.Real.Greg.Lee.

Great Day. 

Really Great Day.

Huge crowds at church…I’d like to think we have sailed past the 1100 mark and have established ourselves in 1200 range.  We’ll see. 

Fun Message series…God @ the Movies.  Today was The Pursuit of Happyness at West Campus and The Dark Knight at East Campus.

Got a 45 minute nap and a Bears win this afternoon.  Hard to beat that.

Hung with the family at an East Campus event and then went to dinner at local favorite Schoops.  After being out of town 3 days this week I needed a fun evening with Jenny and kids.  As you can tell from the pics, I got it.

Posted in Suncrest

OK.  I am fed up.  Seriously…37-3 loss to the Packers?  I have no idea if the Bears will come to play Sunday or not, but I figure this is the right pick for 2 reasons…

1.  There is no reason to pick the Bears to win.  It would only be a pick against a lousy Rams team, but I can’t actually believe the Bears are a team to win anything.

2.  I do want them to win…and usually they do opposite of what I predict.

Rams 27  Bears 17

Posted in Suncrest

Tomorrow morning, I fly back to Chicago.  But not without one of the richest experiences of my ministry life.

Quick background for those who don’t know:  I’m making 4 trips to Dallas over the course of 2 years to dialog with other pastors that are leading under the same circumstances (young pastors/large churches).     This was the 2nd trip.

I’ll blog about some of my learnings here over time, but let me be a little more reflective here.

1.  I’m out of my league here.  These other pastors are much more dynamic than me.  I’m younger than most and many lead churches larger than suncrest…some much larger.  I’m one of the quiet guys in the group.  I usually think of myself as type A.  In this group, I’m type Z.

2.  I really feel like this group of peers is in it for helping everyone’s church, not just their church.  Everyone has strong opinions, but it is without ego.  Our conversations go everywhere:

-innovation issues (online campuses?) 

-practical theology (what is the right way to handle sin?) 

-leadership issues (how am I like a business CEO/how am I not?) 

-crisis issues (economy/$$ for most of us right now)

-personal issues (balancing church demands with healthy family life is #1)

3.  Leadership Network brings in top-notch “mentor” leaders.  Mark Driscoll was with us this time.  Not sure if that name rings a bell for you, but the podcast of his sermons is #3 on the list (not the sermon list, the whole podcast list — right behind Oprah! — with 10 million downloads).  Larry Osborne has been with us both times so far and has been outrageously helpful to me personally.  He’s authored a lot of books was a pioneer of the multi-site movement and has a thoughtful opinion on ANYTHING you ask him about.  Greg Surratt in leads Seacoast church with an attendance of 10,000, but it is multi-site in 13 locations spread over Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, plus an online campus.

4.  All of these guys are learners and critical thinkers.  Often we disagree, but there is incredible power in the exchange of ideas to refine them and then embed them in our souls.  Leadership Network’s tagline is “Connecting Innovators to Multiply.”  It’s happening…and it’s good for the church.

Posted in Suncrest

In the last few days, Doug Gamble (our East Campus Pastor) has re-engaged his blog (great look to it) and Mary Beth Stockdale (our Connect Director) has jumped into the blogosphere.

Welcome (and welcome back)!  Today they were at the Catalyst One Day conference with close to 30 others from Suncrest and they both blogged the sessions with Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel.  It’s really great stuff and they did it little differently so it’s worth looking at both.

Click here for Doug’s Blog

Click here for Mary Beth’s Blog

Posted in Suncrest

At the end of a long day (alarm went off at 2:58 am!), the first reflection that comes to mind tonight is that I could really use some learning like this every 6 months.  And then I think…”oh yeah…that’s what I get to do!”

I’ll post more completely on learnings when I go back through my notes, but there is something really powerful about learning from these mentors and peers.  Huge topics everyone is talking about…

1.  Economic downturn.  We don’t have it as bad as the guys from Florida and Vegas, but it is bad most everywhere.  Our Suncrest situation mirrors what everyone else is experiencing.  Thought Mark Driscoll had some insightful stuff about seasons of pruning and growing…and strategies for leading through it.

2.  Multi-site/Internet Campus.  I got to spend about an hour one-on-one with Greg Surratt from Seacoast Church.  Awesome.  Down to earth.  Insightful.  They have 13 campuses and run their programming on a week delay like we do.  Launched an Internet campus too.  Part of their DNA is doing things with as much excellence as is necessary, but not spending big bucks to go all out.  He must have used the phrase 20 times… “It is helpful, but is it necessary?”  One example for him was recording in HD.  A neat perspective.

3.  Leadership as the Lead Pastor.  This became a huge topic for the day.  Everyone emphasized how important staff collaboration was in getting to the best strategies, but there was also clarity about the vision/priorities/values have to come from Lead Guy.  For us, that would have to be in consultation with our elders.  Essentially, they were saying “if they aren’t a part of you, you won’t lead passionately to make sure they get done.”  That causes some reflection for me.

Best dynamic:  Larry Osborne, Mark Driscoll, and Greg Surratt are so different!  Personality and perspectives.  It’s awesome to hear the differences and feel that freedom to be different myself.  It also makes me really listen when they DO agree on something.  Think I should probably embrace anything like that.

Posted in Suncrest

I just landed in Dallas and will connect in a couple hours with the group of 12 pastors I get to hang out with from around the country.  Our common connection is that we are all young (I forget the max age, but it’s older than 34!) and that our churches are larger (at least over 800). 

I used the group as a sermon illustration a few months ago, describing how it is an interesting feeling to walk into a room of peers like this and be curious about each other…even asking internally “I wonder how I measure up?”  In our first meeting though, I felt like we broke through any pretense and everyone knows all of our ministries would be nothing without God and we really needed each other to learn from our common experiences and best practices.  Egos were gone fast.

And while we learn from each other, the best part might be the experienced mentors that Leadership Network brings in to work with us.  This week, I’m especially excited.  I’ll see what I can soak up from Mark Driscoll, Larry Osborne, and Greg Surratt.

Posted in Suncrest

When we moved up to NW Indiana someone told me that if I didn’t like the weather to just wait…it would change.  True on a lot of days, but none more than those where we get “Lake Effect” snow coming off Lake Michigan.

When I walked out this morning, the picture above is what I saw.  Hard to see with the grass, but we had about an inch of snow on the driveway and my car.  I drove west toward the church and within a mile there was no sign of snow anywhere.  Then I read the paper online to find out Valparaiso (10 miles east of our house) had almost 8 inches.

Hoping there is not a repeat performance tonight.  Heading to Dallas super-early for my Next Generation Leaders Community with Leadership Network.  Will post more from there.

Posted in Suncrest

I got to have a pretty normal day off on the front end of a week that will likely be ludicrous.  (It starts with 8 meetings on the calendar tomorrow and then leaving home about 3:45am Wednesday for my flight to Dallas).

Today was great and mostly mindless…though it helps when the Sunday stat report comes in the morning…at least with attendence is strong (as it has been) and offerings strong (as they have NOT been).

Took Jack to preschool.  Did some shopping for Jenny at Costco (ran in to a few people from church there…which is always leave me thinking that they are thinking: “Why isn’t our pastor working?”).  Re-assembled our dining room chairs (Jenny re-covered them).  Got the oil changed in the car. 

Tonight I took Jack and Abby to the mall since Jenny was out.  They actually sat on Santa’s lap (no line!) and played in the play area (pictured).  They also rode the elevator, which is exactly $2 cheaper than the carousel that it overlooks!  We ate in the food court.  Does anyone else think it’s odd that the main attraction to the japanese food place is Bourbon Chicken?  I do, but I’m not complaining.  Jack and I down it together every time we go.

Posted in Suncrest

Earlier tonight I performed one of the most unique wedding ceremonies I’ve ever been a part of.  Jack and Mylene Hollar were married…for the second time.  After 35 years of marriage, they divorced.  Tonight…15 years later…they were married again.  An amazing story that is more than I can describe here.

Kind of a cool side story also…I got to talk with Jill Stanek, who is Mylene and Jack’s daughter and a leader in the pro-life movement (third from the right in the picture).  Jill was a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn when she personally experienced the horror of a certain type of abortion.  Jill worshiped with us at Suncrest last weekend and wrote about her experience at Suncrest in her weekly article on WorldNetDaily.   Click here for the article.

Posted in Suncrest

If you are a church leader in the midwest and you aren’t signed up for this yet…what are you waiting for?  Catalyst is among the best ministry conferences out there today, but it’s in Atlanta every year and the cost of travel, hotel, etc keeps a lot of us away.

So, next week, they are coming to South Bend, IN (Granger Community Church) for a one-day event.  I just got word there is still room to sign up, so do it.  I think we are taking over 30 staff and volunteers from Suncrest.  Click here for the one-day conference (featuring Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley).  Pretty cheap as conferences go too.

Disclaimer…as excited as I am about our group going, I won’t actually be there myself.  Unfortunately, I have a conflict with a Leadership Network meeting, so I’ll be in Dallas.  The good news is…you weren’t coming to see me anyway…sign up today.

Posted in Suncrest