Archive - March, 2009

"The more I am around 'Christians,' the less I want to be one."

March 30, 2009 in church philosophy and methods, mission, people, the church with 5 Comments

“The more I am around ‘Christians,’ the less I want to be one.” I have heard that statement many times coming from those who are not Christ followers. There are many reasons given.  Many times it is a general characterization of everyone who claims to be a Christ follower and is certainly not true of everyone who is.  That is kind of like a “throwing the baby out with the bath water” thing.  There are many times where there is a legitimate reason.  Jesus Himself had more critical words for the “religious” crowd of the day than he did for the “publicans and sinners.”  My friend Jeff Miller said in his blog post todaypharisee2, “The longer I live, I’m less and less surprised by the fact that non-believers live and act like non-believers.”  I feel the same way. Non-believers are suppose to act the way they do.  They have no spiritual truth in which to guide them, so it should not surprise us at all.  But many churches act more like the Pharisees, who wanted people to become just like them before they accepted them.  They placed high priority on ritual rather than a relationship.  They valued conformity rather than confession and image over integrity.  They dealt with matters of the outward while Jesus concentrated on the inward.

I think many Christians (and churches) have fallen into this as well.  We come to church, sing a few songs to make us feel good, tip God when the offering plate is passed, try to stay awake during the talk (which is another blog post in itself) and then go out and have very little concern for people around us.  Nothing that happens inside the church affects how we live outside the church.  If that last statement is true, why do we even go to church?  Why do we even call ourselves Christians?

God expects more from us.  He expects us to live like our relationship with Him makes a difference… because it does.  That is not to say that we will not have times of failure in the way we treat people, we will.  But that will be an exception, not the rule.   A pastor that I once worked for used to say “your beliefs affect your behavior.”  If that is the case (and I believe it is), there are not many people that call themselves Christians that do not believe very much about what Jesus taught.

And before you ask me if I am perfect, no, I am not.  I struggle every day being the man God wants me to be.  But at least I am struggling with it, many are not.

Anyone else feel like this?  Maybe I am being to tough?  What do you think?

Worship Confessional: March 29, 2009

March 29, 2009 in Service schedules, Worship, Worship Confessional with 3 Comments

worship_confession

We had a pretty bad weather weekend here in Wichita, so it was a crapshoot as to what was going to happen in church today.  We actually cancelled our first service today so we could let it warm up a bit and melt a little bit of the snow away.  I went to clear some snow last night, and at the door we had about 3 inches of solid snow and sleet, and away from the door it was a slushy mess. All in all, it was not as bad as they were predicting.  They called it a blizzard, but it was nothing like I remember bad snows in South Bend and Chicago being like.  With all the bad weather, we still had a very good attendance in the one service that we had.

It is the 5th Sunday of the month, and on those Sundays I try to mix things up a bit.  Instrumentally, we used 3 guitars and the drums.  No keyboards at all today.  I also had only 3 people on vocals, when usually I have 5 (not including me).  We rehearsed on Monday this last week.  I have always wanted to try an early-in-the-week rehearsal.  Not sure I want to do it again though… to far from Sunday!

On to the set-list:

Easter invite video

Pastor talked about Easter and then welcomed and prayed

Set one:

  • Today Is The Day – Brewster/Baloche
  • From The Inside Out – Houston

Intro video to message: Verses of giving (sermonspice.com)

Message: 4th in series on “A Time To Build” (on the church) Generosity (giving) prt 1

Time of response: Came To My Rescue – Davies/Sampson/Thomas

Offering

Time of fellowship (meet and greet)

Set #2

  • God You Reign – Brewster/Fieldes (This is he first time we have done this.  Great song, and the people loved it)
  • All Because Of Jesus – Fee

Just an awesome time of worship today.  The message was about giving, which can always be touchy (usually for those that do not give anyways), but our Pastor did a great job of talking about generosity without focusing on money, if that makes any sense.

Cannot wait to get back at it this week as we are gearing up for Easter!  Hope everyone had a great day today!  This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com

"If we build it, they will come!" Uhh… yeah right!

March 24, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, the church with 2 Comments

calendarI love when we do a series on the Church!  My passion in life is to see the Church be what God intended it to be, so when we start discussing things about the Church, I get all fired up as I think about the potential that is locked up in each local church to make a huge impact for the Kingdom where God has planted them.  Every now and then someone will make the comment that we talk about the church a lot.  My answer to them is, “Yes, and we do and we do not apologize for that.”  Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for her.  The Church is God’s plan for reaching people and introducing them to Jesus so they can experience life change.  We NEED to talk about it often!

This last weekend at our church, we specifically talked about the health of a local church.  I think for many years, people thought that if a church had a lot of ministries and kept people busy nearly every night of the week that the church was healthy.  I believe the opposite is true.  I know, some may stop reading this post right here.  And that is ok, I used to think that being busy equated to being Spiritual.  We have been so conditioned to see the church as what it has been, or as what we have made it that seeing it change has become something many have actually preached about.  Many churches today are filled with leaders and church people that worship their methods rather than the God that they say they love and follow.  We have made people so busy doing churchy things in our churches that there is little or no time left to actually be the Church to those in our community.  We tell people we are to be salt and light and to reach others for Jesus, but there is little to no time to do that because we have ladies meeting Monday night; visitation on Tuesday night; of course we have to be a “Wednesday night Christian” (a guilt statement intended to get people to come to something that is dying); Thursday night is a small group or Children’s ministry; Friday night is a youth activity and then Saturday we are suppose to go to bed early so we can be rested up and ready to spend 8 hours at the church on the “Lord’s Day.”  And then on Sunday a preacher will get up and say that we ought to be in church more “as the day approaches” (taken totally out of context).  What is wrong with that picture?

Most churches are in a Christian bubble, and if you suggest ways to pop that bubble (or even say that it may exist) many will call you ungodly or worldly and maybe even question your commitment to God.  I am not sure where we got this way of “doing church.”  Jesus certainly did not stay in a bubble as He ministered to people.  He rubbed shoulders with the most vile and wicked people of the day.  He went out of His way (remember the woman at the well?) to reach people where they are at.  He did not sit with His disciples and say, “Ok, we have my healing ministry in place, our feeding ministry in place and I have a handful of sermons that I have preached already that I can regurgitate, now they will come to us because we have everything in place.”  It just does not work like that.

Where did we get this idea that “if we build it, they will come?”  Where did we get the impression that secluding ourselves within the walls of the church was a Godly thing to do?  What does that produce?  Nothing!  Well, actually, it produces inbreeding, where we just give birth to and raise others with the same mentality (we have seen that in denominations and “fellowships” too!).

I for one am sick of the typical “if we build it (or have that ministry), they will come”thinking.  Jesus did not pray that we would be taken out of the world, but that we would be protected in it.  I think we would do good to remember that.

Am I making too much of this?  Should we just program ourselves to death and keep people busy? Are the unchurched drawn to programs or relationships that are created before they ever step in the doors of our church?  What do you think?

Worship Confessional: March 22, 2009

March 22, 2009 in Service schedules, the church, Worship, Worship Confessional with 2 Comments

worship_confession

I love going to church!  I love the teams I serve with and the people that are involved week-in and week-out in making our church a safe place for people to come.  When I say safe, I mean a place where people can come, no matter where they are at in life, and check out Who Jesus is, and what the church is all about.  It is so awesome to see some of the changes that are taking place in our church that will hopefully help us to reach more people with the love of God.  I cannot wait to see what comes next!  But, that may be another post this week, for now, here is our set-list for the week:

Intro Video: “Who We Are” (Video about the church and its mission)

Baptism (We got to see four kids baptized today, that never gets old!)

  • Sing, Sing, Sing – Tomlin/Reeves/Gilder/Carson/Nunn
  • Enough – Tomlin/Giglio

Welcome/Prayer/and greet time (We do not do the greeting all the time, just once and a while)

Message – “A Healthy  Church” (3rd in our series: our Pastor spoke on doing ministries that are healthy, not just doing things to do things… I feel a blog post on this during the coming week too!)

Response Time: How Great Is Our God – Tomlin/Reeves/Cash

  • Shout To The Lord – Zschech
  • Made Me Glad – Webster

Dismiss

Musically, we had a pretty good day.  We had a rough spot in Made Me Glad, but we pulled out of it ok.  We had another song scheduled (Indescribable) but it just did not click today, so we decided to do something else.  Sometimes that just happens I guess.  I hope everyone had a great day in their church!

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com

Book Review: "Killing Cockroaches" by Tony Morgan

March 19, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I was fortunate enough to get in on a deal that Tony Morgan and his publisher offered: an advance PDF copy of his latest book, “Killing Cockroaches.”  All Iroaches had to do was to write a review for the book and post it on my blog.  Pretty good deal if you ask me!  Now, I love reading, and specifically I love reading books about leadership.  It is a subject that I am learning about and hoping that my learning is translating into better leadership skills on my part.

This book is a perfect book for all “ADD” leaders, as Tony’s format for the book is bite-sized pieces of information, principles and stories that can be quickly read.  Though they may be read quickly, the nuggets of truth in the book get you thinking and Tony’s heart for people is obvious as read through the book.  His mission in life is to help people take their next step towards Jesus, which is a great focus for any of us that claim to be Christ followers. Tony uses a lot of life experiences to give practical advice on how to better lead people and reach people.

Tony’s love and passion for the Church is also seen as he writes frequently about how churches need to wake up and evaluate what they are doing to see if it is being effective in reaching people.  This resonated with me in a huge way as I also have that passion and desire to see the Church be what God intended for it to be: an agent of change for people in this world!

Tony’s book would be a great book to take your church staff through (or any business staff) to help your church evaluate where you are at.  The book will help open up discussion about things that you may have been afraid to talk about as a staff, or maybe you just have not seen.

If for no other reason, buy the book to see the cockroaches running around the pages.  I think that may have been another ploy to get the ADD reader to buy the book!

Worship Confessional: March 15, 2009

March 15, 2009 in Service schedules, Worship, Worship Confessional with 4 Comments

worship_confession

Had a great day today at G’ville! Started out missing a guitar player in the first service.  I hate when that happens, but I try not to let it affect me.  Thankfully, I had one of my guys step up to the plate and play in second service!  (Thanks Rick!  Ya did great)  I hate putting people on the spot like that though!This was our second week in our “A Time To Build” series.   This week’s focus was on spiritual maturity in a church.  Our Pastor is doing a great job of casting vision as to where we are headed as a church, and using this series to help do it.  Enough already, here is the set-list.

“Welcome To Our Church” video

  • Open The Eyes – Baloche
  • Jesus Messiah – Tomlin, Caron, Reeves, Cash

Prayer

Message

Response time

  • You Are My Strength – Morgan

Offering

  • Hosanna – Fraser
  • Forever – Tomlin

And we actually got done a few minutes early, so we invited the people to stick around and try and meet some new people.  They did!  It was cool to see everyone scoping out people they have not met yet!  So cool to see the church in action!  I feel like we are on the verge of a break-through in our church… just trying to do all God wants me to do as we wait for Him to move!

I hope everyone else had a great week as well!  Oh, some of you may be interested to see an interview I did with Jason Miller, the Worship Pastor at Granger Community Church (one of the best churches in the country if you ask me!).  You can see the interview here.

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com

Interview with Jeff Bell, Campus Pastor of Granger Community Church: Elkhart

March 13, 2009 in church philosophy and methods, leadership, mission, multi-site, passion, the church with 0 Comments

The last of the interviews I was able to do while attending Granger Community Church’s workshops was with Jeff Bell.  Jeff is the Campus Pastor of Granger’s first expansion site in Elkhart, Indiana that was started six months ago.  Jeff’s passion for GCCE is so contagious!  Jeff sat down and discussed multi-site planning and philosophy.


Interview with Jeff Bell – Campus Pastor of Granger Community Church: Elkhart from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

Thanks again Jeff for the time you took to talk multi-site! I cannot wait to see where Granger is headed next to reach people and help them take their next steps!  You can follow GCCE and Jeff on his blog.

Interview with Jason Miller, Pastor of Worship at Granger Community Church

March 12, 2009 in church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church, Worship with 2 Comments

Jason Miller serves as Pastor of Worship and College Age Ministries at Granger Community Church.  When you see Granger’s services, you cannot help but notice the creativity and excellence in the arts that are presented week in and week out.  Jason is a big part of that.  If you have not seen any of their services, GO HERE and watch some of them.  I was able to sit down and spend a few minutes with him last week while attending some workshops that were hosted by Granger.


Interview with Jason Miller from Granger Community Church from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

I appreciate Jason giving up some of his time to do this interview.  You can read more about Jason at his blog, commonjason.com.

Interview with Kem Meyer: "Less Clutter. Less Noise."

March 11, 2009 in books, church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church with 1 Comment

meyerbook

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was able to spend some time at Granger Community Church last week.  While there, Kem Meyer (Granger’s Communications Director) was gracious enough to give me a few moments of her time to talkabout her new book,  “Less Clutter. Less Noise.: Beyond Bulletins, Brochures and Bake Sales.”  I loved her passion as she spoke about how churches make things WAY to complicated!  (Sorry for few seconds of fan noise and the phone interference… I think Kem’s new iPhone and laptop were sitting right next to my camera!)


Interview with Kem Meyer from Granger Community Church from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

Read Kem’s blog here. Thanks again Kem!  I cannot wait to read your book!

Interview with Tim Stevens: "Pop Goes The Church"

March 10, 2009 in books, change, church philosophy and methods, leadership, the church with 0 Comments

pop_goes1Last week I spent some time at Granger Community Church as they hosted their workshops.  It was a time of great encouragement, and I learned a lot that I am hoping will help me to serve Jesus better at my church.  It was also an honor to be able to spend time with some of the leaders of the church.  I interviewed a few of these leaders, and will be posting them over the next few days.

Today, we will start with Tim Stevens, who is the Executive Pastor of the church, and author of the book, “Pop Goes The Church.”  It was a very influential book in my own journey, but more influential when I met Tim was the passion and drive that he has to reach people where they are at, and to help them take their next step towards Jesus.  Enjoy the interview, and come back over the next few days to see who else had to endure my questioning!


Interview with Tim Stevens from Granger Community Church from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.

I appreciate Tim and all the rest of the Granger staff for giving up some of their time to allow me to meet with them!

Page 1 of 3123»