Multi-Ethnic Ministry

David Turner and I are working on a little project on multi-ethnic ministry.

I want to do a series of posts with some bloggers. I have a few in mind...but...if this is an area that you may feel a little passionate about, leave me a comment and let me know if you would be interested in participating

Just throwing it out there to you...let me know.

Is It Really A Team

Many churches, and I could also add in businesses, say there is a team when it comes to staff. Unfortunately, when you look from the outside in...that isn't what you see.

You don't see a group coming together to collaborate.
You don't see a group working together.

Sometimes you see a group of people running around trying to do what the head person wants and tells them to do.

Many times you see a bunch of people that when they leave work, they all run to their separate corners (homes) never to interact together.

I'm sorry to tell you...just because you are a pastor and you hire a bunch of people and you get them to do what you want...it doesn't mean you have team

I would have to say that a true team....works together, collaborates together, envisions together, enjoys each other, brings out the best in each other, lives in community, pushes each other to more, prays, sweats and bleeds together...when one is down they all rally around and lift them up....shall I say more. That's probably why I enjoy being where I am right now.

TEAM....is that what "YOU" call it.

Twittering Bay Area Fellowship

One of the things that I have been spending my time on Sunday's at Bay Area Fellowship as we are moving towards our pre-launch phase, is twittering the notes from the messages while sitting in our Corpus Campus. Pastor Bil Cornelius is used by God in a great way...I am doing it as my way of taking notes but also it is a little experiment on some internet tools we may utilize.

Here are the twitter notes but you can check them all out at twitter.com/jasoncurlee (make sure you read them from bottom to top):

• Point 4 - Get started on meeting your expectation.
• Scripture - Proverbs 13:12 (NLT)
• We can turn our health around if we turn our attitude around.
• Point 3 - Dwell on good things
• Learn to mine yourself and pull out the best from within you.
• People must have joy to have strength....Satan always wants to rob you of your joy...
• Scripture - Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)
• Focus on "His" promise not "your" problem!
• You must declare you're fit before you are.
• He (Abraham) plunged into the promise
• Scripture - Romans 4:19-25
• You have got to get moving....DO SOMETHING!!!!!
• Nothing will taste as good as you feel if you are in shape.
• Point 2 - Choose to increase eating healthier food and drinking water. (crowd out the bad food)
• Scripture - 1 Corinthians 10:23
• Your health is "your health"....your life is "your life"....you must take responsibility for it.
• Point 1 - Take responsibility for your health.
• Scripture 2 Corinthians 2:9
• What you focus on you get more of....
• Bay Area Fellowship - Series "The Power of a Winning Attitude" 3rd Week
  

I also tried out ustream.tv one week. I came and broadcasted it to my wife who was at home not feeling well. She watched the whole service from home except for the music.

These are just two internet tools I'm experimenting with right now that we might possible use in some way.

The Intangible Of Ministry

One of the reasons why it is important to plan your year and evaluate your progress, is because ministry is often very intangible. That means many times you can feel it or see it.

It is very often you don't realize you are going in the wrong direction until you see the harvest of the crop you have been working. Remember, faith is the substance of things hoped for. Our ministries are built on faith. A faith that is not really seen until it happens.

Once you have set your vision, mission, and goals...it is important to evaluate. You can choose many methods...I would suggest your ultimate evaluation would be one whether you are fulfilling your vision.

If your vision is to create fully devoted followers of Christ...what exactly does that mean and how will you know if you are getting there. Will it be based on how many baptisms you do each year? Or how many people are participating in small groups?

It is not always Sunday morning attendance that determines whether you are going in the right direction...it is whether you are fulfilling the vision God has given you.

[photo credit flickr.com]

Focus

Where should our focus be? Keeping or Reaching

I used to have a pastor who made us spend an exorbitant amount of time on tracking down all the people who had left the church.

I'm not saying we shouldn't....just saying, if we spent more time focusing on reaching those that have never graced the doors of a church, then the ones that are there will feel a greater sense of purpose and mission.

Just dropping my thought....what's yours???? KEEP or REACH

[photo credit flickr.com]

I Can't Handle It

Over the past year I have been struggling with a statement that I have heard over and over. On the surface this statement sounds great. It is comforting. It makes us feel good.

Now I am actually questioning the accuracy and validity of it. Is it even biblical?
I actually heard it said this past week. The statement?

“God never gives us more than we can handle.”

As I said, this statement sounds good, but I really have begun to challenge it. Partly, I would say that this comes from my experience. It also hasn’t been something I just came up with overnight either.

Over the past year I can actually say that I don’t know how I handled the year. The pressure and stress were almost too much to handle. Some people would say, “See, I told you God wouldn’t give you more than you could handle.”

In some upcoming posts I hope to dive into this thought a little bit but would love to get your feedback.

What do you think? Does God only give you what you can handle?

Interesting Visit

Not sure how I want to post this. I visited a church today and it was really weird. I actually felt like I was intruding. They didn't know my faith at all...I would say that one of the guys on staff I had a great time talking with.

Got me thinking...it is not just first impressions that count on Sunday...our whole lives should be a witness when it comes to leading others. We have to make sure that we are not coming off as bothered when we are visiting people. There are too many lives hanging in the balance.

Summer Slump 2

I talked a lot in another post that I just don't buy into the fact that summer has to be a time where we accept that there is no growth.

Sure people may be taking vacations and etc...but you can see growth and on top of that there are many other growth factors that could happen besides attendance.

Check out this series from Craig Groeschel at SWERVE that talks about the summer issues:

The Summer Slump
Your Church Can Grow This Summer
Your Church Can Grow SPIRITUALLY This Summer
August Is The New September

Also check out Nelson Searcy's blog post "Free Report - How To Maximize Summer" at the ChurchLeaderInsights.com/blog for some great ideas on summer.

[Photo Credit Flickr.com]

BAF 5 Points Update 2

After a couple of weeks under our belt...here is another video update of how our construction has been going from our 5 Points campus.

Our Campus Plan

As we continue to launch our Bay Area Fellowship 5 Points Campus I thought I would let you in on our plan/time-line.

Right now we are renovating our campus. Since I posted this update we have painted our adult meeting area and framed out two of our children's room as well as finished framing our last wall in our nursery. This week I'll post another video keeping you updated.

Until we get most of this renovation completed we are meeting as a core team on Sunday evenings to talk about vision, serving teams and our plans. This front end time has been a time of really getting to know everyone.

What a lot of people may know or not know is that we have three churches that have ended up coming together to make this happen.

First, my wife and I were launching our own church with some families while we were attending Bay Area. You can read about that in my post "My Big Announcement 2". Secondly, Focal Point out of Virginia suspended their video church right about the same time. Most of these families had made the move over to Bay Area and as they found out about our campus have jumped on board. And then many people from Bay Area Fellowship who live out in our community.

We are all working towards a September Grand Opening. I'll come back and let you know a little more of our summer time-line.