Under-Utilized Leadership Part 2

Watch this video.



I love that video. It is a great example of being aware which is one of the Under-Utilized Leadership areas I have "not" seen being used.

The area of town that I worked in from October to March demanded a high level of awareness. I constantly had to be aware of what was going on. When I walked out to go to my car I had to double check and look around and know what was going on.

Due to the type of school we had, in reaching at-risk teens, we had several kids from various rival gangs in town. I always had to know what I was saying and who was around in case something might happen. We had to know if something was going on so that we might cut it off at the pass. I had to make sure I didn't leave any personal items laying around.

When it comes to leading in church or business you have got to be aware. To be aware is having or showing knowledge; bearing in mind; attentive to.

To be aware when leading people is to know what is going on around you. It is picking up on the subtle hints people give off as you are leading them. It is being attentive to the details of of your position. If you are overseeing a youth ministry service do you know all that is going on...whether you have entrusted others to lead areas or are doing it yourself you must be aware of the details.

Begin today to heighten your awareness. Start small...choose an area or an evening or day at work and begin to be attentive to the details of what is going on around you.

Where do you need awareness?

Check out all the parts of this series.

Under-Utilized Leadership Part 1

This past year I have gone into Bi-Vocational ministry. Due to the area of town I work in, it has challenged me to filter some areas of leadership. As I go through this blog series I'll explain a little of why I'm filtering these in particular. These areas of leadership are areas I haven't seen given a lot of importance. I myself think that many leaders are under-utilizing them.

As a leader in the church world or in business there are many subtle things you can do that can elevate your leadership and success. Here are a few we are going to touch on:

• Awareness
• Thinking Ahead
• Passion

What are some other areas you have not seen emphasized or under-utilized?

[photo credit flickr.com]

Giving Blood

I gave blood today.


I won't lie...it hurt a little.


Who knows it may save a life.


But even so it was worth it for this t-shirt.


Taking a moment to encourage you to do what you can. Giving blood really isn't as bad as you make it. Not only that but just in Corpus they need 112 donations a day just to keep up with the demand.

Find a local blood bank and do your part.

Throwing Bones In Church

Chris presented a great question to me in the comments on the leadership pipeline post in which I asked for some feedback from you the readers.

Chris wrote, "Do you believe the Bible presents a clear structure in order for us to adopt or do you believe structures must change with time and culture?"

Chris, as I read the Bible I see some clear principles in which God paints for structure in the church. I also even see within Scripture that structures change over time and through cultures.

Look at the church when it first began. I don't see that these men had any guidelines for church. In fact, I love how they chose the first replacement for Judas. They prayed and then cast lots. I wonder if maybe we should go to that. I can see churches everywhere throwing bones to chose their deacons or even to select their pastor. Later on, as the church matured, they set a few guidelines in choosing the deacons. These examples, to me, point to structure within the church.

I don't believe they were a stopping point as much as an example of God showing us principles that should guide us. God is a God of order and does things on purpose. When He made creation He did it with order. Systems and structure are everywhere throughout nature. Why then all of the sudden do we as the church cast off structure?

When Moses was being overwhelmed in leading the people of Israel he didn't have any example, any Scripture....God simply sent his father-in-law who helped him set up structure that would alleviate his pressures. This structure helped Moses and the people he was leading.

Thoughts???? Am I the only one that sees that God is structured and paints a picture of structure for His church???

[photo credit flickr.com]

Challenge Your Process

As a leader it is important that you are driving the change that you desire.

The status-quo is a dangerous place to be in. It is dangerous because often times you don't realize you are in it.

You must be intentional about challenging your processes because inherently people, churches, and organizations crave order. Processes that aren't challenged remain the same which is exactly where we stay. In the same place.

The church is the worse when it comes to this. We are bad at trying to do the exact same thing hoping that we will get different results.

Progress demands change. It demands a leader who seeks to push through the chaos of change as they drive to the next level.

What process should you be challenging right now?

[photo credit flickr.com]

Leadership Pipeline

I want to do a series in the future on Leadership Pipeline that deals with churches and ministries.

I learned a long time ago that even if you don't have a system you do have a system...it may just not be verbalized or written.

To get me prepped on it...can any of you out there answer some of these questions for me?These don't only pertain to church as a whole but even in departments such as youth/children.

1. What is your structure for building leaders?
2. Do you have a system for moving leaders up? Could you list out your system?
3. Do you shop out or in for your leaders?

The floor is now yours...LIST AWAY.

One Step Closer

Today, Pastor Bil shared some great news. We are one step closer to being in a building.

Seven days ago Bil asked us to pray a big prayer..."sign two leases for two campuses in seven days."

Results for our Five Points Campus were within five days we have a verbal agreement on a building in the Calallen area. This is a huge answer to prayer.

This week I'll be blogging more on our journey and our new campus. I also hope to be putting up some pictures as soon as we sign our lease.

If you have a myspace account, we have a myspace site set up for our campus. Just go to myspace.com/bayareafivepoints.

Also be on the lookout for a campus blog coming soon.

Bi-Vocation

Life as a bi-vocational pastor is very interesting. Although I don't really feel it is the first time doing this as my first six years as a youth pastor were also spent working in our Christian school as the athletic director/coach/teacher.

It really was exhausting and looking back there were times when we grew and didn't grow because of it. Of course while I was in the middle of it I didn't know any better.

When we got to about year five I could begin to see the trend. Our last year there I actually began to focus half of my day on youth and the other half on school. I didn't put as much energy into the sports as I previously had been doing. The results: we tripled our growth over that year.

This week I've been burning the candles at both ends and it is paying off. We have over 35 people that have said they are coming to our next core meeting. We also have many others who are with us but their schedule cannot coordinate with our meeting.

And to think that we will soon be doing this every Sunday.

Exhausting??? sure... Well worth it??? YES!!!

Are there any others out there who are bi-vocational burning both candle ends?

I'm A Little Crazy

Am I crazy? I think crazy is the essence of faith.

It's crazy to walk around a city 7 times thinking it going to fall down.

It's crazy walking up to the Jordan river in the hopes that it will split.

It's crazy to dip yourself in a river seven times thinking you are going to be healed.

It's crazy to get out of a boat, put your foot down on the water and walk on top.

It's crazy for 7 or 8 families to uproot themselves and move to another city and launch a church.

It's crazy to get a report from a doctor and say that you are going to believe the report from the Lord.

Am I making my point yet? You may or may not totally agree. But in my book you have to be a little crazy. Faith demands a little or a lot of craziness.

How has your faith been crazy? I want to hear your story.

Urgent Prayer For Five Points Campus

Please be praying for us this week.

We looked for property today for our Five Points Campus and found one place but need God to open a door for us to get it. We are believing God will provide us a building that will house our Bay Area Fellowship Campus.

On Sunday Pastor Bil asked for everyone to pray that we would sign a lease on property out here within seven days.

There are some possibilities for us so pray God will move and give us favor.

Prepare and Pray

When it comes to ministry there is no way to get around not believing God for big things. Whether you need property or volunteers you must trust God to provide you with everything you need.

Here is the catch. Planning and preparation enables you to be ready when God provides for your prayers.

Let's say you are a children's pastor and are praying for "x" amount of volunteers. If they all showed up and said they are ready to get involved would you be prepared? Would you be able to plug them in and they know what to do? One way to be ready is by writing out all your volunteer positions with a job description. Once that is done then begin to pray those big prayers as you are now prepared for God to move.

Maybe you're launching a new church. Up to now you have been praying for God to provide the finances, but do you have a plan? Have you researched everything you need to launch? List out all the equipment, salaries, lease, and anything you would possibly need to for the first year. Now that you know what you need release those God-sized prayers.

Prepare and Pray for God to do something big.

We are praying some big prayers right now on our campus launch. We are believing for $30,000 to get each of our campuses off the ground.

What Big Prayers Are You Praying Right Now?

If you have found this post helpful, please share it with a friend.
[Photo Credit Flickr.com]

Building A Multi-Site Network 1

I'm going to share some multi-site thoughts that I'm processing. As I have begun feeding myself info and processing it I want to be able to focus in on what I feel are some of the key points that will make a multi-site campus successful.

The three initial vital areas for any multi-site are: leaders, location, launch time.

Leaders
In a future post I'll work to extrapolate more on specific leaders for the site but for this post I'll say that having the right leaders is a necessity for your campus. The three leaders that are crucial for your initial launch are the campus pastor, lead worshiper and children's leader.

Location
Next after leaders is choosing the right location. One thing we have discussed here at Bay Area is launching around leaders. Because of the fact that leaders are important launching in a location that has a strong leader who will oversee the campus is a plus.

When choosing a location find an area that has a core nucleus of people that have ties to the initial main campus. This could be an area that already has several core small groups. The location should also be one that has a need for the campus. Are there many strong churches in the area? Lastly is the area growing.

Launch Time
Now that you have your leaders and location in place, it will all come down to launch time. Several churches over the past few years have learned that key launch times are fall, when school begins. Other good times are the beginning of the year and Easter. No matter when the launch time is set work to build momentum up to your launch. We will focus on launching in a future post.

Bay Area Five Points Campus

Pastor John let me know that our Bay Area Fellowship Padre Island campus had 70 at their core meeting tonight...they raised $6,500 for the campus as well

I'm so excited about what God is about to do through us in the Five Points area. It is not going to happen just through me alone though. It is going to take a united effort. It is going to take a remnant.

It is going to take others who will partner with us to spread the word, to serve, and to give financially.

Scream it to the rooftops...We're bringing it to the Five Points area and beyond. Calallen, Tuloso, Odem, Sinton, Orange Grove, Mathis, Robstown...fasten your seatbelt...it's coming and we are going to change this area.

If you know someone in any of these areas, let them know what we are doing. Alone we can only do so much...together we are an army poised for something big.

Let's win this area TOGETHER!!!!

If you would like to partner with us to reach the Coastal Bend/Corpus Area, please let me know. Send an email to {pastorjcurl - at - gmail - dot - com}. Spread the word for us. If you may know someone who would be interested send them our way.

We want to make this Corpus area and beyond the hardest place to go to hell.

[Photo credit - Flickr.com]

And The Winner Is

Terrace Crawford!!!!!! Way to go Terrace. You are the first Making Difference Makers March Madness Bracket Challenge WINNER.

This was so much fun. There was ribbing, bragging, rubbing it in peoples faces...and that was just from me. I knew I had to do it when I was on top, just in case.

How you people picked Kansas to win, I'll never know. All I know is that Memphis helped me beat my wife in the brackets for the first time. Way to not hit those free-throws. And all you so called basketball conferences. Big 12 baby...that's all I got to say about that.


Here are the top ten:

1 Terrace Crawford
2 TheAbercrombie
3 Dave Holt
4 Charles Alkula
5 Tyler Madison
6 David Turner
7 Randy Reed
8 Jason Curlee
9 Robbie Curlee
10 littlepastor

You can see all the standing at yahoo fantasy sports.

Congratulations to everyone...and I can't wait until next year.

My Big Announcement 3

If you read My Big Announcement Part 1 and Part 2 you know that right now I've become a principal of a local school in town and am building a campus for Bay Area Fellowship in the five points area.

I thought it would be good to share with you the readers why I felt this is a perfect match. I'm sure it begs the question why. We are plowing along launching our own church and then the next thing you know we what we were doing turns into a campus for Bay Area Fellowship.

Here is why I believe it is a great match:

1. Vision - This Sunday Bil said what Bay Area is about is making this area "the hardest place to go to hell". I wrote this in December of last year about the church we were launching, it "is about DOMINATING the Coastal Bend Area with the Gospel of Christ making it the hardest place to go to hell."
2. Reaching The Lost - In every ministry we have led we have always set it up to reach the lost. Our focus has been on encouraging those that attend to reach out to those in their circle. Our environment's were geared to be attractive and relatable to the lost. Our messages were geared to be relevant. In a nut shell...that is the main thing with Bay Area. Reaching the lost and making disciples.
3. God-Ordained Friendship - The relationship I've built with John over there and how were weren't looking for anything. The timing of it all. This is so God-Ordained. John and I began developing a friendship before I even began going to Bay Area.Fellowship. We were mainly going there because I wanted a great church that our kids could be in while we were in the transition.
4. Leadership - This is an area I'm passionate about and although I love communicating I really love building teams and leaders. This will allow me to focus on one of my loves for now.

Truly, I could go on and on. I've heard God speak to me more through Pastor Bil's messages than I have in the previous three or four years. They are going through a spiritual awakening. I believe there is a good spiritual balance there. Pastor Bil is one of the best church communicators in America. We just had revival. They are about children and teens. Our team was for it. I've felt great grace and restoration over the past six months there. They take risks. They let leaders lead. ETC....ETC...AND OF COURSE....ETC.

Bay Area Fellowship is for real and it is an honor to be "a small part of something BIG"!!!!!!! We are charging hell with a water pistol. We are going to swing that bat until our hands bleed. We are going to make the Coastal Bend area the hardest place to go to hell.

Blogs With Benefits 2

In my first post about blogging I explained the benefits that I have enjoyed. For me it has been educational, therapeutic and I have built many relationships. In fact, it is one of the reasons we connected with John and are now beginning to lead a campus for Bay Area Fellowship.

So you can see some of the benefits, now what do you do?

Starting Your Blog
This is actually simpler than it sounds. My suggestion is start with one of the many free blogging platforms out there. I use Blogger. Two other ones I would recommend are Wordpress and Typepad.

Below I have attached a helpful video on how to start a blog with Blogger.



Tools
Two tools that you need to get going with your blog are Google Analytics and Feedburner. Google Analytics helps you track the statistics of your blog. Feedburner burns a RSS feed of your blog. If you burn your feed with Feedburner and decide to move your blog, those that subscribe through the feed will never notice the move.

Here is a video on creating a Google Analytics account:



Learn more about Feedburner and burning a feed [HERE]

If you are a pastor and would like to set up a blog Scott Magdalein recently offered help on his blog.

What advice do some of you others have on blogging?

If you have found this post helpful, please share it with a friend or on your blog.

Revival Was The Bomb

So this week we had revival at Bay Area Fellowship. Bil has a great heart for our city and shared a huge vision to turn our city around.

One, it starts with those who lead. He said that meant him as the Pastor. Then it takes a remnant. A group that is willing to go all out for their city. Lastly, it takes a commitment. A commitment by the people of God to make a difference. That is my big come away from the revival.

John Atkinson shared his thoughts along with what he sees we need for our multi-site vision to come to pass. Go check out his post "Revival at BAF Was the Bomb" Here is an excerpt:

I have no idea who reads this blog, but if God brought you to it, and you can help make a difference with your financial blessings, shoot me and email. I would love to sit down with you and talk about the multi-site vision God is building in my heart. I'm not the least bit afraid to ask for money for God, I just need to know who to ask. I hope God is convicting someone right now. In fact, the heck with it, let me just be bold for God. I need to raise $1,000,000 to plant these churches. I need to hire a staff that can handle twenty churches, so my family doesn't pay a higher price than they've already paid. I need $30,000 per plant to buy all the things a church needs. I need money to pay leases until each church is healthy enough to support itself because I don't want people to not find Christ because I can't pay the bills on a building. I have no idea why I added this part but I did!

As you now know we are leading one of those churches in our area. If you would like to partner with us to reach the city of Corpus please let either of us know. Spread the word for us. If you know someone who would be interested send them our way. We want to make this Corpus area and beyond the hardest place to go to hell.

You can view our all of Pastor Bil's messages from SPONTANEOUS online at the Bay Area Fellowship website media.

Pushing Through

One thing I've seen in my families life is that when something great is about to happen something bad always seems to happen in conjunction with it.

Is there anyone else that happens too?

For example over the past month every time we are going to have one of our core team meetings my wife gets sick either the night before or the day of. Why it happens, I have not clue.

What I do know is that there are times in our lives when we need to be resilient.

Resilient means returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched or marked by the ability to recover readily, as from misfortune.

There are times when we are going to be stretched spiritually. When our adversary, the devil, knows something good is about to happen, he will pull all the stops out to keep us from becoming all God wants us to be.

That is why we must be resilient. We must see that happening and push through it. We must snap back quickly and press forward.

When All Hell Lines Up Against You...All of Heaven Rises Up For You!

What area do you need to be more resilient in?

We're Having Revival

Hey everyone...you're going to have to be patient with me this week for several reasons. I'm not sure what my posting will be like.

One my new position as principal, two my 50 day spiritual journey and three we are having revival services at Bay Area Fellowship. You can read a little about it on my personal blog, on Pastor Bil's blog and on Pastor John's blog.

Tonight was great...God is looking for a remnant and has repositioned my family to reach the multitudes. I may blog more about it somewhere.