What Do You See

when your driving through your neighborhood to work or back from church?

Does it affect you? Drive you to your knees?

Just thinking.....

Why Two Part 2

D-Plum had a great question that he left as a comment on "Why Two" a post I wrote on why we went to two experience on our 6th week.

His question was:

1) How in the world did you get your people to buy in to 2 gatherings so soon?? :-)

2) Do you have enough volunteers at this point for them to "serve one, enjoy the other"? In other words, are your people serving for both services or are they able to fully experience during one without having to serve?

Thanks for the question Darren...let's see if I can give you and everyone a great answer.

1) Honestly...I'm not exactly sure how I did this. Frankly, I really believe it was casting a lot of vision to our key leaders/volunteers over so many months prior to starting. I really had faith that we were going to grow and just kept that out in front of everyone. I also believe I have some great people who want to see our campus explode with growth.

2) I would love to say that we have it perfect but I think there is a little over lap especially in the adult experience. But we have just enough of our Guest Relations Team to pull off their area. Our children's/nursery area's were covered. In fact the exact breakdown for the Sunday of 8-24 was 168 of which 62 were volunteers. The first experience was 113 of which 36 were volunteers. Since our original Corpus Campus is about 25 miles away and does a Saturday night....many of our volunteers can even go in there for their church experience. So there are many opportunities.

I guess for me it came down to saying...we could grow one and eventually fill it up and then "split" or we could just go ahead and grow two.

It also is a going to be a necessity for us to be at two. In fact, I'm figuring on three by around January. In about a week, we will be sending out a mailer on our grand opening which is the 14th of September. I actually feel we should do three that day....but I'm hesitating cause I'm not sure I could pull the volunteers just yet.

Volunteers are key....we are working hard to make sure that our volunteers don't have to work both experiences...we're pretty close.

Why Two

Question is...

Why did we go to two services on Sunday morning so soon??? We aren't even using all the seats.

That is a true fact. In our main adult seating area we have 143 chairs. The past two Sunday's in our 10:00 a.m. experience we are seating about 50% of those. So if we aren't filling those up why go to two?

1. More Opportunities To Serve - Having two experiences allows more people to serve. It also allows them to serve and be able to attend one as well.
2. Provides Choices - Having the two experiences gives people an opportunity to choose which time to come that best fits their schedule.
3. More Chances To Reach Out - The two gives our people two opportunities to invite people to church.
4. Two Times To Experience God - We want people not to just come to church....we want people to come to experience God.

I almost think of it in terms of a WHY NOT....

Did people come when the building wasn't full for one? If they did then...then why not just do two and grow them both at the same time. You don't have to fill one to start a second.

Obviously the same could be said with a third....but I would say fill up the two before starting a third option.

Projects

Some projects I want to work or focus on:

1) Leadership Pipeline for Church - I think our campus can really set the pace in developing leaders. It is one of my passions and I really feel I can create a system that is workable and manageable to select and develop leaders.

2) Making Difference Makers Podcast - I think I may start out with a once or twice a month and go from there. I really enjoyed doing this when we created it in one of my past youth ministries. We did over 35 podcasts with a talk show on each one. It was fun and I actually enjoyed it.

6th Week In The Books

Today marked our 6th week. I'm so excited each week as we slowly grow.

We officially went to two experiences. Our 10 a.m. was the most attended with 113 and our 11:30 had 55.

I've got some great leaders who are working their rears off to make this church so awesome. We are getting in a grove and each week things are clicking better and better. We have made so many improvements to our building and it's now time to make it pop.

Here are a few pics from this morning:

Frustrated

Here I am on Saturday writing this post. It has been almost one week since I last posted. The reason I'm frustrated is that I feel the quantity and quality of my blog has diminished from what I purposed when I went into this year. In fact since Oct. 2006 I don't think I have had a blogging slump low rut season like I am at now.

I feel there are so many things I want to share. I think of them on my way to and from work. I have great ideas at work. I seem to have them all the time. Yet I lack the time and energy to get it here. I also miss the community of blogging as well. Doesn't seem I get to post comments to blogs like this, this, this, this. I miss talking to many of my online buddies and continuing to develop relationships.

Don't get me wrong I'm excited about where I am at and the things I'm doing. It is just that there are some areas I feel I can contribute in and I'm not.

Is it going to last forever??? NO.......I know that. But I miss it and I'm frustrated.

Getting Ready

Today was officially our 5th week...I have been so pumped as of right now with the results.

I ran our averages today over those 5 weeks. One number I was very pleased with was that 45% of the adults that are in attendance are volunteers. If you count our overall attendance, which includes the kids, it hits right at 33%.

Today marked the day where we did a trail run on a second experience which we are adding next week. We will be having a 10 and 11:30 experiences, two opportunities for people to serve and attend.

Everything we are doing to this point are to prepare us for our September 7th grand opening. There are a lot of minor touches we need to do and add to make the campus pop. We have put many leaders in place to facility a team oriented leadership structure. Each week as I'm meeting and getting to know people things are falling in place.

Never Fear

Thought I would catch you up on my life. It has been obvious over the past two weeks that my original goal in December of one quality post per day has changed. It has done so for a couple of reasons.

If you have been following for some time now you undoubtedly know that I am the pastor for one of Bay Area Fellowship's multi-site campuses. Four weeks ago we launched and it has been a great ride over that time.

Last week, I started back full time at my day job which is being a principal for a local public high school in town. In fact, I made a commercial which is being shown on the local cable provider and we have an article coming out in the paper tomorrow.

With these two it has kept me busy...there were times over the past two weeks where I didn't do a great job in the evening's at home in having a little balance. So I determined that I can't do it all and I'll blog when I can about what I want. That means I'll still be trying to put out some great content and also keeping you updated with what is going on at our 5 Point campus. Only it will come when it comes. Maybe once a day...maybe take a day off here and there. Maybe it may even come twice a day.

The best thing I could recommend you do if you follow this blog is use a RSS reader like Google Reader that will bring the content to you when it is posted.

So...Have no fear...I'm still here and am here to stay.

Sunday 8-10-08 Pictures

Here are some pictures from this Sunday.

Amazing

It is amazing to believe where we are as a satellite church for Bay Area Fellowship. The response has been so great. I have to throw it all up to a great team.

It took a team of volunteers working since May 9th to get the campus ready. It took people going beyond their selves to make it happen. The sacrificed and worked hard.

It has taken a team effort since our opening to pull it off as well. There are many people who are serving and using their gifts and talents to do something big. Let me give you a few cool stats from week four:

123 people...33 volunteers (26% of total) 56 cars (that's 2 per car) 43 in our kids area....BUT...the greatest number of all>>>>TWO people prayed to begin a relationship with Christ.

It is so awesome to be associated with a great team and so many great people...

Here's the deal...I write this not to brag about what is going on...it is to show you how with God and hard work all things are possible. I hope this can inspire you to do something big.

As If

A lot has been written on the validity of mega-churches.

Many will say they water down the message.
Many say they build it with marketing principles and not God.

A couple of weeks ago we had three great articles in our local paper. It was very interesting that the media was so favorable and yet in the comments on line it was Christians who were so negative.

Having been in on staff at four different churches of various sizes from 300 to over 5,000 it is totally amazing to even think of the journey I have been on. On top of that the privilege I have of starting and leading a campus for Bay Area Fellowship.

I'm not even gonna spend time focusing on the critics. Actually John wrote a great post on it. If you ever want to know the heart of a mega-church Pastor...watch the video posted {here} at Buddy Cremeans blog.

My take is that if Pastor's and Christians would spend more time focusing on reaching people rather than ripping mega-churches we might just reach this country.

I wonder which side of the fence they would sit on if God gave them the honor of their church growing to mega size....

Is It In You??? 2

I'm talking some traits a church planter or pastor needs. In part one I talked about DETERMINATION and showed a great video from the X-Games of Danny Way.

Another trait I could say is the power to commit. Yes...this is similar to commitment but I'm gonna go to another level.

The power to commit is going all out when you do something. It is committing to the action full out to see the results.

Why not? You are going to be doing it anyway, why not go all out and take it to a whole nutha level.

I feel that's how Paul lived his life....when he preached in a city he poured it all out...put everything on the line...even to the point of almost dying.

Stephen did it all out to his death.

The power to commit is the only way to go...did you just start a church....then do it and don't stop. Don't give yourself an out. Are you a Pastor on the edge of quiting? Don't give up....COMMIT...

You have got to commit...commit your mind-set that you are not going to quit no matter what.

Here is a video on committing....you can't even do this unless you commit to seeing it through. It is the first time that a double back flip on a motorcross bike was done in the X-Games.



The Power To Commit....Is It In You?????

Is It In You??? 1

One of the traits a church planter, pastor or Christian should have is DETERMINATION.

One of the definitions for determination is the quality of being determined to do or achieve something; firmness of purpose.

I watched Danny Way at the X-Games exhibit this essential trait. On his first attempt in the Big Air competition. He ended up walking off the ramp under his own power...refused medical treatment and went on to finish all this attempts earning the silver medal. Watch the video.



The next time you are debating giving up...stay determined....your medal is just around the corner.

Mega-Church

So glad no one told Peter that they shouldn't be a Mega Church.....

Who's Standing In The Way

The only thing standing in the way of the church reaching this country is the church.

Bay Area Fellowship 12 Month Goals

WoW...am I so excited to be a part of Bay Area Fellowship and leading the 5 Points campus. Pastor Bil just laid out a goal for the next 12 months that he feels God laid on his heart.

Just three words: pray, Pray, PRAY

1. Pray 100,000 hours as a church...HOW...at least 2,000 people to pray 1 hour a week.
2. Create a prayer team to pray for needs of people each Sunday during one song
3. Cd series to walk neighborhood and pray. Free to everyone who signs up to be a prayer partner.
4. Hometeams to have a prayer vigil...about every 5 weeks a night of prayer in the home team.
5. All night prayer meetings
6. Create a prayer walking path around the Corpus Campus to pray
7. Create a prayer team for each staff member

Do Something Different

I blogged about a certain quote before in a post called Out of the Box. The only problem is I can't seem to get if out of my head.

I have often said this in the past:

If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done.

That relates so much in so many areas of a person's life. Whether it be marriage or finances, if you continually do the same thing expecting different results it only leads to frustration. The same can be true to business and church.

But yet we seem to fall back on the same thing. I'm all for looking at what certain churches are doing that are working. I believe church, as it is when you look across the whole church landscape, has not been progressing. I do see it as stubbornness. There is a resistance to change. There is even a resistance to progressing...as if the church of the 20th century is the only way to do church.

Think about it for a minute:

Here is what a typical church Sunday morning looks like...and I say typical meaning the average church across this country. Sing a few fast and slow songs....take an offering...do some announcements...preach...pray. And then what pastors are told is just pray real hard and God will do something big.

I'm not here to challenge the method, nor the fact that God can do something big. I guess I'm challenging the fact that churches are not reaching people. I'm challenging the results. Maybe that is my passion flowing through...I am passionate about our church reaching people that have never been in church or who have checked out and gave up on church.

I know there are some great churches that God is using mightily. They are doing some new things to reach people that have not been reached. When you take a look at our city it is awesome to see what Bay Area Fellowship has done in 10 years.

That other quote though that is driving me absolutely crazy isfrom Craig Groeschel the pastor of Lifechurch.tv. He said, "If you want to reach people that no one else is reaching, you must do something that no one else is doing."

I look at the area our 5 Point campus is located in. We are in Corpus but our area is a little segmented from the whole of Corpus. There are 50,000 people in the area. I would be hard challenged to say that 20,000 of those people are in church. And it disturbs me....I think about those 25-30 thousand people and what their eternity may hold. That is why we brought our campus here. It is going to be so different than any other church in this area. I believe in a way that reaches those that are not being reached...and if it doesn't...we will adapt and find what does.

We don't want to do what the church down the road is doing...we want to do what changes the eternity of those in our community.

What are some things that you are doing different?

Bring Clarity With Your Delivery

Don't worry...I didn't forget about our little series on The Delivery.

If your not sure what I'm talking about....I told everyone in my post "It Was In The Delivery" that I don't like listening to a lot of speakers because of a certain reason.

We then began to go about helping with a couple of posts: "Why Delivery Is So Important" and "Connect In Your Delivery".

It was about a few three years into speaking that I realized that when you were speaking to teenagers you needed to make sure you said what you needed to say and were clear about it. That's one of the reason's I started this little series. Back then there was no body helping me to show me who to speak better.

Sure I was told things like, "you've got to be prayed up" and "make sure you have the anointing". But I was never told the importance of clarity when I spoke.

One way to bring clarity is lessen your content. Often times you will see Pastor's trying to cram so much into one message that they end up all over the place. I once sat in on a message on a Sunday morning where the person speaking said the had 19 points. Another time I was able to put together a whole 5 week message series just from one single Sunday morning.

Point is it was too much. It was too much for a person to process, to follow and to be able to act on. Where could they start.

Honestly, there is no harden rule that says you have to have 3 points in a message. Yes that is better than 19 and it does boil it down a little simpler. Some of the best speakers now actually speak on one point.

The point is....be simple and clear when you speak. Less can actually be more and help people get more out of what you are trying to say.