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Our Ministry Team’s Core Values (pt.1)…

Over the last ten years, Our Mountain Lake Ministry Team has been bound together by a set of core values. So many CHURCHES I know have core values these days. Great thing. However, most Church staffs/Ministry Teams don’t have a clear set of values they covenant to live by. Mind you, when we started Mountain Lake, we didn’t sit down and decide what we WANTED our values to be. We actually sat down as a leadership team about six years ago, and IDENTIFIED TOGETHER the values we saw bubbling up in our team environment every day. Here is what we wrote down:

The Mountain Lake Ministry team values:

• Community: We do life together
• Honesty: We share the last 10% of what we’re thinking.
• Teamwork: He help & serve each other regardless of job description.
• Loyalty: We have each other’s backs.
• Execution: We do what we say we’ll do.
• Resourcefulness: We’re thankful for what we have and do our best w/ it. 
• Sacrifice: We’re wiling to pay a price to do life and mission together.

We talk about these values ALL the time. We hold each other accountable to them. These values have governed our relationships as team members the last ten years and are one the main reasons why our church is so unified in our mission and love for one another ten years later! 

Questions for you…

What are YOUR team’s values?

Do you ever talk  about them as a team?

Are they written down?

Does everyone know them?

Is the team held accountable for them? 

BTW, at our upcoming churchplanters.com conference, I’ll be leading a breakout called: “Church Staffing 201.” I’ll be covering many of  Mountain Lake’s Best Practices when it comes to discovering, attracting, hiring, and leading ministry teams. 

Stay tuned as I unpack a few of our Ministry Team Values over the next few days…

“Well, I just don’t FEEL like…”

A LOT of us are tempted to begin sentences like this when we’re discussing things like: what’s right and wrong; what they believe or don’t believe; a sermon they heard somewhere.  I don’t won’t to discount our feelings here. In fact, God gave us emotions. He loves to work in and through our emotions. A great example of this is the radical response we’ve seen to the Haiti crisis. People have been moved with compassion and that has led to very positive acts on our part!

However, we have to be very careful NOT to base our beliefs or decisions entirely on our emotions or our feelings! Look what God says about our feelings:

“The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I know! I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NLT).

God says several things about our feelings here:

• Our feelings can deceive us (“The human heart is most deceitful …”).

Often times, we don’t even KNOW our own motives behind why we do what we do. Our hearts are “deceptive”. They can deceive us. We often do the RIGHT things with the wrong motives.  Just another example of the fact that we can’t allow our FEELINGS to be the gauge of or lives.

• Our feelings often run contrary to what God says (“and desperately wicked.”).

The Bible says we’re all sinners. We’re all naturally wicked. Ever seen two preschoolers play together?  Really. Do WE want to the judge of right and wrong? Do you really thing WE/I have the angle on everything? Do we really want there to be NO absolute right and wrong? No standard? Is good and evil determined solely upon what everyone thinks is good and evil?  Uh…no. There has to be a standard and it should NOT be what WE or anyone else THINKS.  There HAS to be an absolute standard of what’s right and wrong! The Truth of God’s Word!

• Our feelings can mislead us (“Who really knows how bad it is?”). 

Remember the time you “fell in love” with that  loser? That psychopath? Yeah, our feelings can mislead us. Blind us. Sometimes even what we THINK TO BE RIGHT at the time, turns out to be wrong. We’ve all been there! It may SEEM right at the time, but feelings can mislead us. So we always need to FILTER our feelings through the TRUTH of God’s Word!  “There is a way that seems right to a man,  but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 16:25 (NIV)

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT WE THINK. WHAT MATTERS IS WHAT HE SAYS.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE SAYS? ARE YOU A STUDENT OF GOD’S WORD? ARE YOU WILLING TO DIG, SEARCH,AND LEARN HOW TO STUDY GOD’S WORD AND APPLY HIS TRUTH OVER YOUR LIFE?

ARE YOU WILLING TO PLACE YOUR FAITH IN HIS TRUTH, AND NOT YOUR FEELINGS TODAY? 

Sunday Reflex 1.24.10

I can NOT believe all that God is doing right now at Mountain Lake Church! He is absolutely rocking our world! He is changing lives every week! We’re baptizing people every week! The life change stories are more numerous than I can ever remember! The last two Sundays, we’ve had  two of the largest crowds in the history of our church!  God is at work! Praise Him!

Here are just a few highlights from yesterday’s events:

• Todd and the band continue to do a great job in taking us to God each week. Todd, thanks for never making worship about the worship leader. Love you, man.
• Adrienne, Kristin, and Beth do a great job each week on our “Share the Vision” Time by VIDEO called “The Pipeline”. Girls, I ‘m amazed by you! Thanks for your hard work!
• We baptized again!
• Announced our upcoming series in two weeks called “Lovers: Go ahead. Give in.” It’s going to rock!
• Week TWO of our series “Life in Rhythm”. God is REALLY USING this series!
• The message will be posted HERE by mid-morning Monday.
• I taught out of Ecclesiastes 3 on “Life in Rhythm” and embracing the seasons in our lives.
• God teaches us through His Word that just as there are seasons in our world, there are seasons in our lives!
• Rather than embracing the different seasons in our lives, we usually try to escape them or have a negative view of them! 
• I showed THIS CLIP from City Slickers. Hilarious AND True!
• “What does all of this have to do with our relationship with God? Everything. Life in Rhythm is ultimately a trust issue. Do I trust God enough to embrace the season He has me in, knowing that He does not make mistakes?! That He’s still in control! That He can strengthen me, see me through, and use me during this season?!”
• We had 95 people attend our “Big Splash” Baptism Information class for kids! WOW! Great job, Chad & Courtney!
• Leadership Community last night with our leaders. Shared some big news with them. We’ll be sharing it with the rest of you this Sunday! 
• Can it get any better around here?

The Myth of Balance (pt. 2)…

Balance says that we should give equal energy and attention to everything at the same time. However, not only is this idea not possible; It’s not Biblical! Take the Biblical idea of Sabbath.  The very word Sabbath means: “to stop or cease ” something. God wants us to work 6 days! Work is not a curse! It doesn’t deserve our 2nd best. It’s not a sin to go to bed exhausted every day!

However, every 7th day, God COMMANDED us to rest (in the same list of commands He COMMANDED us  not to murder). Every 7th day should be an opportunity to STOP our normal routine and replenish ourselves physically and spiritually! This might challenge you, but think about this: This means that you are NOT supposed to “keep all the plates spinning”! God says to stop spinning them and let them all fall every week! Love that! 

The greatest challenge is that most of us agree with the idea of Sabbath and believe it to be a good thing; we just don’t know how to get there!  How do we work the idea of Sabbath into our life rhythms? Here are some ways that we can build Sabbaths into our lives.

• Take your day off. Simple. Do you trust God enough to do life according to His pattern? The answer is either YES or NO.
• Do all your “honey-do” lists, and house-catch-up tasks on Saturdays. Go ahead and work hard around the house of you need to; The Biblical idea is just to have ONE DAY that we stop EVERYTHING.
• Honor the LORD on the Sabbath. Go to church. Worship Him. Serve Him. Give to Him. God knows what’s best for us. God refreshes us through His people, His worship, and His Word. Be faithful to church! Stop making excuses!
• Take your vacation time. All of it. Don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t answer your cell phone. That’s what voicemail is for. Set up your voicemail to say: “I’m on vacation. I need the rest from work; so I will only be returning phone calls this week that have the word ‘emergency’ in them.”
• Tell your kids they can do 1-2 seasonal sports. That’s it. Train them to rest. Train them to do 1-2 things, rather than allowing them to try to do everything!
• Have some YOU and GOD time. Find the quietest part of your day EVERY DAY and BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD. Take some time to read God’s Word and pray! No, you won’t get quite as much done if you stop for 30 minutes and do nothing;  but you’ll be reminded again that YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET EVERYTHING DONE!
• How do YOU rest? What are the steps YOU need to take to rest?

Sunday Reflex 1-17-10…

God set a bunch of us free from a balanced life yesterday at our services! Here are a few reflections on the day.

• We kicked off the services in true rhythm with the North Forsyth High School Drum Line. Thanks for being here guys! Keep using  those gifts for the Lord!
• We baptized two more people! Congrats to Ashley Dumford & Shannon Garrett! The life change stories we’ve been sharing lately have been nothing short of amazing! Praise God!
• I know this sounds crazy, but I love our ANNOUNCEMENTS every week via “The Pipeline”. Great job, Sunday, Kristin Marchman!
• Todd Nichols, our Worship Pastor, has been playing the keyboard ONLY because he sliced his finger open on a mixer. He has 6 stitches in his finger! Glad he’s MORE than just a a guitar player. In many ways!
• We designated 10% of our offerings for Haiti Disaster Relief, and announced that yesterday marked the launch of a multi-year ministry to the people of Haiti!
• We kicked off our series: “Life in Rhythm.” Here are some key ideas from yesterday’s msg:
• “Life in Rhythm is a life lived according to God’s pattern.”
• “God doesn’t want us to live BALANCED lives: giving equal time and energy to everything and everyone at the same time!”
• “In creation, God’s work week seems to be more about pace; ebb & flow; completing something; then starting something else; the day, the week; and then the season!”
• “A life in Rhythm focuses on one thing at a time!”
• God says: “When you;re at work, work! Don’t give it your SECOND best! Work hard! Work in a way that you honor me!”
• Could it be that one of the reasons were so stressed out at work is because we’re trying to work while texting all of our family and friends; twittering; facebooking; and playing Farmville and Fantasy football?! No wonder we can’t get it all done!”
• “However, THEN we’re supposed to complete your work. Shut down our laptops; get off the phone; put down the laundry; stop paying bills; and be fully present at home!”
• “You know what balance is? Just another man-made attempt to measure up to an impossible standard; another attempt to be in control of our lives!" God wants to set us free from that!”
• Matthew 11:28 (NLT) Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Rhythm is not another set of religious demands. Rhythm is relational. Jesus said ‘Come to me’. The question is: “Will we?
• “Rhythm is a trust issue. Do I trust Jesus enough to come to Him; follow Him and His Way?”
• Well, do you?
• I wrestled with this message more than anyone will ever know, but in the end, I believe God spoke and used it.
• We probably had one of the largest crowds in the history of our church, yesterday! God is at work! Drawing people to Himself! What a great place to belong and become!

The myth of balance: (pt.1)…

Family and work can’t be balanced. The good news is that it’s not supposed to be. You heard me. It’s not in the Bible.  Not one time in Scripture, are you and I encouraged to live “balanced” lives.  You know why? For one reason, life CAN’T be balanced! If it could be balanced, Jesus would’ve at least gotten it done, right?  However, does it surprise you to hear that Jesus didn’t balance family and work well? Jesus saw His priorities to family and work as equal “rhythms” that demanded ALL of His attention at a given point, rather than two competing loyalties that must be balanced at a given point. Here are some examples:

• When Jesus was 12 yrs old, He disappeared from his mom and dad and went to the Temple. When His mother found him and chastised Him, what did He say? “I must be about my Father’s business.” In other words, “Mom, right now, the most important thing I could be doing is learning to do what God has called me to do.”
• Jesus also didn’t have the typical mantra: “God first; family second; and work third.” I don’t know where we got that idea, but it wasn’t from the Bible. Jesus didn’t live this way. Jesus’ family was NOT ALWAYS more important than His ministry. Three Gospels record the true story that tells of a day in Jesus’  life  when He is  teaching great crowds; and  his mother and brothers show up and ask him to come home and be with them:  “As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers were outside, wanting to talk with him. Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, and they want to speak to you.” Matthew 12:46-47 (NLT). Upon hearing this request, Jesus refuses to even come to the door! Why? Because He was in the middle of His work!
• If Jesus would have valued family over work or ministry, He never would have died on the cross! Think about it.

Don’t get me wrong: Jesus highly valued relationships! Here are some examples:

• Jesus  picked 12 friends to do His ministry WITH. He had three He was closer to than anyone else.
• While on the cross, Jesus was very concerned with the welfare of his mother and his best friend John:  “When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”  John 19:26-27 (NIV).
• Jesus passionately loved people! So much so that He died for us!

Jesus wasn’t balanced. He lived life in rhythm. When He was supposed to be working, He gave it His all:  His very life!  When He was supposed to be doing life with God or people, He was fully present physically, emotionally, and mentally.  NO one has ever been more passionate about people than Jesus. However, He didn’t just live at the whims of people, even his own family!

SO what do we learn from Jesus? Wherever you are, be there. When you’re at work, be at work. Don’t be on facebook; don’t be on the phone every hour with your family;  Be a good steward of your job! That  honors God.

When you’re at home; BE there! NOT on the phone; not on the laptop; not on facebook; BE with your family! Be fully present: physically, AND mentally! THAT honors God!  THAT’S following the way of Jesus! Life in Rhythm!

Does that set you free?

We’ll be unpacking all of this even more beginning this Sunday in our new series: “Rhythm: Less Stress. More Peace.”

Life in Rhythm…

 

Busy.

Tired.

Frustrated.

Stressed out.

Burned out.

Overloaded.

Overwhelmed.

Depressed.

Guilty.

These are the words we use to describe out lives.

What’s wrong? What’s missing? Is there a better way? The answer is Yes.  There IS a better way. God offers it. God is clear about it. God can help us achieve it.

A Life in Rhythm: a better life lived according to God’s pattern.

Less stress. More peace.

Less Guilt. More freedom.

Less frustration. More fulfillment.

Get here for this new series!

Beginning this Sunday!

Bring your  stressed out and  burned out friends with you!

Tenacity: A walk down memory lane…

Tenacity History Video from Mountain Lake Church on Vimeo.

Sunday Reflex 1.10.10…

Yesterday we celebrated Mountain Lake Church’s Ten Year Anniversary, and it was one of the most powerful worship services we have ever had in our history!

• I prayed that God would show up big time yesterday, and He did. I could literally sense His presence as soon as I GOT there yesterday!
• Huge crowds braved the ice and the cold and showed up! We had to put chairs out in the aisle for the 11:15 service! It was crazy!
• I walked our church down memory lane via a video we put together that put us inside our old temporary worship facilities! I’ll upload this video HERE later today.
• I shared from Scripture about the importance God places on not FORGETTING our pasts.
• When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, it was a defining moment in their history and relationship w/ God. He never wanted them to forget what HE had done for them!

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” Deuteronomy 4:9 (NIV)

God told them to write it DOWN so that all who came behind them would connect with what they had seen and experienced by God’s grace!  That’s what we did!

• We brainstormed for WEEKS about how we might share as many miracles and stories as possible in our worship services this weekend. Thanks to my Pastor-friend Tommy Politz, who God used to give us the idea of “cardboard testimonies.”
• Dozens and dozens of people  were pre-selected, who shared their BEFORE Christ--Desert story, on a piece of cardboard. Then they flipped it over and wrote down how God had delivered them. They came forward one by one and allowed us to SEE their stories without saying a word. shared their cardboard testimonies in our services.
• Here are a few of the stories:

Too hung-over to make it to church
Christ is in my heart again.  Is it Sunday yet?

Lost Sinner Disconnected from God for 17 Years
Saved By Jesus Walking with God  for Eternity

Lost, Hopeless, In the Dark
Found, Hopeful, In the Lord’s Light!

Adulterer
Forgiven through Christ

Self-injured,Broken, Depressed, Ashamed
Loved, Accepted, and Embracing freedom through Jesus

Selfishness has made me blind.
God has given me a path out of darkness.

Alcoholic, Addict, Hopeless
Surrendered, Forgiven Recovered 7 years

10 Year Drug Addict
Life restored and blessed beyond measure

IV Drug User for 15 yrs
Drug Free 9yrs, God is my high

Alcoholic, Drug Addict, Drug Dealer
Forgiven & rescued by Christ

Closet alcoholic and Christian
Sober and free in Christ

pregnant out of wedlock
forgiven & freed of guilt.

• WOW. This is how I closed:

1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV) “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

• The service videos, including the cardboard testimonies,  will be uploaded by midmorning HERE.
• If you’re a Mountain Laker, what did God say to YOU yesterday?

Top 5 church planting lessons over 10 yrs (pt. 3)…

5. Vocational Ministry is only for the called.  I’m really not KNOCKING other careers and occupations when I say that I believe that vocational ministry is the hardest job there is. Before you say “yeah, but…” let me unpack it. I’ve been in the professional world. I worked in real estate for three years before entering the ministry. I know what it’s like out there. I have never questioned myself and my abilities as much as I have since entering the ministry. I NEVER felt the emotional weight I feel in vocational ministry. 

First of all, think about all the hats a Pastor has to wear: Counselor; Therapist; Cheerleader; Prophet; Preacher;  Marry-er; Bury-er;  CEO; CFO; Real Estate investor; Board Member; Boss; Friend; and tons of others, depending on the need of the day!

Above all, there’s the spiritual warfare aspect of my job.  Satan knows if he can take me down, he can damaged the faiths of THOUSANDS of people. Would you say I am a target? Would you say he wants me out of the ministry? Would you say he wants me discouraged? Lazy? Prideful? Undisciplined? Unloving? Unfaithful?  You bet he does; and you can bet he’s got a host of demons assigned to me and every other pastor, because he can do a ton of damage through us!

All of this is why, as pastors, we MUST nail down our call. NOW. Yesterday. If you;re thinking about planting a church, DO NOT PLANT A CHURCH  unless you know that you know that you know that GOD is CALLING you to do so! If you’re in vocational ministry now, or pastoring a church,  and don’t know that you know that you know that God CALLED you into vocational ministry, do yourself and the church a favor. Quit. Resign. Get out. NOW. It’s only a matter of time before you quit anyway. Here’s what Jesus said:

“A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will leave the sheep because they aren’t his and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he is merely hired and has no real concern for the sheep.”  John 10:12-13 (NLT)

You’ve GOT to be called or you will run away when times get tough. If I did not know for CERTAIN that God had called me to do what I’m doing right now, I would have quit DOZENS of times! You will, too!

However, if we KNOW we HAVE been called, it means we KNOW we can’t quit, even when it’s hard. I can’t do anything else! I’m called! Anything else would be to be disobedient to God! We must hold TIGHTLY to the call! When we’re called, this is God’s prayer for us:

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)