunday Evening.  Did a little email, mostly disengaged…and ATE a lot.

2.  I’m blessed to have great family and great in-laws.  We had a blast on Thanksgiving day with all of Jenny’s family…where there is ALWAYS a card game and lots of re-connecting.  I was talking to one of Jenny’s cousins who is in her early 20’s and it hit me that I’ve been hanging with her family for 15+ years at holidays now.  Wow.

3.  Then my dad’s family connects at the Amana Colonies in Iowa on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I think in my 35 years I’ve only missed that gathering about 5 times.  There were about 70 of us at the big dinner Saturday night, but we spent most of our time with my parents, my brothers and there families at the indoor waterpark.  Swimming with cousins was my favorite part of it as a kid and it’s cool to see it is Jack and Abby’s favorite part now.

4. While we were gone we had a pretty young man (42) in our church die unexpectedly.  It was a hard thing to engage on our return, but I did the funeral on Tuesday.  His wife and kids will need our church to be there for them now more than ever.

5.  Yesterday, I spent the day in Chicago discussing with pastors of some other large suburban churches.  I love the city – we all love the city — but we are wondering how to reach successfully into the city with Church Planting.  It’s exciting to see some answers emerging to that because urban centers have always been challenging.  The cool part is our church plant in Boston will serve as kind of model for what might be done in Chicago.  I love the vision so much…but Suncrest isn’t going to be able to be much of a support for it in the next few years…Too much good stuff happening right in front of us that we are trying to tackle ourselves!

I’m always amazed at the diversity of experiences God gives me in this life.  And thankful for them…even the hard ones.

Posted in Suncrest

If you were at suncrest Sunday, you probably were as motivated as I was by the story of Larry and Kelly McManus and the way they are using stones to mark important things God has done in their family.

I came across two GREAT and practical ideas this week as I’ve been having conversations with families about how to create similar memories so I thought I’d share them here.

1.  A Thanksgiving Tree — This is probably best done by families with younger children.  The idea is to use your refrigerator (or another place in your home) to mark all the things you are thankful for between thanksgiving and Christmas.  Start by using some brown construction paper for a “trunk” and a few branches and then each evening at a family meal have each person (child or adult) write one thing they are thankful to God for on a green piece of construction paper.  These become the leaves of the tree and they are added each night.  As it grows, it helps you see all the places God has been good to your family!  (By the way…I think it also starts dinner conversations off in a  VERY positive way and helps all of us in a season where the temptation is to focus on “what I want” for Christmas).

2.  Christmas Card Prayers — What do you do after Christmas with all those cards?  (Most of us don’t want to just throw them away, but after we move them for the 5th time we finally do!)  How about this instead.  Find a rhythm that works for your family – maybe one/week — and work through the cards after the start of the year.  Take time as a family to pray for the people who sent you that card and talk about what they mean to your family.

Posted in Suncrest

I’m trying to “mark” the gratitude in my life, so let me celebrate a variety of things you may not know about?

1.  Our student life pastor – Jared Mehrle – was on the lead team that just pulled off the teen portion of a National Convention in Peoria, IL that attracted thousands of teens and led to hundreds of decisions.  This guy has leadership oozing out of him.

2.  From that same conference I got an email from one of our youth leaders today.  I love her investment in our students as she calls them “my girls.”  In part she said, “this was by far my most rewarding weekend ever.  I saw God pounding on my girls hearts, there were lives changed this weekend.  The girls…transformed right before my eyes.  I have had a difficult but amazing journey with them that i can’t even explain. “

3.  I had breakfast this morning with a group of retired guys who count our offering every week.  One guy told me serving and hanging out with his friends doing this was a highlight of his week.

4.  Our church just keeps growing.  Yesterday we had just over 1000 at our St. John campus and just over 200 at our Hobart/Merrillville Campus.  Our average for the year last year before we launched the second campus was 951.  

5.  Why are we growing?  We have great leaders, a wonderful staff, mission-first elders, a positive vibe from the whole church that you can’t beat…but none of that would work if Christ wasn’t at the center.  Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

 6.  I love Deep River Church of Christ — a sister church in Hobart.  They have let us use their building for east campus functions and are led by a great pastor and friend of mine, Ron Buche.  They just did a “miracle offering” in the midst of this challenging economy on Sunday and they exceeded their goal of $30,000.  Incredible…I love people of faith!!

7.  We are having baby dedications in a couple weeks, so we had a meeting on Sunday with the parents.  We have LOTS of babies…including one adorable set of triplets!  The coolest part was seeing these families meet and connect with each other.

Like many of you, we’ll spend time this week with our extended family.  Both Jenny and I are blessed to have great parents and wonderful grandparents.  Add to that tight relationships with siblings, nieces and nephews that are a blast and we know we have much to be thankful for.

How are you “marking” your gratitude today?

Posted in Suncrest

The teaching series called “servolution” wrapped up 4 weeks ago, but serving people in need continues.  I got this update from one of our community group leaders yesterday — his group served at a soup kitchen and what was especially cool was their chance to interact with the people.  After he gave some of the details on the night, he wrapped it up like this….

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The team that puts this together has a great spirit.

 Not only did we get to help in the kitchen and serve the food, but we had the opportunity to speak to each person there and write down their specific prayer requests.  We then took them into the sanctuary and prayed for each one.  We really enjoyed sitting down and having conversations with people, sharing Gods love.  The idea of serving being an act of worship became very real, and I’m not sure who got more joy out of it…I think we did.  That is such a God thing.  We also got to pray with the church team that does this.  They are real servants.

 Just thought I’d make you aware.  The study has been a good experience for many of us as well.  That book was a good choice.

 God Bless,

Steve

 P.S. The Leader’s Edge was awesome too last night.  Glad to be there!  Will be praying for the vision that was announced.

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I love our leaders and our community groups!

Posted in Suncrest

It’s still crazy to me that 17 Suncrest people are signed up to go on the Liberia, Africa Trip next February.  Lots of passion for this country!

This Saturday, there is great chance to support their trip while having a blast — a bags/corn hole tournament at the “On the Square” Sports Academy in Crown Point at 1pm.

Who will take me on?  (Actually, I’m still looking for a partner…and I stink at bags).  Find a partner, pay your $30 and you are in!

Anyone interested — suncrest folks or not — is welcome.  Email dmazrimas@sbcglobal.net ASAP.

Posted in Suncrest

Last night we had a standing-room-only crowd in the Annex of leaders.  And there was more energy oozing than I can remember in a long time. 

If you know me, the fact that “I love leaders” is not earth-shattering news.  I believe it is people who lead who shape the world.

It wouldn’t be a surprise either that “I love Suncrest leaders”.  Volunteer Leaders from all across our church gather 4 times a year to improve ourselves, make sure we are centered on mission, and to talk about where Suncrest is going in its next steps.  And I try to make sure to tell them each time how thankful I am for them.  Truth is…we would be nothing without them.

• Last night we had an incredible guest speaker…Dave Dummit planted a church near Detroit 4 1/2 years ago and they have grown to be reaching over 1000 people, already have 2 campuses, and don’t even have one facility yet!    Reproducing is in their DNA.  Reproducing leaders.  Reproducing Community Groups.  Reproducing Campuses.  And Reproducing Churches.

• Last night we made some huge announcements about future campuses.  (Details will roll out on these later.)  But that wasn’t even the best part to me…

• The best part was introducing new “leaders” and “emerging leaders”  (yes, we are always working to create a PIPELINE of reproducing leaders.  Last night we introduced 22 new leaders!  And we introduced 6 new emerging leaders!  I love it…because I love leaders.

Posted in Suncrest