Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the idea of freedom in Christ. I think it's such an awesome concept and so true. I was reminded of this yesterday when meeting with a guy in our church. He had been radically saved in October. He had been freed from all kinds of worldly things and seen his marriage that was hanging by a thread become completely reconciled. It was an awesome meeting.
He shared a story with me that was pretty cool. He told me that to get a job at his current place of employment that he lied and said that he had a four year degree, while he only had a two year degree. He said that a couple months after being saved, he felt really convicted to tell his boss and those around him that he had lied, knowing that he could lose his job. He said the conviction was so strong he couldn't sleep for a whole night, he just laid in bed and sweat. The next day he went in and started telling people, working his way up to his boss. Everyone's response was "It's ok, everyone lies." When he got to his boss, his boss said, "Why are you telling me this?" He said that he was a Christian and he knew he had to tell him. The boss said, "Yeah but why?" My friend said, "Well, I don't know if you know about the Holy Spirit, but He's on my heart telling me that I have to tell you." His boss responded, "This is weird. I've been thinking about faith in God and didn't know if it was real or not. Now I know that it is real."
Only Jesus can take something like that and turn it into a positive. He used something that should have been disaster for His glory. Freedom in Christ. How cool is that?
Recently, I've been thinking a lot about vision. It seems as though I've been hearing about it from everyone - the folks at school, the folks at church, our staff here, in the books I've been reading, and so on. I've always been a big proponent of a vision, especially for a church. God has a plan and a design for every church, and it's up to the leadership to get alone with him and determine what it is. At BridgeWay, the vision is "to connect people to God, each other, and His plan for their lives."
Over the past few months, God has blessed this church with great growth. In September BridgeWay had 160 attenders every Sunday (average). In April, we had 270 attenders average weekly. It's pretty awesome when you think about it. God's incredible! Along with that though, there becomes this reaction from leadership and the congregation to begin adding ministries. "We need to do a ministry that does ______________" or "there's a lot of people who want to do _____________." Usually the suggestions are good things that come out of the hearts of good people. But the bottom line is we can't do everything. A church is like any organization; it has limited time, resources, money, and people. We can't do everything people suggest.
So how do we determine what to do? In thinking about this dilemma, I came up with a document that should help as a filter in this arena. It's nothing really impressive, it's just putting all of the things we talk about as a staff down on paper. Here it is:
BridgeWay Preliminary Objective Rubric
Level I
1. Does this line up with our mission?
a. BridgeWay Community Church exists to connect people to God, each other, and God's
plan for their lives.
2. Does this line up with the culture we are in?
a. Acts 17
b. Is this going to be culturally relevant?
3. Does this line up with the culture of BridgeWay?
a. “A church for people who don’t like church.”
b. Is this going to keep us on the cutting edge of 2008?
4. Is this going to keep us faithful and effective to the mission God has called us to?
a. Faithful – staying true to whom God has called us to be while reaching lost people for
Christ.
b. Effective – using the limited money, time, people, and resources that God has
entrusted us with in the best way possible.
c. The question is not “Is this a good use of our _______?” The question is, “Is this
the best use of our ________________?”
Level II
1. What is the win (desired outcome)?
2. Is this a logical next step for people? How?
3. Is in line with keeping a narrowed focus? How?
4. Does this help us teach less for more? How?
5. Does this help us listen to those we are trying to reach and reach them more effectively? How?
6. Will this help increase (eventually or immediately) our volunteer base? How?
7. Will this help us to improve how we do things at BridgeWay? Will BridgeWay be a better place because of this undertaking?
I'll expand on it in future posts. The first level is the "will this think fly here" level. Level 2 is based on "The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, and Reggie Joiner. (p.s. PHENOMENAL READ!)
As always, all comments/suggestions are appreciated.
Over the past few months, God has blessed this church with great growth. In September BridgeWay had 160 attenders every Sunday (average). In April, we had 270 attenders average weekly. It's pretty awesome when you think about it. God's incredible! Along with that though, there becomes this reaction from leadership and the congregation to begin adding ministries. "We need to do a ministry that does ______________" or "there's a lot of people who want to do _____________." Usually the suggestions are good things that come out of the hearts of good people. But the bottom line is we can't do everything. A church is like any organization; it has limited time, resources, money, and people. We can't do everything people suggest.
So how do we determine what to do? In thinking about this dilemma, I came up with a document that should help as a filter in this arena. It's nothing really impressive, it's just putting all of the things we talk about as a staff down on paper. Here it is:
BridgeWay Preliminary Objective Rubric
Level I
1. Does this line up with our mission?
a. BridgeWay Community Church exists to connect people to God, each other, and God's
plan for their lives.
2. Does this line up with the culture we are in?
a. Acts 17
b. Is this going to be culturally relevant?
3. Does this line up with the culture of BridgeWay?
a. “A church for people who don’t like church.”
b. Is this going to keep us on the cutting edge of 2008?
4. Is this going to keep us faithful and effective to the mission God has called us to?
a. Faithful – staying true to whom God has called us to be while reaching lost people for
Christ.
b. Effective – using the limited money, time, people, and resources that God has
entrusted us with in the best way possible.
c. The question is not “Is this a good use of our _______?” The question is, “Is this
the best use of our ________________?”
Level II
1. What is the win (desired outcome)?
2. Is this a logical next step for people? How?
3. Is in line with keeping a narrowed focus? How?
4. Does this help us teach less for more? How?
5. Does this help us listen to those we are trying to reach and reach them more effectively? How?
6. Will this help increase (eventually or immediately) our volunteer base? How?
7. Will this help us to improve how we do things at BridgeWay? Will BridgeWay be a better place because of this undertaking?
I'll expand on it in future posts. The first level is the "will this think fly here" level. Level 2 is based on "The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry" by Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, and Reggie Joiner. (p.s. PHENOMENAL READ!)
As always, all comments/suggestions are appreciated.
I love to pray. In fact over the past few years, God has taught me a lot about prayer. I have seen incredible things happen through prayer. I have grown personally by leaps and bounds through prayer. Prayer is great.
However, I do have a contention with a prayer breakfast. I love to pray - but I also love to eat. I love breakfast, especially when it involves a buffet with and endless supply of bacon. So when those two things combine you would think it would be good, but it turns out it's not. In fact, my thesis is that combining these two elements is downright cruel. Why would you force someone to drop their bacon to pray? God does trump pork, but don't miss the point. It's like when rescue missions make homeless people go to church before they can eat dinner. You can't make God a chore or punishment. It's just not right!
One more note - this breakfast was at 6:30. Seriously people. 6:30. A.M. In the morning. I get up at 6:30. It's not right.
However, I do have a contention with a prayer breakfast. I love to pray - but I also love to eat. I love breakfast, especially when it involves a buffet with and endless supply of bacon. So when those two things combine you would think it would be good, but it turns out it's not. In fact, my thesis is that combining these two elements is downright cruel. Why would you force someone to drop their bacon to pray? God does trump pork, but don't miss the point. It's like when rescue missions make homeless people go to church before they can eat dinner. You can't make God a chore or punishment. It's just not right!
One more note - this breakfast was at 6:30. Seriously people. 6:30. A.M. In the morning. I get up at 6:30. It's not right.
