enjoying the journey

It always seems that I am in a hurry to get somewhere or get something done. My parents said even when I was a kid, my line was "me busy". When there is a goal looming in the distance, I have a tendency to keep focused on it and push hard until it is reached. This is true for me with our church, at home, my triathlon training and life. The only problem is that I miss a whole lot of what God is trying to teach me along the way, as well as missing out on much of the joy of the journey. So now that I am in recovery to slow down, I try to purposefully take time to smell the roses, take in the sunsets and truly enjoy this journey that Christ is leading me on.

Great day Sunday

We had a big day Sunday with our biggest crowd ever, which was followed by our first ever church picnic. Altogether, it was a great day. I knew we were in trouble when our first service was very low, that our 2nd service was going to be crazy....and it was. Our kids workers had maxed out classes, but pulled it off. During this first year with our C3 Church plant, we are beginning to learn the rythms of our church and it's people. We have the best people on the planet and it is has been an amazing experience linking arms with new friends who are now journeying with us. God is no doubt in this thing.

mission minded

I'm driving back from a meeting today and realizing that I am a "man on a mission". I have chosen to accept this assignment to make a dent in East Columbus for the name of Jesus Christ. I think God is amazing how He leads me to meet someone who has a friend who needs to plug in a church and they happen to live in my town. I will get their name and number and connect with them. How cool is God to set this entire thing up because He cares for His children. This has happened several times. It is awesome to play my part, "my mission", which fits into God's bigger picture. Are you living your mission out?

speed networking

Today, I went to Pickerington's Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon. As a member of the Chamber, they have been a great asset to us to help connect in our community as a new church plant. There were about 50 other business leaders there, and they did a speed networking luncheon. We ate and then all had business cards ready and sat in chairs facing each other in a half moon shape in 2 rows. They said go, and you each of us had one minute to exchange cards and give your mini presentation. I got to connect with a ton a people in a matter of 30 - 40 minutes. It was gold. I got an interview for a radio station and 2 people who will visit us this Sunday out of it. I also made some great first connections with business leaders in our community. I think as church leaders we must work hard to get out of our offices.

ownership

Tonight, we meet with our key leaders to cast vision and get their input on our discipleship process that we have been hammering out. When we cast a vision, it is cast as a draft. This gives opportunity for input to bring it to the next level and gives ownership to our people to be a part of it on ground level. We show up with a good idea of where we need to go, but it is still changeable. Every meeting, the plan gets more and more refined. There has been some amazing questions and thoughts that have been brought up which have been implemented in the new process. By casting the vision this way, everyone has input and feels ownership. Vision is then grabbed and ran with by several people rather than just by the leader.

Simple

We had an incredible meeting on Sunday with our leadership team that will be the foundation for how our church will move forward. The discussion was on how do we make disciples, and how do we position our church to best accomadate that. If making disciples is our #1 goal, then it must be where we put our time, energy and resources. This is so much tougher than just starting a new program. In fact, we are less than a year old and we already have to nix a couple of "good" things, in order to get the "best" things. We are now in draft #2 and are pitching it before the various leadership groups in our church to get buy-in. It is shaping up to be "CONNECT, GROW, SERVE. The goal is for everyone in our church to know how C3 makes disciples. This will give a learning path for them to follow in order to continue growing. The book "simple church" has been influential along with one of my mentors, Stan Tharp of CLC Dayton. I have been amazed at the lack of a simple discipleship process that even some of larger churches don't have. If you know me, once we get this thing hammered out, anyone is welcomed to what we got.

offended

Today, while driving back to C3 from a $1.78 Taco Bell run, (proof I am a church planter) I saw something that offended me. There were a group of young girls probably 14 - 17 walking down our main street in town where several American flags hang from the light posts. As I look down the road I see one of the girls with one of those flags still on the pole and she throws it in the middle of the road and walks away. I am the first car to come upon it and I pull in a driveway, honk my horn at the girls who quickly walk away, run out and pick it up. Now, I am trying to keep from saying something that is unbecoming of a pastor in their town. But I was angry. When I find myself in situations like this, I tend to think through all the what if's. What if I would have run up to them and "tore into them", what if I could have called fire down from the sky. But I had to ask myself why did that offend me and why do I struggle to just let it go? In this case, it is for patriotism....but in most cases, it is not. It is more like pride or fear.....or both. Anyway...I FORGIVE THEM for what they did today against their country. They probably have no clue that men and woman have and still do give their lives so we can fly that flag.