shawnlovejoy.com

Sunday reflex 11-29-09…

Well, it was Thanksgiving weekend, and kids have been out of school since Friday before last, so I didn’t know what to expect this weekend at mountain Lake…but it was awesome! We actually had a great attendance for a Holiday weekend! I really do believe that people wanted to come BACK for Pt. II of our “When God is NOT Great” series, based on the obscure book of Habakkuk.

Here are a few reflections on the weekend:

• Austin Sisk was back from Australia and led us in worship. Good job, Austin! You are so talented! God is going to do great things through YOU in the future!
• Todd Nichols, our Worship Pastor, got a well deserved Sunday off!
• James Rodder, our Creative Arts Director did a great job running the weekend, in terms of worship.
• MANY people have told me how God is using this series in a timely way in their lives!
• We watched a POWERFUL “suicidal thoughts” clip from Patch Adams. I had forgotten about that clip. Whoa.
• Here are a few snippets from yesterday’s msg:
  • “It’s harder to sit at the table and pray ‘God is great; God is good’ when there’s no bread in the bank and no guarantee of future food!”
  • When questioned about His greatness, God responded once again by saying: “I AM Great; because I always keep my promises.”
  • “But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” Habakkuk 2:3 (NLT)
  • “As for God, his way is perfect. All the LORD’S promises prove true.” Psalm 18:30 (NLT)
  • “So many of us are so concerned with obeying God’s commands; but it’s just important to Him that we believe His promises!”
  • “When we’re questioning and arguing with God, so many times, he just whispers to us: ‘Have I ever lied to you?’ And the answer is ALWAYS. ‘No’.
• We began our “Care for Kids” emphasis. Ornaments were placed on the tree that addressed a needy child’s wish list  regarding Christmas. We asked everyone to raid the four Christmas trees, take home ornaments, and bring back the gift listed on the ornament BACK unwrapped and place under the tree; God’s people stepped up AGAIN! THANKS MOUNTAIN LAKE!
• We announced our “Simply Christmas Offering” we’ll all be participating in the week of December 20. This offering is a special offering that allows us to prioritize Jesus in our giving this Christmas; allows our church to continue to be the light in our community and world the way He wants us to; and 10% of this offering specifically goes to fund our Benevolence Ministry! I’ve had some questions about the logistics of this offering. I’m going to try to  address some of the questions in a video blog later today.
• We baptized 4 more people on Thanksgiving weekend! WOW! Two of them were Dave and Jean Maryanski. Dave plays in the band and Dave and Jean are in MY Growth Group!  Made this Sunday even MORE special for me!
• It was a GREAT day at Mountain Lake. I am sensing His presence every week these days!

New series beginning Sunday Dec 13th…

Sunday December 13

Sunday December 20

Thurs. December 24

Christmas Eve Service Times: 3:00 4:30  6:00

Get here at 3!!!

The Iron Bowl Matters...

Alabama leaves field victorious after 2009 Iron Bowl

A lot to be thankful for…

This morning I made a list of things I’m thankful to God for. Here’s what I wrote:

Father I’m thankful for:

• Your Son Jesus Christ, the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
• Forgiving me of my sin
• Leading my life
• My call into vocational ministry
• My wife  Tricia, who:
  • Loves Jesus with all her heart
  • Is willing to sacrifice anything to see God’s mission fulfilled thru us.
  • Is my biggest cheerleader and best friend.
  • Is HOT!
  • Is my right hand  ministry partner!
• My three kids:
  • Hannah: who loves Jesus well and has a great ear for music!
  • Madison: My biggest helper and cuddler.
  • Paul: who loves Video games and comic books as much as I do!
• Parents who always believed in me, pushed me, and cheered me on.
• For a Dad who’s never been afraid to hug me and tells me he loves me every time I talk to him.
• For a church that is reaching so many people disconnected from Jesus Christ!
• For a church that loves my family and me well!
• My favorite Growth Group of all time RIGHT NOW: The Brambletts, McClures, Orzechs, Maryanski’s, Massey’s, Bushong’s, Landreth’s, & Smith’s.
• Your daily provision in my life. 
• The best Ministry team in the world.
• The world’s best ministry assistant: Marie Lindelli.
• The wisdom to lead during these unique days.
• Teaching me contentment more each day.
• churchplanters.com, and the ability to influence pastors and ministry leaders all over the world.
• The mentors you’ve placed in my life over the years.
• My home.
• America. I love this country. Help us return to You.
• Christmas Songs.
• College Football. My second passion in life.

“When God is not great” Pt. 1…

The messages are always here, but I just wanted to make sure no one missed this one.  Get still. Allow God to speak to you!

Are you a cookie cutter church?

As churches, we don’t create the vision for our churches. We discover it. From God.  As church leaders, to discover  God’s vision, however, means we have to search and listen for God’s clear voice regarding His distinct vision for the church we lead.  This is why, by the way, I get a little concerned by some of the current trends I see among many new churches in ripping THEIR vision statements off other church’s websites or trendy pastors’ blog sites!

I have seen too many “cookie cutter” vision statements lately on new church plants’ websites and blogs.  You know what a cookie cutter does, right? A cookie cutter makes the next cookie look just like the last one. That works well for Christmas cookies, but not well for church planting! Church planter: Does your church look just like every other church plant? If so, why are you planting it?  Why not just join theirs? 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against Pastors learning from one another and even rubbing off on one another.  My fear is simply that many of us are not willing to do the “hard  work” these days of being still and patient for long enough to receive God’s vision for our churches!  If we’re getting our vision for our church from another church, then we’re getting it from the wrong place! Visions come from God, not another church!

Many of us as Pastors could use this Holiday Season to get away from the busyness and the grind (and even our people) for a little while to GET WITH GOD and DISCOVER HIS UNIQUE VISION FOR OUR CHURCH!  While we cut cookies this year, let’s commit NOT to be a cookie cutter church this next year!

By the way, Will Mancini, author of Church Unique will be speaking at our  churchplanters.com conference  Feb 22-23: “Velocity”. He’ll be talking about HOW we as a church can discover, communicate, and implement the unique vision God wants us to have. Get registered now! 

Sunday Reflex 11-22-09

The weather was TERRIBLE yesterday when I got in the car to go to church. Confessionally, I said out loud to myself: “Someone would have to REALLY love Jesus or WORK for the church to get out of bed and go to church today!” I really did!  HOWEVER, tons of you you showed up! Better yet, GOD showed up big time.  Here are a few of my reflex:

• Kicked off our new series “When God is not great,” a msg series on Habakkuk!  Never did I think God would use Habakkuk in our church in such a powerful way!
• Baptized again!
• Thought the band put together the best worship set since we’ve moved in the new building!
• Love Casey Graham being in our band!
• Showed a clip from “Bruce Almighty.” Stay tuned: we’ve got Forrest Gump clips coming!
• Steven Curtis Chapman song: “Questions” . It worked! Todd & Matt did an awesome job on this!
• A few snippets from my msg:
• We’ve all got questions; and a lot of them arise in relationship to God, and His place in our lives and world.”
• God shows us through Habakkuk once again, that: 

When God is not great, He is only not great in our minds.

• When we feel like God is not great, often times He responds by saying:

I AM great; but my plan is just different than yours.

• “Consider this: If God did things the way WE would do them, would He be that great of a God? Have you EXAMINED your past decisions?! The fact that God is not like us is precisely what makes Him a great God!”
• First time I ever used a shower stall door as a visual. You’ll have to watch the msg to see what I did (we’ve got issues w/ our website as of Monday AM; we’re working on it.)
• Closed the message with the story of Horatio Spafford, the author of “It is Well; and closed the service with the song.
• There were tears everywhere yesterday. Good tears. Good day. God is great. Great day.  Thank You, God!

Building and Leading A Team…

Today in our church planter’s coaching network, we’re going to be talking about Building and Leading Teams. Here are just a few snippets and thoughts we will discuss today:

• Leadership requires as much courage as it does ability.
• The #1 characteristic of a leader is her/her ability to build & lead a team.
• because teams are made up of humans, most teams are inherently dysfunctional.
• Most teams members are NOT honest with each other the way they should be.
• Building and Leading a Team is painfully difficult. It’s easier NOT to build a team.
• Most teams are afraid to REALLY hold each other accountable.
• Team members who are really close to one another will sometimes be afraid to rock the boat of friendship to be completely honest with each other.
• Learning to select the RIGHT team members is the starting point.
• Selecting the right team also mean deselecting the WRONG team members.
• Leading a team requires tons of courageous conversations and tough calls.
• We can not lead a team without clarity and buy- in.
• If we’re not reviewing our team, we’re being unfair to them.
• Every team member must be held accountable for results.
• Do you know what you’re looking for in your next hire? Not in terms of position, but in terms of character, chemistry, and core competencies?
• The opposite of a team? A Staff. How can we function as a team instead of a staff?
• Fun is a key component to every team.
• A good team requires GREAT communication.
• A good team requires GREAT chemistry.
• Most organizations are one “fire” and them one “hire” away from explosive growth.
• As the leader, do YOU have a job description for yourself?
• My job as the leader? :LEAD the Team!
• Here’s what a leader does: Shares the vision; Enables others; Encourages the Heart; Models the Way.

By the way, I’ll be leading a breakout on this subject at our churchplanters.com 2010 Conference “Velocity”: Feb 22-23, 2010. Just one of many practical breakouts offered by practitioners at our conference! Get registered now! $99 thru the rest of this month!

How we’re helping the benevolent…

I shared some stats this past Sunday about how God has used our church this past year to care for the benevolent needs in our community.  I’m astounded at how God is using us!  Since Christmas of 2008 The MLC Benevolence Ministry  has:

• Assisted 87 unique households.
• Given out 126 loads of groceries.
• Paid 67 bills of $50 or higher (utilities and rent assistance).
• Provided 68 Families with Grocery cards.
• Our food pantry is being stocked  100% each week by our Growth Groups.

Through all of this, God is giving our church a reputation for caring for economically challenged people! The Forsyth County Schools are now sending all families who come to them for food assistance to Mountain Lake! Praise God!

When God is NOT great…

Remember this prayer? 

“God is great; God is Good; Let us thank Him for our food;  By his hands we all are fed; Thank You Lord, for daily bread; A-men.” 

Truth is however, we don’t have to get very old, until we begin to think: “Well, God doesn’t feel so great, right now.” We begin to feel this way when we suffer; when we see or experience injustice or violence; when we’ve prayed for something for a while now and…crickets. We begin to think: “Maybe God’s not great; because if He was, He’d do something about this.” If you’ve ever felt this way, then I’m going to introduce you to someone Sunday you’re going to REALLY relate to. His name is Habakkuk.  I have never taught out of the book of Habakkuk before. Sunday’s the day. This is the series. Come prepared to hear God speak to you through a book in the Bible you’ve probably never read before! Come prepared to be encouraged. I can’t remember a time when I’ve been more excited about a series than I am about this one! Get here! Invite someone to come!  Now!