shawnlovejoy.com

Video blog on how we team teach...

Church planting needs more Simon Cowell's...

    Last night, my new friend Greg Surratt said one of the most hilarious, yet truthful things I've heard in a while. While we were sitting outside doing life by a fire, he said: "You know, the church planting world needs more Simon Cowell's".

    As soon as he made the statement, I laughed out loud, knew what he meant,and agreed wholeheartedly. What he was saying is that church and ministry leaders who work with potential church planters need to be more  honest with these young men and women  coming to us with interest in planting a church.  Here's what we  agreed on and discussed:

• So many people lack real perspective on what their real gifts are.
• There are more that need to be talked OUT OF church planting, than recruited into it.
• In an effort not to hurt people's feelings, we can hurt a lot of people.
• Many people could be used by God more effectively if they joined a team versus becoming the lead planter. 
• Church planters must be great communicators. Not good. Great. If they're good, they needs to lead a campus of a church, instead of a church.
• Potential church planters need to know that it's almost never the glamorous, easy road they think it's going to be. They will probably not be the next Billy Graham or Rick Warren. Might as well tell them now.
• MANY will have SOLID church planting careers, but few will ever be superstars, and that's OK!
• We need to tell them that there's a HIGH PRICE TO PAY for plating a church. THEN there's a huge payoff. It always comes in that order. 
• As church planting leaders, we might have to hurt  people's feelings sometimes to help them embrace who God wired them to be! 

Thanks Simon; and Thanks Greg!

Mountain Lake's Multi-site efforts...

         After spending time with Dave and the team from Community Christian Church for two days, I'm so encouraged! We've been a multi-campus church for 10 months now, and we've learned a lot about ourselves as a church during that time! It's been so great to get some outside perspective on clarifying the win for multiple campuses! I have come away convinced that we have done so many things right in our multi-site strategy!

Here are some of the wins for our second campus of Mountain Lake:

• Live teaching at multiple campuses is WORKING! It hasn't always been easy or perfect, but collaborating on the message each week with multiple communicators is working and will work! If we are able to continue reproducing sites with this approach, I will be so proud of the legacy I leave behind in raising up and coaching communicators!
• Unity among campuses has been a non-issue. We really have been able to think of ourselves as one church with two campuses, even though I am not at the other campus all the time. Our church is as unified as it's ever been!
• Our mission is happening at our new campus! People ARE belonging and becoming at our new campus! Lives are being changed!  God is using us in this new community! People are finding Christ and finding a spiritual home that would not do otherwise!
• For the most part, our new campus even "feels" like Mountain Lake. We've been able to  reproduce our DNA! Love it!
• We have raised up TONS of new volunteers that might  have stayed in the background FOREVER at our original campus. 
• We have raised up tons of new leaders, many of which have never led in any type of position in any church!
• Becoming a Multi-site church has forced our Ministry Team to become better equippers, instead of simply do-ers of ministry, which I believe is the Scriptural mandate for church leaders! Team, I'm so proud of you! I see you becoming better leaders daily, because you've had to!
• We've even raised up new staff from within to help lead our new campuses!
• Mountain Lake is proud to be one church in two locations and I can't wait to start gearing up and dreaming about starting location #3....and then #4...and then #5! North Georgia, get ready! We're coming to you!!!

Hanging with another one of my heroes...

      

  Today I get to hang out with a couple of my heroes and good friends: Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson, as Mountain Lake hosts Newthing Network's Multi-site Practicum. Can't wait to learn from you Dave and Jon! We welcome churches from all across America and hope we're able to show you some Southern (and even better, Mountain Lake) hospitality!

One week 'til Multi-site Practicum...

I'm getting PUMPED up about hosting Newthing Network's Multi-site Practicum at our church next Monday and Tuesday! If you're thinking about going multi-site, you've GOT to get to this! I blogged about this earlier here. To register NOW click here.

The WHY behind the WHAT...

        Just so you know, we don't take lightly a decision to cancel worship services here at MLC. There are so many factors we take into account:

• The safety of our people on the roads before and after our various worship services. We care MOST about your family's safety. If one of you CRASHED and got killed on the way to, or on the way home from any of our services, we would never live it down!
• Icy conditions are more dangerous than SNOWY conditions.
• The various worship leaders, musicians, and Creative Arts Volunteers who would need to be here HOURS before the first worship services.
• Our West Forsyth campus, where setup for our services begins around 5 AM.
• We've GOT to give as much lead time as possible so that contact can be made with the hundreds of VOLUNTEERS who will need to communicated with and rescheduled. We've also got to give plenty of time for the word to get out to probably 3000 people in our community who call our church home.
• If the call is hard to make, it comes down to this: Is there an opportunity to be on the safe side and give ALL of our staff, volunteers, and church family a day with their families? What a novel concept: a church supporting family time!

        By the way, every time most churches cancel services,their offerings take a BIG HIT that week. Regardless of what you might think, most people don't "make up their tithe the next week" when they've been out for various reasons.  Thank God we have so many people at MLC who are committed to honor God in their giving, whether they miss a week or not! This is a GREAT REASON to utilize online giving. It allows us to be consistent in our giving even when we miss a week at church. I know I can count on you this week and next week to  be faithful and to keep the mission strong here at MLC! See you next weekend!

One church, two campuses...

 

  Well, we did it! Today we were one church, on two different campuses...And it all worked!Both campuses rocked! I had the opportunity to teach Saturday Night at our N. Forsyth Campus, and today for both of our "Sneak Preview" Worship Services at W. Forsyth High School. Two Bands; Two guys, Rodney and I, both communicating the same message...and it worked... BEAUTIFULLY!  I believe God actually used what we said!
        Here's the most amazing part: this first W. Forsyth PREVIEW service was not even publicized. It was intended to be a "practice" service for our core...and  nearly 300 people showed up! Un-believable! You guys are amazing! Your service and generosity to make all of this happen almost leave me in a stupor! You amaze me! Hats off above all, to Chad Ward, one of my best friends in the world, my fellow Elder, and now Campus Pastor! Chad, you constantly amaze me! I'm not a perfect leader, but I was batting .1000 when I picked you to help me start this church eight years ago! Fantastic job today!

What a month!

        December is going to be an AWESOME MONTH around here! There are going to be SO MANY GREAT THINGS GOING ON that will impact our lives and our church, for some time! Here are some of the things happening this month:

Dec 1-2: We are starting our new message series MIRACLES this weekend! AGAIN, this series is going to be SO encouraging this Holiday season! Who are you going to invite to be here this weekend?

Dec. 7: We will hold our "WOW It's Christmas" Banquet for those who committed to give financially to our WOW Initiative, which God is using to impact our community and our world!

Dec. 9: We hold our FIRST PREVIEW WORSHIP SERVICE for our West Forsyth Campus on this day. Two worship services: 9:30 & 11:00!

Dec 12: Wednesday Night Live. You don;t want to miss this Christmas themed Wednesday Night Live. We're hoping there will be a Pastor video, and some incredibly BIG ministry updates on the construction of our new Worship Auditorium.

Dec. 23-24-25: Our Christmas weekend services! Our theme this year: "A Community Christmas"   Worship Times:  Saturday 4:30 & 5:45; Sunday 9:30 & 11:00; and MONDAY (Christmas Eve) @ 4PM.

Dec 24: Our FIRST PUBLIC WORSHIP SERVICE at our West Forsyth Campus!

Dec 29-30: THE LAST TIME OUR CHURCH WILL EVER BE LIMITED TO ONE CAMPUS! (Did I just say that?)

Pastor and Worship Leader Wanted...

        I'm writing this post today, because my blog is read by HUNDREDS of pastors all over the world. And I want to get the word out as far as possible. God has begun a Revolution in our church! He is ALREADY using us mightily, but things are about to take off at a fever pitch!
        As many of you know, MLC is getting ready to launch a new campus at West Forsyth High School. Our vision is to launch an additional campus every 12-18 months. ALL of these campuses will offer live, rotating teaching pastors, and rotating worship leaders, just like our present campus does! We envision facilitating ministry on at least 5 different campuses 10 years from now! WOW! This is an enormous, overwhelming opportunity, but also an overwhelming task!
        SO...the greatest task of all in this campus revolution movement is raising up and recruiting leaders from all over America who will feel called of God to be part of the incredible vision GOD has given us! So let me tell you AGAIN what MLC will CONSTANTLY be looking for over the next several years:
       Teaching Pastors: We will be looking for Pastors who have a STRONG gift of communicating to the unchurched. No warning: these pastors won't just sit around and dream up sermons all the time...These guys will wear multiple hats of leadership on our team over the years and depending on the need. However, we are going to need an arsenal of Pastors who have the gift of TEACHING. If that describes you at all, send an email to me.  Send me some biographical info on yourself, and send me a  CD or preferably a DVD of your teaching. Don't send me questions. There's no way I could answer them. You're either interested in doing something crazy, or you're not!
        Worship Leaders: We are also looking for an arsenal of young worship leaders who can be part of of an incredible Creative Arts Team and lead worship for our various campuses. You will have an amazing opportunity to work with a PROVEN, TOP SHELF Worship Pastor in Todd Nichols who has a passion to help young worship leaders grow as people  of God, as well as Worship Leaders. If you are interested in this, drop Todd a line.       
       If ANY of what I have said today sparks YOUR interest, could it be that God is speaking to you and asking you to consider doing something CRAZY? Why not test the waters? Look forward to hearing from you...