Pray for Me if You Read This

I am sitting in my office at 6:45am right now and I got here 25 minutes ago. I like to get to church really early on the days I preach. I look over my notes and my PowerPoint one last time. I practice my "talk" one more time out loud. I love the method of out-loud practicing. Some don't. I think it's a total personal preference thing.

I am about to spend some time in prayer and then practice a bit and then I can go be a part of all the ministry preparation that takes place before everyone shows up. After I'm ready to speak mentally and spiritually, I like to stay busy and not think about it. Usually I will have to make a trip to the restroom. I have done this pretty much before every "talk" I have given for the past 15 years. The body has strange reactions to public "performance."

So anyways, please pray for me if you read this. Pray that God would speak through me and that my flawed and faulty memory would work better than it usually does.

The Student Ministries Office Video

Victor finally put this up on his site so I could grab it. This is a video that some of our college students made for our College Ministry Christmas Party that had a theme of The Office tv show. It's a full 20 minute episode of The Office based on our Student Ministries at Calvary Church. I "act" quite a bit in this piece. It's funny and embarrassing. Enjoy. Tell me what you think. It's in two parts to make it easier to view.

New Job

Well, it's official. We announced to our Calvary Church staff today that I am moving into a new position. Starting sort of now and officially in January, I am the Executive Pastor of Ministry at Calvary Church. Michael is the Executive Pastor of Administration. If you're not in ministry, it's like Michael is the CFO and I am the COO of the company under the CEO/Senior Pastor.

This is a huge change for me. I will be overseeing the majority of the ministries of Calvary Church including having a level of oversight of the school and preschool. We have something like 150 employees in the church, school, and preschool. So this is a big responsibility. I feel like this is the kind of position that God has created me for. It's going to be a challenge with preaching still in our Elevation service about 15 times per year, giving some direct oversight to Mens Ministry, and overseeing Children's, Students, Young Adults, Outreach, Assimilation, Counseling, Recovery, Small Groups, Adult Ed, Seniors, and some other ministries.

I also can recognize that I am on the younger side for a position like this. But I know that's part of why I am in this position - to bring a fresh and new approach to ministry at Calvary Church. Please pray for me and for a ton of other changes taking place at Calvary.

One of the biggest aspects of this change for me is that I won't be a "Youth Pastor" anymore. My identity (for better or for worse) has been pretty tied into being a youth pastor. It's odd to be on the other side. I think I will be grieving that for a little while.

Church Security

Did you realize that New Life Church heard about the YWAM shootings and beefed up their security? They had an armed security guard on the premises who was the person that shot and killed the gunman who had killed the church-goers. They said they had a plan for this kind of thing.

Right now my prayers are with the families who lost loved ones. But this is such an interesting question - should churches have armed security guards? Maybe just high profile churches? It's also crazy to think that a paid church "employee" shot and killed someone? I know that this security guard saved tons of lives and I'm not saying we shouldn't protect ourselves, but it's just an odd thing to think about - church staff with guns.

Church Should Be Simple

I have been reading Simple Church lately and it's a good book. We do make church too complicated. We need to simplify what we do and be willing to cut programs to make the ministry we do more effective. Making disciples is the key. How to do it? Get people to connect with God and each other, grow in their faith and knowledge of God, and then reach out to others in your own community and around the world. That's what makes sense to me. I know there's a lot of opinions on this. This seems basic and sort of "duh" in some ways, but it's so easy to make church about programs - more, more, more! Simple Church = effective church. Any thoughts?

Strength Themes

I have done the Strengthfinders test from Now Discover Your Strengths or Living Your Strengths a couple times now. We have been discussing them with our VP3 group at church lately. Here are mine:
Responsibility - this means I feel a deep sense of ownership in the things I do and I feel personally responsible for making things happen.
Significance - this means I want to feel significant in what I do and that I want to do things that have significant meaning. It also has a dark side of needing to be significant or feel important.
Belief - this is where I have to do things that I feel a strong sense of calling about. I have to believe in something for me to succeed in it.
Maximizer - this means I'm gifted at taking something good and making it great rather than starting something new or rescuing something that is in the dumps.
Relator - this means I connect really well with a smaller group of people, but I'm not as good at working the room or talking to people I don't know.

We had a good time yesterday seeing what each others strengths were and how we all relate to each other through them. Who shares strengths? Who has strengths that no one else has?

What are your strengths? What do you think of mine? Agree/Disagree?

One Service Sunday

Today is what we call a One Service Sunday at Calvary Church. We cancel all children's, youth, and adult Sunday School classes and have everybody in the big Worship Center for one service at 9:30am. I don't have any responsibilities in today's service. I will show up a bit early and Bea and I will do some greeting, but other than that I am a "normal" church-goer.

I love that I am still sitting on my couch in my pajamas at almost 8:00am.

It's been good to have a restful few days. I feel like this is going to be a big week or two coming up at church.

Preaching Today

I'm preaching today in Elevation on 2 Samuel 7. Pray for me if you think of it. The service is from 10:45-12noon.

Ninja Turtle Mask

Last night a Jr High had a superhero theme and I was wearing a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask covering my whole head. It was fun to walk around and have nobody know who you are. I would walk up to people and not say anything and it would freak them out. They would all say, "Who is that? Who are you?" I would just walk away, but some would guess or get me to laugh and then they would know. It was funny.

Then we rocked out and led worship. Here is a classic Jr High worship moment.

We played a few really loud songs with a ton of energy. The third one was My Glorious and at the end we dropped all the instruments out and we backed off the microphones and all the kids are singing the awesome chorus, "God is bigger than the air I breathe, the world we'll leave, and God will save the day and all will say, My Glorious." In the middle of that sweet moment we had been working towards, the Jr High tech helper accidentally hits the play button on the CD player and the Rocky theme song, "Eye of the Tiger," starts playing real loud throughout the whole room. Let's just say that it broke the mood but it's still something I love about Jr High.

So Tired

I have felt like my eyes have been super heavy all week and at any moment I could lay down and sleep. Last week was pretty crazy and I think my body is just tired out from it and Ella has been waking up a bit lately in the middle of the night (I'm not complaining though because Bea goes in to get her back to sleep about 95% of the time).

I preach again in Elevation this Sunday and I'm looking forward to it, but it's weird when the last Sunday was so awesome that it takes some effort to get pumped up for this weekend. It's a different focus of a message with God saying no to David about building the temple, but then God says that He will build a house for David. I am also leading worship tonight for Jr High for their BARF Night which is an outreach focused Wednesday night. We are going to rock hard!

I have a lot on my mind with waiting for a response about the house, wanting Moses back soon, thinking about my sermon, thinking creatively about vision and branding for the church, waiting for decisions to be made about the consultant process, and then dealing with some volunteer staff issues at church.

So far, So good

It's been a good day so far. I was pretty nervous about today. I didn't feel as prepared for preaching in Elevation and teaching at our staff meeting than I would have liked to be. But I got to church really early this morning and spent about two hours tightening things up and finishing some stuff that I couldn't get done during the week with all the meetings I was in.

I thought Elevation was amazing today. We talked about 2 Samuel 6 which is the passage where David dances in an "undignified" way before the Lord. I felt like I was really able to "preach it" today and I enjoyed being on stage. There were tearful moments, funny moments, and "gospel preacher" moments. Until I listen to it I'm not sure how my clarity, flow, or delivery was, but I like that the crowd (and myself) were laughing, crying, clapping, and passionately worshiping.

It was a strange morning in a vocabulary sense. Victor said from stage that he felt like he was "on crack" because he was so hyper. Then Dave quoted a lady from the fire relief crew that said "Does it look like I know what the hell I'm doing?" I actually liked it.

Then the staff meeting with a seminar on how to do youth counseling went really well. I'm proud that we are equipping our staff with how to minister to their kids. I was a little disappointed that only about 60% of our staff was there. It must have been the Patriots/Colts game. They should have DVR'd it like I did. I'm watching it now. 4 minutes left with the Colts winning 20-17. GO COLTS!! Hold on.

Big Day

I'm about to leave the house at 5:55am. It's a huge day for me.

1. We have a Combo Service with JH, HS, and College at 8:45
2. I am preaching in Elevation at 10:45
3. I am leading an all volunteer staff meeting on "Restore the Hurting" or counseling youth at 12:15
4. I am hosting and facilitating our small group at 6:00.

Aaaagggghhhhh!!!! Too much. I don't like it. After today I will be feeling better for next week even with preaching again.

Big Week

This is going to be a big week.
Monday - Working on my sermon for Elevation this Sunday. Working on big volunteer staff meeting where I teach on the second point of our Student Ministries Mission Statement - "Restore the Hurting." Go looking at houses. We are going to try and get back into a home this next month.
Tuesday - Morning staff meetings. Sermon prep. Then a meeting with the Sr Pastor and other Teaching Pastors about upcoming sermon series. He asked us to bring our thoughts and creativity to the meeting.
Wednesday - Sermon Prep. Big Halloween alternative event at our church called "Light the Night."
Thursday - Vision Meeting. 4 hour Elevation Brainstorm Meeting. Sermon Prep.
Friday - Sermon Prep for this week and next week. Work at AIDS Services Foundation for three hours.
Saturday - relax, probably do some house hunting or offer making.
Sunday - Preach in Elevation. Teach at Volunteer Staff Meeting. Lead Lighthouse (small group).

This is going to be a big week with a lot of mental challenges.

Staff Evaluations

In our Student Ministries area of church we have been conducting Job Performance Evaluations in the past couple weeks. There are 9 full-time people and four interns in our ministry. I am involved in the evaluation of all 13 people. These are 12 one-hour meetings so they can take up a lot of time, but I absolutely love them. We aren't really harsh with people, but we do genuinely dig into stuff that needs to be improved. We also spend time reflecting on highlights of ministry, things they do well, disappointments, how their job affects their relationship with God, areas of improvement for the ministry, and areas for them to improve. We use some numerical evaluation - what score out of 1-5 do you give yourself in areas like Punctuality, Teachability, Use of Time, Attitude, Teaching, Relational Ministry, Organization, Time with God, etc.

It's been so good to hear stories of fulfillment in ministry and even the stories of frustration and try to work through it. I also am excited to see people improving areas of weakness.

I have the pastors of JH, HS, College, and our Admin Asst evaluate me. They all get to gang up on me and Josh Simpson, JH Pastor, takes a very strong leadership role. It's funny at first, but then we get into some really good serious stuff about my leadership and ways that it can be improved. I think that every leader should open him or herself to having people who are organizationally "under them" evaluate them.

One Thing Makes You Unable To Think

It's weird when you have something on your mind and that makes you unable to think creatively about anything else. That's how I feel about blogging right now. I haven't had much to say this week.

As everyone around Calvary Church knows, we have been in a consultant process for the past five months. The "Big Report" is going to be revealed to the elders next Tuesday night for the first time. The consultant has met with three elders and our Sr Pastor, but the big 50 page report will come out next week and the elders will be making recommendations. We are a "elder-ruled, staff-run" church so they aren't supposed to tell us exactly what to do, but they will make broad recommendations or bigger decisions that staff can't make. It should be interesting. I know that everyone is either scared about it or just really curious. I'm not scared or anything, but I am hyper-curious and I'm excited to move forward with the vision that God and our leadership have for our church. To be honest, I also wonder how it will affect my areas of ministry.

So it's big stuff and I think about it a lot. Which makes it hard to have witty posts about other things.

Crazy Day Confessional

Yesterday was an incredibly busy day. I only worked a few more hours than I normally do, but it was just that I was leading and speaking in every environment I was in.

#1: High School Group at 8:45am. The Kenya team presented to the High School students for about 35 minutes. I probably did too much talking, but we didn't have a video that we were supposed to have so we showed a slideshow of pictures with us talking about it.

#2: Elevation service at 10:45am. I preached in our second main worship service for about 35 minutes. I spoke on the story of David & Goliath as we are doing a series on the life of David. I liked the angle for this almost overly well-known story. The series is called THE PURSUIT: DAVID'S HEART FOR GOD. The whole series is supposed to be about us pursuing having the kind of heart that David did. So the angle on the Goliath story was, "What about David's heart caused him to be able to face the giant so quickly and without hesitation?" What about his heart allowed him to see the world so differently than everyone else? You can listen to it and see the notes and PowerPoint here. I felt like it was a pretty good morning. I felt differently than I ever have before preaching a sermon. I honestly didn't feel like preaching on Saturday. It was an odd feeling. Usually I am a bit nervous in a pumped up sort of way, but I was just apathetic. So I prayed about it a bunch - even into that early morning random wake-up time (4am) when I was out of it and I just started praying and dozing and praying and dozing and praying some more. Then I went into church and prayed while driving. Then I practiced my talk once more and I felt much different. Then I went into the Worship Center at about 7:40am and prayed some more. After that, I was ready.

#3: All Student Ministry Staff Meeting at 12noon. I spoke at our volunteer training on the first point of our Mission Statement - REACH THE SEEKING for about an hour. It was good, but by now I was getting tired and so were people listening to me - many of which were in all three of these sessions.

#4: Lighthouse Area Fellowship at 5:00pm. This is our church's small group program. I lead our first Lighthouse of the fall and it was pretty good - a bit quiet at some points, but a decent start. Poor Kevin was in all four of these meetings. I feel sorry for anyone having to listen to me this much.

So a crazy day, but a good day. I'm happy to be chilling at home this morning. I'm tired, but grateful.

Preaching Text-Fessional

I'm over doing the videos for these things because I hardly ever watch anyone else's videos - especially YouTube links. I don't know why. I'm usually blogging in a setting/environment where I can't just be watching videos all the time. Anyways, here is my Preaching Confessional on this morning's sermon.

We began a new series today called "The Pursuit - David's Heart for God." This will be a 14 week series through the life of David and how we can be people who pursue the heart that David had for God. My talk today was called "The Internal Pursuit" as we looked at David's anointing to be king and how God says, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

I think the morning went pretty well for me. I was a bit distracted by some other aspects of the morning that weren't going totally according to plan and I tend to be the kind of person that wants things to happen the way they are supposed to happen. Part of this is my weakness and part of this is people doing what they have committed to doing. But I'm not going to get into that here. I haven't preached in Elevation since August 5th which is actually not that long, but it seems like so much has happened since then with VBS week, then going to Africa for two weeks, and then getting sick for about a week. All this just made me feel like a stranger in my own church and feel a bit off when it came to preaching. I think I was connecting with people for the most part and I think they were genuinely challenged. I said a couple things that I'm not sure if people would get upset about. 1) I talked about how there are other churches in the area with fancier youth rooms and ministry "stuff" than we have. I was making a point that I can get jealous about those things but I have to remember that those are not signs of ministry success in God's viewpoint. I just hope that people didn't just think I was whining about not having a Student Center. 2) I said how I don't like how most churches just have successful white-collar businessman for their elders and how I don't think that is a sign of potential leadership in the church in God's eyes. I just hope people aren't mad at how maybe our church could be viewed that way. I don't think that's how we choose elders, but it could be perceived that way.

We also had people write a phrase on a piece of foam that can stick on their mirror or window as a reminder. The phrase could be something like "God looks at the heart." This way people can remember the "Pursuit" series everyday and not just Sundays.

The rest of the sermon went reasonably well. I think that people understood the challenge. I think that people understand the series. I think that people are thinking about this concept. It was a weird morning for me and a good morning at the same time. I'm looking forward to getting into prep tomorrow for my talk next Sunday on the David & Goliath story. It will be interesting to preach on one of the most famous Bible stories to ever exist. I think Noah's Ark and David & Goliath are probably the two most famous Bible stories. So how do I make it memorable??????????? I have some ideas.....

Still Sick

I'm still feeling sick this morning but a little bit better so I'm going to go to our Elevation Brainstorm meeting, but I'm not going to go until about 10:45 or so when it starts at 9am to give my body some time to rest this morning. I'm half excited and half dreading going in. I wish I wasn't sick. I hate being sick. I feel like my body has been weak lately.

I got my first birthday present yesterday as the gift Bea ordered for me finally arrived. It's a cool backpack that is made for my laptop and other technological stuff. It has all sorts of cool pockets for iPods and my laptop. It should work really well!! So now that we have the iMac at home and I have this bag my MacBook Pro will truly go on the road with me everywhere.

VBS

Vacation Bible School is pretty awesome at our church. There ends up being around 1,300 people here each day including leaders and kids. It's wild! I have a sweet job. I am basically the M.C. during the Opening and Closing General Sessions when all the kids are gathered in the Worship Center. My job is to transition and get people pumped up!!
CAN I HEAR YOU SCREAM!!!
I stayed up too late last night getting my new iMac all dialed in and transferring stuff from the MacBook over to the iMac. I'm loving that I have 250gb of hard drive on the new iMac. SO MUCH SPACE! But now I'm supposed to be getting kids pumped up and I haven't had coffee and I stayed up too late! I think a run to The Lost Bean is in order to make the Closing Session any good.
Our High School kids are so awesome to watch running the Games & Recreation part of VBS. They have totally taken ownership of it and I'm so proud of them. Our students from all three levels are being great leaders in up-front and behind-the-scenes ways. That's the best part of VBS for me.

Preaching Text-Fessional

I don't feel like making a video confessional and Victor was talking about worship text-fessionals on his blog so I liked the idea. Plus, I only watch people's videos about half the time.

I enjoyed this morning in the Elevation service at Calvary Church very much. We were talking about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in our Lost in Translation series. This is a recurring series where we have a small amount of messages on an area of God, theology, or Scripture than tend to get confused or "Lost in Translation." I won't get into details of my points here, but the key thing is that we are baptized "in the Holy Spirit" at conversion and we are all baptized "into the Body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:13). So we are radically changed for a purpose - to serve others as a member of the body.

I felt a good connection and energy in the room. I think I was communicating pretty clearly and with a good dynamic of speaking strong with conviction and then conversationally talking as well. Something I talked about was believing what is already true about ourself - that we have the Holy Spirit within us and we are new creations. I could have explained more about how we can believe that even when life is hard or when we still sin, etc.

We had a cool response station where people came up and dipped a cloth into dye to represent spirit baptism and then they placed that dyed cloth onto a larger canvas which represented the body of Christ. Everybody seemed pretty into it. Anna Gold and Nicole Gniffke helped make it happen. Here's a picture of it from my phone.

Victor and the band did a great job. As much as I give that guy a hard time and my job is to keep pushing him to continue to grow, he has the most rich, easy to sing with, beautiful voice of any worship leader I know. (Did I just say beautiful???). Victor - you are really good at what you do! Keep giving God the glory, but I love you man.