The Graduate

I might be back...

2010-04-26T10:40:00.003-04:00

After posting a blog late last night (in truth this morning) my friend Shane Grant suggested I try blogging over on tumblr. I decided I'm going to give it a try. If I don't like it I'll be back to this one. If I do like it though, you can read me over there.

Back in Action

2010-04-26T01:27:00.003-04:00

My friend Rob and I decided that we needed to start blogging. For him its an actual "start blogging" for me its a "start blogging again."

I started this blog almost a year ago as a way of keeping people up to date with my internship. I'm not sure how many people actually read it. I know Steve did. However, I'm going to try to resuscitate this blog in an attempt to do a couple of things:

First of all, I like writing. I like having a venue where I can get my thoughts on paper. More specifically, I like having a place where people can read said thoughts. Perhaps its arrogant, but I'm not the kind of person that "writes for me." Sure I will go back and reread some of my own blogs on occasion. But if my only reason to write was so that I could read it I would keep a personal journal on paper.

Now with that said, obviously I haven't written in a long time. So it might seem like I don't like writing. Not to mention everything I wrote on here before was merely copied from the person journal I had to do for my internship. But don't judge me. You would copy and paste too if you were already writing page long summaries of your day.

I had a blog way back in the day on myspace. It was pretty emo though. So I'm actually a little bit worried that blogging again is going to send me into an emotional state of introspection. Maybe you can help me avoid that.

Secondly, I'm hoping to continue a level of accountability with Rob (the one mentioned above) even though in a few weeks we are going to be going our separate ways. He's going off on his internship. Hopefully his blog will contain some of the same stuff mine did originally. That would be swell. When he leaves we won't be able to go out for coffee at Tim Horton's any more.

While I recognize that you cannot have the same level of accountability with someone via blogging as you can face to face, the desire to still remain connected and a part of each others lives is still there. With any luck we can comment on each others blogs and discuss what we are learning.

Third, (thirdly just sounds retarded) I have a goal for this summer to get through some of the books on my bookshelf. I have a ton of books that I have purchased or been given over the years that I have not actually read. While I probably won't get through all of them this summer, I would like to get through at least some of them. I will probably try to post some kind of summary/review of the books as I read them.

Currently I am reading The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture by Shane Hipps. It's a library book, so I will need to finish it soon. It's about how media (which he defines as "any human invention or technology") shapes faith, the gospel and church. I'm only a few chapters in and don't want to start discussing it until I have finished it, so I will spare you both the review and the summary. But I will try to finish it soon and dedicate an entire blog post to it.

Also coming up I will try to post the list of books on my summer reading list. The ones I mentioned that have been on my bookshelf for the past few years.

Beyond that I will probably write some posts that are dealing with life in general, my thoughts on various situations, and the randomness that will be this next stage in life. You know... the quintessential blog stuff.

Impact

2009-08-08T17:42:00.001-04:00

This past week I have had three different people send me complimentary messages, seemingly out of the blue. Last Monday I had a message from Sadie saying that I looked down at the gathering on Sunday and wanted me to know how much she enjoyed what I brought to the Journey Team.

Then on Wednesday I received an e-mail from Melanie telling me she enjoys my presence around Epic and loves my heart for God and perspective on things. Finally today I got an e-mail from Ed saying that enjoys my presence and impact around Epic.

To be honest I do not feel like I have made much of an impact at all. I feel like I am going through a lot of motions, without really effecting change at all. I wonder how true that is however, especially when I have had multiple people tell me otherwise.

It makes me wonder if life in full time ministry will always be like that, where others recognize my impact long before I do. Or if part of it them just seeing where I am at as an intern. It is possible that life outside of an internship will be dramatically different. Maybe once I graduate and get on staff with a church, everyone there will assume I have everything figured out and all together, whereas right now they are willing to give me some leeway.

Either way, the part I hate is that there is always more that I know I could do. I can be planning lessons better, reading more books, connecting with more people outside the church, mentoring more people inside the church. I know all of that, and it makes me feel like I am not doing much at all. But perhaps that is all part of accepting who I am as a pastor and allowing God to work through me. Maybe I need to be more willing to be used by God in whatever capacity he chooses instead of always looking at how I can accomplish more by myself.

Futility

2009-08-08T17:41:00.001-04:00

Today was another one of those days where I feel like I did not accomplish as much as I wanted to. My original plan for today was to close my office door and manuscript out my sermon for Sunday. Then maybe catch up on some of my reading.

Instead, I got to the church shortly before 9 this morning and saw an e-mail from Randy. He sent out an e-mail to the whole church asking for help. We had a truck full of drywall showing up at the new building and he was hoping for some people to help unload it. So I decided to go over there and help and ended up there until 11:30. It was at that point that Amanda came by, which was very odd since she was supposed to work from 9-5 today. She told me that she got her schedule mixed up and that she actually worked from 1:30-9. So we went out to lunch in Lansing and stopped by the Verizon Wireless store to get a price estimate for new phones.

By the time I dropped Amanda off at work and got back to the office, it was already 2 and I had yet to start manuscripting my sermon. I did not finish writing out my sermon until 8:30 tonight, which makes me feel like I worked an eleven hour day, despite that fact that I did not do much.

I decided after writing out my sermon that I would then sit on it until Saturday. I am not going to touch it again until Saturday when I can reread it, make a few modifications and start memorizing it. Fortunately I should have plenty of time on Saturday to go over it and memorize everything. That way I can simply write out some notes on Sunday and not have to have my manuscript up there at all.

Organic Church

2009-08-08T17:39:00.003-04:00

For today’s Journey Team meeting Ed, Melanie and I went to the park to continue discussing the book So Beautiful by Leonard Sweet. I feel bad because for the entire last week I have been really swamped with busy work, and did not have the chance to read the chapter. I hate having to do all the tedious work that is sometimes required because I feel like did not actually accomplish anything. And yet, it keeps me from doing the important work of reading books, planning teachings, and studying the Bible.

So while Melanie and Ed talked about Sweet’s view of missional and we tried to wrap our heads around what exactly it means to be missional, I had to essentially sit there and not contribute much. However, at one point Ed made the comment that the local church is much like a tree, which got me thinking about it. If we consider the roots like all of the programs we run, and the leaves as the people, then we can get a decent understanding of how the local church should work.

First all of, we must realize that the tree does not exist to simply grow bigger and deeper roots. Instead the roots get bigger and deeper to support the continued growth of the tree itself. So the more leaves we get (or people) the bigger and deeper our root system (programs) must be simply so that we can support the continued growth of the tree as well as the reproduction of other trees.

I think too often we in the church have the desire to build bigger and deep root systems, so we go in search of people simply so that they can help support the roots. We want a young adult program, so we specifically go out and find young adults, not so that w can disciple them, but so that they can contribute to the size of the young adult program. Or we want a vibrant kid’s ministry, so we go out and recruit volunteers to help with the kid’s ministry.

Instead we need to be asking the question, who do we have around us? What programs are needed to support these people? Especially if we have the mentality that we are to pastor a community, not just a congregation, then that opens us put in a whole new way. What roots do we need to develop in order to support the single mother down the street? What roots can we create to help feed the four homeless people in our area?

If we change our attitude to become more like a tree, then we might just stop doing church for the sake of doing church. Maybe if we change our mentality we might just start acting like Jesus to the world around us.

Spiritual Gifts

2009-08-08T17:38:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday’s Ed and I have been getting together for our weekly meetings. We talk about what I am processing, what I am reading, how my ministry areas are going, and whatever else comes to mind. Today we also happened to talk about my sermon on Sunday and how I plan to approach it. I am very excited to get the chance to preach for the next two Sundays, although I m also very nervous. I have never preached part of a series before. All of my preaching experience comes from school and the Sussex Salvation Army, where I had the ability to preach on whatever I wanted to preach on.

However, it seems like everyone is very excited to hear me speak, and oddly enough every already seems to have the mentality that I am going to be an amazing speaker. To be honest I do not know why everyone already has that belief. They have seen me do the morning announcements and Lee has heard me speak at Extended Play. But overall I do not feel like I have done anything out of the ordinary, nor do I feel like I have shown exceptional skill at giving the announcements that would cause people to automatically have faith in my abilities. But at the same time, I suppose that is part of giftedness. We all have the tendency to take our gifts and abilities for granted and assume that is just a normal part of life. So maybe in my few speaking times people have seen something in me that I simply take for granted.

However, at the same time, there have been times in the past when I spoke to different audiences and had too much confidence in myself. Those times seemed to turn out disastrous. So part of speaking is also remembering that my abilities are not my own, but that they are given to me by God for the edification of the body of Christ and the glorification of God.

Ministry Fatigue

2009-08-08T17:36:00.001-04:00

My weekly meeting with Kristy and Christina was cancelled today. In some ways I am okay with that though. Today has definitely been one of those days where I feel overwhelmed. Especially with Extended Play I feel like I have read so much, and there is so much to try and wrap my head around when it comes to young adult ministry. I wonder if young adult ministry is easier in large cities. Maybe then I can attract people easier. But at the same time, I realize that my job is not to attract people, getting a larger and larger crowd for the sake of getting a crowd.

I need to give people a reason to come to Extended Play, and so far it seems like people do not have that. Personally I just want to teach the Bible, but I know people are unfortunately not as interested in the Bible as I am. In talking with Lee and I convinced that people do want to learn, but at the same time they almost need to be tricked into it.

After all, before I came to Epic EP was basically just a fun social time. They played games, they watched movies, they played kickball. All of those things were good, but people stopped coming because those are things they can do on their own time. At the same time, when I first came I started teaching, and people started showing up for a while again. But now the numbers are down again. So it makes me think that we need to do something that people will have fun at but that we can also teach at.

I think back to the best young adult group I was ever a part of. It was the young adult group at my home church in South Dakota. It was actually what got me to start attending the church on Sundays. We met at the young adult pastor’s house on Monday nights and hung out a lot. But then, at some point during the night he would teach a lesson. I do not really remember the lessons that much, but I remember the friendships I made. It makes me wonder if that is what I should be doing instead. Maybe instead of trying to get people to come to the church on Wednesday nights for EP, we should have it at my house. People can come as early or late as they want, hang out for as long as they want and sometime during that I could teach a lesson.

But more than anything, I know I need to return to a serious focus on prayer. I have not spent as much time in prayer as I did when I first started my internship. I feel like it is incredibly easy to get distracted with everything else and forget to start my day with God. I am sure that that more than anything else is the biggest contributing factor to my feeling of overwhelming.

Pictures

2009-08-04T15:48:00.022-04:00

I'm 2 months late on this, but here are the pictures of my internship location. I have included pictures of both our current building and the new building we are in the process of moving in to.

This is my office. It's mess because I'm current practicing my bass for Pathway Church's float in the Mint Festival.

This is my office from the other side. As you can see, it is also our "Helping Hands" ministry room. Which means my desk often becomes an extra table for storing stuff.

This is our main gathering area. Other than the offices, it's pretty much all we have. We had a kids ministry area downstairs, but that was destroyed by a flood earlier in the summer.

Lee, our Student Ministries Coordinator, and Melanie, our Organizational Coordinator, share an office. This is that office.

This is our lead pastor Ed Love. Ed's office is also messy, but that's because he had a bookcase collapse on him. Not his fault.

This is the lobby area of our new building. We were originally planning to have a roll up garage door for the entrance into the main gathering space. That is no longer the case.

This is our main gathering area, the stage for said area and what will become our office "lobby." I think the plan is to make that our admin area with a couple work stations for people.

Our little kids area, complete with a half door entrance just for them. (They love that... who knew?) Also what will become our student ministries area. Lee has serious plans for this section including a halfpipe, balcony and a car. Don't ask how he plans on doing it.

Western Canada District

2009-08-02T14:35:00.001-04:00

Today Ed and I went over to Grand Rapids for District Conference. It was held at Frontline Community Church. From what I understand, West Michigan is the only district in the denomination that holds a one day district conference. The entire event was fascinating, since I have never been to a district conference before.

For the most part, district conference is simply the annual business meeting where they voted on the district board for the next year, heard the general report from all the various churches, and voted on a proposition for financing new church plants. However, it was interesting because I also had the ability to meet some other pastors from the district and understand the inner workings of the district a little more.

It seems like every now and then God increases my vision for the church planting out in Calgary. When it first started, I knew that I would go to Calgary and help plant a church. Then, after The Summit closed down, and I realized that there was no longer a church plant to help with, I realized that I would go out and be the lead planter in the church. However, the more I learned about church planting and the “missio dei,” or mission of God, the more I realized that simply planting a new church in Calgary was not enough. In order to expand the kingdom of God we would need to use that new church to plant more churches in Calgary. So the vision was expanded to encompass the idea that I would plant a church-planting church, or essentially I would plant more churches off of the church I plant.

However, in talks with people about Calgary, I have heard denominational officials mention that Western Canada as a whole is equally in need of new churches. So, as long as I am planting churches off of my original church in Calgary, why should I think it too big of a deal to plant some of those churches in Edmonton or Vancouver? So the vision was spread to planting a network of churches in Western Canada. Which has lead me to realize that, at least at this point, my desire and vision is to start a new Western Canada District of the Wesleyan Church.

It is this desire to plant a new district in Western Canada that has made me curious as to how the West Michigan District operates. In order to help establish a new district I will certainly need to understand how districts operate.

Tension

2009-08-02T14:34:00.000-04:00

Last night we had Extended Play. I barely got back from the intern tour and got to the church before people started showing up. Although I was very thankful that people came considering we have not had a very good track record over the last few weeks. Between off-site activities, miscommunications and a week that EP was cancelled, I don’t think many people have been sure what is going on.

Fortunately last night went well. We had a smaller crowd, seven including myself, but I think the discussion went really well. We talked about the fall of man, the effects of sin on our world and the redemptive nature of Jesus. It seemed like everyone was tracking with it very well. However, afterward Lee told me about a comment that I did not hear.

One of the people that comes to EP has certain feels for one of my leaders and said something to her that could be considered inappropriate. According to Lee she did not say anything to him about it, and essentially acted like it never happened. While that might not usually be a big deal, there are a few factors that convolute the issue.

First of all, this guy always seems to want to be around her, and she never tries to dissuade his actions, and in some ways almost seems to encourage it. Second, she is married, but her husband rarely if ever comes to EP. When I asked her last night why her husband does not come she said that he is “not an EP-person.” However, Lee informed me later that her husband used to come all the time, but stopped coming after a while.

Furthermore, even after the comment was said last night, my leader and this guy ended up leaving the building together at the end of the night and talking in her car for at least 15 minutes. While I do not know what the conversation was about yet, it increases the suspicious nature of the entire situation.

Where everything becomes difficult is in my position as the leader. How should I handle this situation? Should I talk to the girl, in which case is it more or less beneficial to have either Amanda or another leader there with me? Or should I talk to the guy about what he said and try to stop the situation there? Or should I try to talk to her husband and get a feel from him on how their marriage is going? However, whatever I decide I think I first need to talk with Ed and Melanie about it and see what they have to say.

Humility

2009-08-02T14:33:00.000-04:00

Today was the third and final day of the intern tour. While it was great, towards the end of today it became very draining. Overall we visited 16 different churches, some mega-churches, some church plants that have yet to launch and everything in between. In fact, two of the churches we went to were inner-city churches, one of which is a hip-cop church trying to reach that community.

It is inspiring to talking with these pastors and hear the vision that they have for their community. I was able to walk away with a revived sense that Jesus is still alive and well in our world. While some churches might not be fulfilling the Great Commission the way they should be, it was wonderful to see that these churches definitely are.

Yet, while talking with these pastors I noticed a deep humility about them. Each pastor, regardless of the size of their church, seemed to have a sense that they are not the reason for the success of their church. Especially the larger churches had the sense that they are not the end-all and be-all of ministry, but instead simply one way that ministry to the world around them can happen.

However, two of the interns that came on the trip were from one specific large church, and while I definitely caught the humility of their pastor when talking with him, I sensed the exact opposite from the interns at that church. I got a feel that, in their minds, because of the size of their church that they were the “right way” to do church.

Furthermore, I remembered back to all the people I have talked to from Moncton Wesleyan and while Dr. Buckingham might have humility about him, his staff does not seem to share that same humility. It all made me wonder what steps these senior pastors are taking to remind their staffs that there is more out there, and that God is bigger than their local ministry.

The Spectrum

2009-08-02T14:32:00.000-04:00

Today while traveling around to the different churches I was reminded of what Mark Gorveatte once said during a trip up to Bethany. He said, “Don’t focus on church growth. Don’t focus on what size your church is going to be. Instead, focus on church health and allow God to determine the size.”

As I have been going to these churches I have realized that there is nothing specifically wrong with having a “mega-church.” While I might not be particularly gifted with the ability to lead a mega-church, I should not look down on them. All of the larger churches in West Michigan have continued to be influential in planting new churches instead of simply focusing on their own facility. I think, as long as my church maintains the conviction that the Kingdom of God is bigger than we are and that church planting is the most effective evangelism method to-date, then it should not matter how large we are.

All churches, big and small, have pros and cons to them. In larger churches you have a significant budget with which to bless people and challenge the community around you. However, it might be more difficult for someone to get plugged in to a large church. Furthermore, as the lead pastor more of your time would be spent equipping and leading other leaders, and less on ministering to people individually.

Whereas in a smaller church, you have a better opportunity to connect with people on an individual basis. However, you generally have a smaller budget to work with and obviously fewer people, which generally means less of your programs are run with excellence, or in some cases your church cannot afford to run the program at all.

Perhaps there is a happy medium between the two ends of the spectrum, somewhere where you begin to have enough resources to run things well but still have the ability to know everyone.

Contextualization

2009-08-02T14:31:00.000-04:00

Today was incredible. Today, tomorrow and Wednesday I am traveling around the district with a group of interns visiting various local churches and talking with their staff. Today we went to Silver Lake Wesleyan, Watermark Church, Holland Central Wesleyan, La Rossa, and Engedi. Two of those are church plants, one is a Spanish speaking church and Holland Central is the largest church in the district, if not the denomination.

It was great to get to see a wide range of churches. Watermark is a church plant that is currently meeting in a high school. Although they do not intend to stay there forever, they also have no intentions of getting into a permanent building. Whereas Central Holland has a very large church campus and is almost always in the processes of a building campaign.

The interesting thing is that despite the wide difference in church styles they all have a similar missiology. All of these churches have a similar belief that the Kingdom of God is bigger than their local church. Likewise all of them have effectively contextualized the gospel for their local setting.

The entire day reminded me of the importance of context. No matter if you are dealing with an age group, a racial group or any other demographic, there are some ways of communicating that will work better for some people than for others. The only way to effectively communicate the unchanging gospel to a changing culture is through contextualization.

Over all it makes me wonder if the other church plants in Calgary were effective in contextualizing the gospel. I have heard that Calgary is a difficult city to plant a church, but perhaps it is because we have been trying methods that simply do not work there.

Social and Technical Changes

2009-07-25T16:49:00.002-04:00

This week Melanie gave me a copy of Leadership magazine. This issue happened to deal primarily with young adult ministry. There are a bunch of articles in there that I think will be very useful for my Extended Play leaders, so I made sure to make copies. I plan to give them a new article each week that we can discuss. Hopefully providing them with some good resources will help them lead EP once I leave.

One of the biggest things I have started to learn during my internship is the difference between doing ministry busy work and doing work that will have specific value. One of the articles I read was about multi-generational leadership and the growing gap between the various generations in the local church. It spoke of the difference between technical changes and social changes.

Technical changes deal with equipment and logistics. Switching from the organ to the piano to the electric guitar is a technical change. Likewise, changing from gathering at 9 am to 11 am is a technical change. Social changes on the other hand deal with who is the one making the technical changes. It is hard to make technical changes without also making social changes.

Usually, when you make a technical change, there is going to be someone who feels like they are becoming less influential within the local church. It all makes me think back to working at the Salvation Army church in Sussex. So often I tried so hard to make some necessary technical changes without thinking of who was affected by the subsequent social change.

Even when I return from my internship and return to that church, the question on my mind will be: How can I help make effective technical change that will help the congregation, without necessarily making social change that makes people feel like their influence has been diminished?

The Good, the bad and the "it's not a big deal"

2009-07-25T11:06:00.001-04:00

Tonight we had Worship on the Grand. Portland is known as “the city of two rivers” because the Grand River and the Looking Glass River merger together in Portland. Right where the two merge together there is a band shell that, during the summer months, hosts Thursday night music. Every Thursday a different band will play there and people can come and listen.

So tonight, Epic was able to get the band shell for the purpose of showcasing our musical style. The hope is that people will come listen to us and realize that worship music does not have to be old and boring. In addition, we have some bouncy houses for kids and free snow cones that we give out.

However, in order to perform at the band shell we had to tear down all of our sound equipment and haul it over. This is not usually a problem. In fact, most church plants have to tear down everything and set everything up every week. However, the drummer for our church worship band has also taken it upon himself to act as the chief sound technician. Every week, regardless of what he is supposed to be doing, he will be back at the sound board trying to run the sound board. This gets incredibly frustrating when I am supposed to be running the sound and cannot simply because the drummer keeps getting in the way.

While I recognize that he knows a lot about our specific sound system, it comes off and insulting when he does everything by himself and specifically gets in the way of what I am supposed to be doing. It feels like he has the attitude of “I know what I am doing and you obviously do not.”

It was especially frustrating because when it actually came time for me to run the sound system while they were playing on stage, since I had not set anything up, I had very little idea who had which microphone, which guitar was plugged in to which channel, or which monitor was which. So everything became a trial and error adjustment just to get things sounding decent.

It all makes me wonder if I should try to talk to him about the way he is acting. In some ways I feel like I could simply blow it off, since I rarely run sound and have plenty of other things on my plate. But it makes me wonder what possible damage he might be doing to other people, not to mention what that kind of mentality does to him.

But I guess that is the entire idea of sin. The reason sin is sinful is because it separates us from God, each other and ourselves. So the question becomes: If I genuinely care about our drummer as a brother in Christ, should I allow him to continue acting like this? While it is certainly “permissible” is it “beneficial”?

It reminds me of something I have started learning recently. It is rarely evil that keeps us from God. When confronted with a choice between true good and evil, most will obviously choose good. But instead it is the mediocre and the “not so bad” that keep us from God.

The Water Glass

2009-07-25T10:24:00.001-04:00

Tonight Extended Play ran a little bit different. While I do not necessarily want to say it went bad, in a lot of ways I did not have the results I wanted. Tomorrow night we have Worship on the Grand, and tonight the band needed to practice, which meant we did not have a place to meet for EP. However, for a few weeks we have been talking about possibly going over to the new building and helping with the construction work over there.

So tonight for EP we decided to meet at our current building and then go over to the new space and help Randy in whatever way he needed help. I thought that this would be a great for our group to bond, lend a hand, and over all grow in Christ by focusing less on consuming and more helping others. In some ways, I think we accomplished those goals, but at the same time I feel like we did not.

In some ways I feel like the church in Corinth. I feel like, although we have a few strong, mature Christians, for the most part we are made up of people that have very little idea who Jesus is, let alone what it means to follow him. For example, we have a girl that comes to EP who is married, yet her husband almost never comes. But then there is another guy that comes to EP who is obviously infatuated with this girl, despite the fact that she is married. So he always wants to be around her, help her, talk with her, and whatever else. Except this girl does nothing to try and discourage his behavior, and in some ways it seems like she almost encourages it.

Then we have some others that, although they come to EP, have no desire to pour into the lives of others yet. Which, in some ways I am not expecting them to yet. But in a way, I guess I am expecting them to be able to pour into others, because I am leading a project where we go and help other people.

Over all, maybe it would be a good idea to hold off on outreach and projects where I expect people to give selflessly for now. Perhaps for now it would be a better idea to simply continue to teach the people that come to EP. After a while, I might be able to get them to a point where they understand it is not all about them. In which case, at that point we can start outreach again.

One Person at aTime...

2009-07-21T18:36:00.001-04:00

Today Ed, Lee and I got together at Biggby’s Coffee. Last week Ed and I decided that it would be a good idea to start getting together at a specified time each week, instead of just finding time within our schedule. Furthermore we decided that we should start including Lee in our conversations as well. I think from Ed’s perspective it might be an attempt at disciplining Lee and me, which I would definitely be okay with.

Currently Ed, Melanie, Lee and me get together on Wednesday’s as the “Journey Team” but we are always reading various books and discussing the ministry implications of those books. I love doing that, but this new Tuesday meeting that we are doing will also be great. In this meeting there is no set schedule of what we need to talk about. It is really just a time for us to discuss what it is that we are working through in our different areas of ministry.

Today we talked a lot about the concept of being missional and how that applies to each ministry. Lee mentioned that meeting with people individually would be very effective for running the youth group. In his mind, had he started meeting with each just one family a week he could have built a great rapport with the kids already attending and with their parents as well.

I think I could easily transfer that over into Extended Play. There are a few guys in EP that I know that I could develop deeper relationships with. Furthermore, I know that if I did develop those relationships, that those guys would be more eager to come to EP every week. Plus, I think I could get a better understanding of what they want in a young adult group, which might in turn help me understand how to reach the young adults in Portland that are not yet connected with a church.

Lay Leaders

2009-07-21T18:18:00.001-04:00

It is difficult to know what to do with lay leaders sometimes. Specifically one of the ladies that helps lead Extended Play is a mystery. Kristy is one of those people that feels like she should be leading, but never really shows leadership initiative, nor does she want to take leadership of things even when I suggest them to her.

For example, Kristy keeps saying that she really feels like God wants her to lead EP. Except she does not feel comfortable talking to new people, she does not want to organize events, she does not feel like teaching is specifically her gift, and she does not really want to come up with anything for us to do. So in a lot of ways I am extremely baffled as to how she is “leading” anything at all.

Furthermore, EP is a group for young adults. But the parameters of the group seem to be somewhat ill defined. We know that “young adulthood” starts at 18 years old. But at what point are you no longer considered a young adult? According to our group info, EP is for people aged 18-30. The problem with that is that most of our congregation is between the ages of 18-30. So I feel like there should be some further criteria for what constitutes a young adult. In my mind, once you have children you are no longer a young adult.

But Kristy has kids as well. Which makes me think, maybe I could try to talk her into running a program for young parents, or parents with young children. Both of her kids are getting older, in that they are no longer toddlers. But we have a lot of parents of toddlers in the church. So maybe I can see if she wants to start up a small group for young parents. Or possibly we could even make that a part of EP. I could still teach a lesson, and then we would break off into small groups within EP where she facilitates one group and I run the other.

It is possible that she has a much different calling then leading EP, but because we do not yet have the program she does not recognize it. This is definitely something I might want to explore with her. Next Monday at our meeting we will be looking at our Ministry Match Profiles and it is possible that that might reveal more about her personality.

Calgary Church Planting

2009-07-18T20:07:00.001-04:00

I think it is because I have been specifically reading a book on Church Planting, but I have been thinking a lot recently about what it will be like to plant churches in Calgary. The more I read the more I feel like The Summit, which was the church plant up there from 2003-2006, did things completely wrong. While I do not think there location itself was a bad decision, I wonder if their methods were faulty.

For starters, they planted the church in the northwest part of the city. Up there are a lot of new homes being constructed and lots of new families moving in. Naturally, it makes sense to plant of church in an area like that. Studies have shown that during times of extreme change people are much more likely to seek spiritual guidance and consider going to church. Moving to a new area is one of those times when people are more open to the possibility of church.

However, I remember during the trip I took up there, we did a lot of outreach events in other parts of the city. Specifically, we went downtown and put change in expired parking meters, washed people’s windshields and surveyed people. The problem is that in city of over a million people, the mentality of the people downtown will be drastically different than those living in a suburban area. Not to mention, it is ludicrous to think people living downtown would spend a significant amount of time commuting to a church far away.

While that mentality might be acceptable in a more rural setting, where people are accustomed to driving 15 minutes or more to get anyway, in an urban setting people will not do it. Instead, I think we need to live in the areas that we plant our churches. If I plant a church in a neighborhood, people need to see me in that neighborhood every day. I need to shop at their grocery stores, get gas at their gas stations, and get coffee at their Tim Horton’s. I need to become indigenous to that area and get to know those people, instead of living somewhere else.

Saddleback Sam

2009-07-18T12:11:00.001-04:00

Recently I have been reading Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age by Ed Stetzer. There was a chapter on figuring out your focus group and what all that took. The concept of a focus group is that you will choose the peripherals and superficial aspects of your church based on the group you are trying to reach. For example, why you focus group will not determine whether you teach about sin or not, your focus group will give you a better idea of whether to hold your weekly gathering on Sunday or Wednesday; whether to play hymns, contemporary music or hardcore rock music. Knowing who you are trying to reach helps you understand how best to reach them.

While this might seem exclusionary, it is not. An example Stetzer gives in his book is that of missionaries to West Africa. If missionaries moved to West Africa, they would preach the gospel in the native language, hold gatherings at times that seem appropriate to the African, and act like Africans. This does not mean that people outside of that focus group will not also be attracted to the church and come join in.

Since I have been leading Extended Play I have been attempting to do the same thing in Portland. Obviously my focus group is young adults in the Portland area. However, I still have very little idea about who that includes. What kind of music do they like? What are their dreams and goals? Are they politically active? Do they vote Republican or Democrat?

All of this reminds me of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church, where he attempts to describe “Saddleback Sam,” a composite of all the people in the immediate area around the church. Finding out what “Saddleback Sam” is all about has helped Rick to focus their ministry towards those people, and thus be more effective.

With all of this information, I have been trying to figure out how I can discover who the “Saddleback Sam” of EP would be. So far my plan is to compile a survey that I can use, then I will have to start going around to places in Portland and talking to people that look to be in the 18-30 age range. Hopefully with all the information I can construct a decent composite of the average Portland young adult.

Dependability

2009-07-18T12:09:00.001-04:00

Tonight we were supposed to have Extended Play. However, no one showed up. I was expecting it to be a smaller crowd since some of our regulars were going to be gone. Lee and Lindsey were in New York City, Josh and Theo both went to Kentucky for a conference, which meant that Kristy could not come because she would have the kids. Furthermore, Christina was not able to come either, although I am uncertain why.

So Kristy and Christina were telling everyone that EP was cancelled because all those people were not going to be there. But I feel like the purpose of EP is not to reach all those people that were out of town doing other things. In many ways they are the spiritually strong one of the group. My concern is for Keith, Tyler, Andrew and Miranda. None of them have really made faith commitments to Christ yet, and they are the ones we are trying to reach.

When Kristy, Christina and I met on Monday I told them I planned on still having EP tonight and they were okay with it. But then Christina did not send out an announcement for it until yesterday afternoon. So up until almost 24 hours before the event, no one thought it was going to happen. Well, naturally no one is going to show up now.

I think part of the problem is that I need to communicate to Kristy and Christina a lot more about my intentions and expectations in them. In Community of Kindness by Steve Sjogren, he talks about the importance of never cancelling an event. While he was specifically referring to large scale events, I can see it transferring to small groups as well. People need to have the sense that we are going to be here week after week. If we cancel EP one week, then what about next week? If they did not get any information about it, is it still going on?

I suppose I am concerned with dependability. I want people to know and trust that we are dependable leaders and that they can count on us. So, now I have to figure out how I can communicate that better to both my leaders and the group overall.

EP Logo

2009-07-14T17:40:00.004-04:00

On an added note, here are two new Extended Play logos I designed. One of them (or maybe neither) will be put on our new promo material. Comments would be appreciated.

Version 1

Version 2

Christian Universalism

2009-07-14T17:38:00.000-04:00

Today Ed and I met for our weekly get-together where we discuss the books I am reading, the thoughts I am processing and struggles I am having. When I first got in this morning, I had an e-mail from him with a few links to various websites. Apparently this morning we were going to also discuss heaven and hell, specifically based on the opinions of Rob Bell, Brian McLaren and Spencer Burke.

The articles I read all had a common thesis: These three men are Christian Universalists that do not believe in hell. The arguments were very compelling, and it is entirely possible that all three of them are in fact Universalists. However, the thing that disturbed me the most in the articles were how angry the authors seemed to be. Each of the articles seemed to mock Bell, McLaren and Burke for their supposed beliefs.

As I read, the only thing I could think of was, “How are these authors acting in the Spirit of Christ?” While Bell, McLaren and Burke may be Universalists, I just cannot think of a single example in the Bible where Jesus mocked, belittled, or outright insulted someone for their theological beliefs. However, I can think of multiple examples of Jesus getting angry at the religious leaders who felt that they had a corner on the God market.

Overall it seems that the people who are actively trying to explore their faith in Jesus are the ones that look the most like him. While those who act like they already have Jesus figured out (and we should simply agree 100% with them) look significantly less like Jesus.

It all makes me wonder about the importance of right and wrong. While I do not believe in the concept of “relative truth” I sometimes wonder if we get too focused on right and wrong, and forget all about good and evil. Could those that are blasting Bell, McLaren and Burke be “technically” right and yet not good in their actions? Furthermore, could Bell, McLaren and Burke be wrong in their theological position, and yet acting more like Jesus? Where is the line? Do we need to have all the correct theological doctrine down? Or is it more important to act good with the knowledge we have, while continually seeking Jesus for more?

Equipping Leaders

2009-07-13T16:55:00.000-04:00

This morning I had my weekly meeting with Kristy and Christina for Extended Play. I think we are starting to move in the right direction. We have finally decided on a mission statement that should help in governing where we go as a group. We have decided on the statement of “Following Jesus Together.” This should invoke two different but not mutually exclusive tasks of the group. First of all, we have the desire to follow Jesus, to be his disciples. The first goal of the group will be to truly experience the life of Christ.

Secondly, I see the need for relationships and community. It is not enough of us to each be following Jesus individually, in an almost parallel path, but instead we must be doing this journey as a group. The need for community is drastically important, especially in a smaller town like Portland.

Now, as best as I can understand, the entire point of a “pastor” is not to do ministry. I do not get paid to do all the work, make all the calls, plan all the events, teach everything, evangelize, disciple and promote. My role as a pastor is to equip people for the task of ministry. However, at the same time, my role as a Christian is to do the ministry itself.

I have constantly been reminding Kristy and Christina that my goal in leading EP is not to take it over and then let it drop when I leave. But rather, that I want to help organize the group, give it a central task that people can rally around, and equip both Kristy and Christina to run it after I leave.

As it stands currently, I am doing the teaching, Kristy is acting as the group facilitator that asks questions and gets the group talking after the teaching, and Christina is acting as the community organizer. However, after I leave Kristy will also become the primary teacher, or at least that is the tentative plan so far. Currently, I plan to work with Kristy during the coming months at developing her ability to teach. However, depending on how that goes it might be more beneficial to look into doing a video series where Kristy can remain as a facilitator.

Furthermore, Christina wants to continue planning activities and events that bring everyone closer together. I think that is an excellent fit for her. Her biggest obstacle right now is a lack of knowledge on how to be more effective at it. I think I should be able to resource her with some good creative materials on how to plan and lead events, along with how to advertise and market those events.

Walking with Jesus

2009-07-11T14:54:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I feel like I mix up my desire for God with physical hunger. Or maybe it is just that God uses my physical hunger to make me realize how hungry for him I am. Either way, if I had to summarize just what exactly I have been learning recently, it would be the centrality of Jesus, all over again. I have been reading the book The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer for the past few weeks. At the same time, in our Wednesday Journey Team meetings we just finished John Maxwell’s Leadership Gold and are starting So Beautiful by Leonard Sweet. While all of these books are amazing, and I am learning so much from them, there is a point where I feel like it is information overload. All of them are offering fantastic nuggets of truth, concerning what it means to be a disciple, how to effectively lead people, and what the DNA of the church really looks like. And on one hand I want to soak it all in and learn as much as possible. But on the other hand I feel like it is all such useless information if I am not first and foremost focused on Jesus.

In fact, as cliché as it is Christianity is relational. So I cannot try and lead people towards Jesus when I am not following him, pursuing him and seeking him myself. I feel like part of me has been trying to do all of that without following Jesus. I feel like I follow Jesus for a while, and every now and then stop to make sure all the people behind me are still in line. I stop and keep pointing. “Jesus went that way.” I say, almost as if I am a personal road marker.

However, Jesus never stops. I stop to point others in his direction, but he keeps walking. Which means I am getting further away from Jesus simply because I am not walking towards him. In fact, as I write this I am reminded of the analogy of one of those moving walkways in airports. I have heard it said that our spiritual journey is like trying to walk the opposite direction on one of those walkways. If we stop, we start moving backwards, so we must continually walk in order to get from backsliding.

But what if that is a bad analogy? What if it is more accurate to speak of going on a walk through a park with Jesus? As we walk he begins to point things out around us. “See those trees?” He might say. Or, “Take a look at this dragonfly.” But if I stop walking, it is not that I start to move backwards, but Jesus continues to walk, meaning I move farther away from him, relatively speaking. Maybe instead of stopping to point others towards Jesus, I need to continue to walk with Jesus, and invite other people to walk with me, as I walk with him.

"Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." - Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth.

Meat & Milk

2009-07-11T13:10:00.002-04:00

Tonight we had worship team practice which I ran sound for. I think it went much better than last week, since I know a lot more about this particular sound board now. I was able to take charge a lot more, even though I had a couple of people trying to tell me how to do my job. I always hate when people try to tell me exactly what to do, as if I have no clue what I am doing. In some ways it feels like they are simply trying to show dominance and prove that they are useful in all areas, even though they do not need to be. After all, the reason they are on the worship team is because they already showed aptitude in a certain area, on some specific instrument. So I feel like I did a good job of not allowing myself to be run over by others, while at the same time not being a jerk by shutting them down either.

Also, before every band practice we do a “heart check” where we discuss something spiritual. This week Josh brought up the idea of leading worship with such force that people cannot help but feel God’s presence when they enter the building. However, Amanda and I brought the entire conversation much deeper by suggesting that God is not controlled by our attempts at worship. Many of the other people there were suggesting that when can bring God into the building in a tangible way by making sure our hearts are in the right place, or by developing a rich community amongst ourselves.

But the problem with that, which I made sure to mention, is that it places us in the control seat. So much of what was said made God sound more like an energy for us to wield and less of a tangible personality. When we start to believe that God must show up simply because we have read our bible enough, prayed enough or communed enough, then we place ourselves in control of our relationship with God. Instead we must recognize that God and God alone is in charge of our relationship. God shows up when he wants to show up, not because we have said the right ritual. However, that is not to say that God is not eager to join us and commune with us. But God at the same time, sometimes intentionally stays away from us. And why? That, unfortunately, is the mystery of God.

The entire experience left me wondering about the theology of church. In fact, Josh even made a point of mentioning that we are not a very theologically deep church. Which is unfortunate, but at the same time, when you have people that are new to a relationship with God you cannot expect them to go too deep. So I understand why we do not go too deep. But it also makes me wonder what we can or should be doing for those who need meat rather than milk. While I recognize that we do not have many of those people, there are some, and we need to provide for those people just as much.

Overall, this was definitely an experience I will remember when it comes to planting churches in Calgary, because I need to figure out how I can balance the two side of the spectrum. Perhaps having kids will help me figure that out, since while my children are growing up some of them will need to drink from a bottle while others are eating solid food.

Number Game

2009-07-09T10:08:00.000-04:00

Tonight we had Extended Play again. Only a handful of people showed up, which was disappointing. The last few weeks we have had upwards of ten to fifteen people showing up, which is more than usual. But tonight we had six total, included Amanda and me. In all honesty it is a real hit to my ego when no one shows up. I like to think that I am a great teacher, and I know that I am very gifted at it, but I like to think my teaching is the reason people come. Almost as if people are flocking to hear me speak. So when we have a night where no one comes, I internalize that and assume it is because of me.

But perhaps God is trying to teach me that numbers are not important. After all, Jesus himself spent three and a half years teaching his disciples. He started with twelve, and ended with eleven. So, I know that I need to realize that it is not about the quantity of people that show up, but the quality of the teaching. So I need to stop worrying about who shows up, or how many show up, and simply focus on teaching what I am teaching as well as I can.

At the same time, since there was a small group, we ended up going to an ice cream shop and then for a walk. We definitely got a lot more personal in regards to everyone’s spiritual walk. We had a very good conversation about how we discern the voice of God and know that we are doing his will. It is interesting, because it seems like everyone has differing opinions on hearing God.

It seems to me though, that God is more concerned with having partners that will work in creation with him, and less concerned with having robots that will do exactly what he says. I recognize that there are times when God does have a very specific plan for someone, like time in Apostle Paul’s life. But I wonder if there are other times when God wants us to make the decisions based on the passions and gifts he has already given us.

Supervision

2009-07-07T16:04:00.000-04:00

One of the interesting things about internship is how many different things I am expected to do. I am working with the youth group, working with Melanie on organizational and outreach events, working with the young adult group, and I will start working with Randy soon on construction of the new building, as well as working with Steve up at Pathway. In fact, I am supposed to be going up to Pathway on Tuesday nights for their pre-launch meetings that they have. Furthermore, Ed told me today that he wants me to start attending the creative team meetings on the first Tuesday of every month. Not to mention that I am also starting to work with the worship team, playing bass and running sound.

In some ways it is fine, and I am glad that I get to have so many different experiences. But at the same time, it is unfortunate that I do not get to focus my time nearly as much as I would like too. In reading John Maxwell’s Leadership Gold for our journey team meetings, I have realized the importance of finding your strength zones, what you are really good at and passionate about and staying there. So, as much as I am learning some good stuff about all of these different areas of the church, part of me simply wants to focus on teaching. I feel like teaching is by far my biggest strength area and the area that I will the easiest and quickest gain influence among the people of the church. I could then use that influence to lead and grow the people around me.

At the same time I realize that there is more to a church than teaching, and no matter how great of a teacher I am, if I simply teach without addressing the rest of the church my ministry will soon collapse. Also, I need to remember that the people here still do not know me very well and do not know what I am capable of yet. So there are often times when they will be watching over my shoulder in areas that I do not need watching and maybe even letting me loose in areas that I need supervision in.

Advice

2009-07-07T15:52:00.000-04:00

Today I took a much needed day off. Ordinarily I take Friday’s off and work a half day on Saturday, but that did not exactly happen last week. Compiled with desperately needing a day off after my trip to South Dakota, I feel like taking an extra day off was a good idea. However, Amanda feels like I am not listening to her. She suggested earlier that I take an extra day off, which I rejected. But then later Lee also suggested that I take a day off, which I then agreed with.

I think part of it is that I am willing to listen to different people about different things. Part of it is that I feel like certain people have authority behind what they say in different areas. So it is not that I feel like Amanda is completely unreliable, or that I should not listen to her about anything. But when she suggests that I take a day off, I am definitely less inclined to listen to her suggestion, because she does not work at the church nor does she understand ministry schedules the way Lee or Ed do.

Over all, it seems difficult to navigate the waters of leadership. I want to be open to the advice of people, but at the same time I do not want to be continually swayed by the personal opinions of everyone else, which is frustrating too. Many times Amanda and I will be talking and she will try to give me advice about how to handle various situations or people and I need to discern whether her advice is valid or not. After all, since she does not look at things with the same leadership perspective that I do, is her advice coming from the belief that I need to back down and let someone else lead, or is it actually beneficial for my leadership ability?

Model Trends

2009-07-03T17:47:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Amanda and I went over to Grand Rapids. The whole point of going over there was to buy some tables and chairs that will go in our new building. Fortunately we were able to get the tables and chairs used from another church, so there were significantly cheaper. When we got to the church I noticed that the entire church was a converted old warehouse, except that they had done a wonderful job remodeling and renovating the space. There was nothing about the church that looked old or worn down what so ever.

I also noticed as we pulled up, that this was not a simple transaction between two churches. I assumed that the church we were purchasing the tables and chairs from was simply getting new furniture, and allowing us to use their old stuff. However, instead of a church remodeling or acquiring new furniture I found that the church was in fact selling everything they had. It looked like a giant garage sale, where they were literally getting rid of everything.

I naturally had to ask the lady that transacted my business what exactly was going on and why they were selling all of their stuff. She told me, with much excitement in her voice, that their church had decided to go to the house church model and they were getting rid of everything in their church. I have read some stuff about house churches, specifically some books by Frank Viola, so I could definitely share in her excitement to a point. But then she informed me that they had actually moved into this warehouse only three years ago and had spent a lot of money to renovate it. In fact, they were very deep into debt, and the reason they were selling all their stuff was to hopefully alleviate some of that debt.

As I drove off I could not help but think about what they lady had said. Here was a church that three years ago had moved into an old warehouse and spent vast amounts of money on renovations, simply to three years later abandon that church model in favor for a different model. But where was God in this process? Did God tell them three years ago to acquire massive debt for a building? If so, was God truly now telling them to transition into a house church model?

While I never want to act as if I understand the will of God completely and totally, I have to say that I was baffled. How could God ask a church to go into serious debt, only to three years later ask that same church to abandon the very reason they had amassed so much debt in the first place? Did that church hear God correctly three years ago? Are they hearing God correctly now? My fear is that one of a few choices is going on. Either this church did not follow God’s direction three years ago, in which case the debt that they incurred was unnecessary, there are not currently listening to God in which case they are abandoning their project for nothing, or worst of all they did not hear from God in either situation.

After all, just a few years ago it was popular to have a warehouse feel to your church. To meet in a warehouse was rugged, raw, and lacked that canned, sterile feel that you might find in other churches. But now to meet in a house church is authentic and personal, warm and inviting. My biggest fear is that this church is not following God’s direction in either model, but instead simply following the biggest, coolest, latest trend.

Grand Rapids

2009-07-03T14:04:00.001-04:00

I am a little bit frustrated. I hate when I feel like I have no options, and all my decisions are made for me. I suppose tonight might not have actually been one of those days, but it definitely felt like it. This morning Amanda and Emily had a meeting at 9 am. We also had an appointment at Verizon Wireless at 10 am to switch our phone. Last week in South Dakota we lost the charger to our phone, so it has been dead for the past week almost. That would be okay if our cell phone was not our single source of communication with the outside world.

Our original plan was to have Amanda drop me off at work at 8:45 so she could meet with Emily for close to an hour, then come pick me up around 9:30 and we could make it to Verizon in time for our meeting. But instead we woke up late. We got to Emily’s place at about 9:10, so instead of going to work, I dropped a book off at the library, and got coffee for us before swinging back and getting Amanda 20 minutes later. We still left Emily’s house late and subsequently got to Verizon late too; which is fine since we had a 30 minute window to make the appointment. On the way back to Portland from that however, I got a call from Melanie wondering if I had left for Grand Rapids yet. I completely forgot that I needed to also run up to Grand Rapids in order to pick up some chairs and tables for our new building.

However, when we got to Grand Rapids Amanda needed to do some shopping for work clothes. Macy’s has an employee dress code of all black, and unless Amanda wants to wear the same shirt and skirt every day, we needed to buy new clothes. And since Grand Rapids has some better and cheaper stores than Lansing, we needed to do the shopping in Lansing. Which means that I spent all day helping Amanda find clothes when I was supposed to be working.

The end result is that I then have to come in tomorrow, on my day off, to essentially make up for the day that I just took off. Except it does not feel like a day off because I still had to wake up early and get some projects done this morning. Nor was I planning on making today my day off either, so I was not mentally prepared for a day off. The thing that is so frustrating is that I am completely exhausted. Going to South Dakota was a whirlwind of a trip, and since I got back I have been working every day. I honestly need a day off in order to recuperate and organize myself for work mode again. But I did not get that. Instead I got a day of shopping, standing on my feet and running errands. So, now I will wait for next Friday, where I can hopefully sleep in, relax and do nothing.

The Creation Narrative

2009-07-03T13:50:00.002-04:00

It is hard to believe it is already July. I feel like June just flew by. We had a lot going on though. Ed was gone for two weeks in June and I was gone for one, so we really only had one week where both of us were around. Even this week it seems like we keep missing each other. I am really looking forward to July because I feel like June was so chaotic; it was hard to keep up.

Part of me wonders if ministry is always this hectic and busy. I really do not want it to be. How can I be effective at teaching people about God if I am continually running around thinking about the next meeting, next teaching, next event I need to coordinate? I know there is my weekly day off, but honestly, that does not really feel like a day off when I then pack all of my non-work related projects into that day.

On the plus side though, Extended Play went really well tonight. Josh and Kristy could not make it, which was unfortunately. Kristy was supposed to formulate some questions to go along with my teaching, but since she did not show up I had to try and do some questioning on the fly. Fortunately Lee and Amanda were able to ask some questions that I knew they obviously had the answers for. I appreciate that they were willing to voices some questions and make other people feel less bad about having questions of their own.

Over all I am very encouraged about the way EP has been going. We have a few people that have been coming that have not made personal professions of faith yet. So it is awesome to talk to them each week after my teaching because they say that it makes sense to them. I love that. It is nice to know that not only do I enjoy teaching people about God but that I can do it effectively. Tonight I was talking about the creation narrative and how God is in the process of bring order out of chaos, asking us to partner with him in creation, and has given us life as a gift to be enjoyed, not just a curse. Next week though I will touch on the effects of the fall.

The Juggling Act

2009-07-01T15:00:00.002-04:00

There is a lot involved in church planting. Currently we are working on moving into a new building, which in some ways will mean we are no longer a church plant. But I suppose that is okay because we have been around for three years now. I know that some churches continue as church plants, or even act like church plants, well into five, seven or even ten years. But I would like to think that is more of an exception rather than the rule. I think it is a good goal to try and become an established church within three years of planting. I realize that in all situations and circumstances this is not always possible, but generally speaking three years should be the target goal.

Regardless, it still remains that church planting is tough work, or maybe more accurately there is just a lot to do when planting a church, and never enough people to do it all. I came in today after dropping Amanda off and everyone was standing around in our main gathering discussing our new chair possibilities for the new building. We had three different chairs to consider. While this alone does not seem like it is extremely important, controversial or stressful, in chairs alone we have to consider the aesthetic value, the comfort level, the price, the impact it will have on the congregation.

When you realize that this is simply one issue that must be considered, as well as all the rest of the building project demands (money, time, workers, relaunch date), outreach events in order to continue to spread the word that we even exist, and regular church functions such as teaching, small groups, and other ministries that are going on simultaneously, it is a lot to juggle.

I am realizing more and more how essential it is to do church as a team. There is no way that I can single-handedly do all of those things when I plant a church. I must remember that as the pastor, my job is to equip others for ministry. My job as a Christian is to do ministry.

Trust and confidence

2009-06-30T16:10:00.001-04:00

In some ways I do not feel like I did much. Last night was Xplode, so I took part of the morning off to compensate for that. Then Amanda had a job interview with Macy’s at 11. I went to Starbucks and read while she was in the interview. So in some ways I accomplished something this morning. I tackled a few chapters in a few different books and planned out what I want to talk about at Extended Play for the next few weeks.

When Amanda got back from her interview we had to rush over to McDonalds to meet Kristy and Christina for our EP meeting. I think things are going well, and can only get better. Although I am somewhat frustrated. I feel like I am a better leader than they are letting me be. However, I realize that is a contradiction is some ways. After all, if I was a better leader I would be leading better. I cannot blame the people I am leading for my leadership ability.

I guess I really just want to have people automatically trust me and believe my credibility without necessarily earning that trust. I am sure that as long as I continue to build trust with both of them they will accept my leadership more and more. I have been reading a book by John Maxwell on leadership recently, which is extremely useful. However, at times it feels overwhelming because there are so many things that he makes sound like they are essential. In some ways I know they are, but to remember to constantly manage myself, actively listen to people, define reality, develop people based on their personalities and strengths, develop my own abilities, keep our focus on the main thing, and bring everyone along with me… it just seems daunting.

Communication Frustration

2009-06-30T16:09:00.002-04:00

It’s late. Technically it’s Sunday morning. We just got back into Portland for South Dakota. I feel like so much has happened in the past few days. To start, I picked up mom from the airport late on Thursday night. Her flight got in at 10:30 and like usual Amanda and I were late getting there to pick her up. Fortunately, by the time we got there her bag had not come through the baggage claim yet, and we left the airport within 20 minutes, which means we did not need to pay for parking.

Later that same night, around 1:00 in the morning, my sister and her husband came into town. They also had a wedding to attend on Saturday. But since everyone was tired we said quick hello’s and went to bed. The only problem was that I could not sleep. So while everyone else in the house was asleep by 1:30, I was up until 4 in the morning. I woke up again at 8:30 on Friday, since Amanda and I had to get ready for the wedding. Although the wedding was not until 4, Amanda was Bobbie’s person attendant, which meant she needed to be up in Sturgis by 10am.

So I barely saw anyone Friday morning, and we had plans to leave on Friday night to head back home. I told everyone that we would be by the house in pick up our stuff before we left. However, when we got back from the wedding at 7 last night, no one was around. I waited until 9 before deciding to pack up and leave without being able to say goodbye. I am frustrated that my family never communicates their plans with me, but seems to get upset if I make plans without specifically communicating with them.

As a result, we got on the road 2 hours later than we wanted last night. We could have at least got as far as Minnesota, but instead settled for Chamberlain instead. As a result we had most to the drive ahead of us today. I guess I need to learn to accept all the things I cannot change.

Sturgis Week

2009-06-30T16:08:00.001-04:00

We have been staying at my mother’s house in Rapid City, but have had had to drive up to Sturgis every day, at least once a day because of the wedding. The entire reason we came out to South Dakota was because our friend Bobbie-Jo from college is getting married. Honestly, if we were not such good friends I do not think I would want to make another trip like this. It took us 17 hours for driving to get here and we have spent a lot of time in the car going back and forth between Rapid City and Sturgis.

Furthermore, there are people in Rapid City that think we should be spending time with them simply because we are “in town” again. Even though I feel like we have no time at all. Furthermore, back in Portland we have an outreach event coming up on Sunday and another one on the following Saturday, both of which I am a part of organizing. But since I am in South Dakota, all I can do is e-mail back and forth with Melanie.

I guess I feel somewhat frustrated. I should, in some ways, be considering this week a vacation time. But at the same time, my mind is still back in Portland, trying to figure out what to do for various things. I am thinking about the outreach events, what I might still need to do, and especially about Extended Play.

Last week went really well, but then Amanda and I missed last night, for obvious reasons. I am afraid that we might have killed the momentum of last week by not being there this week. At the same time, I should probably realize that EP runs well without me there. We have only been associated with it for a few weeks, and it ran smoothly before we got there. Furthermore, I do not actually want it to depend solely on me. My purpose in working with EP is to help the two ladies that will continue to run it after I leave be better at what they do.

The Road Less Traveled By...

2009-06-30T16:07:00.002-04:00

We left Michigan yesterday, although we were late getting out. I was hoping for us to leave by 3pm or so, and we did not leave until 5:30. Furthermore there was a serious accident around Grand Rapids that brought us to a dead stop for about 15 minutes. Furthermore, I was hoping to get all the way to Minnesota before stopping for the night. Unfortunately we only got as far as Wisconsin Dells.

Still with all things considered we made good time and got into Rapid City tonight around 5:30 local time. However, mom went to Romania for two weeks to visit Vicki who was our foreign exchange student for a year almost ten years ago. Because mom has been gone grandpa also has been gone for the last week to North Dakota. All of this resulted in extremely long grass that needed to be cut.

I decided that I should get out and mow the grass tonight even thought I was extremely tired. It made me think of what life is going to be like when Amanda and I are out of college and have a house of our own that we need to keep up with constantly. I know there will be days when I am extremely tired and do not want to do house work but will need to do it anyway.

Furthermore, how is it going to work when we have kids as well and obviously need to give them our attention as well? There is a part of me that wonders if I will be able to juggle work, kids and a house at the same time. It seems very over-whelming. However, I know that before I started my internship this seemed very over-whelming as well and now I feel like I am handling the added responsibility very well.

Discipleship: The Means to an End

2009-06-19T16:48:00.001-04:00

Today I did a lot of reading again. Bonhoeffer kind of hurts my head, but it is really good at the same time. I am trying to get my head around the concept of discipleship, specifically because I am hoping to focus Extended Play on the idea of discipleship. What I am starting to realize is that not only is discipleship incredibly important, but that it is really a means to an end. The point of discipleship is not just so that we can have a bunch of people that are calling themselves disciples of Jesus. But instead that people are following Jesus, becoming disciples, so that they can reach the true end which is to known and be known by God. Discipleship is merely the means to the end.

Part of that realization came from reading a quote from Thomas Aquinas recently that said, “The essence of a human being is participation in the essence of the divine being [God].” The questions to flow from that then are (1) in what ways do we participating in the life of God and (2) in what ways does this participation define our essence as people?

On Wednesday, I told the group how Martin Luther compared Christians to beggars who were simply telling other beggars where to find bread. But that recently I read a story that compared Christianity to a store that had a sign out front advertising hot, fresh bread for a dollar. A man went into the store hoping to buy some of the bread, only to find that the store did not have any bread. All the store had inside were pictures advertising the bread and a sign encouraging the man to give those pictures to his friends.

I encouraged the group to not make evangelism and church growth our focus, as much as seeking an authentic relationship God through discipleship, and to allow the group to grow through our passion for God and other people. Everyone seemed to connect with what I said. I think I might like to continue with the analogy through the year. Experiencing God is like eating hot, fresh bread straight from the oven. We cannot simply show people a picture of that bread and expect them to get excited. We have to be eating that bread, experiencing God for ourselves, and out of that, pour into the lives of others.

Sick Leave

2009-06-18T17:25:00.001-04:00

Today was the first day I got up on time in a while. I have not been sleeping the best, which naturally means that I have been resetting my alarm when I wake up. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I have been sick for the last few days. Part of me wants to just stay home and sleep all day. In some ways I might even consider that if it were not for the fact that we have three outreach events coming up in a three week span.

The first one is this weekend. We have a car show here on Father’s Day where we bring in this hot rod club of some kind. It is supposed to attract all kinds of people to Epic that might not show up normally. I think it will be a big success; there is just a lot of planning for it, which does not give me much room for calling in sick.

Not to mention that I Amanda and I will be gone next week from Monday through Saturday for a wedding back in South Dakota. I am very excited to go, but I do not know how that will work as far as trying to continue working with Melanie on organizing the next two events we have coming up.

However, I came to a bit of a stop today on organizational work. There is only so much I can do at once, and part of everything is e-mailing people and waiting for them. Since other people have jobs that do not always allow them to check their e-mail right away, the waiting game is huge. Fortunately it gave me the time to read a lot more. I was able to finish reading Messy Spirituality and start reading The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer. I can already tell that Bonhoeffer will be good, especially for leading EP, but it is a heavy read. It took my almost an hour to get through the first chapter because I have to stop, reread and process everything before I continue on. But I think it will be a very good resource in helping people become passionate about following Jesus and not just following a doctrinal statement.

The Beggar's Bread

2009-06-18T09:44:00.002-04:00

Tonight was E.P. our young adult group. Originally we were planning on handing out free water bottles at the baseball fields. Last week Amanda and I ended up there after getting lost and noticed that there were little league games going on with tons of people. So I decided that it would be a great way to serve the community.

However, when I woke up this morning it was raining. It continued to rain almost all day too, so I figured that if there were any games scheduled for today they would have been canceled. In a way this was good because I am not sure if we could have pulled off a quality service project. In some ways I bet it would have seemed half-heart and sloppy. So I am somewhat glad that we had to delay it. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule it for a few weeks from now.

Fortunately I asked Christina to prepare a game that we could play as a group inside just in case it rained. She said that was fine and came prepared with Scategories. She also said she had another game prepared, but she never said what it was. At the same time, I suggested that we play Pictionary telephone again. In some ways I was not entirely serious, however since Lee, Lindsey, Mallory and Amanda were all there and had played it at Xplode on Sunday they were very excited to play again.

In some ways I feel like I might have crossed the line and stepped into Christina’s territory by suggesting a game after I asked her to prepare something for us. I do not want anyone to feel like I am completely taking over EP as much as coming along side them and helping guide the group. I want to help by providing the group with a purpose, a reason to exist beyond social activities. I need to make sure Christina knows that I did not mean to over step my bounds.

I also had a chance to speak to the group tonight. It went really well. I spoke about Peter stepping out of the boat and walking on the water with Jesus. I focused on how Jesus has faith in us and our ability to act like he acts, respond how he responds and love like he loves. Everyone seemed to respond very positively afterward, which I can only attribute to God. I feel like God is guiding me toward discipleship when it comes to the group. I feel like we need to be less concerned about being specifically attractive to people and more about creating an authentic community where people can experience God and be real with each other.

Furthermore, we had our journey team meeting this morning. I am not sure who said it exactly, but while someone was talking I had a thought about our spirituality. Any doctor will tell you that the secret to getting in shape is eating right and exercise. I realized today that the same principles apply to our spiritual journey. The way to get “in shape” is to eat right (taking in the correct doctrine/teaching) and exercise (acting out our faith with real actions).

Partnership

2009-06-16T17:40:00.001-04:00

This morning I did a lot of reading. I feel like I spend a good portion of my time at work reading. In fact, it seems like I do more reading at work than Lee or Melanie, which makes me wonder if I am spending too much time reading, or if maybe I should be doing my reading at home. But at the same time, my role as an intern is different than Lee and Melanie’s roles. Perhaps they do not have nearly as much reading as I do. This is something I think I will need to bring up with Ed when he gets back.

This afternoon I meet with Melanie to finalize some plans for the Father’s Day Car Show that we are doing on Sunday. We needed to figure out the placement of the cars in the parking lot, the kids bouncy houses, the grill and food would be, and the rest of the activities. We also decided to change the judging of the cars this year. Last year Ed judged the cars by himself, but this year Ed, Lee and I will be judging the cars. I also created a spreadsheet so that we can judge the cars based on three different categories and another spreadsheet that we will use to sign in the cars complete with a numbering system.

Furthermore, I had a very interesting conversation with Lee about Epic and the Wesleyan church as a whole. The membership handbook for Epic, which we call our partnership handbook, has some less stringent requirements than the Wesleyan church does. For example, while the Wesleyan church disallows members from drinking alcohol, Epic does not take the same stand. We simply ask people who want to become partners to avoid drunkenness, which is biblical.

Personally I agree with this policy. Most of the people that join our church as partners come from either a de-churched or an un-churched background. They have never even considered a life completely void of alcohol, and if we were to suggest to them that they abstain they would no longer pursue partnership. I think this is probably the route the church as a whole will start to take in the next few years. Especially considering the conversations I have had with other students at Bethany, who will be the future of the church in a few years.

Xplode and a Monday Sabbath

2009-06-16T13:57:00.001-04:00

Sunday night Lee had me run Xplode, the youth group ministry. I was supposed to come up with the game and the lesson, although he already had the topic picked out. I was supposed to talk about prayer, and then afterward give the teens an opportunity to actually pray. So we played a game that I learned from Jen Ochej called Pictionary Telephone.

The game is like the telephone game, except that everyone has pieces of paper. At first you write a phrase on a piece of paper, and then hand that to the person on your right who tries to draw the phrase. After they have drawn the phrase, they pass that to the next person who tries to re-write the phrase based on the picture. Then the next person redraws whatever phrase they have been given, and the games continues going around the circle until everyone has their original phrase back.

I chose this game to try and illustrate how messages get jumbled when we go through a mediator, but that when we pray to God we are able to talk directly to him. Afterward I spoke on the topic of prayer using Jesus lesson on prayer from Matthew 6. I think there is a lot of great information in that chapter about how we should approach prayer. However, I do not think I effectively communicated that to the kids. I have never been able to figure out how to talk to teens in a way that holds their attention and teaches them something.

Then yesterday I decided to take the day off. Ed is out of town in Panama, Lee is taking Monday’s off and Melanie took the day off to take her kids to the zoo. So I would have been the only person in the office. Not to mention that last week I switched days off and worked on Friday, intending to take Saturday off. However, Amanda wanted to help out at the yard sale on Saturday, so we came down to the church and I ended up doing some work anyway. So instead of getting a day off I sort of worked both Friday and Saturday.

I remember when I was younger my dad would always tell me “Find something you love to do and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I love this saying and I think it is completely true. But the problem is, if I am never working a day in my life, how do I differentiate between work hours and non-work hours? At what point do I stop doing the work that I love just to make sure that I do not get burned out?

The Gospel According to Starbucks

2009-06-12T18:36:00.001-04:00

I came in to work today which is usually my day off. Ed is leading a mission trip to Panama for a week and they are leaving early tomorrow morning; which would mean that I would be the only one around the office tomorrow. So I decided to switch days off and take tomorrow off instead.

But since I do not have much work on my plate today I was able to finish reading The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet today. The book is less a church resource and more a Christian-living resource, dealing with how to live life with “grande passion.” However it gave me some good ideas for Extended Play.

There was a section where Sweet quoted Thomas Aquinas by saying “The essence of a human being is participation in the essence of divine being.” Or essentially, “We exist to take part in nature of God.” He then asked a two part question of “What ways do we participate in the life of God?” and “In what ways does this participation define your essence as a person?”

To be honest, I had to think about it for a bit. How do I in fact participate in the life of God? What does that even mean? I would say that my desire to teach others about God and lead them in His direction is part of how I participate in the life of God. I was say it also, for good or bad, probably defines who I am as a person.

Also, according to ethnologist Ray Oldenburg, we desperately need what is referred to as “third places” in our lives. Places where we feel comfortable that are not home or the office. I wondered how successful the church is at being that third place for others. I want to see if we can successfully make the church that third place once again. However, it also made me curious where that third place can be for me as a pastor. If the church is my office, then the church is not my third place, but my second place. I want to discuss that with Ed.

Serving through personality

2009-06-11T18:33:00.001-04:00

I woke up late this morning. More accurately I woke up this afternoon. I make it a practice to be in at work by 9, but today I woke up at 12:30 and did not get in until 1:00. Nobody said anything. I think I have a much more rigid demand for myself than others have on me. I have the feeling that people will assume that I was slacking off if I am not in to the office “on time”. Sure I was sleeping, but at the same time I had a few hours of “work” last night too for Extended Play. Although to be honest I kind of hate referring to what I do as work. I also hate saying that I am “going to the office” or that I am “at the office.” I mean, I realize that every church needs to have an office, and that a large portion of my job will consist of me in the office doing work that most people will never see or acknowledge.

I guess I want to feel like I am impacting people, actually making a difference in the lives of people and bringing them closer to Jesus. I know that the kind of work I am doing is all a part of a larger joint effort to do that. But it is hard sometimes to remember that by collecting names (for example) I am eventually helping advance the cause of Christ.

Last night Extended Play met at a baseball field to play kickball. It was fun, except that we played a “guys versus girls” game. Which essentially meant that we played a game of “watch the guys run laps around the bases.” When called by that, it is significantly less appealing. But on the plus side Amanda and I got lost on the way to the baseball field and discovered another group of fields that was packed with little league games going on. Tons of people were over there watching games that, rumor has it, go on ever Wednesday. So I think I want to have us do an outreach event there by handing out free water bottles to the people in the stands.

I guess when it gets down to it I want to be active in front-line ministry. I want to be actively serving people and showing them the love of Christ. I am the type of person that is much more comfortable up in front of the crowd and on the frontlines than I am the guy that wants to be behind the scenes doing the menial tasks. Although I recognize that those tasks need to get done by someone. But does it need to be me?

Jesus and experiencing God

2009-06-10T17:39:00.001-04:00

Today was more productive. I started the day doing some much needed Bible reading. I am way behind my “schedule” and have for the past couple days been reading larger sections in order to catch up. Although to be honest I wonder if reading large sections of the Bible at a time are even helpful. At that point am I more focused on simply “get through” the Bible and less focused on letting God get through to me by way of His word? Definitely something I need to consider.

Perhaps I will start doing the One-Year Bible soon. I think part of my problem is that I am somewhat competitive. I have this idea that if I can get through the Bible in less than a year than I am somehow a better person for it. Instead I should try and slow down and realize that reading the Bible is not a chore, exercise or sacrament that will somehow make me a “holier” or better person in its own right. Only by focusing and God and developing a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Him can I actually be changed into anything other than the current me.

Beyond that, I had an interesting conversation with Ed today concerning Jesus. It started when Ed first made a comment about how many people today seem to have issues with their own fathers and how that has led to the rise in people looking at and considering the feminine side of God. Now, I understand that God must have feminine qualities as much as “He” has masculine qualities. After all, how else could He have made both male and female in His image? Yet regardless, the Scriptures and Christ both refer to God as our Father quite often and probably for a good reason.

This discussion of God as Father led us into a conversation about the possibility that Jesus had “daddy issues” himself. Many scholars believe that Joseph, his adoptive earthly father, probably died when Jesus was around 13-15 years old. It would explain why we see Mary a lot in the Gospels, but not Joseph. It would also explain why Jesus was a carpenter and not a Rabbi, despite the fact that he obviously could have passed Rabbinic training with flying colors.

That also led us into another discuss regarding Jesus. Did Jesus every make mistakes? Obviously he was without sin; the Bible is clear on that. But what about non-sinful mistakes? Did Jesus ever trip and fall? Did he every call Peter by John’s name? I do not see why not. After all, we see that Jesus was fully human and subject to other human characteristics: hungry, fatigue, emotion.

Busy Work

2009-06-09T17:20:00.001-04:00

One thing that I have started to notice so far is that it is incredibly easy to get side tracked with all kinds of busy work and lose sight of what is really important. I already have a few things that I need to be getting done, and a few books that need to be read. Yet when I look over my log of what I did today, it does not seem like I actually accomplished much. When I reflect on this, I would say it is because I allowed a lot of the smaller, more menial tasks to get in the way of the really important work.

I am actually reminded of something Gina Mason mentioned in a class last semester at Bethany. While she was on her internship, her church had a secretary that each week organized her tasks into three categories: things that must get done, things that should get done, and things that it would be nice to get done. I think I need to start organizing my work into categories like that. Perhaps if I start with all the projects that must get done I can feel more productive and still get everything done.

However, at the same time I am still getting used to the job and there are some bugs to work out. I am still in the process of reviewing church materials and getting organized with my internship projects. So hopefully in the next week or two I will start to move passed the initial pre-work.

On a more positive note, it is always encouraging to see God work. Amanda is still looking for a job, and considered the economy and the Michigan economy at that, it has not been going too well. But we have continued to pray that God will provide for us in whatever way he chooses. Well, when I was meeting with Ed today he informed me that someone (although I am not sure who) sent in a check for Amanda and I that will be in my mailbox shortly. Also, immediately after meeting with Ed I received two calls from employers wanting to set up interviews for Amanda. She was able to call them back and already had one of the interviews this afternoon. Lesson learned: We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. – Romans 8:28.

Ministry Match

2009-06-08T17:08:00.000-04:00

There is a personality/ministry style test called Ministry Match that Ed told me about a while ago that he wanted me to take. Today I finally got the chance to take the test. It took me three hours and included 450 questions. But it was really good to get a broad look at who I am. Last week I took another test called Flag Page, although that test was much less ministry focused and much more about whom I am and what my motivations are.

With the ministry match test I discovered that I am much more focused on the big picture than details, I cater more towards the group as a whole rather than the individual, choose logic over relational thinking and am more flexible than rigid. I am also more proactive than responsive. So things I was aware of, others not as much.

Something interesting that I discovered was that I really value purpose. I like when people have a good idea of what they are doing and why they are doing it. It explains why I love mission statements, vision casting and core values. I really like to have a clear idea of where we are going and how we are going to get there. I also want people to have that same understanding of where we are trying to go so that they can put their abilities to work towards that common goal. This will come in very useful when I go to plant churches in Calgary because I will be able to cast vision. I will be able to set the overall mission of planting a new district from the very beginning and work at getting people on board with it.

Also, Ed and I decided that I will be preaching on August 16th. It is actually our last Sunday in our current building before moving into our new space. The sermon will be part of a series on the life of Josiah called O2: Breathing Lessons from the Life of Josiah. I am looking forward to it because I have never been given parameters in preaching before. Usually I get to pick my text and work with it to whatever capacity I want. I think it will be good training for when I need to be doing sermon series of my own later on in life.

Sabbath Rest

2009-06-06T16:03:00.002-04:00

Saturday’s are a half day for me. Although the fact that I still need to get up early and spend the morning at the church makes it feel like a full day. I ended up spending more than half the day here. The way it works is that I get Friday’s off, Saturday is a “half-day” and Sunday is… Sunday. So I think I essentially have two full days off, but it feels like one since my other off day is broken up. The question I must figure out is how to effectively have a Sabbath rest on Friday when it is my only day off in many ways. I feel compelled to do all kinds of non-church work on Friday to get it all done. But then am I ever really resting?

Yesterday I spent the majority of the day taking Amanda around to different places to get job applications and what not. I glad to be doing it, but it is not exactly my idea of a day off either. Not to mention that since I have been here, I have had the tendency to get up early on my work days, spend time reading my Bible and then praying. But on Friday’s it never seems to get done. I wake up late and then end up getting distracted with something else. Somehow I need to figure out how to maintain my prayer and Bible reading on my day off, especially when it is supposed to be a “Sabbath” of sorts.

Today, being the half day that it was, was spent helping out with the Helping Hands ministry we do at the church. Once a month we help people who are less fortunate by meeting their physical and material needs. We do it by appointment and the whole thing is very structured, but I get the feeling that it is working well for everyone. We actually had a few ladies come in this morning for food and then start asking questions about the church. They said they would come check us out tomorrow morning. It makes me curious how a ministry like that gets started in the first place. Do people just automatically come to churches for help still? Do we do any sort of advertising for this at all? These are thing I will need to ask Ed about.

Church Marketing

2009-06-04T19:31:00.001-04:00

I have been thinking a lot today about church advertising. We have been working on a campaign for our prelaunch in the new building and trying to come up with some ideas for it. What I have been trying to figure out is how to advertise our church to unchurched and dechurched people without necessarily offending or insulting the other churches in the area. In all reality what we are trying to advertise is that we are different than most churches and that if you did not like other churches that you should come check us out. However, how do you communicate that you are a different church without also communicating that all the other churches are the same?

I started reading the book The Gospel According to Starbucks which has some great information about marketing and advertising. While this is not the intention of the book, it has given me some great ideas about advertising the church based on experience and community. I think if I try to create some ads around the idea that regular people can find belonging at Epic, then I can avoid the entire idea of us versus other churches.

Later in the day I went to introduce myself to the youth pastors of the other churches in town. From their websites it looks like a lot of the churches in town have multiple services on Sundays, but almost no one has a full-time youth pastor. I do not understand how churches that have enough people attending to have multiple services do not have youth pastors. It seems like that is usually the first position hired in a church.

I guess there are a lot of things I need to learn about the area of Portland. But I am excited to learn what makes the people around here tick. It seems like the people that do the best on their internships are the people that immerse themselves in the area they are in. So I need to figure out what it looks like to be a Michigander and become that.

Leadership Anyone?

2009-06-04T10:32:00.003-04:00

Today was an interesting day. Amanda and I went up to St. Johns to have lunch with Steve Cymbal who is planting a church off of Epic this fall called Pathway. We went to St. Johns so that I could essentially talk to him about church planting since he is right in the thick of pre-launch. It was incredible to be able to talk with him. One thing that I have always been confused about as far as planting a church is the pre-launch stuff.

In all my church planting classes it seems like we have done a great job of discussing what to do in that first year after launch, marketing, leadership, programs, etc. But when it comes to pre-launch… I have no idea what that even looks like. So to get the opportunity to talk with Steve about what he is doing in the pre-launch stage was great. We spent a solid two hours talking about the things they are doing; how they are connecting with people; developing their mission, vision, and core values; administration; everything. I am so thankful that I was able to do that, I feel like I have an idea of what pre-launch looks like. Furthermore, I think Amanda and I will start attending their pre-launch core team meetings each week. I do not think we will be doing anything for Pathway, pre-launch-wise, but at least we will be able to observe.

Then tonight we went to Extended Play, which is the young adult group for epic. We had a barbeque at the church and then played a game that was essentially “four on the couch.” It was a good opportunity to meet the people that usually come. However, I think I might start leading that group, which I am hoping for. From what I have heard from a few people is that Extended Play (or E.P. as they call it) is mainly a social get together, which is not uncommon for young adult groups in churches.

It seems like everyone I talk to in church leadership always says that young adults are a difficult age range because they are too transient. I disagree though. I think that young adults have the greatest ability to go out and be the church. They are older than youth and have a better grasp on what they truly believe, yet most do not have families yet, so there are few responsibilities. I think the reason young adult groups are not more successful is because of a lack of real leadership and purpose. When we create young adult groups that are mainly social is purpose then young adults will only come when they do not have something else to do.

What we need to do is create an environment where young adults can own the group and feel responsible for the success of the group. That can only happen if we as a group have mission and vision. Once again that means that the group needs to have clear leadership that can inspire others to get involved in that mission. If we view young adult groups the same way we view youth groups I believe there will be a lot more success.

Deja Vu

2009-06-03T09:14:00.003-04:00

Today was mainly spent reviewing materials for the church. It never dawned on me that when I start working for a church I will have to get to know the people, the policies and start working at the same time. When I have done volunteer work for churches in the past I have had the opportunity to get to know people and policies gradually over time before jumping into whatever ministry I would help out with. But now as a pastor, or in this case a pastoral intern, I will need to hit the ground running so to speak. Fortunately I should be able to figure everything out over the next few weeks.

I also had the opportunity to talk with our youth pastor Lee about what I will be doing for him over the next six months. I am excited about working with the youth group to the extent that I am. Part of my job will be to contact the other youth leaders in the area and plan a large event that includes all of our youth groups. Lee is giving me free reign to decide the lesson, theme and structure of the event. It should be a great learning experience to do that amount of planning and organizing.

Later today I got an e-mail from our organizational coordinator. We are moving into a new building in September and she was asking a group of us to brainstorm some ideas for an ad campaign to promote the new build. Although I do not think I have any spectacular talents when it comes to marketing it was a great experience to design a possible poster for the fall. It was also cool to see what some of the others came up with and work off of each other’s ideas. I think I enjoy working as a team when it comes to projects like this. Here's what I came up with.
I also corresponded with Ed a little bit about the letter I wrote yesterday. He asked me to type up a letter that we can send out to the congregation announcing our upcoming service day and baptism event. Instead of holding our regular weekend worship gatherings, we are going to go out and serve the community through group projects. Some people will pick up trash, others will visit people in the nursing home, and others might just to and do random acts of kindness. Ed read over my letter and said he really liked it.

I think I am starting to realize that I am the kind of person that needs at least an amount of acknowledgement for the work I do. I want to know that what I do matters to people. When I am doing a job that seems to go unnoticed I have a tendency to get discouraged. So knowing that I require “props” for my work is important.

First Day

2009-06-02T12:47:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my first official day of internship, although this week Ed, my supervisor, has to be gone to Portland, OR for a class. This would seem like an odd start to the internship except for the fact that I actually started doing work around the church last week. So in some ways I feel like I am already off and running and I that I have had an opportunity to figure out what I really need to do work-wise before starting the internship side of things.

To be honest I am a little bit nervous. Not for the ministry work itself. Working as a pastor in a church is what I have been training for and working towards for the past four years now. The part that makes me nervous is the internship side of things. I have some many reports to write, journals to do, a daily log I have to keep. I guess I feel nervous that I am going to forget to cross a “T” or dot an “I” and fail my internship.

I am sure that once everything gets rolling I will feel much less nervous about things. I will get into the swing of things and realize that internship work itself is not something gigantic and enormous and impossible. Plus I do not believe that God has brought me this far simply to allow me to fail due to a mistake. I will have to trust God to help me through everything.

Last week I told Ed that I need to read three books during my internship in order to complete book reports. He laughed and said that three books are not enough. He said a good goal is a book a week, but that he would go easy on me and only assign roughly a book every two weeks. I left his office that day with a stake of thirteen books. Some of the books are small, some are bigger. Fortunately he also gave me some materials on speed reading.

It has been dawning on me recently that as much as someone could essentially coast through life getting others to do their work for them and making excuses for the rest that our spiritual lives run completely contrary to that. If I want a better relationship with God then I must act. I can only blame the state of my spirituality on bad sermons and tough circumstances for so long.