Rumor has it that “The Culps” are making their way back to Suncrest this weekend as we explore the topic of hell. Insert your own humor here.
You might remember their visit during the iMarraige series…
Suncrest’s generosity
•May 23, 2008 • 1 Comment
Our “Exponential Offering” saw another surge last weekend and we’ve now passed our first goal of gifts and commitments over $85,000. I love your commitment to this vision of becoming one church in two locations!!
And, I still have hopes that we will cross the $100,000 mark so we can implement a wonderful addition to our children’s ministry check-in process at both our east campus (Merrillville/Hobart) and west campus (St. John).
I’m often “blown away” by the generosity of Suncrest people. They rise to every occasion when we present a vision for what can be accomplished. Consider this…
In the context of a less than stellar economy and now $4 gas…
· Our regular offerings have increased almost 100% since 2003.
· We’ve done special offerings in the spring the last 3 years that have averaged over $100,000 each.
· Our Christmas Eve special offering always goes fully to benevolence needs and has steadily grown. Last year it was over $30,000.
· Late summer is always a special offering for a church plant and last year’s was over $12,000.
I had a fellow pastor ask me to identify the reasons for this the other day, so I’ve given it some thought. Here’s my reflection on it…
1. As a church, we give enormous amounts of money away. A full 10% of our budget and most of the special offerings are given to plant churches and help people on need. And where there is something to benefit us, we make sure we still give at least 10% of that away. We gave away 10% of our capital campaigns. The Bible repeatedly links God’s blessing with generosity. It is a sewing and reaping principle that seems counter-intuitive to some– the more you give the more you receive — but works wonderfully in God’s economy.
2. Our leaders lead in generosity. We actually check on the giving levels of ministry staff and elders, along with the business management team to make sure we are modeling it. If there is a situation where someone is falling behind, we talk about it. It’s always redemptive, but never ignored.
3. We never link generosity teaching to our budget need. I know this shocks some people, but I distance these two things as far as I possibly can from each other. Generosity is about you and God, not you and the church budget. The reason people don’t give is because of fear they won’t have enough and selfishness…no church budget overcomes that. Growing a trust-relationship with God does, though.
4. We teach tithing. We do it sensitively, but unapologetically. We also do it regularly (at least once a year). Why wouldn’t you? You can argue it is an Old Testament principle and the New Testament doesn’t demand it. OK, but as I read the NT, it pretty much asks us to subscribe to most every OT principle and go beyond it. And, sluggish economy or not, we are wealthy so I can’t imagine asking people to do less than the OT baseline for generosity. On top of that, when we give we receive blessing. I get stories about this all the time and I’m actually afraid if I don’t teach tithing that people will miss out on the blessings they would receive.
5. We celebrate the difference our generosity makes. Every time there is a story of God using our church or a program we offered or a benevolence need we met or whatever…I try to celebrate it by showing how God has worked and thanking people for their generosity that helped us meet the need. Giving to a budget is boring. Seeing how your gifts make a difference is inspiring. Use stories as much as you can.
6. We are sensitive to generosity fatigue. We have done three special offerings a year for a while– but we wisely space them out. And, we say “no” to almost any other special offering. I think our one and only exception in the last 4 years was for Hurricane Katrina Relief. Our large special offerings in the spring are part of our plan to delay further major capital campaigns — and we make a point to communicate that clearly. I see churches that don’t plan for this “nickle and dime” people to death with need after need, and in the end none of them really have people captured by the vision. It just wears them out.
Check these Suncrest links out
•May 23, 2008 • Leave a Comment
You have to visit www.suncresteast.org and click on the “audio prayer guide”. Download this thing and you can make a difference by using this guided prayer mechanism to pray for the launch of our east campus. You can join the prayer team for the campus also by clicking on the “300” tab on the same site.
You also have to visit our page called “My Story”. This is awesome…just people telling stories about how God is at work in their everyday lives.
A theme of my prayer life…
•May 23, 2008 • 3 Comments
I was at a local fast food place yesterday. The service was probably slower than it should have been, but there was a customer who was making a WAY bigger deal about it than necessary. She was mean-spirited. She had no patience. She was rude and gruff and demanding. She tried to get the teenager at the counter in trouble with his manager and then she was going to try to get the manager in trouble with “corporate”.
I honestly stood there and thought, “I hope she doesn’t go to Suncrest.” I figured that if she did she would probably be embarrassed when she saw me, but more importantly, I’d be embarrassed for our church. I’d hate to think that those of us who are Christ-followers would not be grace extenders in our lives.
That experience probably really hit me because I’ve prayed a prayer all week — with our staff Tuesday morning, with our elders last night, and in my own times of prayer – that is one of my theme prayers.
And it is this: That wherever a Suncrest person is right now, they would be having interactions full of love, grace, and encouragement. That even in challenging work situations, struggling relationships or faced with poor customer service, we would be good representatives of what it means to follow Christ with every interaction. We would be the first to extend a helping hand, grant forgiveness, or be part of a solution instead of piling on or pointing out a problem. I just keep praying for our church family to “shine” wherever we find ourselves.
Staff Development and Willow’s Reveal
•May 21, 2008 • Leave a Comment
Once a month our ministry staff has lunch to discuss something we have been reading together. I used to think I should lead this every month, but once I handed off the leadership to other staff, I’ve loved being “part of the conversation” instead of driving the conversation. (It’s a lot less prep time too!).
Tuesday, Bobby Jackson led us through a discussion of “Reveal“. It is the results of a study that Willow Creek Community Church did of themselves and a number of other churches, taking a candid and challenging look at how well they are mature Christ-Followers. It was a great discussion and I thought a few take-aways were worth sharing.
1. The conclusion I shared with the staff was actually this: The book made me feel sad for Willow. I’m a big fan of Willow Creek because I think they have re-ignited thousands of churches over the past 25 years with a passion for truly reaching lost people and not hunkering down, content to let church be about the people already inside. I think Suncrest and many many other churches have taken the best parts of Willow and then created our own unique churches. Here is the sad part: It felt to me like Willow is now discovering things and thinking in ways that many leading churches already processed 5-10 years ago and have already moved past. Not only is willow not “the leader” any more, but it seemed like in some ways they have an unawareness of the leading edge thinking that is in ministry and discipleship today.
I almost hate typing that, because willow has been such a tremendously positive influence. (And in some areas (like leadership issues/leadership summit), I think they still are leading the way.
2. It reinforced how much I feel like the 4 C’s are a fantastic way to promote and gauge spiritual maturity. For too long, people thought you were mature if you could give an explanation of the trinity and read your bible every day (whether you got anything out of it or not). I think the message was self-discipline equals maturity and cognitive learning equals maturity.
But these 4 C’s go beyond that and acknowledge that maturity is found in Jesus’ life so to actually live life in the ways that defined him is a true picture of spiritual vibrancy/maturity. Here are those 4 again…
-Jesus said, “I did not come to be served, but to serve” so we know a key aspect of spiritual vibrancy is to CONTRIBUTE by Serving.
-Jesus said “I have come to seek and save those who are lost” so we know a key aspect of spiritual vibrancy is to CARE about people far from God.
-Jesus said “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full” so we know a key aspect of spiritual vibrancy is CULTIVATING a personal relationship with Jesus.
-Jesus had a tight group of friends…a real community to share life with. As Paul reflects on how we grow he says, “speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ…” so we know a key aspect to spiritual vibrancy is CONNECTING in relationships where truth meets life.
3. The most helpful part of the Reveal book for our discussion was putting a name/category on part of most everyone’s spiritual journey. They found that after an initial spark and passion, many people get “stalled” before growing on to maturity. In my reflection and the staff’s reflection, we could start to put many, many faces at suncrest in that category (including, if we are honest, some of ourselves). That happens to different degrees, but it is something we will be tackling this fall.
my favorite stories
•May 20, 2008 • Leave a Comment
Three cool experiences merged into one tonight.
First, after soccer practice, Jack and I decided to meet Jenny and Abby for dinner at Culver’s in Merrillville. We all love Culver’s and I love just spending the time out of the house together as a family.
Second, when we walked into Culver’s we learned there was a benefit going on for Matt Wesley. Matt was seriously injured last fall playing football for Lake Central. Though I don’t personally know the family, we got to meet them tonight and I told them just how much our church had been praying for them. Matt said he had received some neat things in the mail from our children’s ministry. I’ve had second hand connections to this point — some of my good friends at suncrest, including my admin assistant, worked with Matt’s mom at St. Anthony’s. It was really cool to meet them.
Third, we got to see Fred Terpstra. Fred is a Suncrest attender and he owns the Culver’s (along with his son-in-law). Both my dad and Fred’s dad are fighting serious health issues and we talked about that for a while. Fred even bought our dinner for us (I seriously still have a hard time letting people do that, even though I know it is their expression of gratitude/generosity).
But here is the best part of the night for me…I see a Christ-follower from our church (Fred) just doing what any Christ-follower should do…letting God use him to help others. Anyone could host a benefit for Matt Wesley, but Fred did! His heart is so big.
I think church leaders get this one wrong all the time. We spend so much time recruiting and getting people to serve God and people in the church, when the best thing they could do is serve God and people wherever it is they find themselves. Way to go, Fred!
Leader’s Edge with Dave Ferguson
•May 17, 2008 • Leave a Comment
Like I said in the last post, we were really fortunate to have Dave Ferguson with us last night at our leader’s edge gathering. Thought it was worth sharing some of the cool things happening around Suncrest right now that I shared Thursday night…
- Attendance is up almost 10% so far from last year…and almost every Sunday since our March outreach push has been over 1000.
- Offerings…Suncrest is a generous place with offerings up over 10% from last year…and this in the midst of sluggish economic times and on top of doing a major special offering.
Since our leader’s last met in January…
- Our children’s ministry has been transformed and is stronger than it has been in a long time.
- We’ve had 23 baptisms with more to come over each of the next 3 weekends. (I have set a goal with our elders to double our number from last year and we are almost on pace for that.)
- We’ve added 9 new leaders to groups or ministries and had 4 more leaders “reproduced” by existing leaders.
- Announced the launch of our east campus and had 120 people commit to go launch it.
- Have over 270 people commit to praying for the launch of our east campus — the goal is 300 so sign up at www.suncresteast.org
- Received a special offering for the east campus with over $50,000 given last weekend and over $25,000 more already committed.
Suncrest Note
•May 17, 2008 • Leave a Comment
Hope you have had a great week.
We had an event last night that felt like one of those defining nights in the life of our church. Four times a year, we gather all of our volunteer leaders and coaches (leaders of leaders) to make sure we are all up to speed on where God is leading us. They are always incredible.
But last night, it was even more significant. Along with leaders and coaches, we invited those who have committed to launch the new site. We focused on our move to being one church in two locations and we got to hear from Dave Ferguson. He’s the lead pastor at Community Christian Church in Naperville – a leading church in the “multi-site” church movement – which just opened their 9th location this spring. When we sensed God was leading us to add a campus, one of the first things we did was look for other churches to learn from – and Dave and many people at CCC have mentored us through our process.
Our Exponential offering and commitments were received on Sunday and we have good news. Over $50,000 has already been given over and above our regular giving. Another $25,000 was committed to be given in the next month, putting us close to a total of $77,000. As incredible as that generosity is, we still have a little ways to go. I’m confident we can get to $85,000, which will bring us to full funding for the east campus and maybe even yet to $100,000 that will allow us to make a major upgrade to our children’s ministry check-in process at both campuses. If you were out of town Sunday or just have not made your gift or short-term commitment yet, I hope you will this Sunday.
What difference has Suncrest made in your life? We are capturing some people’s stories on video for a DVD we will use for outreach events this summer. Whether your story is dramatic or it is something super-simple, we would love to have you participate. Our next filming date is one week from Sunday, on May 25. We need as many as possible, so email Kevin Richardson today – kevin.richardson@suncrest.org — to tell him you can help. Don’t be shy!
I love our new series that starts this Sunday. It’s simply called “Afterlife”. Ever wondered about eternity, heaven, hell, and more?? I’ll kick it off this Sunday by teaching on this mind-blowing concept of eternity. We’re calling it “Forever is a Long Time”.
Some Leadership Insight from Pepsi
•May 14, 2008 • Leave a Comment
Eric Foss is a cousin to one of our elders, the CEO of Pepsi Bottling Company…and the guy who hooked us up with incredible seats for the Red Sox game in Boston during our elder retreat out there. Recently, he was featured in an interview with USA Today because their track record has been so healthy at developing loyal/long-term leaders.
Click here to read the article. I think there is good stuff for all leaders in there, including church leaders.
New Thing Gathering
•May 13, 2008 • Leave a CommentI’m heading out to Naperville today and tomorrow to link up with more than a dozen other lead pastors who are part of the NewThing Networks. NewThing is a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches.
Suncrest linked up with NewThing just over a year ago and now leads one of these networks. We have a dream together of “reproducing” at every level of church life.
As disciples, we will reproduce disciples.
As leaders, we will reproduce leaders.
…we will reproduce more small groups.
…we will reproduce more worship services.
…we will reproduce more campuses of our church.
…we will reproduce more churches through church planting.
That dream will take a lifetime to accomplish because the mission Jesus gave us is to reach the world…and NewThing has a specific goal of reproducing ourselves widely enough and urgently enough to reach 1 billion people. There is something super-cool about helping to craft such an enormous dream.
The source of the dream is in Community Christian Church — specifically Dave and Jon Ferguson. Can’t wait to hang with them and the other lead guys today and tomorrow.
Then, on Thursday, Dave is going to be at Suncrest for our leaders edge gathering for ministry leaders, small group leaders and the east campus launch team.
.Real.Greg.Lee. 
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