If you have been following the political debates at all you are aware that quite the squirmish broke out about bayonets in this past debate.  Truth is, we have many more bayonets now in the military (in fact the most we have ever had).

I don’t hold the fact that President Obama did not know that we still used bayonets against him because truthfully I did not know this and I actually said, “ouch” when President Obama delivered the line. I doubt Governor Romney knew either or he would have quickly jumped on that zinger.  Obviously the writer on the President’s team who wrote that line in advance of the debate also did not know.

This post is not political and I ask that it stay that way even in the comments because I think there is something deeper here that we can learn about our human nature.
Human nature just assumes that “old ways” are wrong ways.

As I look at how churches grow in healthy ways I think there are “bayonets” in our arsenal that we can easily assume are ineffective and the fact is that they are still very effective weapons of warfare.

1.  Prayer.  There is still absolutely no replacement for prayer, conversation with God. We can try as we might to grow churches on our own but the church belongs to God.  We need to pray more now than ever.

2. Love.  Jesus told us that the world around us would know that we were his disciples because of our love for one another.  We can be hip, cool, drink blue moon and wear cool shirts but if we do not love people we are toast.  Love is old school but it is the only way to grow healthy churches.

3. Belonging.  I like belonging somewhere.  I like being a part of my Seacoast and ARC crew.  I like being a part of my family.  I like being known by my friends.  Everyone wants to belong. We can start to think a show or even a great experience with God through worship can take that place.  It cannot.  I want to belong in my church.  We just can’t take community for granted we have to actuvely build environments where community can happen.

I wonder if in a weak moment I might would say we have less need for these weapons.  I wonder if I ever assume all the other things can take the place of belonging, loving and praying.  I probably do.  I hope I learn from bayonets.

I define brand, especially when it comes to the church’s brand, as “the emotional after-taste left by an experience”. So how do you make your experience something that people far from God will CRAVE?

Community.  I know it may sometimes seem an over-used term, but community really is the largest contributor to a crave-able moment.  As I encourage the people of Freedom Church I remind them that we all want to be known.  C.S. Lewis said it great when describing the moment when two people really enter into community as the moment when they can utter the phrase, “you too?”.  Here are a couple of things that we do to help people feel “known” at Freedom Church:

• A large a spacious loby area.
• Greeting team at doors and in the lobby.
• An extended greeting time (5 minutes) during the service.

Raving Fans. When you have people at your church who love the vision of your church and want to tell everyone about them they are fans and fans tell others about the team.  I think that the thing that can take a fan from just a fan to a raving fan is principally life change.  At Freedom Church we have 59 people who have been baptized in the last 14 months of our churches existence.  That means 59 people who have had major life change.  Those 59 people, their families and their friends are raving fans. We are addicted to life change.  Another thing we have learned about raving fans is that they want “gear”.  So we have t-shirts, invite cards, baseball caps and even a children’s ministry mascot to give our fans a vehicle for raving!

Authenticity. People crave a place where not only are they known but they “know” the real people.  As a Lead Pastor I have to be Authentic in a way that is obvious that will also allow the people who follow me to have permission to be authentic.  I got an unsolicited text from someone this week who said, “Hey Pastor, just wanted to thank you for being so transparent”.  People crave authenticity.  Make sure if you are a church leader that you are the same person on stage as off stage.

Volatility.  How willing are you to lose everything in order to reach people far from God with Freedom through Christ?  Are you willing to leave the 99 in order to find the 1?  As I write in 14 months time we have grown to be a church of nearly 400 people and already I can feel a tension and a pressure to protect the 99 or at least a significant portion of them while searching for the 1.  I think the amount we are willing to risk is connected to the amount we will grow.  If we decide to protect at all costs being a church of 400 we will get exactly what we protect…no growth, but we will be steady.  So change we must.  I think people crave a church who shows through it’s willingness to risk everything how important those who are not there yet are.  It’s the best symbol of our love for people we can show.

Emotion. When people feel something there is a connection that we then crave again.  I know that emotion has become a dirty word in some circles of the church, however as I consider it I see that God made emotion in the same way he did intellect.  When people feel the power and the presence of God it will dig deep into an emotional part of their soul that for some does not get dug into often.  One of the roles of the church is to create environments that allow people to tap into this powerful place that God has created.

Let’s work together to  help create churches that people crave!

I have been asked to be a part of a blog tour of sorts for my friends over at MinistryMatters.

They are doing a series of posts that have been honoring those in Ministry that have had a huge impact on other pastors and ministry leaders.

Choosing a pastor or other church leader  that has made a positive impact on my faith and life is actually pretty easy?  That would be my Pastor, Greg Surratt of Seacoast Church.

Though I have now left the Seacoast staff to plant a church, Seacoast is certainly still my “house” and Greg Surratt is still my Pastor, mentor and friend.

When thinking about the question, “What did you learn about ministry from that person?” I could actually write a whole blog series, and maybe I should, but the one that stands out to me is his authenticity.

Greg is the same person on stage, backstage and off the stage.  He is the same guy in the line at Starbucks as he is in the greeting line after church.  As I watched for over a decade how he lived this authentic life I decided that I would also be characterized by this same virtue in my ministry because there was something sweet about knowing you get what you see.

I am thankful to Greg for this lesson and also thankful to him as my Pastor for being real.  I can’t help but think that God has blessed Greg and the Seacoast team far more than they could ever ask or imagine partly because of this trait.  It is one we should all shoot for.

Join the MinistryMatters.com ”Why Ministers Matter” blog tour to read as today’s leading pastors and authors share their stories of ministers who made a difference in their lives. Visit MinistryMatters.com/blogtour for a complete list of virtual tour stops and to link up your own post about a minister who mattered to you!

Dear Friends,

This morning at about 6:45 am I learned that the Freedom Church trailer (along with the contents of $30,000 in audio, visual and lighting equipment) was stolen.

At first glance we may see this as a problem, but as I have been listening to God for the last few hours inbetween praying, talking with the Sheriff and planning how to “do” church this weekend I have seen that this is actually another opportunity to BE the church.

1. We can BE the church in our response.

If we were just “doing” church then our stuff would be very important.  The truth is of all of the calls I could get as a Pastor early in the morning – stolen stuff is a good one.  No one was hurt, no one has died and no one can steal our vision to BE the church in Berkeley County.

This just confirms the need for more life-giving churches in our community.  It’s also just stuff.  The only thing that seperates us from replacing it is money and God owns all of that (and it’s in our wallets) so I am pretty sure we are good.

So as far as Freedom Church is concerned we plan on BEing the church in our response.  We also plan on doing church this weekend like normal.  Our friends in local churches are already offering to help proving that the church in the Low Country is amazing.

We are not angry, upset, stressed or worried.  God has our back.

In fact if you happen to have stolen our trailer, just let us know and bring it back and not only will we not press charges we would love to help you through whatever caused you to steal.

2. We can BE the church in our generosity.

This was not expected and not planned by anyone.  When unexpected things happen to a family it takes sacrifice by the family as well as friends of the family to make things right.

If you are a  friend on facebook or twitter with me then you are a part of Freedom or a friend of Freedom.  I want to give you a chance to help us during this unexpected time.  Will you consider giving a financial gift above and beyond your normal tithes and offerings at your home church?

You can do that at https://freedomchurch.onthecity.org/give

Including the trailer it will take at least 35k to replace everything, but together this is something we can do!

Under the “Select a Fund” drop down choose “Replace our Stuff”

Freedom Church will not be hindered or detered from our vision of helping people far from God find freedom in Christ – we can’t wait to see you Sunday as we celebrate our 1 year anniversary!

It’s been a bad week for our relationship.

It started with what was a pretty expected comment from a CEO of a organization that I don’t think surprised either of us.  If we talked in person I bet we would both agree that he has the right to say what he said and everyone has the right to eat or not eat at his restaurant.

But then political people on both sides decided to drag us into their fight.  First some on the left decided this was a great opportunity to stir some attention for the LGBT community.  Then some on the right decided this was a great opportunity to throw red meat to their crowd.  I think we both bit at first and got in the fray with the politicians. You know what they say, “never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig kind of likes it”.  We need to remember that politicians really like to wrestele in the mud.  Maybe we should just let them next time.

So, I wanted to let you know a couple of things about how I really feel about you.

1.  You are more important to me than a political issue.  We love you as someone who God created and loves as his child.  I am sorry that many on both sides of this argument treat you like a pawn in their game of political chess.  I hope that we can help bridge that gap.

2.  I think that if you and I sat down for coffee we could actually find a very good solution to this whole topic.  I think that you would respect my opinion that the church should not have to change our standards of what “Marriage” is and I know that I would never want to see your lifestyle be illegal, see you killed or jailed, lose your job, not get to spend the last days with someone you love or be unable to make legal descsions together.

I have a feeling that there is more politics involved in this argument than common sense and people in both of our circles get pulled into that really quickly.  Why don’t we make a pact to help people not bite on that?

I know we disagree on a lot, mainly that sex is to be only enjoyed inside a marriage relationship between a man and women, but my hope is that one day we will agree on one important thing.  Jesus saves sinners.  Sinners like me.   Sinners like you.  Sinners like the un-married hetrosexual couple having sex that ate chicken together and live together. Sinners like people who waited in line longer this week to prove they support “marriage” than they have spent on dates with theor spouse in the last year.

I am sorry that I and others who agree with me on this issue usually act like your sin is worse than ours.  We probably wont agree on the whole “sin” issue anytime soon but I hope that wont allow me to treat you less than human or you me.

Sometimes I feel like “missional” is the new cool kids club.

Maybe I was the only lead pastor in the world who was not “in” the cool kids club in school but if I was not maybe you can resonate.  I really wanted to be in the club.  I tried hard to be in the club in fact, especially trying to do and wear the right things.

So in the mid 80′s to be in the club you wore Sebagos, Polo shirts, tight rolled jeans (which if you were a girl were Guess and if you were a boy were something other than the Lee jeans I wore) and had a perfect yet flowing part in your hair.

I was raised by a single mom with very little money and although she wanted to be able to give me those things I found that by the time we were able to save up and buy that stuff it was the late 80′s and the requirement was parachute pants, suede Puma’s with fat shoelaces and a boom-box that you could hold on your shoulder.  It was so hard to breakdance in my Sebagos, but we had just gotten them.

Then by the 90′s when my grandfather had built me a breakdancing stage out of linoleum in my back-yard and I had finally gotten the guts to sneak and EZ-E tape into my room low and behold some band named Nirvana was on the scene and I needed to get a flannel shirt and some converse all-stars.  Jeesh, I just could not keep up.

No matter how hard I tried it seemed like I could never keep up with the fact that in some room somewhere the cool kids club had changed the rules and now I was not doing the “right thing”.

Even as I right this I know that this is more my issue than the cool kids club, but sometimes I feel like in some room there is an elite team of super-missional people who keep changing the rules on what it means to be missional in the church. Jeesh, I just can’t keep up.

Sometimes as I read articles, books and blogs I start to get frustrated and even feel like  certain forms of missional are now the 1985 Sebago and the cool kid club is on to the 1990′s Missional Nirvana.  I hear about churches who are trying to be missional, giving away book bags, maybe even having an event for their community or serving in some way that apparently stopped being cool in 2009, and I get excited only to find out that there is a new and right way to be missional.  Didn’t you read the latest book that tells you missional really is Pastor?  Uggh.

It becomes frustrating where the boots are on the ground because what I see is that Churches all over the country have finally cast vision for actually caring for the people who don’t attend their churches.  They are learning from other churches and even sometimes (gasp, oh the horror) just copying them because at least it gives them a head start and now it’s not “it” anymore, well unless you do “it” the new way.  And it may just be me but I feel like by the time some churches are able to turn the ships towards the new thing we will be onto a “new” new thing.

I own my dysfunction, my desire to be in the club and even my desire to have people think we are the “fill in the blank” of the latest cool kids label for churches. I also own the fact that sometimes (but I don’t think often) I and other Pastors do the right things for the wrong reasons – but now it seems I can’t keep up anymore with what the right things are. So after I break through that part that is just me and my idols I wonder if we could just concentrate on doing something for the right reason – which is a love for our communities.

I wonder if God will be displeased with a church that serves through an antiquated method, maybe even holds a breakdancing competition, with a heart that breaks for lost people?  In fact it may be in fact that God is not using people to get the mission done but molding the hearts of his people is the mission?

I will never forget that day that my mom took me to Barron’s Shopping Store to buy me my Sebago’s. I was old enough to know the tide had changed and they were really not popular anymore.  But I knew that my mom cared enough for me to save her money and give me something of worth.  I think there are a ton of churches offering 1980′s Sebego’s as they are on mission and God is very pleased.  Hopefully they will learn to breakdance soon – I just hope that can fit into our nirvana.

A friend of mine tweeted something the other day that caught my attention.

“Anyone else concerned that congregations in Modern Worship have become observers instead of participants/singers? People just stand & stare”

Then another friend who is a worship leader echoed with a Re-tweet and a “yes!”.

I don’t have any issues with the question or the answer that these two men gave.  I know them both and what they really want is to see people having intimate moments with God. But it did make me consider a few things about worship and how we perceive people’s actions during worship.

1. A healthy evangelically driven church will have quite a bit of “standing and staring”.
Demonstrative worship is the result of a life that is filled with the Holy Spirit.  Although a talented worship leader could probably convince people to do the “away, away, away, away, away’s” in Hillsong’s “Go” that would sound like a european soccer match right before the riot I am not sure that is a sign of health.  In fact a church that is full of fully engaged worshippers either has a fake congregation or a evangelism problem.

A large group of people not singing is a sign of a healthy church with large number of people who are far from God that have been drawn towards him, but are not in love with him yet.

2.  Sometimes we are asking people to make out with God and it freaks them out.

There were always a few people in high school who had no shame when it came to PDA. They would make out in middle of class with a boyfriend of three-minutes.  Those people are now worship leaders. (JUST JOKING) Actually those people are now mature adults who have learned to control themselves but will probably be drawn to a public demonstrative worship (PDW) a little sooner than your average accountant or Marine.

Most people are uncomfortable with PDA, even sloppy wet kisses of God.  Worship leaders who push people to get get comfortable with their PDW too quickly need to examine their motivations.

Is it because having people give you energy back makes you feel better about your worship set?

Is it because having that energy come back at you makes you feel like a rock-star?

Or is it because you truly want to see people have moments with God?

I think for most worship leaders it’s the latter with a unhealthy dose of the former (just like this pastor who likes a few amens when he preaches to puff my ego).

This is a GREAT article on this subject and the how and why of demonstrative worship.

3. Worship leaders need to become worshiper Pastors.

I know this is easy semantics but I hope it can be more.  Worship leaders lead people in worship music. Often times the worship can even become of the music because a good musical experience becomes the idol.  The measurement will easily be how much did people sing, did they clap their hands, was there a real energy in the room.  All good stuff.  Good enough I guess, but seems a little ant-climatic.  We all know people who worship well and live poorly.

Worshiper Pastors shepherd the heart of a people to take their next steps towards God by using music, media and sometimes words and silence to  promote a life given fully to Jesus.
There is a difference.  Not a huge difference that we can see, but a huge difference.

I believe in demonstrative worship.  It is one of our core values at Freedom Church.   I think God made emotions and we are to offer them to him in worship.  I just think sometimes I can be guilty of using it as a poor measuring stick.

“Missional people see their whole life as a mission trip”
Reggie McNeal.

Sometimes we segregate our lives in such ways that I think we miss the big picture.

We take mission trips.

We have evangelistic events.

We run community group for 9 weeks because the curriculum lasts that long.

We build fences around our family time to protect it from church.

Seems backwards to me.

What if our lives were a mission trip?

• What if the people we interact with at work were as special to us as the poor and starving in 3rd world countries?
• What if a trip to the grocery store was an evangelistic event?
• What if we met with people at our homes and in their homes because they WERE our community.  What we studied and how long it lasted would be secondary.
• What if our ministry and mission was so intertwined with our family that you could barely tell the difference?

I love foreign mission trips, Big Ol’ Egg Drops, Beth Moore studies and Saturday morning pancake time with my kids.  They are good things as long as we don’t let them be the only things.

We are on a life-long mission trip – let’s go get em’ Freedom Church!

Free People bring people to be Freed – Bring somebody this week to church!

I have a theory.  It’s not a proven theory but it is one that I really believe in.

I think that crowd dynamics have  a lot to do with how people feel when they are in a crowd.

You have to have enough people in a room to feel cozy but not so many people that you feel suffocated.

Not theology.  Just an opinion.

I also have another opinion.  I hate to preach to empty rows of chairs.

Certainly not theology.  Just an opinion.

So we try to set up just enough chairs but not too many so that the room will feel good and I will get my way and not have to preach to empty rows.  It’s the small things, I know.  We also tape off, with red tape (Freedom Church colors) the back few rows and encourage people to sit in the front.  Seemed like a good idea to me.  It just never works.

People move the tape.  People play limbo with the tape.  People step over the tape.  People do all kinds of things with the tape, but the only thing that they don’t do is sit on the front rows.  I was frustrated by the tape.

So I buckled down and told my staff.  Enforce the tape, gently, but enforce the tape.  I know it even types stupid, but it was a moment.

Then finally after a few people said, “We should get rid of the tape”, “we hate the tape” or “We have tape?” I asked my wife.

Here is ger exact quote,

“Oh, I hate the tape I think it sends the wrong message.  I just figured you were Mr. Church Planter so you probably knew better”.

I am getting rid of the red tape and how fitting a reminder it is to make sure we don’t put any red tape in the way of people connecting to God.

I am practicing this week by preaching to empty rows since that is how the front row will look at Freedom Church this week.

Oh and I am also making a list of things I need to ask my wife about!

If you are thinking of planting a church there is a really important concept you need to ask yourself before you start building a core team.  Are you willing to give away the church?

It seems like a weird question given that intelectually we would all quickly say, “the church belongs to God” and I agree, but lets just be honest the church plant is also a dream coming to life of the planter.  To act as if there are no strings attatched to you as a planter, no possesiveness, no deep seeded emotions would be silly.  You will feel in many ways like the church is your baby so the big questions is, are you willing to give it away?

Every daughter will eventually be walked down an aisle and given away.
Every small business will eventually hire others and delegate tasks.
Every husband will eventually hold his wife’s hand as she leaves to be with Jesus.

The question of if we give away is not the real question, the question is when and in a church plant it is early on if you want to grow.

Does your church fund just your dreams or the dreams of others too?

Does your church only play music you like or have you given that away?

Do you do all of the ministry?

Until you are ready to give it away, it will only be as big as something you can hold.