Posts by admin:
- Run Through an Entire Service during mock service as if you were having service
- Worship – Use Planning Center Online - Record Tracks early in the week – send them to team
- Countdown’s with the Series Graphic on it
- If it doesn’t point people to service, don’t do it!
- They Worship, Preach the Word, and do Small Groups – Period. No events except Summer Camp
- 2 Invitations: Salvation and Prayer – Leaders take students who raise their hands for both and either lead them to the Lord or pray with them then follow-up with them
- Sunday – All staff goes to all 4 services
- Monday – Critique of Sunday (Brutally honest) / Focus on Area of Specialty
- Tuesday – Plan Services 4 1/2 weeks out / Afternoon off
- Wednesday - A.m. Off / Set-up tear down/ Relationships / Youth Service
- Thursday – Critique of Service
- Friday – Off until 5 p.m. – then Youth Service
- Saturday – Off
- They use Fellowship One
- Small Group Leaders do the Follow-Up
- They TextSignal.com to follow-up with Text Messages
- Have Adult Leaders Escort all 1st time Guests around all night and follow up with that student
- They have a first time guest party – the Jump off – Every 1st timer gets a wrist band that gets them in there
- They get a letter at the 1st time guest party
- To be a member – you have to serve
- Observation Night
- Interview
- Application
- They have staff getaways just to pursue God together
- Evaluations every 6 months – great conversation times, feedback, rating employees
- Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless
- God is not just the starting point of your life; he is the source of it.
- I don’t know all the keys to success, but one key to failure is to try to please everyone.
- The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.
- Never confuse activity with productivity.
- A very important test is how you act when you can’t feel God’s presence in your life.
- If you have ever said, “I didn’t get anything out of worship today,” you worshiped for the wrong reason. Worship isn’t for you.
- You are as close to God as you choose to be.
- You don’t bring glory to God by trying to be someone he never intended you to be. God wants you to be yourself.
- If God never did anything else for you, he would still deserve your continual praise for the rest of your life because of what Jesus did for you on the cross.
- THE BEST USE OF LIFE IS LOVE
- Why should God give you another day if you’re going to waste it?
- The importance of things can be measured by how much time we are willing to invest in them.
- the best way to spell love is “T–I–M–E.”
- it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking we are mature if there is no one to challenge us. Real maturity shows up in relationships.
- Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others. Humble people are so focused on serving others, they don’t think of themselves.
- Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.
- You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.
Off to New Mexico – Blogging Break
March 9th, 2010I’m heading off to New Mexico for a week! I will be taking a break from blogging until next week!
While I’m gone . . . I highly recommend checking out these blogs/posts:
Here are some links to past posts I’ve written that were popular and that I believe will add value to your life… So here you go:
Unleash Recap (Part 2) – The Practical
March 8th, 2010I want to focus on the practical things I learned at Unleash today. Everything I learned was practical, but I want to focus on the systems I can implement into our ministry. Hope this adds value to you and your ministry. I went to two sessions 1.) Triple Threat Youth Ministry with Brad Cooper (This was awesome!) and 2.) Hiring, Firing, and Creating a Staff Culture with Jason Wilson (their Executive Pastor). Here we go:
Services:
Weekly Schedule (Youth):
Follow-UP
1st Time Guests
Volunteer Process
Staff
This is just a touch of what I learned and look to implement into our ministry. I definitely recommend following Newspring and seeing what they’re doing. They’ve helped me out several times – they’re more than willing to pour into others and share anything they can that will add value to people and ministries.
Unleash Recap (Part 1)
March 6th, 2010I got the privilege to go to NewSpring’s Unleash Conference today. It was an incredible experience. It was amazing to see what God has done here! This will be a 2-part review! One with a summary of key takeaways and another of the practical ministry takeaways. Here were my big takeaways:
It’s All About Making Jesus Famous One Life at a Time - This is NewSpring’s Vision. It is beyond evident that the vision is burning in the hearts of every staff member and volunteer. Everything they do as a church, is done with the intention of changing people’s lives. When I say everything… I mean everything!
Quit Playing Games and Start Preaching the Word - I love how simple Newspring is. I.E. The youth – ALL they do is preach, worship, small groups, and a summer camp. It’s all centered around pointing teenagers to Jesus. Period. I love it!
People Act Like they Don’t Know Christ, Because they Don’t Know Christ - Let me clarify! They had a 5th grader that went to their childrens ministry for the first time. He saw a PS3 and Wii and said, “They have a PS3! A Wii! This s*** is awesome!” Those are the people we’re trying to reach, we need to have people like this coming to church! Instead of correcting them, let’s love them and point them to Jesus. They’ll only change as a result of knowing Him!
People Can Believe in You and Go to Hell - I love Perry. He was saying that we should never try to get people to believe in us or think we’re awesome. We need to constantly be getting their eyes off of us and onto Jesus. He’s the only one that can save them.
Celebrating Wins is Critical – Every staff meeting they start with sharing victories in their church. Then they celebrate them – this fuels them with passion every week becasuse it helps them recognize they are doing what God called them to do!
They Don’t Know How They Grew! - Twice in their church their attendance has doubled in a one week span… from 400 to 900 and 4,000 to 8,000. What did they do? Nothing… They have no idea how it happened! Perry always relays it like this: Leadership is as easy as listening to God. Then do what He says! Perry said, “If you can explain what God is doing in your church, He’s probably not that involved in it!
I loved being at Newspring! I know it definitely fired me up to come home and do more for Jesus. I’m so glad they are doing what God called them to do and inspiring the body of Christ while they do it!
Tomorrow I’ll talk about the practical things I learned that we can implement in our ministries!
This is Your Only Chance
March 3rd, 201017And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick; I came not to call the righteous ones to repentance, but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin). Mark 2:17
Something I’ve been dwelling on lately is this:
This is the only opportunity I have to reach the people that are in my life right now. I’ll never get to reach them again. As I look back at my high school year book I realize, my time to influence and reach those people have past. College – past. Previous jobs – past. I’ll never get the influence I had in those seasons with those people back.
Implications?
College Students: You’ll never get to Room with your roommates again, or sit next to that kid in your chem class – this is your only chance to reach them.
Pastors - People are coming to our ministries every week and it might be the only chance they’re giving to God, they’re coming one time. It’s our only chance to reach them.
High School Students - Even though you think you will, you won’t be friends with very many people from high school once you graduate – this is your only chance to reach them!
Parents - You get a limited window in which you can reach your kids – it’s your only chance.
You – You meet and interact with a ton of people everyday that you’ll never talk to again. You only have one chance to lift their lives and point them to God.
What are you doing to reach the people in your life right now? Time is short, the clock is ticking, and this really is your only chance.
Hanging and Pointing
March 2nd, 201017And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick; I came not to call the righteous ones to repentance, but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin). Mark 2:17
This is quickly becoming a life verse for me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with Christians, in fact my best friends are all Christians. However, I want to have a lot more friends that don’t live for God.
We’re here for one reason: to reach the world for Jesus. How are we going to do that if we’re not befriending and loving on people who don’t know God?
Here are Some Statistics that should shock you, and ideally inspire you to action:
Within 2 Years of Being a Christian, Statistically, Christians will Have 0 Non-Christian Friends in their Lives
There are 5 Types of Unchurched People in the World -4/5 Said they Will go To Church if Someone Invites Them
21% of Christians Will Invite Someone to Church in their Lifetime
2% of that 21% Actually Invite Non-Christians to Church in their Lifetime
What does this mean? Churches are growing at the expense of other churches. We’re taking Christians from one church and bringing them to our church. We’re only reaching 2% of the lost! Does anyone else see something wrong with this?
While we spend all of our times trying to encourage and lift other believers (this is a good thing, but we need a balance), there are billions of people who are desperate for a relationship with God. People desperate for hope. People looking for purpose. People who go to bed and know there has to be something more to life. People who we can point to Jesus.
The Concept is Simple: Hang out with People who don’t know God, love on them, and point them to Jesus. If that’s too hard for you, at least you can do is invite them to church!
If we don’t, who will?
Deny, Forget, Ignore, Disown, & Lose Sight of Yourself
March 1st, 201034And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me]. -Mark 8:34
I know we talk a lot about God giving us the desires of our hearts, God having an amazing plan for our lives, and Him causing us to live abundant lives, all of which are true. However, I think in pursuing those things, we often miss out on the avenue God intends us to take to get those things.
When we give our hearts to God, we no longer own our lives, He owns them. It’s not up to us to choose what we want to do and pursue, it’s up for us to discover those things which God has planned for us.
Jesus said in Mark 8:35 that, “Whoever wants to save his life, will lose it, and whoever gives up his life for His sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
Every morning we wake up, we have 2 choices: Deny, forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of ourselves and our desires in order to pursue what He would have us pursue or live for ourselves and what we want and think we need.
We all need to be willing to do anything, live anywhere, give everything away, in a moment’s notice for His sake. The real abundant life is living everyday in His presence, doing what He says to do, regardless of the cost.
Everyday we need to say to ourselves, just like John the Baptist did, “HE MUST Increase, and I must decrease.”
Ask God to open up your eyes to things that you’re holding onto that are holding you back from following Him with every fiber in your being. When he reveals them to you, let go and pursue Him with everything you got – you’ll find abundant life in the pursuit.
Book Review: Total Money Makeover
February 26th, 2010This was another recommendation from my friends, Zack Blair. I absolutely love Dave Ramsey! The first time I heard Dave, I went through his Financial Peace University curriculum when I was 19. I was in college, working part-time, and really didn’t have the mentality to do what the program suggests. Now, five years later, I read this book at an entirely new level. I’m ready for my Total Money Makeover!
“If you live like nobody else lives now, later you’ll live like nobody else!”
This book is great for developing and confirming a belief system in your heart about money. It’s about getting money to work for you instead of you working for your money. Dave’s plan is broken down into 7 baby steps:
1.) Get a $1,000 Emergency Fund
2.) Pay off all Debt Using the Debt Snowball
3.) Get 3-6 months worth of Expenses in Savings
4.) Invest 15% of household income to Roth IRA’s and Pre-Tax Retirement
5.) College Funding for your Children
6.) Pay off your Home Early
7.) Build Wealth and Give!
One of my favorite quotes is “Discipline is remembering what you want.” – I want to be in a great place financially and be able to give tons of money away in my lifetime! This will only come through believing God and being a wise steward of the increase He brings into my life. This book is a must read and a must implement! I hope you’ll read it, become a fan of Dave, and have your life changed through your own Total Money Makeover!
Final Grade: 9.5 out of 10
Book Review: The Purpose Driven Life
February 26th, 2010So I finally jumped on board and read one of the best selling books of all time! Over the past year, I’ve become a huge Rick Warren fan. After hearing him at Catalyst West Coast last year, I became convinced I needed to get all the wisdom I could from this guy!
You are as close to God as you choose to be. – Rick Warren
You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.
So I picked up The Purpose Driven Life. This is a great book. If I had to call it another name, I’d call it Christianity 101. This is a great book for new believers who want to grow in their relationship with God. It’s also a great book for mature believers because it brings us back to the simplicity of living for God and helps us remember what’s important. It’s a great 40-day journey to go through – I’d recommend it!
Final Grade – 8.5 out of 10
My Highlights:
You Should be like Shaun White
February 25th, 201010 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. I Peter 4:10-11
Watching the Olympics has been awesome. Nothing has impressed me more than watching Shaun White on the Half Pipe! He is amazing!
I started thinking though… why is it so awesome to watch him? Because he found out what his gift was, dedicated himself to it, and now he gives his gift to the world to enjoy.
Sadly, while Shaun White gives his gift away for the world to enjoy, too many of us sit at home watcing people do remarkable things, and never entertain the thought that we could give something remarkable to the world.
Here is a truth: YOU have something remarkable to offer the world. I don’t know what it is, but the people around you do. Ask people what your good at, discover the gifts that God has placed in you, dedicate yourself to developing those gifts, and then give something remarkable to the rest of the world.
The world will recognize when they see something remarkable – make sure when they see the remarkable in you- you use it as an opportunity to point people to God, because the reality is, without the gifts and gracings He’s put in our lives, we would never be anything near remarkable.
Don’t neglect what God’s put in you. Be remarkable. Give Your Gift Away for the World to Enjoy.
Porn
February 24th, 2010But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. – Matthew 5:28
Every second – $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, Every second – 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography, Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States?.
I’ve never met anyone who is addicted to porn who is actually proud of it. Everyone I meet is hurting, has caused pain to people around them, and longing for a way out. It’s the easiest thing to hide, but one of the hardest things to come clean to somebody about. The shame can be almost unbearable. So how can you get free?
1.) Repent and Pursue God - In James it says, if you draw near to God, He’ll draw near to you. Though you’ll feel so distant from God it’s not even funny, if you’ll pursue Him, His desires will start becoming your desires, and porn will become less and less of a temptation.
2.) Recognize You’re Not Alone - There are millions of people struggling with the exact same thing you are and feeling the exact same way you are. You’re not alone.
3.) Humble Yourself and Tell Somebody that Loves you Unconditionally – This is the hardest step. Find somebody you know will love you regardless, and will walk you through the journey to freedom.
4.) Get Accountability - The video above is promoting 2 programs: X3Watch and Safe Eyes - both are accountability software that will block sites you shouldn’t be going to, and send any questionable sites you do visit to two accountability partners of your choice.
5.) Control Your Thoughts - You can control your thoughts – that is a fact. Philippians says to think on Good things only! What you put in your heart through what you watch and listen to, will fill your thought life. If you’ve been watching porn for a while, you’re probably filled with bad thoughts. Focus on putting positive deposits into your heart (go to church, listen to sermons, read great articles). Garbage in, Garbage Out. Purity in, Purity out!
Another Great Resource is XXX Church which is headed up by Craig Gross – you’ll find tons of great videos and articles to help you.
I hope this helps you – if you’re in need of someone to talk to – Send me a message on Facebook – I’d love to talk to you.
