I have hair on my knuckles.

I tore my ACL my senior year of high school.

I have a bachelor’s degree in animal science.

I once said, “I’ll never be on staff at a church.”

I have a 2 year old son.

My wife is hot.

I live less than 2 miles from where I grew up.

I had no plans of living less than 2 miles from where I grew up.

I have a Master’s Degree in counseling.

I was once stuck in London because of a volcano.

I’m decent at golf.

God has gifted me with a passion to learn new things.

I like creating systems that work.

I enjoy running.

I enjoy helping others understand how much God loves them.

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And it is out of these (still not sure, though, where the hair on my knuckles fits in…) that I lead at home, at church, and in my community.  It is out of these experiences, and the ones God continues to give, that I write this blog.

You can’t be me.  And I can’t be you.

If you try to be me, you’ll fail.  You’re not gifted like me.

If I try to be you, I’ll fail.  I’m not gifted like you.

You don’t have to blog like me.  Walk like me.  Talk like me.  Preach like me.  Write like me.

God’s created you unique.  Which means that there’s nobody else like you.

We need you to be you.

 

The problem in our churches isn’t our use of technology.  Technology is just a medium, a tool we can use for the sake of the Gospel.

In their book, The Multi-site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations, authors Surratt, Ligon, and Bird talk about the history of leveraging technology.

The idea of leveraging the latest technology for kingdom service is nothing new. Nor is the pushback, questioning, or occasional controversy raised by such changes. When I (Warren) was visiting relatives in Germany, I toured a famous medieval monastery in Germany. I learned how they took the church into the community by doing religious dramas. To reach the most people, they performed some of the dramas at night, which raised the need for lighting. By putting candles in front of colored glass, they created colored lighting, much like today’s stage lights. “Was this controversial?” I asked our guide. “What do you think?” she responded with a smile. Reading church history is fascinating because it reminds us that every generation asks about the appropriateness of using technology to do church.

In our church, we leverage all kinds of technology: colored lights, speakers, microphones, amplifiers, video projection, YouVersion Live, computers, and iPods.

In our small group, we leverage technology as well: DVD players, TVs, cell phones (to read our Bibles), and email and Facebook to communicate throughout the week.

Technology itself isn’t evil.  It’s a neutral medium that the Church is called to utilize and redeem.  It can often make our services, and our small groups, more engaging, more attractive, more relevant, more influential (allowing churches to broadcast to multiple sites), more streamlined, and more connected.

But maybe I’m wrong.

Are there certain technologies that should be considered off-limits to churches?

How does your church (or small group) use technology to advance the Gospel?

 

Just this past Sunday, we at Grace Community Church announced that we will be a mult-site church in January, 2011.  The response was overwhelmingly positive, with so many people saying how eager they are to pray with us, and some already committing to being a part of the launch team.

We will be expanding to Kenwood High School, which is about 10 miles north of the high school where we currently meet.

If you’re currently worshipping in a permanent facility that you own, this move may make little sense to you.  You may wonder why we didn’t just move forward with building a permanent facility on the land that we own.  Why would we even consider starting another campus in a high school, knowing how difficult it will be to continue setting up and tearing down every week?

There are many, many reasons that we considered as we sought God’s plan, and we’re convinced that this is what He’s calling us as a church to do…and not build right now.

In the book The MultiSite Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird, they take a look at Community Christian Church in Chicago.  Pastor Dave Ferguson lists eight advantages, each of which solves a problem in its own way:

• Grow larger and grow smaller
• Brand-new and trusted brand
• Staff with generalists and specialists
• Less cost and greater impact
• New-church vibe and big-church punch
• Move there and stay here
• More need and more support
• More outreach and more maturity

I love the reasons given there for going multi-site.  Though not all of the reasons are specific for us, they do make great sense for us in our context.

Are you doing multi-site in your church?  Help us learn from you!

What have you learned?  What worked?  What didn’t?

If you were in our shoes right now, what would you be reading?  Doing?  Who would you be talking with?

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why I feel like multi-site makes great sense from a small groups perspective.  In the meantime, though, I’d love to hear from you and your story with multi-sites!

 

Continuing my Follow Friday series (you can catch up HERE), I thought I’d keep it in-house this week.

I love the guys I work with at Grace Community Church.  We’ve got an amazing team, with creative folks that are working their tails off for the Kingdom.  I’m humbled to be a part of the team, and work side by side with these guys as we passionately serve Clarksville.  You should follow each one of them, and hear how they’re leading in their respective ministry.

Adam Bayne - Director of Children’s ministries.  Twitter. Blog.

Michael Bayne – Director of Family ministries.  Twitter. Blog.

Christy Crosby – Systems coordinator.  Facebook.  Blog.

Ron Edmondson - Co-pastor.  Twitter.  Blog.

Karen Grizzard – Director of Volunteer placement.  Twitter.  Blog.

Melanie Hill – Director of service programming.  Facebook.

Rog Hill – Director of serve ministry.  Twitter.  Blog.

Brandon Reed - Director of college ministry.  Twitter.  Blog.

Chad Rowland – Co-pastor.  Twitter.  Blog.

Jason Roy – Worship pastor.  Twitter.

Katrina Watts – Director of preschool ministries.  Blog.

Dennis Weiland – Business administrator.  Twitter.  Blog.

 

Ever seen the show Hoarding: Buried Alive?

If you want to feel much better about the socks you have on your floor and your unmade bed, go ahead and watch this show.  As my wife and I watched it, I honestly was blown away at the trash that has piled up in these people’s homes.  It’s so visible to everybody else that there’s a problem here.  But check out this quote from one of the people highlighted on the show:

I just found out I’m a hoarder.

My response to the TV (come on…I’m not the only one that talks to the TV, am I?) at that point:

Seriously?

The camera pans out to her living room, almost filled to the ceiling with stuff, with a pathway just barely wide enough to walk through to get from the front door to the kitchen.  The kitchen table is so full that it can’t be eaten on (and hasn’t been for 6 years).  In order to get into the bedroom, she has to move bags of more stuff and a cabinet.  When the bedroom door opens, more stuff is piled nearly to the ceiling.  Her husband hasn’t lived at home (because of the hoarding) for years, and her children are suffering as well, with one son saying lamenting the fact that he can’t ever have any friends over to hang out.

She’s just now realizing she’s got a problem?!?

Can I get a collective, “Wow.  That’s sad.  That’s so messed up.”  Go ahead…everybody say it together…

Isn’t it so easy to notice someone else’s sin?  It sticks out like a sore thumb (their thumb, not ours…if it were our sore thumb, we’d probably notice it).  And it’s almost comical that they don’t see it themselves, right?

The flip side of that coin must be true as well…you have faults that are obvious to those around you, yet you go on not noticing them.  Others look on and wonder, “How does he not notice?” … “Does she not even care?”

Why do we like to find people that have sins that are “worse” than ours?  Because it helps us feel better about ourselves, easing our consciences.  And it keeps our own struggles at bay.  If there’s somebody out there worse than me, I don’t have to worry, because me and God…we must be good.  Because God grades on the curve, right?

Which explains why in our churches, small groups, family gatherings, and circles of friends, it’s easier to say, “You’re not allowed” than to say, “I’ll walk this journey with you.”

We need others to help us see ourselves for who we really are…and are willing to say, “You’ve got mustard on your face.”  Because our hearts are deceitful…even to ourselves (Jeremiah 17:9).  We can walk through life thinking we’re pretty awesome…and other people are pretty rotten.  And shows like Hoarding:Buried Alive only amplify that tendency.  But if we have people in our lives that love us, encourage us, and are willing to walk through the junk with us…life’s much easier.

My sin’s not worse than yours.  Yours isn’t worse than mine.  We’re on this journey of the Christian life together.

And we’re better together than on our own.

 

I never joined a fraternity.

I wasn’t a recluse at all…I had my circles of relationships.  I just didn’t ever join a fraternity.  And part of my reason for not joining was that I thought the whole thing was just weird.

They wore different colors.  They were always busy with fraternity activities.  They had their own house.  Their own chants.  Their own jokes.  Their own handshakes.  Their own sections at the games.  Their own language.

While fraternities had many positive things to offer (community, sense of belonging, lifelong friends, etc.) here are some negatives I noticed.

Where Fraternities missed the mark, they:

1. Were exclusivistic. If you weren’t one of them, you were treated like you were an outsider.

2. Seemed to lose the individual to the collective whole. After a person joined a fraternity, their identity became wrapped up with that fraternity.

3. Sent candidates through a long initiation process that, to those on the outside, was silly and pointless.

4. Dominated people’s time, and kept them from integrating with the rest of the student body.

I think this is what unhealthy churches do, too.  I know, I know…we should be developing healthy communities of people that love and care for each other.  But shouldn’t we want to grow?  Our goal as the Church isn’t to add just a certain type of the incoming class of freshmen…because our Savior died for people from every race and every tribe! If you want to add people to your local church (evangelism), you have to start thinking about how they will perceive what you do.

So how do we do that?  Take a cue from what fraternities do.

Growing churches…

1. Aren’t exclusivistic. *Before you comment, please read below* Rather, these churches take an inclusive stance to those outside of the faith, positioning and presenting their local church in a way that doesn’t offend, but invites, outsiders to come and see.  These churches consistently think, “How will a first-time guest perceive, and understand, what we do here?”

2. Give people the space to process, and the freedom to be themselves. If you’re producing drones that simply parrot back the “right” answer, never thinking and processing for themselves, then you’re doing a disservice to the individual God has created.  God has created us unique, and our uniqueness as individuals makes for a beautiful Church.

3. Don’t make the integration process difficult. If someone is seeking and curious, give them the chance to explore.  Immediately!  Don’t make them go through a 12-week membership process before they can serve, join a small group, or feel like they’re a part of your church family.  Strike while that iron’s hot.

4. Don’t dominate people’s time. Intuition says that more programs = more spiritual growth.  But if you have church activities every night of the week, how do you expect your church to truly be a vital part of the community?  How do you expect individuals to invest in their family?  How do you expect staff members to have any time of their own?  Advocating a simple model in your local church shows that you value investing in your community and in your families.

What other things do growing churches do?

*I’m not meaning theological exclusivity, as in the exclusivity of the Gospel (John 14:6).  My defense of that can come in another post.

 

I’ve posted HERE, HERE, and HERE about the ways that small groups are difficult for you whether you’re introverted or extroverted.  In closing, here are a few things to remember:

1. Being introverted or extroverted isn’t a sin. It’s just how God made you.  Don’t let anybody criticize you for your wiring in this area.

2. The Church needs both introverts and extroverts. Without both, things can get out of balance.

3. You need small group life. When the Bible talks about our need for authentic community (see Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:24-25; the “one anothers“) it doesn’t distinguish that need to just one personality type.  The Church is a diverse body with diverse needs…but we all have the need for community, because our need for community is rooted in God’s design, not in a personality type.  Our need for community is not a result of the Fall (though it’s certainly complicated by the Fall), rather rooted in the fact God lives in community (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in perfect community at all times) and has designed us with that need.  Using your personality isn’t a valid excuse to not plugging into the life of the body of Christ (the Church).  There will be difficulties along the way, for sure.  And at times, you’ll find yourself wanting to back out because it’s too tough.  But when you press on through that difficulty, I’m convinced you’ll find biblical community life-transforming.

Find a group of people.  It may be 3.  Or it may be 23.  But find a small group of people that you can grow with, that love you, will encourage and admonish you, and that you can serve.

Whether you’re and introvert or an extrovert.

 

I read this on a sign at an O’Charley’s restaurant I visited in Nashville:

At our place, everybody’s a regular.

What a powerful statement, especially to me on my first time in the restaurant.  That sign told me that I was being viewe a regular customer, even though it was my first time to ever step foot into the place.  I knew none of the waiters or waitresses.  I didn’t have my “special” seat.  The waiter didn’t know my name or what I “always ordered.”  Yet from the moment I stepped foot into the restaurant, I felt valued.

And the service I received backed that up.

I felt like an honored guest.  My waiter went out of his way to make sure I was served well.  He was skilled at his job, and was great at making our table feel served and appreciated.  I really did feel like I was a regular there.  The service was beyond my expectations…especially because there were 40 people in our group.  My tea was always full.  He made sure I was satisfied with each course of food.  He made sure my son was happy.  And he never seemed frustrated that my son was roaming throughout our section (for the record, he doesn’t normally do that, but he was in a foul mood because he was sick, so we let him roam a bit).

Yeah, our service was top notch.

This principle holds true in churches as well.

The way you treat visitors at your church says much about what you, as a church, value.  If you treat them as honored guests, you are saying:

1. We love you, even though we don’t know your story.

2. God loves you, and He does know your story.

3. We love others because God loves us…not because a person is an “insider.”

4. It’s ok to “come as you are.”  Questions, mess, and all.

5. God’s big enough to handle your junk.

Can it be said of a typical Sunday morning at your local church, “At our place, everybody’s a regular.”?

When was the last time you thought, “What impact will this have on first time guests?” as you were planning a Sunday morning environment?

Have you ever tried putting yourself in the shoes of a first-timer, trying to see and experience what they do, from the parking lot to the worship service and the children’s environments?