shawnlovejoy.com

Programming? or People?

       Everyone is talking these days about the need for CHANGE in the church. I think everyone agrees that across the board, the church must CHANGE in order to influence and impact this world we live in. The GREAT news is, I believe the church in general, across our country, is undergoing VAST change. I really believe we'll all look back 20 years from now and see the first decade of the new millennium as some of the most rapid change in the history of the church!
        But what has really changed?  I'll tell you: PROGRAMMING. We've updated our music; done away with the "pulpit" and the thrones on stage. Many of us have done away with "the choir". We've taken the steeples off our buildings. We've "pimped" out the children's ministry environments. We've moved from Sunday School to Small Groups. We've become "simple churches" and KILLED a lot of the programs we were doing or other churches have done. We've changed the way we dress; and placed coffee bars in the lobby. By the way, I love all of this. But do you recognize anything that's missing? People!
       Many churches, in their desire to be culturally relevant have focused TOO MUCH on programming, at the neglect of focusing on PEOPLE! At the end of the day, I don't believe changes in programming ALONE will change the world! I believe changes in people will change the world! So any idea what we should be focusing on?
       At Mountain Lake these days, we are worrying less and less about shaking up and changing up the PROGRAMMING all the time, and MORE and MORE about how we can better invest in PEOPLE: INSIDE the church and OUTSIDE the church! Jesus said that the world would know we are His disciples, NOT by our programming; but by our love for people!
        Churches, your programming will work most of the time if the people behind the programs are messed up in love with God and each other! God will use your church to reach disconnected people if they know you LOVE them! So stop tinkering with programming and start loving people...and watch God do the rest!

Passion and Authority...

"When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed
at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority
and not as their teachers of the law" Matthew 7:28-29 (NIV)

 When Jesus spoke, evidently, even a casual observer could tell that he was different than the religious leaders of the day. He spoke eternal truth simply, directly, with love (in contrast to the bitter hatred of the Pharisees), with urgency, and without hesitation or consultation. That astounded the crowd.

In other words, I believe there were two things that set Jesus' teachings apart from everyone else's:

Passion and Authority

    The religious leaders were USED to giving the company line. they were saying the a lot of right things most days:  “You know: love the Lord your God..." The Ten Commandments...They were saying the right WORDS. There was just no passion in them!!!!

        Oh, but when Jesus spoke...He spoke with a fondness, an enthusiasm, with desire, with urgency. He was not this meek, mild voiced intellectual, has many have pictured Him. When He spoke He spoke with passion! When He spoke, people sat up on the edge of their seats. They way He was speaking got people's attention! 

        What's funny, is the fact that NO ONE has ever told me that to be more like Jesus, I need to have more PASSION in my life; that to teach like Jesus I need to teach with more passion! I see it, now. If there's anything Jesus' teaching demonstrates it's the fact that great teaching is not just about the right content and doctrine. It's about passion. Passion moves people! You know what I’m finding? You know what really encourages me? That in leadership, Passion will actually help us compensate for lack of skill!

    Here's the other cool part: What was it that gave Jesus His authority? Was it His title? No. He didn't have one, humanly speaking. He was a carpenter's son? What made Jesus the REAL leader in Jerusalem in His day, was His passion! In other words, passion actually helps give us a sense of authority! So I I am asking God to help make me more of a man of passion. I want my passion for God to come through in my conversations, in my meetings with people, and most of all, for me, MY TEACHING! ore than anything else, I want to people to see and feel that when I speak, I am PASSIONATE about God and His Word! What about you? Is the passion coming though?

An Advisory Team? In church?

       Within our church structure, one of our Leadership Teams at Mountain Lake, is our Advisory Team, made up of 5 guys and 3 ladies, who represent our church well, in terms of life station and spiritual journey. We have some young and some old; some who have been Christians for a long time; and some just over a year.
       Our Advisory Team does not make ministry decisions or set strategic direction for the church. Our Pastors do that under God's leadership. Our Advisory Team is simply a sounding board for wisdom , advise, and feedback. They also help be the eyes and ears as far as the "vibe" of the congregation currently.We meet with this team every eight weeks and talk to them about some of the issues facing our church and get their feedback about different issues and decisions we're considering.
        Last night, we had an incredible discussion about some of the issues we're facing and decisions we're praying about in our Growth Group Ministry. It was electrifying! It was AMAZING to get their perspective. Sometimes in the meeting I knew what they were going to say. Other times, I was shocked by their responses. but every time, it helped our church by giving us, as the Ministry Leaders, perspective from the people's viewpoint. I can not tell you how many times these types of meetings with groups of people in our church, have saved our BUTTS as Pastors! I can't tell you how many times these meetings have protected our church from making a POOR decision!
       As Pastors, it's so easy to "think" I know what's best for the church without getting counsel or feedback from people in the church. It's so easy to THINK I know what everyone else is thinking or feeling. However, as Pastors, i feel we often get so insulated in our Ivory tower that we lose touch with where the people REALLY are. I feel like every Pastor and Pastoral Leadership team needs a place or a group of people they can trust to bounce ideas off of, and get feedback from, about what's really going on in the church. Or we'll lose touch. Pastors, where's your safe place to "test the waters" and get come feedback and counsel before you get up on the platform with your "Idea of the month?" You'd better talk to some people, first.
       FYI: Here are the current members of our Advisory Team:

Jonathan Griffith

Bill Snyder

Bill Kennedy

Dan Wiggins

Beth Nelson

Missy Bushong

Wendy Poole

Ray Calhoun

THANKS GUYS! YOU HELPED US AGAIN LAST NIGHT! I LOVE YOU GUYS!

      

Starbucks apologizes?...

       I love Starbucks. But this week I had something amazing happen. I had a bad "Starbucks experience." I was actually traveling and pulled into a Starbucks just off the Interstate that still had the "Now Open" banner hanging across the building. I pulled through the drive through, and pulled up to the speaker. The person on the microphone wasn't overly friendly and seemed unsure of themselves; they cut me off before I could finish my coffee order for my friend. Subsequently, he had to get out of the car and go in after receiving his coffee; When I finally pulled up to the window to get our coffees, they literally told me that they had run out of COFFEE but were brewing some more and asked if I could wait five minutes?! Are you kidding me?
       Believe it or not, Starbucks redeemed themselves from all of this with one simple gesture at the end of our visit. They knew they had screwed up. They knew that this had probably been a bad experience for us. So they handed us a card, and this is what it said:

"We apologize if your Starbucks experience was anything but wonderful..."
"The next time we see you, please enjoy a beverage on us. We hope your next visit is better."

       Are you kidding me? Starbucks apologized for the experience I had while at their establishment! they took responsibility. They literally asked for another shot! Man! Do you think the church could learn something else from Starbucks?
       Is is possible in our churches that there might ever be a need to stand up after the service and just be honest by saying: "We apologize if your ____________ (church) experience was anything but wonderful. We weren't hitting on all cylinders today..." Could we just be honest to people about the fact that on some weekends, that the environment,  the friendliness, the children's' workers, the music, the PREACHING is not perfect every week? Can we acknowledge that? Can we ask people to come back even when we didn't knock out of the park? Can we acknowledge the fact that even though the sign indicates "Now Open" many Sundays, that we're not ready for guests? Can we admit our shortcomings? Do we have the courage to just say sometimes: "We apologize. We know everything wasn't perfect. We value you. We want you here. We're glad you came. We hope your next visit is better." What does your church need to apologize for on some weekends?
       Just so you know, this weekend at MLC, our goal is not a "perfect experience". Our goal is to change the way you think about church and lead you to belong in a healthy relationship with God and others and become more like Jesus and Christ." If we do that, it WILL BE perfect! We love you. We value you. We want to help you. We hope every visit gets better: because God is changing your life !
         

Which comes first? Love or Discipline?

       I speak to church and ministry leaders a lot about the need for DISCIPLINE in our lives. Without discipline as a leader, we will be ineffective and lack the moral authority we need to lead the people that God has entrusted to us. However, I heard Matt Chandler, Pastor of Village Church, say something GREAT recently that's been one of his beliefs and prayers for a long time. And I totally agree with him!
        Matt has said that we must understand that Discipline can't produce love, but love almost always produces discipline. In other words, gritting our teeth and promising God and ourselves that we'll do better is NOT the answer. The truth is, we can not MUSTER UP discipline. Discipline is a spiritual product of our love relationship with God. The fruits of the Spirit are just that: fruits of the Spirit! To possess more discipline in our lives, we don't need to try harder. We need to love more passionately. God, through His relationship with us can produce IN US, the discipline we need to be and do what He wants us to be and do! Do you need to change? Then you need to love! And allow God to love you. THAT'S the path to change!

Last day at the beach...

      

Today is my last day at the beach on vacation. I'll be back in town and ready for church on Sunday! In the mean time, my family had a lengthy discussion this morning about HOW to pack in everything we wanted to see and do on our last day of vacation. It's amazing what you can pack in when you know you've got one day. All of this got me thinking..What if today was YOUR last day? NOT just for vacation, but for...life! How would you live differently if today was your last day? How would your approach your work? How would you approach your relationships? Your relationship with God? Why not live this way every day?
        All of this got me to thinking about church this Sunday. What if this Sunday was the last Sunday we ever had to introduce people to Jesus through our services? Would the church service be programmed differently? Would we worship differently? Would we sing differently? Would we teach differently? Would we listen for God's voice more intently? How would you approach Sunday differently if this was the last day to worship Jesus, serve Jesus, and introduce people to Jesus? Why not approach every Sunday this way?

Raising Evangelsitic Risk...

        In a conversation recently with one of my heroes, Bill Hybels, of Willow Creek Church, Bill mentioned that one of Willow's new goals was "raising evangelistic risk." When I heard this phrase, my skin crawled! I got goose bumps all over! I thought: "That's it! That's what I believe God wants for the church! He wants us to take greater risks (than we're currently taking) to reach people far from God!
        What does that look like? I don't know. But now at Mountain  Lake, I believe God wants us to dream about "raising evangelistic risk" in our context. What are some risks we could take that could potentially reap a greater harvest than we're experiencing now? What does it look like to raise evangelistic risk: In our worship services? In our Children's ministry? In our Student Ministry? I don't know. We've got more questions than answers; but at least we're asking the question. What kinds of risks are you taking to introduce people to Jesus? 

The Sundays I care the most about...

        Every week at MLC we realize we are going to have people walking through our doors seeking to give God and the church one more shot. So we're always on our p's and q's. However, there are really just a FEW Sundays every year that I am willing to risk being accused of micromanagement with. My Team will tell you that there are a few Sunday's services every year that I am HIGHLY involved in and willing to fight for.  The reason is that there are about five Sundays per year that our church opens its doors the widest to unchurched people. To be honest with you, I think our church primarily grows through these few Sundays every year. Here they are, followed by the REASON they're so important.

• Christmas: more important than Easter, because this Holiday is not followed by Summer, and we have found that we actually have a greater chance at incorporating people into our family more effectively following this holiday.

• Second Sunday in January: We've got two things working for us here. One, we just had a bunch of new guests visit us on Christmas weekend, but were probably hung over the following weekend from New year's Celebrations! So if they've decided to give God and the church one more shot, this will be their first Sunday back with us. Second, you;ve got the whole New Year's Resolutions thing working for us. People have been promising God and each other for three months that "after the Holidays we're going to get in church..." This is their weekend, and we're ready for them!

• Easter: This one is a no-brainer. However, our goal every year on Easter is not to get everyone "saved" before they leave the service. Our goal is to get them to give us another chance the following week.  In fact, we've begun to evaluate our effectiveness on this day by the weeks attendance AFTER Easter. If NO ONE comes back the following weekend, we failed on Easter. A good goal is for us to be up in attendance by atleast 10% from the week before Easter. This means we TRULY reached new people who were disconnected from Christ on Easter Sunday! If we have, we believe God used us on Easter. Hope that all makes sense.

• Mother's Day: Mother's Day is the third largest attendance in our church every year. We program the services with that in mind. Every mean, cursing, drinking, nasty man will get cleaned up for Grandma, mom, or the wife, and come to church to keep the woman off his back. So on Mother's Day, we enter the service recognizing the fact that, not only do we need to bless MOMS, but realize there will be a lot of unchurched men in our service that might be giving God and the church one more shot. I can;t wait to watch that happen again this week!

• Back To School Weekend:  Alot of new families move during the summer, so as not to disrupt their kids' school years. Their summers are crazy, but come Fall, even unchurched people are looking for a way to make a new start in their new community and make new friends. Church, even in their minds, is a great place to do that. So the first weekend after school starts is a BIG week for our church. It always feel like our church grows 20% on this Sunday. So we are ready. We always seek to teach a series during this timer that will really connect with a family and what they're facing. This year, once again, we will kick off a community wide emphasis and teaching series on the family.

Being the church vs. Having church...

      We have church every week at MLC, but this week, in particular, we're BEING the church. HUNDREDS of us are gathering today to go out into our community and love people in Jesus' name. We're performing construction projects at a nearby home for troubled women and their children; we're visiting a nursing home to love on the elderly; and we're picking up trash on the roadsides throughput our community.      Today, we ARE BEING the church, not just having church!
        Too many churches are having church every week, instead of being the church. Church is not a service. We can have a great church service, and not BE the church.  Church is not a building. We can have the greatest church building in the world and not BE the church. Church is not programming. We can have the greatest children's student and worship programming, bu still not BE the church. Being the church is about coming together as Christ's body and expressing our love for God and our love for people! Being the church is not about sitting and enjoying the message. It's about serving, giving, and loving. Is your church having church or being the church?

I don't need the church to be a good Christian...

        Ever heard anyone make this comment? If I had a nickel for every time I had, I could almost retire from ministry! The problem with this comment is that it flies into the face of what Jesus lived and taught us through us life and death! If there's anything Jesus taught us about living the Christian life, it's the fact that Christianity is about relationships, not individualism. The reason so many Christians ARE failing in their Christian walk is because they're trying to do it by themselves! Many Americans have integrated our Western culture of self-sufficiency and individualism with Christianity, and it has led us to give up on the church and His people!
        Hey, I know we've all been let down by a Christian, sometime, somewhere. If you have, welcome to the party! rest assured, you've let lots of people down, too! Does that mean God is through using you? No! Do a few failures in the past mean God is through with the church? Heavens, NO!!! God is as ready, wiling, and able as ever to work in our lives TOGETHER in His church to bring all of HIS spiritual synergy into action to radically transform our lives and the lives of others. Christianity is not about you. It's not about me. It's about  "Wii". So let's stop whining about our failures. Let's stop whining about the church's failures. Do you know what a real team does when it realizes it's behind? They pick each other up off the bench; slap each other on the butt (wouldn't that be interesting if we incorporated this into our worship services)and say: "Hey, let's go, we can do this, if we stick together and start playing as a team!" All of this is what we're going to start talking about this weekend in our new message series called WOW Wii. Don't miss it!