BLeach

Smart People and God

Yesterday I picked up a book at Borders to supplement some research for my message on Sunday.  I love the title: Can a Smart Person Believe in God?  The author is Michael Guillen.  He's a theoretical physicist.  In other words, he is a smart person.

The book is fascinating.  I'm going to use some of it in my teaching on Sunday.  I just hope all of our smart people are there :)

In chapter 3 he talks about superstitions.  Wade Boggs, the former Red Sox star, had a few that I thought were interesting.  He insisted on running his wind sprints at precisely 7.17 pm.  He ended his ground ball drill by stepping on the bases in backward order.  He never stepped on the foul line when taking the field but always stepped on it returning to the dugout.  And finally, he ate chicken before every game.

I'm officially declaring Wednesday, April 26 as Embrace Your Idiosyncracies Day.  It is a day to be weird with pride.

See you at Boston Market :)

In the News

The Oaks is in the news.  The Mirror ran a story about the grand opening of our first daughter church in downtown Royal Oak. 

The article references National Community Church.  Mark Batterson and his church are paving the way for churches meeting in movie theaters.  For those of you familiar with that church you may recognize that they don't meet in Chicago, as the article says, but in Washington DC. 

Here's the link.

I've always wondered how a parent feels when their child starts to walk.  I'm sure it feels a bit different than this, but this is the closest I've ever been:)

The Talk

On Sunday I had The Talk with our church.  I believe that parents need to begin appropriately teaching their kids about sex as soon as their old enough to read the word.  If a parent doesn't do the teaching, someone else will.  Do you want a network executive whose only concern is ratings designing that teaching for your child in a boardroom? 

Of course, what do I know about parenting!

As a pastor, I believe that we have to have initiate biblical discussions about sexuality.  Various surveys say that the average American man thinks about sex once every 30 minutes.  I have a conviction.  If men are going to think about it, I'm going to talk about it.

I've really been encouraged by the response of our people to the teaching, not only on Sunday morning, but through email messages and conversations I've had since.  If we don't talk honestly about temptation as the body of Christ, especially as leaders, then we add to hell's lie that sexual temptation needs to be clouded in secrecy.  The secrecy is why shame grows, and the shame of sexual sin grows into a noose that becomes difficult to unravel.  We've got to uncover secrets by bringing the conversation into the light.

My teaching is online.  If you want to read Shame Free Sex, click here.  If you'd rather listen to the audio file, go here.

Theology of Bling

Sometimes a prophetic voice rises out of the noise to offer much needed spiritual direction.  That is how I felt this morning when I came across this quote by Mary J. Blige.  She says she has found God.  You can read her testimony on msnbc.com (thanks to Todd for the link).  Here's the part that spoke to me (as spoken to Blender Magazine).

My God is a God who wants me to have things.  He wants me to bling.  He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block.  I don't know what kind of God the rest of y'all are serving, but the God I serve says, 'Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I'm gonna make sure you're doing that.'"

Maybe this is what I've been missing? 

So...maybe I need to pray for this:

And this:

And one of these:

Seriously, here's my take.  American Christianity has done okay in the material department.  Our buildings are bigger then ever.  Our savings accounts earn more interest than ever. 

Here's the catch.  Our cities are more bound then ever.

High on natural resources; low on supernatural resources.

I had lunch with a new friend yesterday.  He oversees a church planting movement in Virginia.  He asked me how the low economy in Michigan has affected our church.  Here's my response.

Finances are down.  Faith is up. 

During the last few years we've grown in attendance faster than finances.  People are giving, but the economy affects that giving.  But it's amazing how the stretching of the budget inspires the stretching of our faith.  Everytime we've stepped out of the budget comfort zone in obedience and faith God has provided the resources we've needed.  Everytime.

What if the economy collapsed tomorrow?  Would your church's ministry collapse, or stand out? 

Bling is cool.

God's blessing is indispensible.

It's a Church

It's official.  The Oaks has launched.  Our first daughter church had their inaugural gathering yesterday with about 130 people in attendance.  Main Art Theater in Royal Oak never looked so good before God's grace hit the big screen!

I felt weird not being able to attend the grand opening, kind of like a dad whose having a baby but can't be there for the delivery.  As much as I loved being with our church on Easter, I have to say that my heart was in downtown Royal Oak.

One of our resident photographers, Kim Burton, went over to the launch after our 9.00 am service.  Check out this picture report on her Xanga site.

This second picture is my favorite.  Main Art Theater doesn't show the average Hollywood blockbusters.  It specializes in alternative films.  In addition to the opening of The Oaks, our location doubled as the opening for the movie Adam and Steve.  I'm aware of one visitor who left wondering aloud why someone would start a church in a place like that.  My question is actually the opposite.  Who wouldn't want to start a church in a place like that?  Seriously, I can't think of a better place to launch a church! 

Now the real work starts.

Post Big Day Depression

I spent this morning with Chris debriefing yesterday's events.  It's always an interesting feeling the day after a big day.  We ran toward Easter both partnering for the Royal Oak launch as well as planning our own Easter Egg Hunt and services.  Many of our volunteers stepped up and worked hard to make it a great day!

Experience has taught me that picking a date in the future to work toward (usually a big event), and finishing it, feels less like crossing a finish line and more like finding myself at a new starting line.  As a result I've become quite familiar with post big day depression!

I think it's more productive to look at big days as checkpoints in the journey.  They may require more energy as they approach, but we still have to pace ourselves for the long haul.  At a checkpoint we can pause, reflect, and regroup for the next strategic push. 

I also think it's important to factor in recovery time on the other side of checkpoints.  I need to recover as a leader.  I also need to plan recovery for the leaders who serve with me.  I stink at this!  I tend to jump right into the next thing, failing to properly celebrate and evaluate the last thing.  This isn't fair or healthy to the leadership teams I serve.   

Recovery could be as simple as changing pace or changing place.  This afternoon we took our staff meeting outside.  We used bright colored poster board to take notes.  I bought everyone King Sized candy bars.  I planned a shorter, more focused agenda.  It was a small yet intentional way for us to recover as a team.

1 Kings 19 is the classic story of post-big day depression.  Elijah confronted 450 false prophets at once.  They were humilated.  He was vindicated.  I've read several reports from church leaders regarding their Easter services yesterday.  They were great reports, but I have yet to come across one where fire fell from heaven during the service.  Elijah was literally at the top of the mountain. 

After the fire fell, he outran a chariot all the way to Jezreel.  That's roughly 25 miles.  He outran a chariot 25 miles.  That's anointing.  It's also adrenaline.  Sometimes we forget that they go together.

When Elijah finally stopped running he crashed.  He realized that he still had enemies.  He realized that his work wasn't done.  If anything, it was just beginning. 

Winning always generates more work.  Winning the Super Bowl doesn't make the 2006 season easier for the Steelers.  It means 16 teams will highlight them on their schedules.

Isn't Elijah's experience a microcosm of a Pastor's Monday morning blues?  We run toward Sunday.  God's anointing comes and our adrenaline pumps.  Then we wake up Monday morning to realize that we still have enemies.  The work isn't done.  If anything, it has just begun. 

The misconception is that big days finish the work.  If anything, big days increase the work.  It's okay to celebrate the fact that your attendance sky-rocketed on Easter Sunday.  Just don't forget these two equations.

More People = More Needs

More Needs = More Work

I think that in church leadership we need to plan big days.  We need to cast vision and point our people toward big days.  But we also need to pace ourselves.  We need to plan for recovery.  And we need to expect increased spiritual warfare in response to spiritual victories.  I want my legacy to be more than "He led a few successful events."  I want it to be "He lived a lifetime of effective ministry."

It's GameTime

 

I just printed my sermon for the morning.  This will be my fifth Easter Sunday as a pastor.  They get better every year. 

Tonight I got to spend some time in prayer with Chris and Nicki.  Tomorrow morning at 10.35 am they open the doors of The Oaks for the first time in history!  I got to reminisce with them a little about Saturday night, September 15, 2001.  That was the night before our launch service at Church of the King.  Talk about some raw emotion!  Getting ready to preach for the first time to a church that you pastor but you've never seen is quite surreal. 

I will say this though.  Almost five years later, I still get geeked the night before I get to stand before our church and preach.  When I played basketball in high school, we used to run out onto the court to Let's Get Ready to Rumble.  I'm thinking about being introduced in the morning by that tune.  I'll run around all the chairs a few times and high five everyone before I start teaching.

This is what I live for!

Enough

My sin was enough.

The weight of it enough to crush Him,

The sting of it enough to cut Him,

The thought of it enough to grieve Him,

The effect of it enough to disfigure Him,

The penalty of it enough to kill Him.

Jesus' grace is enough.

Loud enough to command my soul's attention,

Lovely enough to destroy my soul's defenses,

Rare enough to demand my sole allegiance.

Jesus' blood is enough.

Pure enough to wash me clean,

Strong enough to set me free.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be SATISFIED (Isaiah 53.11).

What more can I do?  Today, in the shadow of the cross, I stop striving.  I cease trying.  I channel my energy instead toward worship.  Jesus, you hung alone.  You stand alone. 

Thank you.

Miracle on 12 Mile Rd.

A few weeks ago I posted The Miracle on Main.  In that post I referenced our first building miracle.  Jeff asked me about that story.  So here's an excerpt from Church of the King history 101.

I moved back to Metro Detroit in May, 2001 after finishing my senior year at CBC.  5 of my friends from school joined me in June.  The six of us fanned out across neighborhoods in Southfield five days a week and began building relationships with people.  We started a Thursday night core group meeting.  Meanwhile we hosted 4 different community events to begin assimilating people.  At the end of the summer we had a core group of about 25.   

On September 16 (the Sunday after 9.11) we had our Grand Opening Service in the cafetorium of Thompson Middle School.  After launching we doubled to 50. 

We were spending $3,500.00 a month to rent the school on Sundays.  In October I began looking for a place to start some leadership training.  Meanwhile, God gave me a relationship with the pastor of a church about two miles from our building.  They were not using their building during the week, so he offered for us to use it on Wednesday evenings to train leaders. 

A few months later he called me and asked if I'd stop by his office.  He greeted me with a question.  "If you could have anything for the church right now what would it be?"  I listed off some needs that I thought his church could afford.  He responded by making my jaw drop.  "How about a building?"

My friend's passion was to give his church full time ministry (which they had not been able to afford).  He saw our biggest need as a facility need.  The dream God had given him was to give us their building.  He shared that vision with his church and together they decided to deed almost one million dollars worth of assets over to Church of the King.  It was kingdom-minded and unselfish.  It was a financial breakthrough for us.  It was a staff breakthrough for us.  The money we saved from renting the school put us in position to hire Tal and Gwen Sullivan, a fantastic couple with 3 kids.  They brought much needed balance to our leadership team.  Up until that point there were four of us on staff.  None of us were old enough to drive a church van!

This is our Miracle on 12 Mile Rd.

This Sunday our first daughter church will launch in downtown Royal Oak.  We would not have been able to plant The Oaks so quickly without the building miracle.  Now with our first church plant we've added The Miracle on Main.

We're facing space challenges now, but asking the question "Where to next?" is easy to do when your short 4.5 year history is filled with miracle stamps of God's provision. 

2 facility miracles down.

98 more to go!

The Colors of Heaven

I really enjoyed writing and teaching part 2 of the Conversations with Jesus series on Sunday.  As a church, we have five values that are foundational to our vision.  One of them is racial reconciliation.  I dream of experiencinig a diversity miracle in Metro Detroit.  I just believe that a blended church is a better church.  That's why I loved this message so much.  Jesus had a revolutionary approach to prejudice.  He didn't tolerate it. 

Click here to read The Colors of Heaven.

If you'd like to listen to the teaching, go here.

At the end of the service we voiced a prayer of confession together as a church community.  Here's the prayer:

God, please show us how we have intentionally or un-intentionally failed to love like Jesus.  Forgive us for being self-centered.  Forgive us for labeling or judging people we don’t know; people you died for.  Forgive us for pushing aside people who are different.

God, our desire is to be like Jesus.  It is to embrace rather than refrain.  It is to invite rather than to push out.  Give us relationships with people who are different than us.  Fill us with love toward every kind of person in our city.  Help us to build a church that looks like heaven.