.Real.Greg.Lee.

Had a good day at Wabash College today (see post below).  Here are a few quick observations from my first interaction with the other “Wabash Pastoral Fellows”:

We are all pastors, so we OF COURSE have things in common, but…

We have very diverse theological backgrounds.  We have different senses of what the mission of the church is.  There are as many women as men.  We have different ethnic backgrounds.  We have different sizes of churches and different roles at our churches.  And…we have a lot to learn form each other.

The experience is going to have an academic flavor to it.  Everyone around the table has at least a Master of Divinity Degree.  Our first offical session in January will be led by the Founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.  In July, we have a Rhodes Scholar from Oxford University.  Still, I sense most of us are interested in the practical side of how our churches can help people find “life abundant”…so the academic discussions will need to have real-life applications.

I’m looking forward to what it will bring.

Posted in Suncrest

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Wabash College in Crawfordsville for an orientation meeting.

Earlier this year, I was encouraged to apply for a “Fellowship Program” for Indiana Pastors at Wabash College in Crawfordsville.  They were looking for pastors from across the state who could come together to discuss (and potentially tackle) issues that our state is facing.  The issues range widely from Education to Social Services to Government to Spiritual Initiatives and Leadership Development.

I did apply and recently found out I was selected for the program.  It probably affects Suncrest in 2 ways:

1.        I’ll be out of the office 2 days every other month beginning in January.  It lasts for 2 years (2009-2010).  I will have to make some adjustments on meetings.  It also includes 2 international trips with the specific dates still to be set.

2.       I think Suncrest will have the opportunity to participate and potentially lead in tackling an initiative if we choose to.  There are 18 pastors from around the state, but I’m the only one from Northwest Indiana (yes, the “region” is the Indiana step-child once again), so it could even give us an interesting opportunity in our region.  I am curious about whther this could generate some interesting and advantageous partnerships for us.

The entire experience is funded by the Lily Foundation, so there is no cost to Suncrest.  I’m committed to making it an experience that benefits our church, so I look forward to how it can do that.

Posted in Suncrest

East campus will have week 3 tomorrow and each week brings new things and at the same time makes it feel like this is something normal, not just new.

For the first 2 weeks, we used video-cast for the teaching, but tomorrow there will be in person teaching with campus pastor Doug Gamble.  Then there will be a week of video-cast again and then I will go teach in person.  I can’t wait…this is so incredible and I haven’t even been able to experience it yet.

We like the feel of about 65-75% video cast and 25-35% in person.  Video-cast is HUGE for efficiency and for keeping the emphasis on one-church.  Having Doug teach in person (he’ll be the person 90% of the time when it is in person there) is HUGE for establishing him as a pastor/teacher and emphasizing that we have 2 locations, that will at some level have different flavors. 

Like everything else, we aren’t rigid about it.  And, we are always trying to learn.  So, we’ll just keep moving forward and be sensitive to where God is leading us.

Posted in Suncrest

I know some of my blog readers are Suncrest folks who already got this.  For those of you who aren’t, I thought it was worth posting the email I sent to our church family yesterday…

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Hi Suncrest,

I’m going to start with one piece of great news and then totally go another direction with the note this week.

First the good news…we are 2 weeks into East Campus launch and things there are really great.  The “experts” would tell you to expect a huge drop in week two, but our attendance went from about 300 to about 270…and Doug tells me a number of the launch team were out of town.  God has been very good to us. 

Usually, I banter here about the things happening at our church or cool things God is doing through people, but I can’t pull my eyes away this afternoon from the stock market ticker.  Down over 600 points right now.  Dropping below 9000 overall.  This, after being told we needed a huge government intervention to bailout or rescue the economy from collapse.  I’m frustrated with a number of leaders, but more than that I want to offer a little perspective on this pastorally.  I hope you’ll consider each part of this reflectively. 

1.       Money is important, but thinking it is the most important is always a losing option.  No fair-minded person would be dismissive of what is happening right now as “no big deal.”  Still, your 401K leaving you is a far cry from your wife leaving you.  Your retirement savings crumbling is nothing compared to your faith crumbling.  The instability of your financial future has nothing to do with the promise of your eternal future.   

2.       Financial Stress often plays itself out in other areas of our lives and we miss the connection.  Are you being short-tempered with your kids?  Do you find yourself resorting to an unhealthy habit?  Are you a bear to work with?  Are your spiritual habits becoming erratic?  Don’t miss this connection.  Stress has the power to preoccupy us and turn our thinking dark. 

3.       What we have isn’t ours anyway.  Don’t turn me off here.  It’s not just a spiritual cliché.  I know I’m guilty.  I think about my house.  My car.  My kids’ education fund.  My retirement savings.  My stuff.  Even my generosity.  But when I re-focus on the truth, I swallow my pride about all of that. Whatever I have is truly and completely God’s.  What God promises is that he will provide what I need.  He has never failed to do that. 

4.        I need to build my life on a rock, not shifting sand (See Jesus story in Matthew 7:24-27).  How unwise would it be to decide I’m going to build my life on something as slippery as the stock market?  That I would place my hope in how our government or corporate CEO’s would handle a crisis?  Paul’s words to Timothy are still good advice to us:  Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. (1 Timothy 6:17)

5.       This is actually a great opportunity to be light in a darkened world.  Do you want to let God use you?  I had a lady I respect write me last week about the financial crisis.  I’ll leave you with this:  As I was looking to God for reassurance I thought about what an absolutely perfect time for all of us as Christians to let our light shine so the world could see that we as followers of Christ are remaining peaceful and confident believing that our God is in control and that we trust Him with all of this.  So many unbelievers are searching for something to give them a sense of stability right now.  What better way to Glorify God to all those who are searching. 

One last thing, at East campus this week, the topic is Finding Purpose.  At West Campus, it is Finding Peace.  I can’t think of any better messages to invite people to hear who are struggling with life right now.

Love Ya,

Greg

Posted in Suncrest

As Suncrest grows, I get a lot more requests (and feel more responsibility) to help other churches in our area.  It’s always a balancing act because the demands at Suncrest aren’t getting any smaller either.  Today confirmed to me that this is an important role, though.

For breakfast, I met with Mike Gillespie. He’s the minister at South Side Christian Church in Munster.  They have been hammered by the flooding from a few weeks ago and we’ve tried to help in every way we know how.  They facing an enormous task to restore their building and equally big decisions about the future shape of their ministry.  I got to hear some of Mike’s story and grew in respect for how he is shepherding this church through a challenging time.

Later in the morning, I met with a group of pastors in Michigan City.  First Christian Church there is an old downtown church that is on the edge of making a HUGE kingdom decision.  Their community around them has changed demographically and socio-economically.  And (I’m so proud of them about this), they are considering re-shaping their ministry to meet the needs of that community instead of abandoning it.  Dennis Gamauf is the minister there and he has led the church to such a powerful (and frightening) change.  I loved seeing the camaraderie around the table to try to accomplish something so worthwhile.

Also found out today that Dennis played basketball for Purdue in the early 70’s.  How cool is that?

Posted in Suncrest

It’s amazing how good the Bears can look at times.  I’m becoming a real believer when I was so down on them just two weeks ago.  It wasn’t that they beat Detroit (almost anyone can do that!), it was that they did it in such a dominating fashion in all aspects of the game.

I think the Bears have begun a strong run here, but Atlanta is a real test.  They upended the Packers last week and their Rookie QB is goign to be good for a long, long time.

Bears 24  Falcons 17

Posted in Suncrest

I’ve been fighting something since Thursday afternoon and can’t shake it.  It’s favorite way to show up today has been intense headaches.

Lot’s of stuff that has to get done in the next week.  Can’t afford another day of 1/2 productiveness.

thanks…will post more on staff meeting changes and east campus stories later this week.

Posted in Suncrest

Now that both the Chicago teams are out, it seems like we can all come back together to root for another play-off bound team…the Bears.

An interesting side note…I saw 4 major league games this summer. and out of the 4 teams left, I got to see 3 of them in person.  Go Rays, Red Sox, and Dodgers.

Posted in Suncrest

I didn’t think it was possible, but it seems that Week 2 at east campus may have been even better than week 1!

-We always expect a big attendance drop after launch Sunday.  When we took out the well-wishers from last week our attendance on launch Sunday was right at 300.  Today…296!

-Jenny and the kids are serving there at least for the first month or so.  She told me today she talked with a lady who was back for her 2nd week and her children’s class had newcomers too.

-Doug gives a great summary on the east campus blog.  Read all about it by clicking here.

Posted in Suncrest

Fall Saturdays are crazy.  Always lots going on that is both fun and wears you out. 

Yesterday, Jack had a soccer game I coached, then we went to a pumpkin patch with friends and back to their house for lunch and to paint the pumpkins. 

After Jenny’s soccer game in the afternoon, we went to the fall party for our worship teams.  It’s always fun with hayride, volleyball, fishing, good food, and great people.  Jack caught a couple of fish…as you can see he was quite proud.

Posted in Suncrest