.Real.Greg.Lee.

I got speak Saturday morning at a church that has meant the world to Suncrest.  Community Christian Church in Naperville has transformed our leadership model, given us a framework for reproducing campuses, inspired us to think about church planting in new ways, and been the friend to call when we had questions. 

So, I jumped at the chance to speak to a couple hundred of their leaders at their monthly “Leadership Community”.  Here’s what was reinforced to me…not only do I love CCC, but I love talking to LEADERS. 

Our group leaders and ministry leaders at suncrest are my favorite people in the world.  they have the mission in front of them and own responsibility for not only their own spiritual vibrancy, but bringing others along.  Leaders, you are a special breed. 

Maybe that’s why every church I know of (and business for that matter) wishes there were more of them.  And something hit me talking to some suncrest leaders getting ready for the talk. 

Here it is:  As leaders, most of us know part of our responsibility is to reproduce ourselves in leadership.  But when we do it, I think a lot of us default to looking for someone who is a leader…who could already do what we are doing.  And we look for those, we struggle to find them (surprise, surprise…they are already leading somewhere else!). 

If we could refocus and remember that apprentice means apprentice…that by definition the person we should bring into leadership is someone who needs some coaching, teaching, modeling…some developmental pieces that will help them become a leader.  I know I’m guilty.  I need to stop looking for “already made” leaders and look for emerging leaders with potential…nothing more (and nothing less).

Posted in Suncrest

Not that I want to…but I can’t get Liberia and the Buegar family out of my mind. I’ve had powerful experiences before and they generally tend to fade, but in the midst of an outrageously busy ministry season, my thoughts keep coming back to our African Experience.

And we will share that experience in our services this Sunday (both campuses) and in a fun informal presentation Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm (@ west campus).

Yesterday, Denise Tribble (pictured here with Jenny, and the Buegars…Bea, Linnelle and Dwayne) and I had a conference call with the Board of LEM (Liberian Evangelistic Mission).  It was good to talk with this team.  I know most of them have been invested in Liberia and the Buegar’s ministry for longer than I have known Danny.  We talked about the challenges we experienced, the faithfulness of the Buegar family, how new opportunities to make trips there are available more than ever before.  I can’t wait to see where it goes.

I know this much…Suncrest is planning a trip there in early 2010 to keep bringing help to the people of Liberia.  We will talk about it a bit this Sunday.  I came across a quote working on my message Sunday that has resonated with how I feel about the work in Liberia.  Maybe it will help you to take the next step in considering a trip like this:

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”   -Edmond Burke

Posted in Suncrest

At West Campus, Beka Jackson taught on Sunday about the woman at the well.  I wish I had been here myself to hear it because she really did an incredible job.  Along with my message (and Bob’s powerful testimony) about Shame at east and west, we have been trying to help people focus in on real needs in our lives…and a ministry Suncrest offers to help with that.

I saw Laura Moseng Sunday afternoon.  She is the leader of our Celebrate Recovery Ministry (and, professionally, a doctor in the mental health field).  I asked how the morning went and she was so thrilled with Beka’s message and our emphasis because she knows…better than most…that most all of us could find help at a place like Celebrate Recovery.

Too often, I think people pigeon hole a ministry like CR as being “for someone else”.  For no good reason, we envision that it is full of people at Rock Bottom, tragically stuck in the swirl of some wildly addictive behavior.  People facing that are welcome at CR, but mostly the stories aren’t that dramatic. 

At it’s best, it is a help for people who find they could use some support and insight as they work through feelings and emotions that get them hung up in life, feeling a bit depressed or sense they have very few places they can confidentially turn for a little help sorting out one of life’s many struggles.

Is CR for you?  If you have any hint that it is, I’d say you at least should come to Monday night’s kick-off to check it out — 7:00pm at West Campus.

Posted in Suncrest

Mary Beth Stockdale led a breakout session at the Sticky Church Conference on Social Media in churches. 

I spoke in one small segment about my experience with blogging as a pastor.  I’ll post my 5 things I think you need to FIND as a blogger tomorrow. 

For now here is the contact info that I promised on my blog for the presenters (those in person and online via www.tokbox.com ).  It was interesting to me to see what each person put out there…no email addresses.  Guess we’ll see you on Twitter!

Thanks to each one of these online/social media leaders…

DJ Chuang [Director of Digital Initiatives]

Digital blog: http://digital.leadnet.org – church tech blog for non-techies

Leadership Network: http://www.leadnet.org/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/djchuang

Personal blog: http://djchuang.com

Video Mail:  http://tokbox.com/djchuang

Cynthia Ware
web: http://thedigitalsanctuary.org
web: http://digital.leadnet.org
twitter: http://twitter.com/cynthiaware

Tony Steward [Online Community Pastor, Lifechurch.tv]
text: tonysteward to 50500 for his contact info

Blog: http://www.tonystewardblog.com

Mary Beth Stockdale [Connect Director, Suncrest Christian Church]

Blog:  http://marybethstockdale.wordpress.com/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/mbstockdale

Greg Lee  [Lead Pastor, Suncrest Christian Church]

Blog: https://greglee.wordpress.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/gregleenow

Posted in Suncrest

I’m getting lots of love from people who came to the Sticky Church conference about the incredible job our staff and volunteers did hosting yesterday.  At risk of making this too long, let me highlight a couple things…

1. Big Picture…Suncrest, you should know that our role today helped hundreds of churches and church leaders.  They will go back to their churches today and re-think programs done and energy spent on things that can be overhauled.  In the end, many will do church more effectively which is HUGE for the kingdom and the reason this is worth our time.

2.  We had some of the top Church leaders from around the country in our building today and they loved our team.   Hospitality, attitude, excellence…were all off the charts.

3.  When I start singling people out, there is never a good place to stop, but I have to mention 2 people:

…To nobody’s surprise…my assistant Cindy Barker.  After I offered to host the conference, she ran with it until every piece was in place…all with her normal grace.  Truth is, she put in 20 times more hours and 100 times more mental capacity into this than I did…and everything ran beautifully.  Hospitality, attitude and excellence were off the charts because Cindy is off the charts on those things.

…Also, Bobby Jackson and his team poured an enormous amount of time into this with most of it under-the-radar.  I started to list all the areas he covered and tried to start thinking of all the volunteers he had here.  Both lists got too long too fast, but we couldn’t have come close without them.  Props to Bobby for excellent leadership on all fronts and a huge time investment.

Truly everyone chipped in, though.  Mary Beth Stockdale led a great workshop, Doug Gamble kept the internet working smoothly (not an insignificant task!) and was blogging the event, David (and Leslie/Diane) got our facility in great shape, our support staff shined.

I’m the one who ends up on stage and getting the cool emails, but every Pastor there knows what I know…the real heroes in effective churches are great staff, great leaders, great volunteers.  And we have that in strong supply!

Greg

Posted in Suncrest

The building here is buzzing with our staff and the folks from North Coast Church prepping for the Sticky Church Conference Suncrest is hosting tomorrow.

It’s going to be great to hang with Larry Osborne (a new mentor for me through Leadership Network), Dave Ferguson (friend and visionary for our NewThing Network) and Scott Chapman (who I’ve never met, but hear great things about).

Larry’s concept of “Sticky Church” correctly asks the question, “Does it matter how many people are coming through the front door if the back door is wide open?”  If you are in church leadership and haven’t read the Sticky Church book, you should!  He also has one of the best books I know on walking with God called Contrarian’s Guide to Knowing God and has a new book coming out in 2 weeks called 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.

They take walk-up registrations at Sticky Church, so you can still get in.  Registration is from 8:00-9:00am.  Schedule and pricing is found by clicking here.

(Wow…lots of links in there…you should find some great stuff!)

Posted in Suncrest

Every year our elders take a weekend retreat.  we just got back.  (For those of you who don’t know, some people think of elders as the “governing” body of the church.  For us, legally that is true, but their role is defined as GUIDING and GUARDING the church).  This is our highest role of leadership, but like all Christian leadership it is marked by people who carry a servant-first humility.

Our retreat always has a few enormous agenda items for suncrest’s future and this one was no different.  We also think it is ultra-important to have some fun, team building activities together.  This year, we went to Pokagen State Park over by Fort Wayne and our fun included a friendly game of Texas  Hold ’em (Randy Parish winner) and some races at an indoor race track (see pictures) where I’m declaring myself the winner.  Others may disagree. 

Our serious agenda focused on a few things:

1.  Maybe most powerful was doing accountability with one another about our own spiritual lives and struggles.  It’s too personal to share in a forum like this, but it was powerful. 

2.  We also talked about key elements and structure of an effort to raise the leadership bar among some men in our church.  It will be a rich experience that combines personal reflection, community with others, rich theology, and very practical leadership development.

3.  We also talked about (and experienced) the notion of church online.  As you can imagine, there are hundreds of questions that surround this.  Some are practical, but those are easy to sort out.  The big ones for us are Biblical/Theological and that’s where our conversations centered.  We’re moving forward, without yet committing to launching anything.  It should be interesting to see if God opens doors or closes doors on this front for us.

Posted in Suncrest

No one can accuse our staff of not doing our part to grow this church.

If you don’t know Jared Mehrle, you should. He (student life pastor) is a great guy and a great leader.  His wife Amy was my admin assistant until they had Gibson 2 1/2 years ago.

This morning at 7:17am, Alyce Kathleen Mehrle was born.  Mom and baby are happy and healthy.  Dad…He’s now turning even softer with his first daughter.

I got to hold her a few minutes this morning and she was just a reminder to me a the gift new life is to each of us and the blessing it is to a child to have Godly parents.

Posted in Suncrest

We leave tomorrow morning for our annual elders retreat.  This weekend with 5 of the most godly men I know is always a high for me.  It’s also defining.  I’m sure I’ll blog more about it, but today I ask for your prayers for each of us in our own walk with Christ and for our sensitivity to his leading this weekend.

On the agenda:  Leadership Development Issues, Future Campus Launches, Self-assesment and peer-review, extended prayer time for our staff and leaders.

And, Purdue’s basketball game if they are still playing Saturday!

Posted in Suncrest

Seem odd that a church has an office pool?  Every church I know has one.  No Cash, just a little pride.  And the loser has to buy the winner lunch when we all go out to celebrate (we’ll use any reason we can to celebrate)!

Sue Hertzfeldt runs the pool and our founding pastor, John Wasem, gets in every year.  I’m pulling for Purdue tonight as I’m neck and neck with Bobby (I know…the worship guy???) for the lead.

I’ll leave it to you to figure out Miss Sue’s shorthand…

Here’s the scoop on the bracket from Suncrest.
53: Bobby, Greg
52: Trib
51: Cindy, Clara, Doug
50: Diane
49: DEV, Kevin, JW, Robin
48: Laurie, Patti
47: Scott
46: Leslie
45: Jared, Nathan, Miss Sue
43: MB
42: Chris
39: Melissa

Posted in Suncrest