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Our Worship Planning Process (pt. 2)...

As I mentioned yesterday, our message and service planning here at Mountain Lake is not flippant, by any means. Much strategic prayer and planning goes into nailing down what God wants us to say and how He wants us to say it to the people. Here are a few more elements that help us in our worship planning process:

5. We work a individuals and as a team in our message preparation process. One of the reasons I love NOT teaching every week at our church, is because on those weeks, I get to spend more time with God, seeking Him about what He wants us to say to His people IN THE FUTURE. Honestly, the future can be as near as two weeks from now, but more often stretches out to months in the future.  Each week, our primary communicator studies alone on Monday & Tuesday. Then, on Wed AM, 2-3 of us get together to listen to where the communicator senses God is leading him. We speak into that and help confirm and strengthen a strong direction and even application of the message.

6. Collective Service Planning and Creativity is a TEAM SPORT. On Monday afternoons, several of us meet to plan and examine the collective worship services. This process is not left to one person either. Tod Nichols, our Worship Pastor, does a masterful job of driving this process, and the team of several pastors who have creative bents join this meeting to bring their spiritual gifts to bear on the process. In this meeting we nail down final songs, creative elements, announcements, and orders of service for the next several weeks of worship. 

7. We plan months into the future. Twice per year, we meet ALL DAY to look 6 months into the future, specifically regarding our worship services and message series content. This past week, our team met to nail down our next six month teaching calendar. I brought a sense of what I felt like God wanted us to say, and allowed our top Ministry Leaders to speak into that, push back on that, bring new ideas to the table, and confirm where I feel God is leading us. We get highly creative at these meetings, which are always held off-site to stimulate that very thing.  We had an awesome meeting this last Monday, and I feel SO GREAT about where God is taking us, what He wants us to say, and HOW we're going to say it! I can't wait to begin to share SOON what He has laid on our hearts!

8. We remain open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Often, over the years, we've had a great plan, and then we begin to sense God is up to something different; that something that wasn't in the plan becomes more urgent; or less urgent. We sense God leading us to go a different direction in our teaching. In this event, we never allow the teaching calender to control the Spirit. We always allow the Spirit to control the teaching calendar. Many times over the years, we tweaked the calendar as we've gone along. Other times, we've worked the plan just as we had laid it our months later. IN either event, we listened and cooperated with the Spirit of God!

Largely due to this process, and the leaders who helped shape it, this Fall is going to be one of the most spiritually impactful times in the life of our church! Mountain Lakers, buckle your spiritual seat belts!

Our Worship Planning Process (pt. 1)...

One of the questions I'm often asked, both inside and outside our church is: "Where do you guys get your sermon series ideas?" Today, I'll unpack the answer to that question a bit.

1. What's important to God? What is important to God's heart and mission? These ideas drive our teaching calendar.  Our five marks of a follower of Jesus are already pretty clear from God's Word: Spiritual Growth, Using our Gifts, Visionary Giving, and Greater Impact. God wants every Christian to grow consistently in these areas. These ideas from god;s heart largely drive our teaching calendar each year. We just need to figure out how to communicate them. We never allow creativity to drive what we teach on. We allow God to drive what we teach on.

2. What is God teaching me? I have come to realize that when God is speaking to me, He is not just speaking to me for my benefit. He wants to use what he's teaching me to teach others.

3. Where are the people? Scripture challenges church leaders to KNOW , PAY ATTENTION TO, and CARE for "the flock of God," the church. What are God's people dealing with or struggling with? What's missing in their lives? What's needed in their lives? What do God's people need to know RIGHT NOW? These go near the top of what God has us teach on.

 4. WHEN should this be taught? Once we begin to put together WHAT  God wants us to teach on, we THEN begin to discuss WHEN during the year would be the best time to share this with God's people? Our worship planning process helps us accomplish this. I'll discuss this in more detail tomorrow.

Stay tuned for pt. 2 of this post!

Sunday Reflex 6-27-10...

Here are a few reflections from our services yesterday @mtnlakechurch:

• Best worship set we've sung in a while! Todd and the Worship Team rocked the house yesterday!
• My favorite series transition bumper video is posted below. Great job, James!
• AWESOME kick-off of our new series: "ALIENS" yesterday!
• I think yesterday was one of the most unique I've given. I really believe Gd is going to use this message and this series!
• 1 Peter 2:11 (NIV) Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
• Philippians 3:20 (NIV) But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• "God views us differently once we become Christians!" 
• "Christians are no longer citizens of this world."
• "If God views us differently, it ought to move us to want to love differently."
• "Our customs and culture should reflect our citizenship."
  
•  "Where is my citizenship?" I made a huge appeal to those who didn't know Christ! 
• What about me is different because I am a Christian?" 
• Another awesome day at Mountain Lake Church! 
• Can't wait for the "Fourth Family Get Together" this Sunday!

What to do at a pity party (pt. 2)...

We all have them. Pity Parties. Those parties that we are the only ones invited to. Those parties where the entire discussion centers around how BAD we've got it. IN 1 Kings 19, Elijah, the GREAT man and prophet of God, throws himself a pity party. in part two of this series, I'll give some other observations from Elijah's great pity party.

"Elijah replied, 'I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.'”1 Kings 19:10

IF we want to throw a great pity party, we need to:

• Focus on all we've done and why we deserve better. If we play that game, we're in trouble. First of all, we don't deserve anything good. We're sinners. We fall short of the glory of God.  We deserve death: physically and spiritually. Anything we get better than that is because of His grace!
  
• Focus on myself. Go back and read 1 Kings 19 and you'll find  A TON of personal pronouns. Elijah was consumed with a focus on himself and his needs. God sought to get him to take the focus off himself and put it back on God and His mission for him.
• Assume I'm the only one. "I am the only one left...". "Lord, I am the only one faithful; the only one single; the only one who feels this way; the only one who;s lost their job; the only one with a spouse like this; the only one with kids or parents like this..The list goes on and on. The truth? You're not the only one. You never have been Your struggles are common with most of humanity. One of the beauties of healthy community in the church is a culture that can say: "Me, too. I struggle with that." "We have the same issues." "I know how you feel." Suddenly we look around and realize we are not alone in our struggles or our ministry. 

I love God's response to Elijah's pity party:

The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:15–18 (NIV)

God says: "Go back to where you were before you fell into this party. Get busy doing what I've told you to do. Be faithful doing the last thing I told you to do. Start looking around. You're not the only one seeking to be faithful, you know. Trust me. I'm God. I'm at work. I got this. You do your part. I'll do mine!" Pity Party Over!

Did you need to hear this today? I sure did.

Aliens: We're not from here...

Sneak Peek at what we're talking about beginning this Sunday!

Just hints. You've gotta' be here to know what its all about!

ALIENS Series Bumper promo from Mountain Lake Church on Vimeo.

What to do at a pity party (pt. 1)...

We all have them. Pity Parties. Those parties that we are the only ones invited to. Those parties where the entire discussion centers around how BAD we've got it. IN 1 Kings 19, Elijah, the GREAT man and prophet of God, throws himself a pity party. His pity party came on the heels of God doing some extraordinary miracles in and through him in 1 Kings 18.

Lesson #1: Life is filled with the highest of highs and lowest of lows; usually close together. 

Elijah's life gets threatened right after the greatest moment of his life, and he becomes afraid. So he tears off into the desert alone.

Lesson #2:  If we want to get depressed and stay depressed, run off by our self and stay there.  

There' God nourished Elijah, not just spiritually, but physically and emotionally, including his taking a nap!

Lesson #3: Fatigue is perhaps the number one initial cause of pity parties.

When we are tired, or when we haven't taken a a day off, honored the sabbath, taken our mind of work or the kids or school in a while, we will get often get discouraged or depressed. We lack perspective when we're overloaded and overwhelmed and overworked. God created rest for a reason!

Stay tuned for part 2 of this post...

Sunday Reflex 6-20-10...

Here are a few reflections from yesterday @mtnlakechurch:

• Father's Day! Love Father's Day! LOVE getting an excuse to talk more to men on a Sunday!
  
• One observation: Mothers generally drag their families to church on Sunday. Fathers generally try to get their family to stay home or go to the lake and skip church. just sayin'.
  
• You may or may not know, but half of our worship music yesterday was WRITTEN by the worship team @mtnlakechurch, led by Todd Nichols! So honored to be your Pastor, Todd. THE UPCOMING WORSHIP PROJECT IS GOING TO ROCK!
  
• Wrapped up our msg series: "Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness."
  
• A few thoughts from yesterday's msg:
  * "Happiness is not found in the pursuit of happiness, but in the pursuit of God."
  * Solomon typifies you and me: We tend to pursue happiness through Experiences, Acquisition, & Achievement.
  * "The good news is that God knows us. He know our tendencies and He knows what will & won;t make us happy!"
  * There are so many GOOD reasons why Jesus said: "Seek first the Kingdom of God."
  * "At the end of the day, we don't even pursue God to gain happiness. We pursue Him because He's always been pursuing us."
  
• Closed the day with a song of commitment from one of Todd's original worship songs: "Worship Rising". The bridge to the song contained the heart of our commitment:
  "Worship Risig to You, Lord; Take everything it's Yours; There's nothing I want more than You!"
  
  

What I learned @Disney World a/b Guest Services (pt. 2)

* We need to make it our business to know the business. I was amazed at my inability to stump any Disney World employee with a question that I had. I am not a typical man, I will ask for directions quickly. I love to ask tough questions to people to see how they respond. I purposely asked several employees random questions about Disney World, attractions, showtimes, etc. and they ALL knew the answers! It was obvious to me that not only did Disney employees know their task, they knew what was going on in ALL of Disney World! Questions: As a church member, do I make it my business to know what;s going on in my church? If someone were to ask me about a ministry area I'm NOT involved in, would I be able to answer their questions? As a Pastor or ministry leader, am I communicating effectively to my area of ministry, not just what's going in my corner of the ministry world, but all of the church?

* Regardless of how we feel, "the show" must go on. It was 90+ degrees most days while we were at Disney. I am sure the employees were miserably hot...some of them in long sleeve uniforms and costumes! I also witnessed all kinds of ugly comments/behavior from tourists to Disney employees. The Disney "Cast Members" never flinched. Never whined. Never ceased to smile. Never got impatient. Never allowed their tough day to be imposed on a guest's day. Never. As guests service volunteers each week, we must remember that our tough day should NEVER rub off on guests. We need to be prepared to make every guests's day their BEST day ever to church, regardless of how we feel. We must be prepared to love and serve well and maintain our "game faces" no matter what. We can't get frazzled because a certain volunteer didn't show up, and let it ruin our day. If we do, we could ruin a guest's day. We need to be prepared to make every guest's day their BEST day ever to church, regardless of how we feel. Or it could be their LAST day. Questions: What kind of spiritual mindset am I in when I approach the church campus each week? Do I have my "game face" on when it comes to being prepared to welcome and interact with guests?

What I learned @Disney World a/b Guest Services (Pt. 1)

Disney World and the church are in the same business: The people business. The church just has a higher goal for people than Disney does. Disney's goal is to deliver fun and entertainment to people. The church's goal is to deliver the message of hope, joy, and eternal life to people. So would you think Guest Services would be more important at church or at Disney? Sadly to say, however, Disney does it better most of the time. We could make some observations from them about how we can deliver our message more effectively to people by HOW we relate to guests on our church campuses each week. Here are a few observations I made about Disney and Guests Services experiences, and their implications for the church.

* Everyone is in Guest Services. They don't have a customer service area or a customer service team at Disney World. EVERYONE is in Guest Services. I mean EVERYONE! As the church, we need to realize every week that guest Services should never be limited to one ministry area. Every follower of Jesus should view themselves as a member of Guest Services! We are all there to serve guests each week! Question: If I really understood this, would this change at all where I park, what time I get there, where I sit, or or how quickly I leave each Sunday?

* The guest is always the most important thing No matter what they were doing, over and over again, Disney World "cast members" (not employees) would stop in their tracks to answer ANY question we had. Always. Never seemed rushed. Never seemed like we were interrupting what they were doing. Never. Every one of them seemed to be convinced that the guest was the most important things at every moment. As guest services volunteers in the church, we need to remember that people ARE our business! Not a program. Not a task. Not a service. People are the church. The church IS people! This means music, programming, curriculum, and meetings are not the most important thing. Loving God is best expressed by loving people! Questions: If I really understood this, how would it affect how I interact with people each week at church? How often do I have a conversation with guests at my church? Or do I only talk to non-guests?

Stay tuned for part 2 of this post...

Observations a/b relationships from vacation

OK. SO I have been on vacation the last week. I've been in the car for over 25 hrs, by my count, with my family. I have also fought HUGE crowds of people with family in tow in 90 degrees weather. I stood in line a lot and also had the opportunity to people watch a lot. Here are a few things I learned (or were reminded of) about relationships on vacation:

When you're tired, it will affect your relationships. Whether it's being in the car for hours on end with your family, or waiting in the line in 90 degrees heat, I was reminded once again, that when we're tired (or others are tired), we tend to be more insensitive, irritable, and short tempered. This is also true if we're running around violating the idea of sabbath rest, working too much, staying up too late, and not getting enough sleep. If you're tired, it will affect your relationships.

Parents need to be in charge. Yes, I value my kids' opinions. However, kids don't have a driver's license for a reason. Our job is to prepare them to make good decisions in good time. When they're young,however,  they're not ready to make all the decisions!  I saw far too many parents, though, allowing their children to rule the roost while in Disney World.  Make all the decisions. Get their way or a fit ensued. While this was sometimes humorous, and sometimes annoying, the reason it really bothered me is because all they're doing is teaching their children that you can't be happy unless you always get your way, and you're always in charge. Is that REALLY what they want to teach their kids? Not me. I'm willing to say No. Make the decision for them this time. Make them mad at me if I need to. Disagree with my kids. Guide them. Release them when they leave the house. But for now when they're at home, parents need to be in charge.

Honesty, Humility and Forgiveness are the BIG THREE.  We're going to blow it. I know I did a couple of times on vacation. The flesh won a couple times. When it did, I said I was sorry. They forgave me. That's the way we roll in the Lovejoy family. We're not perfect. By far. However, we hold each other accountable to be honest with each other about our hurts, admit our faults, ad forgive each other.  It's impossible to have healthy relationships or partnerships without honesty, humility, and forgiveness. Are you being honest about your hurts? Are you admitting your faults? How about forgiving those who've trespassed against you?

Only one thing brings more happiness than a healthy family. I had a blast with my family on vacation. We laughed, argued, played, ran, posed, and made memories together this week. I love my family. We're fighting to stay a healthy family, because only one thing brings more happiness than a healthy family: Jesus. And He helps me keep my family healthy! That's why I love HIM...