A Trip I'm Honored To Take

As you read this, Julie and I are headed to Jacksonville, Florida, for the second annual gathering of pastor of the 100 largest United Methodist Churches in the USA.

I posted about last year's event here and here.

There are more than 35,000 United Methodist congregations in the U.S., so it is obviously a great honor that Good Shepherd is one of the top 100 in terms of average Sunday worship attendance. I'll be surrounded by a lot of pastoral leaders who know what they are doing. And still others, like me, who have some measure of success in spite of themselves.

You might want to check some of the largest and most innovative churches in our denomination. Here are just a few:

Church Of The Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas. Started the same year as Good Shepherd, it hosts over 8,000 people per week in worship. The Jacksonville gathering is the brainchild of Adam Hamilton, Resurrection's founding and lead pastor.

Granger Community Church, Granger, Indiana. We've learned so much from this highly innovative yet streamlined church in the Michiana area. They have influenced our approach to technology, media, small groups, and missions.

Faithbridge United Methodist Church, Houston, Texas. Started by a friend of mine from Asbury Seminary, this church averages about 3,000 people per weekend.

Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, Tipp City, Ohio. Of all the churches represented, this one might be the most miraculous. In 1979, Michael Slaughter (also an Asbury grad) was sent to GUMC, a rural congregation with an average attendance of 90. Within six months, he had "grown" that to 60. Then the turnaround started. Thirty years later, with Slaughter still at the helm, they average close to 5,000 people per weekend. Known for "aggressive" music and a passionate commitment to missions, Ginghamsburg has been teaching other churches how to do it for many years.

I'll let you know more about the gathering in the coming days.

Refined Like Silver

Over the last couple of weeks at Good Shepherd, we've seen what it means to be clay (play-dough, actually!) in the hands of an artist God and what it's like to be a balloon in the hands of a stretching God.

We've seen how it is that we are pieces of work.

So this Sunday, we'll discover how it is and what it means to be silver in the hands of a refining God.

We'll plunge deep into the words of Psalm 66:10: For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver.

I have to warn you: the message those words contain is frightening and imposing; in fact, everything that is within me wants to buck up against it. The process of refining silver, as pictured above, is hot, tedious, and difficult. Much like life.

But the message of Psalm 66, in spite of its difficulty, is ultimately liberating. It is a pathway from pain to beauty.

That's what we'll see and what we'll experience with a message called "No Pain, No . . . "

Sunday. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

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As Piece Of Work continues, remember to come to our Training Event for church volunteers this Sunday night from 5-7 p.m. To find out more about it, look here.

Large And Deep

At Good Shepherd, we strive to be not only a large church but a deep church as well.

Which means that in addition to reaching out to welcome new people to worship, we also want to grow the people who are already here into more mature, more faithful followers of Christ.

That's why we have our Passage School Of Theology.

The word Passage is a double entendre.

No, not that kind.

Passage hints not only at studying "passages" of the bible, but also the idea of walking through a corridor as part of a journey. Or, as part of walking together.

So each semester, we assemble some of the best local teaching talent and offer a slate of short-term classes on different areas of the Christian life.

This semester's school has classes on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. Topics range from I Peter to Exodus to Spiritual Gifts to Loving & Respecting Your Husband. Wherever you are on your walk in faith and your walk with Good Shepherd, we believe there is a high-quality class to help you grow deep as a person.

And help us grow deep as a church.

You can learn about and sign up for Passage classes here.

Wide Open Spaces

We have begun to think about much of the ministry at Good Shepherd in terms of making space.

Here's how it works: as a church we make space -- other terms include "design experiences" or "craft environments" -- in which the Holy Spirit can then move in powerful ways. What happens inside those spaces is then up to the people involved and the Spirit who is running loose.

We as pastors can't necessarily control everything that happens inside the space, but we are responsible for opening it up in the first place.

This approach explains much of what we do:

• We offer our Pathfinder program to grow community. We can't make the people in a given Pathfinder group really like each other or develop strong bonds. That happens organically, naturally. So Pathfinder launches and groups become the space where relationships form and community blooms.
• Our Healing Services give space for the Holy Spirit to be released in people's bodies, minds, and spirits. During the Without Limit series, we realized if we were going to talk about the Holy Spirit, we needed to give him opportunity to move in the people of the church. So we had healing services every week in February of this year.
• Our First Serve ministry gives people space in which to impact the community. With a wide range of monthly options, our hope is that people find the area of service that best fits their spiritual gifts and the needs of the city of Charlotte.

These are just a few examples of the ways in which we try to make space for God to move and for people to connect.

That's why we do what we do.

What will you do in the spaces God and this church provides for you?

The Last Hymnal?

Some time ago, a friend looked me in the eye and said in all seriousness, without a touch of irony, "You know, my granddaughter may never know what a hymnal is."

And . . . ?

Not to be flip, but my yet-to-be-born grandchildren will never know what a manual typewriter is. Nor a phone booth. Nor, tragically, a wooden tennis racket.

Behind my friend's complaint was the unspoken assumption that the music contained inside the pages of the hymnal is somehow sacred, inspired, and ancient.

Actually, no.

A casual look through the United Methodist Hymnal shows that the bulk of the hymnody comes from the 18th and 19th centuries with some early 20th century tunes mixed in.

Do you know what that means? That my friend -- the same one lamenting the demise of the bound hymnal -- is himself unfamiliar with all the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs written before, say, 1500. And we know that Christians were singing in those days! But those words and tunes are by and large lost to us. Even those of us most faithful to "ancient" or "traditional" worship.

It goes to show that all of us value contemporary worship. It's just that someone who is 65 has a different understanding of contemporary than does someone who is 25. Or 47.

So what about the hymnal? We at Good Shepherd hope to take the best of what it contains -- think "Jesus Paid It All (in Baptist hymnals but sadly not in the UMC's)" "Amazing Grace," "How Great Thou Art" and "Nothing But The Blood" -- and sing it with appreciation for the tradition it represents and the God it praises. But we'll also leave out some that never quite connected with even the most loyal of United Methodist congregations -- ever sung "God Of the Sparrow, God Of The Whale" (#122)? I didn't think so.

And you know what's great about much of the modern music we sing? Much of its lyrical content comes from the oldest, most enduring hymnal of them all -- the book of Psalms.

That's one hymnal I feel sure my grandchildren and yours will know.

Stretching Exercises

Julie and I were away this weekend, enjoying a trip that all the pastors at Good Shepherd have received this summer, courtesy of what we call our Staff-Parish Relations Team.

But back at the church, we showed this piece as a demonstration of the ways God stretches us into strength so that we might then minister in his name.




Thanks to Frank Mondo for sharing his story.

A man. Working in children's ministry. Showing kids of all ages that you can be both masculine and spiritual. That's a high value at Good Shepherd.

In a world all too often lacking in male role models, we consider it a high privilege to have guys like Frank being made into a piece of work.

Stretching Exercises

Ouch!

How is that picture even possible?

But that's what stretching does for the human body -- it makes the impossible become possible.

Stretching gives us more flexibility and, paradoxically, leaves us stronger in the end.

It's much the same way with the ministry we attempt for God.

When we allow ourselves to be stretched, shaped, and challenged -- to put another way, when we become pieces of work -- we end up both more limber and more powerful.

That's what Week Two of Piece Of Work will be about.

Together, we'll be stretched into strength.

Sunday. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

Some Favorite Songs - Christian Genre

Ever since contemporary Christian music (CCM) came of age in the mid-1990s, I've been more than a casual fan. This is for a couple of reasons: 1) I like a lot of it; and 2) I'm always listening for songs that will work in church.

So in no particular order, here are some of my favorites. I'm including both those that you only listen to and those that are transformed into praise & worship favorites at Good Shepherd and elsewhere.

The list is somewhat stacked towards older CCM. Sadly, as our local CCM station has gone overboard with their "family friendly" ads, I ache for the single people who are listening. Is the station not for them? As a result -- and because I love listening to Colin Cowherd -- I'm not as familiar with newer CCM radio hits as I once was.

Love Song For A Savior by Jars Of Clay. Simple, haunting, and unforgettable. From the first album which still merits frequent listening.

Jesus Freak by dcTalk. A little U2. A little Nirvana. A lot of swagger.

Let Us Pray by Steven Curtis Chapman. Steven Curtis Chapman? Yeah. Great memories of getting "edgy" at Mt. Carmel and having my friend Chris Hartis sing this song . . . better than it was on the original.

He Reigns by the Newsboys. I love it when we sing this at Good Shepherd. The first notes and then the closing anthem do more for my adrenaline than any other song.

Wholly Yours by David Crowder. So clever and profound with his lyrics. Why doesn't he get more run on our "family friendly" station?

Sing To The King by New Life Worship. See above comments about He Reigns. Especially when April Geiger leads us in declaring " . . . when Satan is vanquished and my Jesus is King!" Enjoy the YouTube link featuring a U2 intro.

Say So by Israel Houghton. Chris Macedo and John Pavlovitz both told me this would be the next Good Shepherd anthem before I even heard it. As usual, they were right.

What are some of yours?

Pastoral Reminder

Much of pastoral work is in fact the work of reminding.

When I preach, for example, I am (usually) not so much teaching people new truths but instead reminding them of ancient truths that they have perhaps forgotten. Or chosen to disregard.

Just as often, preaching is a reminder of how those ancient truths actually apply to current living.

When I make a visit to the hospital or nursing home, I stand in as a visual reminder that God is involved and active in people's lives, even as they wrestle with illness or struggle with convalescence.

When people come for marriage counseling, the very office in which we meet is a reminder that God's heart beats with a desire for marriages to be stable, strong, and loving. My words can bring either a comforting or challenging reminder of what God has already said about husbands and wives.

When people come for personal counseling on a myriad of other issues, my use of the bible or my words of advice best serve to remind people of God's enduring love and faithfulness. I hope to remind people of what they already know but have perhaps forgotten -- that God is bigger than any addiction, obstacle, or frustration they face.

Are these new & revolutionary truths? Of course not.

They are ancient ones we all too often overlook.

So my pastoral colleagues and I -- when we get it right -- are here to remind you that you are surrounded, protected, challenged, and loved by a God whose word is clear and true.

What do you need to be reminded of today?

Training Your Eyes

So what is it?

Is it an image of two people touching their palms as a sign of cooperation?

Is it a world map from the 1400s, when people really didn't know how the continents fit together?

Is it a frowning face?

An owl's face?

It all goes to show the importance of training your eyes.

Not just to get the "right" answers to these questions -- if they even exist -- but to see the world as it needs to be seen.

Spiritual leaders, especially, need to train their eyes to see what is right in the world and what is good about people.

Because it is all to easy to focus on things that are wrong and on people who are difficult.

I know it's easy because that kind of negative focus is my natural tendency.

So through the years, I have tried to be diligent in re-training my eyes. Moving them away from cynicism and sarcasm and towards hopefulness and grace.

Because you will see what you are looking for. Every time.

And when I look for signs of God's movement in people's lives, when I seek out willing disciples, when I survey the landscape for moments of brilliance and beauty, that's what I see.

I pray I'm learning to see with the eyes of a leader.

What are you seeing?

Piece Of Work Worked

So yesterday, everyone who entered the Worship Center received a small container of Play Dough.

We talked about how we are God's "workmanship" -- in a grand sense how we are the raw material that God then fashions into a thing of beauty and purpose. We are his masterpiece.

In other words, we are all pieces of work.

But it didn't stop there.

We are not masterpieces to gaze in the mirror and proclaim how good we look. God makes us his pieces of work because we have "been created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." We're worked on to work for.

So we talked about that at Good Shepherd. And then we challenged the many people who receive ministry from the church to then provide ministry through the church. After all, that's why God is making them a piece of work -- to work for him.

And it all ended up with 10 minutes of silence as people then crafted their Play Dough into clay creations that represented what God is doing in them. Now. Today. And here's the result.

It was one of the most unique ways we've worshipped and prayed together. But I believe it was one of the most effective as well.

So one week and one experiment down in Piece Of Work. And we didn't fall on our face.

What You Should Do On Sunday Morning

I've long heard that there are three types of churches: risk takers, care takers, and under takers.

We'll wherever we usually are on that spectrum, this Sunday we're starting on a message series that will be high on the risk factor.

It's called Piece Of Work.

It comes from Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

So God is the artist and we are the art.

Each week in the series we're doing something that could be great. Or it could fall on its face.

But we believe the risk is worth the reward each time. We trust that God will allow the people of Good Shepherd to experience what it means and why it is that they are his masterpiece.

Sunday. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

What You Should Do On Saturday Night

The people at RiverGate love us.

When our bands play out there on summer Saturday nights, the music is excellent, the crowds are large, and best of all from their perspective, business is good.

Good Shepherd will be live at the RiverGate water fountain this Saturday, August 15, from 7-10 p.m.

Here's what it looks like:



See you there!

Tools Of The Trade

Every pastor, whether he or she realizes it or not, has a tool box.

In that tool box are those resources that support, enhance, and enlarge ministry.

Here are some of my most essential tools:

Bible: New International Version.

Commentary I most use in sermon preparation: NIV Application Commentary. Runner-up in that category: The New Interpreter's Bible.

Most influential book in sermon preparation and delivery: Andy Stanley's Communicating For A Change.

Healing Oil: Unscented.

Deodorant (essential): Sure.

Lawn Mower (great therapy): Troy Bilt Tuff Cut 210.

Edger (better therapy): Troy Bilt TB 20 CS.

Fitness Center (best therapy): Gold Hill YMCA, Tega Cay, SC.

Car: 2003 Nissan Altima.

Digital Music System: My kids

Preacher's Confession

I've got a confession.

Now, usually, when a preacher says he has a confession, people immediately think, "all right, who's it with and how long has it been going on?"

No, nothing like that.

It's this. Sometimes I read emails while I'm talking on the telephone.

There. Got it out.

Yeah, sometimes the allure of the ping from the computer that signals an incoming email is too much to resist and even though I'm talking with someone on the phone I jump into cyberspace as well.

But you know what I realize? When I'm trying to do both, I can't do either. I miss part of the phone conversation and I can't comprehend the email. I hear but can't listen and I read but can't understand.

Hmmm. Trying to do two things at once and the result is doing neither very well.

A vote for simplicity, perhaps?

What's true in life often ends up being true in church.

Love & Respect

In laying out our goals and emphases of 2009, we kept coming back to the subject of marriage. We sensed that many marriages in this community had settled into an uncomfortable truce while others were teetering on the brink of collapse.

That's why we did the LoveDare series back in February, along with a Pathfinder launch to support it.

And it's why were hosting the Love & Respect Video Conference here this coming weekend.

Friday night, August 14 and Saturday morning, August 15.

Time well spent unfolding the biblical wisdom behind healthy marriages.

As an added bonus, you'll be the first occupants in the first public event at our new Corner Campus.

To sign up, check here.

When The Sermon Begins

When does a sermon begin? After the public reading of the Scripture? After the prayer? After a really cool solo?

It's actually the wrong question.

The better question is where does the sermon begin? Not when, but where.

There is an easy answer to that question: in the parking lot.

See, the entire Sunday morning experience is the sermon.

That means good manners on the part of people helping with parking.

It means a welcome in the lobby that is friendly without being intrusive.

It means smiles and accuracy at the Guest Services Desk.

It means a printed bulletin that is well-designed and communicates what the church is about and what the Sunday message is about.

It means music, graphics, and visuals that all complement the day's big idea.

It means a spoken message that is simply the continuation and culmination of an experience that began an hour or so earlier.

It means that the conversation started by the experience will continue in the parking lot. And beyond.

See what I mean as we wrap up Still this Sunday with a service that includes a Good Shepherd original song, a message called "Goodness & Mercy", and an experience that starts before you walk in the door. 8:30. 10:00. 11:30.

Blessing Houses

We have this ministry called Bless This House.

It involves getting the addresses of recent house closings in our area from the Sunday Charlotte Observer, and then sending out pairs of people (going out in twos -- that's biblical!) to welcome the new movers to southwest Charlotte. While there, we give the gift of a "world famous refigerator magnet." If the people are receptive, we will ask if we can pray a blessing over their new house.

We do not ask as people open the door, "if you died tonight, do you know where you'd go?" Please.

What we do is offer a high-touch, low-threat welcome to Charlotte and invitation to the church.

I have been doing this kind of thing since I pastored in Monroe. Mt. Carmel Church was tucked away in a corner, so no one would see it just by driving by it. I knew that if we weren't out there inviting, people wouldn't come.

But back to Good Shepherd and Bless This House. We now have about 150 people who call this church home because their house got blessed.

Yet for a couple of reasons, I haven't been able to "bless houses" as much in 2009 as in previous years. But I got a couple of those obstacles worked out, and was able to "bless" last Thursday and I'll be going out again this evening.

It's one of the things that makes me feel most alive as a pastor.

After all, how can I expect new people to come to church if I am not personally involved in inviting them?

Get It On Paper

If you don't write it down, it doesn't happen.

I'm learning this as a leader and as a preacher.

A great failure of leadership is lack of clarity in expectations. I know this is true because there have been plenty of times in leading this team at Good Shepherd that my expectations were murky at best. And when people don't know what you expect from them the result is often Judges 17:6: "every man did what was right in his own eyes."

People's intentions are good, but because of a lack of direction, chaos reigns.

So we've recently gotten much better at putting expectations down on paper (actually, we type them into a computer and it somehow prints them out on paper). Expectations that can be quantified, verified, and modified. Kentucky fried, even.

If that sounds more like "business" than "church," so be it.

Because people respond. Since it is on paper, it happens.

If you are leading people, get it on paper.

When it comes to preaching, I have a lot of good ideas throughout any given day. There are a myriad of sermons embedded in the things I read in a novel or see in a TV ad or hear in a conversation.

But if I do not follow that moment of inspiration -- "hey, that will preach!" -- by writing it down somewhere, then the idea gets lost. And that is frustrating -- to know you had a good idea for a sermon or an entire series but you lost it.

The answer? Get it on paper. If you want to be at all creative, you've got to write everything down.

Two seemingly disparate activities: leadership & creativity. To be effective at either, get it on paper.

Karma, Obedience, And Blessing

Both Hinduism and Buddhism teach that karma is the ironclad law of human existence: what goes around, comes around. Whatever moral energy you put out into the universe -- positive or negative -- you will then receive a corresponding reward or punishment. In Eastern thought, karma operates not only in this life, but even more powerfully in determining one's status in the next life.

As one definition explains: The process is automatic, and no interference by the gods is possible.

Karma, then, is inescapable. Think "you reap what you sow" on steroids.

Except, as U2 sings so artfully, grace "travels outside of karma." Whereas karma hems us in to an unavoidable law of cause & effect, grace in the end gives us better than we deserve. Grace is a gift that transcends our level of performance or accomplishment.

Grace, really, is what allows my level of blessing to be greater than my level of obedience.

When I end up with really good kids in spite of all my failures as a parent, my level of blessing is greater than my level of obedience.

When our church is strong in spite of my lackadaisical prayer life, my level of blessing is greater than my level of obedience.

When God sends people to support me in ministry even when I've not always been willing or able to mentor others, my level of blessing is greater than my level of obedience.

When I can celebrate a 25th wedding anniversary even though I've often been distracted or disengaged as a husband, my level of blessing is greater than my level of obedience.

When I can have assurance of my eternal salvation (I John 5:13) even when I'm painfully aware of the times I fail to love God with all my heart, my level of blessing is greater than my level of obedience.

All that is why there is no such song as "Amazing Karma."

I'll side with grace because I'm so grateful it sides with me.

Two-A-Days

This is my son Riley.

He is a rising junior at Charlotte Christian School, and today he begins two-a-day practice with the football team there.

I can post his picture on my blog because he would never in a million years read my blog.

Today he'll practice from 8-11 in the morning and then again from 5-8 in the evening as the team prepares to defend its state title. That's a lot of time in the August heat. I'm proud of all the hard work he's already put in, if for no other reason than that he can now bench press two of me.

He's going to play linebacker for a team that already has three linebackers who have signed letters of intent with Division I schools.

And no, I never could get him really interested in tennis. He's always liked the excitement, camaraderie, and contact of football.

And I bet he'll still like it even after three weeks of two-a-days.