Check this out. Comedian Will McDaniel is making a return appearance at Suncrest next weekend. He’s hilarious. And it’s $5. Seriously, $5! Tell me you couldn’t use a laugh.
So…Here is what you should do:
FIRST: Buy yourself and your spouse/significant other a ticket. If you don’t have a significant other…maybe this is your chance to go for it! 🙂
SECOND: Buy tickets for your friends. Especially your friends that don’t go to Suncrest. Seriously, splurge for them. (It is just $5! That…and our whole reason for doing this is not to provide entertainment for our church, but to create a great environment for people who don’t normally go to church to get a feel for who we are.)
THIRD: Choose your dinner out. You might make it a cheap night all around and use the dollar menu at McDonalds or Wendy’s. Or, since you are saving so much stinking money on tickets go out for Steak, Seafood, Sushi, or whatever exotic meal you want.
Here are the details:
Choose your night/venue – 7:00pm both nights:
-Saturday, Oct 22 @ St. John Campus
-Friday, Oct 21 @ Hobart Campus
Tickets available at your campus on Sunday or by calling 219-365-9000.
Here is a short clip from one of Will’s performances…
It was great to celebrate Suncrest’s birthday on Sunday. I hope to post more later about the power of the commissioning.
I mentioned at St. John on Sunday that our campus launches in the last 3 years mean 400+ people are attending Suncrest each week that never come through the doors at the original campus. Obviously, launching Highland and Walkerton one year ago was a big part of that and 2/3 of our “Jesus Mission” initiative. Your generosity is making a huge difference.
But don’t forget the other 1/3 — church planting in Liberia. Again, at St. John on Sunday I briefly mentioned how the special offering we just received in July is being put to use right now to start another new church in Senjay, Liberia. David Vineyard sent the numbers to me this morning as evidence of just how beautifully this worked. Check this out:
Prior to the Church planting Sunday we asked Joe Lieway (our Liberian Church Planting Leader) what it would take to get the Senjay church started. (This is actually a re-start of a church that was closed and destroyed during Liberia’s civil war.) He gave us this proposal:
$1,600 Prime Land (½ acre)
$2,450 Building Construction (w/o help from Samaritans’ Purse which might reduce this cost)
$2,400 Pastor’s first year salary
$1000 Motorbike for Pastor (trans to/from Senjay is not dependable)
$600 1 year’s fuel for pastor’s motorcycle
$8,050 TOTAL Launch Cost
The offering received from all 4 campuses that day was…$8,170.
We love new churches. We love Liberia. We love how God puts the numbers together.
Bobby Jackson gives incredible leadership to a lot of areas around our church. Last night, he was at my house having dinner with all of our elders and a few things hit me all over again. I could write lots of things about him that have my deep respect, but let me focus on one.
He leads artists as well as anyone I have ever — ever — seen. Artists (whether musicians, vocalists, graphics people, folks that create experiences with video and sound and more) are a unique breed…and a great gift to us. Our church is so much healthier because God is using their gifts here.
They create. They weave linear thoughts into powerful stories. They bring passion, emotion, and authenticity to truth. They open our minds to great questions.
And, by reputation, they are hard to lead. Artists feel things more deeply. They take critique more personally. Logic is not the highest value. Their penchant for creating something unique sometimes wars with serving a unified team or mission. A left-brained person might read these as critiques, but they are not. They are the same qualities that make artists such a powerful force.
Every time I give Bobby credit in any setting, he passes it down to those serving with him (note: Another great leadership lesson). So, I wasn’t surprised when I read something he wrote to all the Suncrest artists this morning. He believes that God has blessed us with a unique breed of artists at Suncrest where we experience the blessings without the drama that entangles so many other communities of artists.
Here is part of what Bobby wrote to our teams:
SOME PEOPLE JUST GET IT: What do you get that other teams/artists wrestle with? -You get that it is not about us. -You get that we’re servants first and musicians second. -You get that every member of our team is a worship leader whether in the booth or on stage, you are leading someone someplace. -You get that excellence matters. -You get that “good enough for church” doesn’t apply to us. -You get that giving your best to God means you bring your best gift and attitude to this ministry (I’m so grateful for this!) -You get that any given Sunday people’s lives could be and are changed. I’m so thankful to be with a team that gets it.
I was reading Romans this morning and weaving together some experiences (humorous and serious) I’ve had in the last 24 hours. It just made me think I need to work on “Admitting it”. You too?
Experience #1…Brendon Foulke and I watched this 30 second clip. It made me laugh. (BTW, don’t watch the one YouTube recommends at the end. It’s offensive. I know that makes you curious, but surely you won’t give into your inner 5th grader.)
Experience #2…I spent an hour with someone who committed a heinous crime that would absolutely make your stomach turn. Your gut reaction to what he did would be “scum of the earth”.
Experience #3…Jackson (our 8 year old) came downstairs this morning. Small problem: His shirt was buttoned wrong so it had an extra hole at the bottom on one side and an extra button at the top on the other. His response? “Why did they make the shirt like this?” (He might just be modeling his father’s behavior.)
Romans 2:3 said, “So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” It reminds me of Jesus words, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
There is Power in ADMITTING IT when you made a mistake or you are wrong:
1. When you admit it…You don’t look like an idiot. Watch the video again. “Uh…I meant to do that.” Seriously, we look like that sometimes.
2. When you admit it…You gain credibility. I ended my conversation in experience #2 telling him how much I RESPECT him. The crime was 5 years ago. He paid his price. He admits his fault. He owns the responsibility and accepts the consequences. He is working to find a different way and seeking advice from people who will tell him the truth. I don’t see a criminal. By God’s grace, I see a new creation. (This credibility his huge because it makes friends and family WANT to support your change – which you will desperately need.)
3. When you admit it…You stop assuming someone else has the problem. Why is our first reaction to look around instead of looking within? No, they didn’t make Jackson’s shirt wrong. He put it on wrong. And chances are someone else isn’t to blame for my circumstances…I am.
4. When you admit it…You CAN change. This is the most important. We won’t change if we don’t see it. Or if our focus is on trying to hide it when we do. It is the essential first step. If things seem to go wrong in cycles for me…it is time to look at the one constant in each cycle: Me.
One last thing, if you read this and thought “I know someone who needs to read this”…that just means YOU need to read it again. 🙂
Where were you Monday night? Can I tell you about mine?
I was at a house in St. John standing by the backyard swimming pool. A 20-something named Clayton was there. I’ve known Clayton for number of years, but he would be the first to tell you that between our first meeting years ago and the one Monday night, he had done his share of walking away from God, Church, and a lot of other things. The middle of the story is peppered with heartache, frustration, and regret.
In the last year, Clayton has been finding his way back. But it wasn’t magic.
It was a Neighbor…Trudy moved in down the street. She was a Christ-follower and invited Clayton to walk with her in the neighborhood. They talked about life and faith. Mostly, she just cared.
It was a Father…a whole family really. Patience. They felt every fiber of the parenting struggle – when to push and when not to. Mostly, he just didn’t give up.
It was a group of Broken People…Celebrate Recovery on Monday nights. He took the risk to come and found a community brave enough to admit they need help (we all do). Mostly, they just loved him as he was.
It was a group of Learners…A Tuesday Night group here that works through the scriptures with those that struggle to read. Mostly, they just opened the Scriptures.
So Monday night, Clayton walked down into that swimming pool with his Dad and Trudy. Celebrate Recovery moved their normal Monday gethering to this backyard and a few from the Tuesday night group came out too. I got to stand at the side of the pool and read out loud the power of Romans 6:4, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Clayton went under the water…and celebration exploded as he came up to experience that new life. Not perfect. Not painless. Not fantasy. But Cleansed. Forgiven. NEW.
I got to teach at Hobart’s “New” facility a couple weeks ago. You’ll never capture the transformation from a few pictures like this, but the “Before/After” metaphor here is about SO MUCH MORE than a classroom getting updated.
Previous Classroom at Movie Theater
New Classroom at the New place!
It redeeming a building for kingdom use. It is about the investment of a campus (and a whole church) for a greater purpose. It’s about a church being “present” in Hobart. It’s about modeling the ultimate redemption story of God and us.
Saturday morning men’s group from St. John Campus did “destruction”
Charlie had to correct our mistakes, but a friend and I helped put in the new floor one Saturday.
Paint, Carpet, and Air Conditioning Installed make all the difference
Finished Room…Ready for our TEAM 56 ministry for 5th/6th graders
The other wall (used to open to worship area)…a global perspective!
Enjoy the pictures. Pray for the vision… It is happening!
Robbie Seay and his band have been a leading force in worship music for a few years now. We sing a number of their songs…”Song of Hope” above is a great example.
So, we couldn’t be more thrilled that they are coming to Suncrest later this month. We are even going to get some time with them to invest in in our worship leaders and all the people in our arts ministry. It’s just an incredible opportunity for us.
Best of all, they are going to do a concert that is open to anyone. Here are the details…hope to see you there:
What will your life look like 10 years from now? You can think about it in a lot of ways. If you are a Christian, who you are as a follower of Christ is surely one of them.
But my guess is 50% of Christians don’t stop to think about where they want to be in any substantial way. And the 50% who do…can easily struggle to get beyond hopes and desires to actually experiencing God in deeper and more significant ways.
Today…I’d love for you to take a first step. Download this 5 page packet. The first page has all the instructions…and the next four will guide some self-reflection on the practices that actually help us grow.
Love my job. Immensely. But really often (4 times in the last 3 weeks) I have ministry friends from all over ask if Suncrest can support their ministry financially. 95% of the time I have to tell them no. I hate that.
Why do so many ask?
1. The Ministry “tribe” is well-connected. There are so many people trying to make a difference in this world and I’ve been fortunate to call them friends. Some go way back to my hometown and college. Others I met this year through projects we shared.
2. We are friends. Who would YOU ask if you needed help with something you believed in? I don’t begrudge ANY of them asking. They are doing great things around the world. I wish I could say yes.
3. Suncrest has a good reputation. We are a good sized church and people know we are generous — Suncrest has given over $1 million to church planting/mission work in our history.
Why do I say no?
1. Our generosity is prioritized by our values. We say no to all kinds of good things in order to focus our impact. Two things are priorities for us: Planting churches and Supporting church planters/mission workers sent out from Suncrest attenders (now faster than we can keep up…another good problem!)
2. Our strategy is to make large investments in a few partnerships. We would choose to support 3 projects in major ways instead of 30 (or 300) with small gifts. There are 100 good reasons for this, but it is mostly so we can know them, invest leadership, mission teams and more… beyond finances.
3. They over-estimate my influence. It’s probably natural to think being friends with the Lead Pastor is a good chance to get support, but it actually isn’t. Our missions/church planting team is responsible for it, guided by our values. I’ll encourage them to invest in specific projects that fit our values, but I’ won’t make dozens of requests each year.
Everything inside of me wants to say yes to my friends and show my tangible support for what God has called them to do. But I can’t…so I don’t. I hate it…but if these are my problems I need to remember how blessed I am.
Check this out. Comedian Will McDaniel is making a return appearance at Suncrest next weekend. He’s hilarious. And it’s $5. Seriously, $5! Tell me you couldn’t use a laugh.
.Real.Greg.Lee. 
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