Be Courageous!

12 05 2008

I just had a conversation in the hallway with a guy who’s been trying to help a church change from a traditional Sunday School model. Their elders had approached him about trying to help them get more “North Point-like”, but at the end of the day, they really couldn’t commit to small groups and small groups only - it would anger too many of their Sunday School folks.

Again, you probably know from the tone of this blog, I’m not condemning traditional methods (I grew up and was saved in a Southern Baptist church), but I wonder how grieved, or maybe even peeved, God must be by how many of His people run church:

  1. Like it’s theirs. Little clue: it’s not. It’s His.
  2. Out of fear, i.e. “What if we lose people?”

Traditional does not equal bad. I’d argue just be excellent about whatever model you run. I just hate hearing it over and over again about church leaders who know their churches need to change, but on the brink of those needed changes, they shrink back at the last minute for fear of instituting too much change. North Point is not THE way, but it definitely is A way of reaching the demographic that has left and is leaving the Church the fastest, 18-34 yr olds. Our median age at North Point is 33. At our Buckhead campus it’s 31.

When we just hang on to our way of doing church because it’s the one we grew up in or the way the elder, financial heavy hitters want it to stay, we miss out on REACHING that key demographic. And guess what, we’re all going to die off and where is the Church going to be?

I’m just imploring all of you at whatever level of influence God has given you in the Church to remember how God pursued you. Our churches have to reflect that heart and so reaching people has to be more than an evangelistic series or high-attendance Sunday.

Be courageous! If you’re afraid the people with resources will leave your church, remember whose it is to begin with - God’s and boy, can He provide! And, you were not given a spirit of fear, remember! Now, go out and push the envelope. Have a nice day! :-)


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A Goodbye None of Us Wanted to Say

9 05 2008

We held a memorial service today for Michael Colwell, MC as we all knew him around the office. Michael fought a courageous battle against cancer for the last few years. It was first discovered as skin cancer, but it moved into his blood stream. A couple of years ago he had some lymph nodes removed and was cancer free for a good while, but it showed up again a few months ago and moved relentlessly against his body. MC was 31 years old and leaves his wife and two small boys behind.

Throughout all of this, I never once heard MC complain about the hand he’d been dealt. The guy just continually amazed me. I remember a conversation we had over a year ago. I asked him how he was dealing with all of this - the uncertainty, the treatment and side effects, etc. I’ll never forget Michael’s response, “Tank, all I know is that I’m alive today and I’m grateful for that. I’m not going to let what I can’t control ruin the time I have.” That was Michael in a nutshell - always positive.

One other story about MC. Michael went to Clemson, where he received his first Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (his other was a Master’s in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary). Being a UNC grad myself, Michael and I traded lots of good-natured barbs when our teams met. He always enjoyed the football matchups, while I held the upper-hand in basketball. Well, if you remember this year’s basketball meetings between Clemson and UNC, they both were led by Clemson by large margins until Carolina forced them into overtime, where they won both. The meeting in Chapel Hill was frustratingly close to historic for MC. Clemson led by as many as 23 in the second half. Surely this was the year Clemson would end their 0- for 53 stretch against Carolina in Chapel Hill. Yep, Clemson has never beaten Carolina in basketball in Chapel Hill. Well, sure enough the Heels came back and got it into overtime, where they won. I couldn’t help but watch and wonder about the roller coaster of emotions for MC as he watched.

The next day I came in the office and walked over to MC’s cube. We just started laughing and I said, “Come here dude” and gave him a big ol’ hug. Every memory I have of Michael is positive. I love that.

By the way, you may not have known Michael, but over 300,000 of you have already been affected by him. You see Michael wrote the groups curriculum and discussion questions that supplement Andy’s DVDs and online sermons. A brilliant and humble guy. He poured himself out, aspiring only to glorify God. MC, you are deeply missed by all of us. Thanks for loving your wife, your boys, and your God with all you had. You took the life God gave you and lived every moment of it.


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Favorite part of Drive ‘08

6 05 2008

Our staff is in the midst of a lot of long days serving and hosting over 2300 people at Drive ‘08.  Aside from my allergies kicking in full force over last weekend and making me sound like Barry White Jr., I love what happens when so many people eager to make church more about God and less about playing religion converge in one place.  It gives me a lot of hope for how the Church could be affected over the next few decades.

The days are really long for us on the staff side, but when it’s all over, I actually miss it.  Not just the encouragement I get from the attendees and their passion, but it’s a real joy serving with our staff during this time.  It always reminds me of the health around this place.  I really look forward to spending long hours with others on our staff.   There’s actually joy in it.  Hmm, think of that.  Church staff + long hours = joy.  I’m so thankful for that.


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Want to make your church more effective?

28 04 2008

Give young people real responsibility in your leadership.

I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to track down the article I read a few months ago, but it mentioned that one of the reasons the 18-30 demographic is the segment most rapidly leaving the church is because they don’t ever have the opportunity to see themselves leading and shaping it. They are so vastly under-represented in church leadership, and I think the Church misses out big-time on some unique characteristics this life-stage can bring. Such as:

1. Chronologically, people in this demographic are often the closest to their own life-shaping decisions for Christ. As we frequently see in Scripture, those who recently had life-changing encounters with Christ, can’t help but go and tell others. They are passionate and compelled to talk about their real, tangible life change. Now, this is just my personal experience, but when I got serious about re-ordering my life with God as the top priority in my late 20’s, I was going through so much life change there was no way I could keep it bottled in. And I didn’t even have to try. The people who were around me noticed a marked change and wanted to know why. When they asked, I told them, or when they confided in me over their own lives, they welcomed me explaining what I had discovered about the relevance of God for me in this day and age.

My world is a little smaller today. Now, I’m on staff at a church. Most of the people I know are already Christians. I’ve gotten married and started a family, so my circle of relationships outside the church is smaller than it used to be. After 10+ years now of lending to the effort, my opportunities to actually witness to non-Christians with whom I have deep relationships is less now than it was when I came to all of this. Previously, I was in the business world and had all manner of influence with co-workers, bosses, people in the industry, etc. It didn’t take me 10 years to share what Christ had done. Some were intrigued by what I experienced and have taken their own paths to Christ, while others just moved on. My point is that the Church is often missing out on the influence of a younger generation who has recently made life-altering decisions about who Christ is going to be in their lives and the power and the passion that comes along with that is too often absent or not allowed greater influence.

2. Good ol’ idealism - Remember how black and white things were when you were younger, and how your mind was made up that as soon as you finished school and could begin to affect some change in the world, you were going to do it? Well, the further we get along in life, the more words like manage, cope, and compromise enter our vernacular. I don’t think that’s accidental. We learn that to get along, you often have to learn to play along. Plus, you throw in family responsibilities and the amount of time invested in our careers, and it’s clear to see that we become increasingly risk-averse in the choices our idealism likely requires. Again, this isn’t in all cases, but importantly, most of you with families of your own and mortgages get what I’m saying. Man, I think the Church benefits greatly when there’s a contingent of idealistic people who believe “this should and must be done”, and we’re the ones missing out when the demographic most likely to produce that idealism isn’t welcomed and allowed voice in the Church.

3. Hunger to learn and explore - This is not a rampant condemnation of older generations in the Church. Heck, I’m 37 now, so I don’t even get to be “cool” and jump with this key 18-30 generation. I’m just observing that some of the coolest things going on in the Church today are being empowered by a younger generation that is so hungry to learn and explore what it means to follow Christ, and rather than simply having only older generations who’ve been at this “God-stuff” longer, as the sole voice of leadership in the Church, it is vital that church leaders be intentional in seeking out young staff and inviting young volunteers into the discussion so that this generation can see they have a place and voice that’s welcome.


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My ‘Blurple’ Heaven

17 04 2008

Meet \'Blurple\'

The post title is a take off on the old Steve Martin movie, “My Blue Heaven”. I try to remember that so I can find the humor and strength to press on. So, what is ‘Blurple’? You’re looking at it. It’s my wife’s 1999 Dodge Neon that looks dark blue at night, but unfortunately, more purple-ish during the day. I coined ‘blurple’ to best describe it. Oh, and this picture doesn’t show it well, but it has a nice, big ol’ dent right behind the driver’s door to really set it off from all the other blurple Neons out there.

Well, with our new child my wife inherited my beloved Toyota Land Cruiser. (Nice move, honey, nice move :-) Oh, how I miss my Land Cruiser! I can’t wait to get it back in a few years. But, driving Blurple around the Atlanta area has been a great lesson in humility.

And I hate it! Yep, I don’t like forced humility. I’d rather choose to come down a level or two. So, I think God is really using Blurple to show me things in my heart that He wants to work on. Can you make it fast, Lord? :-)

We are going to replace Blurple soon enough. I don’t have the gumption of those guys in the Junky Car Club. Besides, I’ve hung on to each of my cars longer than 10 years. In some ways, you could call me a supplier to the Junky Car Club ;-). Actually, our mechanic told us Neons don’t usually make it much longer than 100,000 miles and this puppy’s got 130,000 on it, so we know we’re on borrowed time. I remember when my wife and I first started dating. She already had the car, but I’d remind her of the Neon’s original ad campaign with the simplistic “Hi” introducing the car, all cutesy and stuff - the perfect girl car. And now it’s mine… :-( Boy, I’m having fun. Please, please send me your reminders of even girlier cars, you know like a Volkswagen Rabbit Convertible (sorry to all you guys driving one of those).

If you see me rolling around in Blurple, please don’t honk. Just ignore me. Thanks.


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Great word picture & challenge from Mark Batterson

15 04 2008

Read a great article the other day by Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church in D.C., that really had me cheering. It was one of the Fermi Words issues - www.fermiproject.com - and Mark was talking about the Church as a “third place”, using the analogy of the town wells where Jesus frequently met with people. (UPDATE - they just posted an excerpt the Catalyst website too - go here.) Now, as a guy who went to grad school for city planning, I was thrilled to see him quoting Ray Oldenburg’s book “The Great Good Place”, which coined the sociological term “third place” - meaning “a generic designation for a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gathering of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.”

Do you think church is frequently thought of by the general public as a place for “the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gathering of individuals…” Heck no! If anything, it’s the irregular (Christmas & Easter), involuntary (Alright Mom and Dad, I’ll go because you’re making me, but when I can decide on my own, I’m outta here), formal (Let’s put on our Sunday best now and execute all our traditions well today, because if God really cares about anything, it’s the externals!), and begrudgingly tolerated (Lord, if you’re there, this is so lame and I’m praying that you’ll help me make it through this hour) gathering of individuals for 1 unique hour on Sunday that is often so irrelevant to the other 167 hours in our weeks that it’s no shocker that much of our society has either already left it or has it comfortably pigeonholed.

I love what National Community Church has done by meeting at the theater at Union Station in D.C., and am a big fan of what they’ve done with Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse (I’ve got to get there for a visit someday soon). Both are efforts to simply intersect with people’s daily lives. Hmm, how interesting? Truth meeting people where they are, instead of insisting they come to it at a certain hour on a certain day.

Mark, thanks for your article, your heart for people to meet this great God we know, and the leadership you’re providing to transform the Church out of rigid rituals into a Truth influence that can meet people wherever they are. Mark’s blog is evotional.com if you want to read more about what he has to say.


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Oh yes, I’m still alive, just extremely sleepy at times

13 04 2008

It’s almost 11:00 pm on Sunday night. I’ve barely posted in 6 weeks, but this whole parenting thing is like a full-time gig or something ;-). We’re having a blast being mom and dad, but the blogging for me has definitely been on hiatus.

A quick note and then off to bed:

Great blog my friend, David, pointed me to: http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com I love it when we Christians can be healthily self-aware. And boy that reveals a lot to laugh about! :-) Thanks for this effort John. Maybe I’ll run into you one day

Okay, got to go put my boy in bed. Hopefully, more posts coming soon.


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Been a little busy

8 03 2008

I know one way to curtail your blog entries (not that I’ve been that prolific anyway) - have your firstborn child. :-) Yep, our little guy, Aron, was born about 3 weeks ago. aronforweb.jpg

We’re having a blast, but oh, the craving for a full night’s sleep. I’ve already discovered the spirituality of changing diapers. Aron hates it when I start removing his diaper. He protests in a big way and tries to convince me that he is just fine and wants to be left alone. Unfortunately, reality is he’s sitting in his own mess and I’m only bothering him for his own good. Hmm, something familiar about that and the way our relationship with God often plays out.

Anyway, we are so thankful for the gift of Aron. Plus, my favorite time of the year is coming up - March Madness! Can’t wait for him to get old enough to watch games with me. Go Tarheels and Go Bulldogs (the MS State version)!


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Keepin’ it real

12 02 2008

So, I’m accelerating on the highway on-ramp today with my 39-week pregnant wife and this guy whips around me into the right lane of the on-ramp and punches his truck to get around me. Now, for those who know me or my driving style, you know I’m no wallflower. Probably has something to do with the fact that my mom would have chosen “race car driver” for her profession, if she’d had her druthers, and I have those same genes. So, I’m immediately ticked off and thinking, “Who the heck is this guy and where’s the fire?”.

And then I recognized it! That little spot in my heart where I pass judgment on anything that doesn’t jibe with what I think is right or appropriate. That’s exactly the spot where all the venom from the conversation on “franchise” church spews forth. I just needed to be transparent and fess up when I saw it in myself. The difference I think though, is being aware enough to recognize it and check yourself before spewing off at the mouth, ESPECIALLY in the name of Christ and within the Church.

It’s far too simple to use the pulpit, blogs, billboards and whatever else to communicate condemnation, judgment, etc. and springboard it all from a little verse that seems to illustrate the point. You know why that’s so easy? Because it originates from us, in our sinfulness. It comes naturally, and it’s not from God. You know why it’s so prevalent? Because it makes all the attenders feel a little bit better than all the “lost folks” who didn’t make it to church that day. And the pastor gets a handshake and “nice message, pastor” on the way out the door. Really? Seriously? Is that all church is supposed to be? Jesus went to the cross for that?

I don’t think so and it pains me when we get so off-mission within the Church. There are enough people and resources within the Church today to affect real change on a national and global level. But, we won’t get there when we keep backbiting at ourselves within the Chuch and spewing forth judgment on those outside of it. Leave the judging to God and recognize like I did in myself today that there’s a part of my heart that wants to justify my right to do that and act out of it. Nothing good will come from that. All the divisive issues within the Church, witness our little discussion about franchise over the last week :-), and the way we in the Church have polarized ourselves against those outside of it, should melt away if just recall our true standing before God without Christ and His grace and mercy - lost, hopeless, and justifiably condemned. When we realize the depth of the forgiveness we’ve received, why would we ever quibble over whether large church or small church is right? Whether Sunday School or small groups are correct? Which discipleship study is best? Who cares! Are you moving people towards God and finding ways to connect the lost to their Heavenly Father? That’s it! Keep doing that by whatever methods or systems help that happen. Go get ‘em Church!


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And we’re representing Christ?

11 02 2008

I was third-party to a passionate discussion last week over the use of the word “franchise” and church. Eddie Johnson, who leads our partner church in Nashville, was using the word to paint an analogy of how systems can benefit the Church. He’s stated before that he proudly runs the North Point franchise in Nashville. And I’ve told him how the word always makes me shudder because it brings all the wrong connotations to mind. Like we’re just opening up little outlets to “sell” Jesus, promulgate Andy and send profits back to headquarters. I stated in an earlier post that I’d quit if there was any semblance of that around me. That’s not what Eddie is about either.

What’s most troubling though is looking at the comments people from the Church have posted in various threads as the discussion moved around the Web. Aside from not taking the time to actually consider the analogy - that systems are great ways to produce intended results, in this case introducing people to God, life change, discipleship, evangelism, etc., people inside the Body once again took the bait this world offers and came down in judgment upon Eddie personally and North Point as a church.

COME ON PEOPLE! With reactions like that, you really wonder why there are such large factions of culture arrayed against us? Unfortunately, there’s such a pervasive subculture within the Church that has been around since, oh, the days of Jesus himself, that has crowned itself the “Church Intelligencia”, destined to sit and pass judgment on all those who rankle the court. They are experts in quoting the Word, yet affect almost no lives positively. They can readily respond with biting commentary, yet have encouraged no one in long time. They claim to be close to Christ, yet probably have no friends outside the faith, lest they mingle with “sinners”. P-R-I-D-E abounds!

It’s really pretty disgusting to see the condemnation, judgment and personal attacks in their language. Why are you so threatened? Afraid someone will pierce the veil and discover there’s not a whole lot going on upstairs or in your heart? Oh, and why is every church that attracts people lambasted for being “consumerist”. Hmm, for some reason I remember great crowds following Jesus around to hear what he had to say. If consumerism, is week after week of people re-ordering their lives to live for Christ not themselves, people seeing past religion to discover that their Heavenly Father desires relationship with them, and the hopeless finding hope, go ahead and indict me because that’s what we’re “selling”.

Thanks to those of you who investigated what Eddie actually meant, and even in disagreement, engaged in healthy conversation on the topic. Gee, I wonder how the cause of Christ could be furthered if the Church were known more for its ability to actually welcome conversation and invite detractors into the discussion? Folks remember, we have TRUTH on our side and we know how the story ends. What can threaten that? Lay down the small-mindedness.


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