Recently, I was asked to be a part of a really cool leadership event called “The Nines”. It was broadcast over the web to about 25,000 leaders. They asked me to tell about a game changing moment in my ministry life and how it affected me. I had only six minutes to talk. Watch the video by clicking below to hear what I said and give me your thoughts.
We are really close to experiencing a huge miracle for the Dream Centers. There are several possibilities looming for us to get really large buildings donated that would allow us to pastor our city for decades. Remember, we are praying for buildings bigger than we think we need, ones that are better than we deserve and we are praying for them to be donated. The aforementioned buildings meet all three requests.
Right now, we are meeting with the owners behind the scenes, asking a lot of questions and trying to do due diligence. One of the big issues is actually operating such a large building once it is given to us. It will require thousands of dollars and hundreds of volunteers to even get rolling, but I am full of faith that God is directing our steps.
I am also meeting with leaders and pastors in the city who can serve with me on the board of the Dream Centers. As I have said before, the Dream Centers will not be owned by New Life, but will be operated under a separate 501(c) 3. I want to partner with other churches, business leaders and military leaders because the needs in our region are simply too big for us to tackle them alone.
Keep praying with me and be patient in this process. I know it seems like we have been waiting a long time, but believe me, once we open the Dream Centers, it will be all hands on deck to pastor our city. It is about to happen and God will get all the glory. Selah
The Sunday morning gatherings at New Life will be broadcast live on our website starting September 12th. This means people can join us live around the world and experience worship with us via some really cool and really inexpensive technology. There are lots of positives and some negatives about live-streaming that we have discussed as a team.
CONS:
PROS:
What do you think about the services being live-streamed? How can we take maximum advantage of this great technology?
I love church. I always will. Call me an idealist, but I still believe that Jesus meant for us to live life in a big messy family, to love one another when we are not that adorable and to be in covenant relationships even at the risk of our own hurt.
For me, church is not a gym membership to be used whenever I feel motivated and abandoned as soon as the new, more modern gym opens up down the street. Church is family. It is not a building, a corporation or a weekend meeting that we are compelled to attend out of habit. It is grandparents hoping to leave a legacy, families trying to thrive, single moms hoping to survive, students searching for truth and children being in awe.
Pam and I have belonged to five churches in 21 years of marriage and each time we left one, it was to move to another city to serve another body. We don’t church hop because we don’t hop from one family to another. If we become a part, we stick and we serve, even when things get tough.
We believe the local church is the best expression of God on the earth, so we give our time, our talents and our money to help the church. We complain to each other in private, but at the end of the day, we are loyal to the bride Christ left behind. We are convinced that lovers of the bride will get the chance to heal the bride. Cynics will never be a part of the solution.
The church will be here long after I am gone and has endured a lot more pain than I have encountered. Miracles, redemption, forgiveness, hope and healing happen in church. Even when she is broken, the church is still the product of men and women who have sacrificed much and surrendered more. Jesus gave everything for her. I love church. I always will.
Last week, the elders agreed to move forward and secure a building for phase one of the Dream Centers. We are actively meeting with local commercial realtors and ministries and should have some space soon to open a medical clinic and maybe space enough to begin offering ministry to our military families who are struggling. There are still several large buildings that could be donated to us, but while we pray and wait, we want to take a small step to launch.
Also, I want you to know that the Dream Centers will not be an exclusive ministry of New Life Church. It will be led by a coalition of churches, ministries, business leaders and military officials, all who have a desire to pastor our city. New Life will certainly lead the way, but it has always been my desire to see a group of people work together to meet the greatest needs in our city with no one caring who gets the credit.
Notice that I mentioned Dream Centers, plural, not singular. Many people are under the impression that only one big building will house all the ministries, but that is not the case. There will be multiple sites around our city with multiple outreaches all operating under the umbrella of the Dream Center board. One central location is not sufficient to meet the staggering needs of our city.
So pray that we will launch soon, even if it is a small space. Pray for the resources, both financial and human, to begin well. Pray for a coalition of servant leaders to rally around this God idea. Most importantly, pray for thousands of people to rediscover the dream that God has placed inside of them.
It’s amazing how little I know about what is happening at New Life and I am supposed to be the leader. I think this is true about a lot of leaders, not just me. It is easy to encase ourselves in our office and forget to look below the water line of the ship. So, from time to time, I ask a few people on the staff how everyone is doing. I’m not asking for them to relay the latest gossip, but I do want to know what I don’t know.
This week, I asked someone about the morale of the staff. This trusted person told me there was a concern we were going to lay off some people because another local ministry just laid off some of their staff. I would have never known this if I had not asked. We are not considering lay-offs, instead we are preparing for a season of growth and increased ministry. I’m sure this rumor would have died a slow death on its own, but I got the chance to kill it quickly because I asked the right question.
I am not a proponent of chasing down rumor fires and putting them out. That would exhaust me and keep me from my primary purpose. I realize there will always be a handful of misguided opinions on a staff our size. What I do suggest is that from time to time, we peer below the water line to make sure we have not run aground on something that could have been avoided by a more attentive captain.
There is a lot of excitement at New Life about the Dream Center and that leads to a lot of questions. I will try to answer the most common ones today and will try to keep everyone updated as things progress.
Right now, we are praying for a building or buildings in the downtown area or south of the city, near Fort Carson. These are the two areas where the needs are most intense. We need the buildings to be donated and we need space for medical clinics, counseling and residential treatment. We have looked at several buildings and have had preliminary discussions with some key groups about getting donated space.
We have also spent a lot of time meeting with community leaders and the chaplains at the local military bases to evaluate what needs are not being met right now in our city. We do not want to replicate services. We want to support the ministries and agencies that are doing a great job, while providing services that are most needed.
Once the buildings are acquired, we will need hundreds of volunteers and the partnership of other local churches and ministries to operate the Dream Center. We suspect the operating costs to be as much as $100,000 per month, but it could be much less if we open the center in phases.
Keep praying with me and get ready to help pastor our city. The needs are great but our God is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine
I just took three Sundays in a row off from the pulpit at New Life Church and it may have saved my life. That may be a bit dramatic, but let me explain why I am not the speaker at New Life every Sunday.
Sermons on the weekends are not just 30-minute talks. A 30-minute message drains as much emotional energy as the average 8-hour workday. If a pastor has to speak more than once each weekend, the emotional drain is multiplied and if there is not a break from speaking, significant emotional and physical health is often compromised.
The elders at New Life are a group of guys who not only oversee the spiritual health of our fellowship, but also help me maintain a healthy balance between ministry to the local church and personal health. We have agreed that I should speak at New Life at least 36 weekends each calendar year. That’s an average of 3 out 4 weekends each month. The remaining weekends, I have staff, some members of the fellowship and some pastors from other churches teach.
I am not whining about my job, but I am being candid. Pastors who speak more than 40 weekends a year, with multiple weekend services are headed for burnout. There may be a handful of Superman pastors who can do this long-term, but there is a long list of those who have tried and have ended up losing their families, their health, or worse, their own spiritual vitality. I do not want to be on that list.
I miss New Life when I am gone, but I have to trust that I am not the only person who can teach Scripture. I believe in the power of team and I believe the church is strongest when a multitude of voices are heard on Sundays.
I will be back at New Life this Sunday and I am fired up to talk about Ephesians for the next several weeks, but I will miss some Sundays and I do not apologize for my absence. I am running a marathon and want to be an old pastor who finishes the race well rather than a young foolish one who is convinced his preaching is all that a church needs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQY2auav8Qw
Treasure continues this Sunday at New Life. I will answer some frequently asked questions about giving, debt, generosity and tithing.
Can you leave your church for the weekend and not fret? Can you not show up one Sunday and the worship services continue? Are most Sundays built around your charisma, your strengths and your talents or can someone different than you lead a weekend service? Do you have to be at every public gathering so people will feel the meeting is important?
I believe the real test of a leader is not so much when they are up front but when they are away and someone on the team is leading. Too many churches are built around one set of spiritual gifts and around one personality. The healthiest churches I know have empowered a diverse group of people to lead so that many spiritual gifts and many perspectives can be on display to the congregation.
This is one reason I have not embraced the video campus model and instead I am experimenting with another pastor leading a Sunday night campus who preaches my message live instead of asking people to watch me on a screen. There is nothing wrong with the aforementioned model so I am not challenging the leadership of many of my friends who do this at multiple campuses. What I am saying is there is another option that may work just as well.
My model is messier, requires a lot of relational equity with the campus pastor and demands loyalty and trust from one another. But in the end, it allows me to mentor young communicators and helps build our fellowship around a multitude of gifts and personalities and not just one. I am still the primary leader and I have final say on the sermon topics. We preach the same main points and use the same Scriptures, but a team is formed and many players get in the game.
This is just one way I am purposely leading New Life while purposely staying away from many of the gatherings. I want to lead, at times, from a distance.
Have you empowered people around you to lead or does everyone look to you to oversee every gathering? Are you preaching in your own pulpit more than 48 times a year? If so, can I suggest you immediately begin mentoring your replacement, because unless you are spiritual Superman, you are headed for burnout.
Step away and lead from a distance. You will find rest for your soul, and the church will get to feed from a buffet of teachers and not from just one menu item. Your team will rise to the challenge and your church will become healthier than ever. Try it for a year and let me know if I am right or wrong.
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