Great Feeling

It's a great feeling when I finish a book. I start a lot of books... very seldom do I finish a book, and if I do it's likely months later.

This past Thursday on the flight home from Orlando I finished the final 2 chapters in an unbelievable book by Rob Bell entitled: Sex God: {Exploring the endless connections between sexuality and spirituality}. I've already decided that this book will be a "mandatory" element of my pre-marital counseling sessions. I already have my first two guinea pigs lined up (thanks Billy and Po).

Rob is a great communicator and a top-notch author... I highly recommend either this book or his other book: Velvet Elvis. If reading isn't your thing, check out his series of short films: Nooma.

Here are a few gems from "Sex God". Soak them up, then go by the book to get the full story.

"The author of Genesis makes it clear that there is something different about humans... something of God has been placed in them. We reflect what God is like and who God is. A divine spark resides in every single human being. Everybody, everywhere. Bearers of the divine image" (pg 19).

"How you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the creator. When a human being is mistreated, objectified, or neglected, when they are treated as less than human, these actions are actions against God. Because how you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the creator" (pg 28).

"It's possible to be married to somebody and sharing the same bed and be very disconnected. It's possible to be married to somebody and sharing the same bed and even having sex regularly and still be profoundly disconnected" (pg. 45)

"As human beings, we take part through our actions in the ongoing creation of the world. The question is: What kind of world are we going to make" (pg. 63).

"God constantly commands his people to remember who they are, where they've been, what they've seen, adn what's been done for them. If we stop remembering, we may forget. And that's when the trouble comes" (pg 74).

"Sleeping with lots of women gives a man the feeling of being a man without actually having to be one" (pg 126).

"The failure to understand the infinite depth of the human soul is often why people who are married have affairs. They stop exploring the person they married. They find somebody who appears more interesting" (pg 159).

"Sex... in its greatest moment is free from power and coercion and manipulation and agendas and fears, when it is simply two people giving all of themselves to each other, holding nothing back" (Pg 166).

The Back of Class

The cool kids always sat in the back of class didn't they? I showed up a few minutes late to the main session today with Dave Ferguson, so I decided to sit in the back.

Here's a snapshot of the "cool kids" I discovered upon sitting down..

















If you are unaware, the back row warriors pictured here are Ben Arment and Mark Batterson (Left to Right). It's been really cool to be able to put some faces and handshakes with bloggers this week. Looking forward to the final day tomorrow. Bill Hybels will close the conference out for us. Not bad as far as closers go....

Conference Notes

Still having a great time here in sunny Orlando. Did I mention yet that my rental car is a convertible (no, I didn't ask for it... they just handed me the keys), and it's 85 degrees here?

Today was a full day. I'm worn out, and about to lay down in this extremely comfortable hotel bed, watch SportsCenter on the plasma screen and take a nap. But first....

Breakout Session this morning with Darrin Patrick at The Journey in St. Louis was excellent. He's a great communicator, and a high level leader. Too much to post all my notes, so here are the highlights from his session on "Team DNA":

"There is nothing greater than working with a great team. However, working with a bad team can kill you."

• Adam had a team.
• Moses had a team.
• Throughout the Bible we see God calling people to build a team before they accomplish a task.

Team is overrated! (If YOU are not qualified ... See qualifications in I Timothy 3)

YOU (Lead Guy) are the greatest resource in your ministry.

Character of the leader = Character of the team

When you are the leader, people imitate you. They photocopy how you do your marriage, raise your kids, and treat others.

*Big Takeaway* "People will come to your church because of your gifts, but they will stay because of your character."
_____________________________________________________________

Team is underrated! - Choosing a good team

See Mark 3

• When picking a good team, there is no replacement for spending time with God.
• When you spend time alone with God, he is developing your gut, increasing your discernment.
• Chemistry is important - Hire people you like, and can have fun with
  
• Do Stuff - They can't just be fun, they have to have a skill, passion, place to serve, etc...
• Every church should have an internship program.
  
• It helps the church distinguish what kind of people they want to hire without making long term commitments / mistakes.
• It helps develop the young leader.
• Be open with you staff - "Believe the best about one another, and wade through the worst!"
• Hire slowly / Fire Quickly
• Ministry is not about getting stuff done. Ministry is about getting people done.
• Your job as a leader is to create an environment where people can survive and thrive. To create a community where other leaders can excel.

Mark Batterson

I am currently sitting in on a session by one of my favorite bloggers / authors: Mark Batterson. This is actually the 2nd breakout session of his that I've attended. Here's a picture of the one yesterday. Fellow blogger Ben Arment actually snapped the photo: look forward 4 rows and you'll actually see me (and my computer bag).

I'll post some notes from the current session later, but in the mean time, here are some highlights from Mark's talk yesterday on: Maximizing Environments

"Below the level of consciousness the human mind is always processing environments."

• Leaders know how to send subliminal and intangible messages.
• Leaders create culture.
• Leaders are environmental engineers!

7 Keys to creating the right church culture

1.) Be Yourself - Culture starts with knowing who you are and who you aren't.

• A lot of our church cultures are unhealthy because we are unhealthy.
• Life is too short and leadership is too challenging to be two people: The person you are, and the person people want you to be.
• "You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time" - Abraham Lincoln
• You have to choose what kind of people you are going to offend. *Hint* - Jesus offended the religious people.

2.) Stay Positive

• Sharing wins creates an energy and momentum that reduces the size of the looming problems / issues we are facing.
• Church should be the most enjoyable hour of the week (people should feel better when they leave)
• Ministry should be fun (Who you do ministry with determines how fun your ministry will be)
• Pray & Play retreat with staff & leaders (create a fun team culture).

3.) Establish Boundaries

• Family must come first... at the end of the day, a church can find another pastor, but your kids can not get another father.
• Mark gives NCC one evening per week. Evenings are for family.... he'll make an exception once per week.

4.) Little things are Big things

• When Rudy Guliani was elected mayor of NYC, he went after the petty crimes: jaywalking, graffiti, fare jumpers, etc.... The result was that serious felonious crime was decreased drastically.
• Broken windows create subliminal messages (Broken windows are little things that reflect on big things about your church culture)

• ⁃ Misspelled words on worship slides
• ⁃ Unevenly folded bulletins
• ⁃ Typos, dirty floors, messy stage, etc...

• 1% of what you do makes 99% of the difference

5.) Think like a guest

• Unintentional blindness: When we become so absorbed in our culture, we develop blind-spots. These blind-spots cause us to miss out on things that we are doing poorly.
• Do reconnaissance missions: Get out of your culture a few times a year... go to other churches and absorb their culture to expose your blind spots.
• **Book Recommendation** - The Art of Shopping by Paco Underhill
• Paul said that he would become all things to all people, in order that he might reach some.

6.) Exceed Expectations

• Good is not "Good Enough"
• When NCC started Ebeneezer's, they knew that needed to be to pass the "Starbucks Litmus Test". The #1 goal was for people to say "WOW" when they walked through the doors.

7.) Cast Vision Like Crazy

• Most church problems are not Sin problem. Most church problems are Vision problems.
• If the mission and vision are big and important enough, you will not have the time or energy to dip down to the level that will bring you down.
• If you aren't careful you can begin doing ministry from memory... because you are good at it. We stop doing ministry from creativity, and start doing it from memory. We stop creating the future, and start repeating the past.

Best Practices:

⁃ Invest in your leaders
⁃ Take your leaders on a vision casting retreat once per year
⁃ Church planter in Residence
⁃ At NCC they always have a church planter on staff doing a utility role... they have them do a little bit of everything for 18 months - 2 years... Then they send them out and support them for 1-2 years.
⁃ This ensures that a culture of church planting is always around NCC!

Arrival and Session 1

Having a great time in Florida so far. Fun day yesterday.... my flight came in Monday morning, and the conference didn't start until Tuesday around Noon, so I had the opportunity to head down to my Alma Mater to see some old friends and former professors. Got to eat at 2 of my favorite college dives: Fat Boys Bar-B-Q and All Star Grill! Love it.

Day one of the conference was very solid. Had the opportunity to hear from Wayne Cordeiro, the Lead Pastor at a really cool church in Hawaii in the opening session. He shared some great principles in regards to listening and learning from the Holy Spirit, especially in regards to sermon crafting. My big take aways were:

• "You can teach what you know, but you ultimately reproduce what you are!"
• If we want tomorrows church to be men & women of deep devotion, then we (pastors) must be people of deep devotion (same with marriages, parenting, hearts for others, etc....)

How do you gain wisdom?

• Through personal consequence or experience (walking into a wall)
• Through other people's personal experiences (let others walk into the wall & learn from them)

OR

• You can gain wisdom and skill in the art of playing guitar by sitting in a class about guitar, or you can have a one on one session with a great guitar teacher... a master.
  
• You can gain wisdom & skill by sitting in a conference (or a church service) about Jesus, or you can sit with the Master and learn directly from him, about him.
  
• Luke 10:38-42 - Mary & Martha had the opportunity to sit before the Master and learn from him... only one took advantage of the opportunity.

5 Things to bring with you everyday when you sit down with the Master to learn from him.

1. Bring a Bible
2. Bring a pen
3. Bring a reading program to assist you in journeying through the Bible
4. Bring a journal (and a plan to Journal)
5. Bring a daily planner (to eliminate distractions when they come in your mind... just write them down, and forget it)

Back With A Bang!

Rumor has it that there are some people checking this blog for updates. Thanks to those encouragements, I have decided to jump back on the horse. I'm going to dial down the expectations this time... I won't blog daily, or twice daily, or even 5 times a week. My goal will be to post 3 new posts each week; no less, and anything beyond that will be *bonus*

So, to kick things off, I'll be doing some live blogging from the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida. Sitting in a beautiful auditorium for the first Main Session right now. I'm really looking forward to soaking in the wisdom that will be shared by some of the top leaders in the church planting world. I would encourage you to follow some of the links on the right side of this page for some updates from some other attendees and presenters (Arment, Batterson, Ferguson).

Stay Tuned....