February 2007

I’m always working to try to meet new folks.  Last night, I had the chance to share the vision of our church with two different people.  The first was a 30ish woman who’s married, has no kids, and is not churched.  The other was a 20ish guy who loves music, looks a bit rough (by church standards!), and was spiritually interested.  I had the chance to share my testimony with both and invite them to church.  I try to do this most every day but some days you feel a bit more convicted than others.  This was one of those days. 

Will you pray for these two people please?  Both need the Lord, both aren’t attending anywhere, and both were interested.  We have what they need.  Please pray that God would convict their hearts to get involved and visit this weekend.

I took a day off from my church today.  Nothing personal.  I just had a busy week traveling to a missions conference and I got back late Thursday.  I had plans with the kids Friday and Saturday so I scheduled another person to preach and the family and I traveled to downtown Denver to hear Dr. Jim Shaddix preach at the Riverside Baptist Church.  I haven’t done this in well over a year.  I told my wife it almost felt sinful just leaving and taking the whole group with me.  Every member of my family is so vital to the work at our church plant but it felt nice to actually sleep in a bit later than usual, get up and enjoy a NORMAL breakfast, and then drive in the pleasant weather to downtown and just blend in with the crowd.  I’ve loved Dr. Shaddix’s work for a long time.  His book on preaching is one of the finest I’ve read to date and his messages are always chock full of information.  It’s not necessarily the style that I preach in but I enjoy his insight into God’s Word.

As I considered the rest I enjoyed, I stumbled across this post from Bob Franquiz’s blog tonight.  His book review on “The Rest of God” is spot on in its admonition to all of us to heed the need for a Sabbath.  I’ve denied myself this for many years but as I danced with my youngest daughter last night at the annual “Daddy-Daughter” ball, I’m reminded that I’m now 40 and my “baby” is 8 and growing up quickly.  My oldest turns 16 in a few months and it seems like only yesterday she was 8.  Sometimes in the business that is church planting, we neglect the very ministry we were called to first.  That doesn’t mean being lazy but I’ve stopped scheduling appointments by the dozens so as to leave my calendar open for my son’s hockey games (he’s 13) and my daughters’ dancing recitals.  There’s band concerts that I couldn’t attend a few years ago but not any more.  And there’s also that wonderful time in the evening when I can go spend time with my love and light in this world, my wife Rebecca.  Jesus gave her to me as a gift and a precious one at that.  I’m thankful she’s so good about understanding the need for me to be places as a church planter but sometimes, I’ve taken advantage of that for stuff that could wait another day or two.  I did this just to get another thing off of my “Next Actions” list.  (Getting Things Done junkies understand this)

Thanks Bob for centering some of my thoughts.  I have a wonderful church family here.  My sound man called me just to see if I enjoyed myself on my first day off in “a hundred years” as he put it.  The church hummed along just fine without me.  That’s as it should be.  I’m looking forward to being back in the pulpit again next week but it was a refreshing time away if only for one day.

I just got back into town yesterday (Thursday) after spending much of the week in Nashville, Tennessee for a church planters conference for our denomination.  I got to spend some quality time with my friend Jason Taylor from the blog “Risking Crazy” and Steve Gray who’s planting a church in my old hometown of Collinsville, Illinois.  Visit Discovery Church if you’re in the area and check it out for yourself.

We shared ideas, heard from a long-time church pastor/planter but most of all, spent time together as friends in fellowship.  I especially liked our time together in the evenings AFTER the sessions when many of us just stayed up wayyyy too late and just shared ideas, prayer requests, and friendship.  It’s good to do these things from time to time just to jar us from our mold.  I don’t care if you’re traditional, contemporary, emergent, or liturgical.  It’s always good to hear from others in a different area and from a different style to sharpen your own focus in your own area of call in planting a church.

From the time I was a little kid, I loved baseball.  My dad grew up selling scorecards in the old Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis and raised me with his memories while we watched games at the old Busch Stadium.  He was also on hand for the opening day of the new Busch last season and still has his love for the game.  Now that I live in Denver, I’ve tried to pass that love on to my son as we watch games at Coors field but somehow, it isn’t the same as the lore that surrounds the Cardinals.  Above, there’s a picture of Cardinal legend Red Schoendienst at age 84 visiting with Albert Pujols’ son, who is six.  It reminds me why I love the Cardinals and the history they bring to major league baseball.  My dad tells of the time he snuck into the Cards locker room in the 40’s after selling his scorecards.  He put himself into Stan Musial’s locker and closed the door.  When Stan opened his locker, imagine the surprise!  Today, security would put you in jail.  But Stan, he signed his bat for my dad while Schoendienst argued for him to leave.  In the end, my dad said he laughed and wound up signing the bat too.  My dad still has the bat and all the memories that go with it.

I love the start of baseball season!  I’m not happy with the way the finances are going but there is something spiritual about sitting in the mid-day sun with a scorecard, a cold coke, and a ballpark dog with lots of relish and mustard.  It’s a little slab of heaven on earth for this preacher!

Our church is moving forward as we look for another big day on Easter Sunday.  We’ve chosen to structure a series around the book “Simple” that you see referenced on my page.  I really like Robert J. Morgan and his books are always first class.  Check out the site and see for yourself.  I am in the process of designing custom invites that will be 3 x 5 size and easy to stuff in purses or pockets.  Our people are being encouraged to invite their friends and loved ones starting that week and we will begin a five week series based around the five points of the book.  In addition, we are launching a new small group based on the book and tying in some evangelism training with it.  One thing I’m noticing from my people is the need they’ve expressed to have additional tools in their hands to answer the tough questions about how to lead a friend to Christ.  Many folks tend to shy away from this since it seems politically incorrect in today’s church structure but we’ve chosen to tie in Bob Fay’s book on “How can I share my faith without an argument” as part of the class.  Our goal is to see changed lives and that can only happen with a genuine commitment to Christ.  God is already moving me into a new frame of mind as a leader and I believe this year will be our best yet as a church plant.  I also expect additional struggles since we are boldly moving forward to claim some new ground.  Pray for us.

So, the media is all up in arms over Tim Hardaway’s comments on a Miami radio station regarding former pro basketball player John Amaechi’s admission that he is a homosexual man.  The crux of Hardaway’s comments can be summarized by this one statement he made:

“I let it be known I don’t like gay people. I don’t like to be around gay people.”

Hardaway has since apologized but Amaechi returned fire saying:

“It has made it tangibly less safe for gays and lesbians throughout the country, because he has polluted the atmosphere with hatred.”

Predictably, the politically correct media are once again trying to equate this comment with racial prejudice and are drawing comparisons to the 1960’s and Martin Luther King.  I’m sorry but there is a difference.  Gay people are not riding in the back of the bus, nor are there special serving areas for gay people in any restaurant I frequent.  I don’t see schools segregating on the basis of homosexual behavior.  The race equality issue doesn’t wash with me.  I understand some hate crimes have occurred as a result of someone being a homosexual and those were tragic occurrences that should not have happened.  Those who choose a homosexual lifestyle should be protected by law enforcement just like anyone else.  But crimes against people occur every day, even violent ones.  Just ask the family members of those killed in the Salt Lake City, Utah mall.  Percentage wise, homicides affect heterosexuals at a much higher rate I’m sure, simply because statistics indicate there are more heterosexual people than homosexual ones.   Should there be special protection for heterosexuals then given that logic?  Absolutely not.  Sexual preference isn’t the same as skin color and the media should not try to equate the two.  They should just simply share the facts and let us decide for ourselves instead of trying to inject an opinion on the American culture. 

Hardaway should have used more tact and chosen his words differently but how is it his comments are so horribly awful and similar comments by Rosie O’ Donnell on the ABC show “The View” are not?  Remember these great words last year:

“Just a minute. Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have separation of church and state.�

These words were a clear slam at American Christians, comparing them to Islamic terrorists and yet, the media did little to O’ Donnell because to do so would have been politically incorrect because she is an avowed Lesbian who’s anti-war and if you criticize her, you’re a bigot.  O’ Donnell stepped out of bounds later in the year with a well publicized shot at Kelly Ripa over Clay Aiken’s sexuality.  Aiken, while playing around with Ripa on her show, placed his hand over Ripa’s mouth and she responded by saying: “I don’t where that hand’s been, honey!” which O’ Donnell immediately took as a homophobic remark even though Aiken himself has never declared himself to be a homosexual.  Her comments were:

“To me that’s a homophobic remark. If that was a straight man, if that
was a cute man, if that was a guy that she didn’t question his
sexuality, she would have said a different thing.”

To Ripa’s credit, she nailed O’Donnell the next day on her show by calling “The View” and confronting O’ Donnell.  I’m sure Rosie didn’t know what to think since she’s rarely been made to be accountable for her actions.  On a previous post on this blog, I questioned O’ Donnell’s right to discern whether a person is gay or not.  Aiken never has commented and, to his credit, he stayed out of the fray although I would have asked for an apology from O’ Donnell if I were him.

So to get back to the original idea here, why wasn’t O’ Donnell chastised for her remarks and removed from the show?  Hardaway has lost his job with the NBA and is being roundly criticized both in and out of the United States.  How can someone like Rosie O’ Donnell slam Christians and then make false accusations about a person’s sexuality and not be held to the same standard?

Hardaway’s comments were out of line.  I don’t like the tone of what he said and I agree he should have apologized.  He’s entitled to his opinion but he has to be careful how he chooses his words.  But I also don’t like the media trying to play the same record every time this happens either, trying to equate this with a person’s civil rights. A better analogy for the media would be to equate a person’s sexual preference with a person’s religious preference but nobody’s going to do that since it would point out the hypocrisy of the media when it comes to such matters.  It’s the accepted double standard.

My sermon this morning was based on James 5:19-20.  It dealt with bringing back those who’ve strayed from the faith.  We all know people like this.  They may very well be saved.  They may even have served faithfully in a church for a while but now, for whatever reason, they are no longer involved in a church or ministry at all.  We have an obligation to share God’s word with these people if we have the chance.  Statistics say it’s harder to reach these type of people than any other but James tells us if we can reach them, we will save them from death and cover a multitude of sins.  What an awesome word for us today.  I know that when someone I know of who’s been straying gets the fire in their lives re-ignited, it helps me also.  Perhaps I’ve grown a bit weary and cold at times and moments like this bring me back to what God truly had intended for us when he told us to go and make disciples.

My church family agreed!  We had many raise hands for boldness in this area at prayer time.  May God continue to grow and shape us as we strive forward for Him!

I wrote about the book “Simple” late last year after I picked up my first copy of this great resource.  Since then, I’ve had some great success with using this book and wanted to share with my readers a great opportunity that the publishers are making for this Easter season.

At the website: “discoversimple”, You can watch a short video from Robert J. Morgan, the book’s author and then hear about a plan for a five week campaign you can use for Easter.  If you purchase a case of the books for giveaway or use in your new members classes, you will get access to a download of 5 sermons outlines keyed to the five areas covered in the book.

Reverend Morgan is a friend and a great author.  His books always have a personal touch to them and this one is no exception.  I usually don’t do ads but this book is great.  Check it out and if you decide to use it, let me know and I’ll pass along your thoughts to the author.

My blogging friend Ben Arment has written about worship times and what is the ideal.  He quotes from Nelson Searcy’s new book “Launch” in mentioning 60 minutes.  Steve Sjogren also advocates 60 minutes in his book “The Perfectly Imperfect Church”.  Most churches I talk to hover in the 75 minute range give or take a few minutes.  So what’s ideal?  How long is your worship service?

I’ve never been one to be a slave to the clock but I also see the benefit in maximizing the time.  Just because my friend’s church service is running 90 minutes doesn’t mean I’m any less spiritual because I’m trying to shorten our service to 60 minutes.  Like my church friends, our service was at about 75 minutes but at the first of the year, we made a commitment to shave time off the clock to make us a bit more efficient during the worship time.  A few things we’ve done include:

• Mentioning “plugs” for various church activities in “headline” format.  We direct our people to the worship folder (nee bulletin) and encourage them to review the details there.  We also have slides running before service with the same information (time saved, about 2-3 minutes).
• Transitions are tighter.  We plan our transitions a bit more than we did previously and move from one element to the next.  People who are involved in the service are given a “cue” and they need to be on time to move ahead. (Time saved, about 1-2 minutes)
• We actually start ON TIME.  This was a biggie because we encourage fellowship but what happens is we have many people in the hallway of the school we use eating snacks and refilling coffee and many times, we were starting 5 minutes late (Total time saved in the these three areas, about 10 minutes!)
• I decided to try to tighten up my messages as well.  I love Steve Sjogren’s statement about not feeding the sheep too much since they will puke.  Over the last few months, I’ve tried to sharpen the focus of my messages and by the first of the year, my goal was to shorten my preaching time by 5 minutes or so.  I purchased a handy little tool from the Toastmasters speaking clubs called a “pacesetter” (Again, this was recommended to me by Sjogren) and I love it.  The pacesetter is a small timer that you clip to your belt that can be programmed for up to three intervals during your speech or sermon.  It has the option to beep or vibrate (obviously with preaching, I’ve used the vibration mode) and will gently remind you to move along as you preach.  I’ve set mine for an introduction, sermon body, and a close.  Once your time is up, the device vibrates twice to let you know you’re done and starts timing up so you can see how much you went over your prescribed timing.  The first few times I had to get used to feeling a vibration during my message (Some thought I had gotten the spirit! *G*) but now, I expect it and it has helped me to sharpen my speaking skills.  I’ve taken about 7 minutes off my sermons and we’re now finishing on time in about one hour give or take a few minutes.

Those are some ideas we’ve used.  I’m sure there are others.  We do mention that we are beholden to this method.  If the spirit leads, we will go on if we feel led but overall, it’s helped us to shorten our service times without losing any quality.

Consumer reports has just released the results of a coffee tasting test they recently conducted.  You can read the full story from the Seattle Times’ website.  A few interesting quotes:

“After sampling four leading brewed coffees for its March issue, the
magazine said McDonald’s premium roast coffee bested competing cups
from Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, the world’s largest
specialty coffee retailer.”

“The group tasted medium cups of coffee — no cream or sugar — at two
locations from each company in November. They rated McDonald’s premium
brand the best, calling it “decent and moderately strong” although
lacking “subtle top notes.”

How about that?  McDonalds’ coffee rated supreme.  I will agree that the new premium roast is good stuff.  It’s cheaper and it’s a good wake up coffee in the morning.  I’ve tried to cut down a bit on buying so much coffee but sitting in the shops is one of my pleasures not to mention an effective way to meet people I’m trying to reach for our new church plant.  Since I spend so much time in my adjacent offices (nee, coffee shops) here in Denver, I thought I’d rate my experiences as well and see if anyone wants to comment here.  The following are some quick, off the cuff comments but it’s late and I haven’t had my evening coffee yet!

Best Coffee: Peets coffee.
I have Steve Sjogren to blame here.  I tried Peets after reading his thoughts about them and have been hooked ever since.  Peets is largely a west coast chain with very few stores outside of the region but they recently began an expansion in Colorado that has led them to open three new stores recently, including one in my area.  They play classical music and have a unique atmosphere in their shops and without a doubt, it’s the best coffee I’ve ever had.  I think it has to do with their roasting method which is a bit darker than most but with a richer flavor.  I was buying it in the bags at my local Safeway until the shop itself opened up.  Now I own a french press and have my coffee ground in half-pound increments from Peets to brew at home.
Other notables: McDonalds Premium roast, Krispey Kreme’s “Smooth”, and Seattle’s Best’s “Henry’s Blend”.

Best Atmosphere: Caribou Coffee.
For a business meeting, the local Caribou shop is the best.  I host a pastor’s prayer group every other month and this is where I choose to go.  From the rustic but 5-star setup inside the shop, the great atmosphere with a fireplace, and plenty of comfortable seating, the shop is the best overall.
Other notables: Peets, Starbucks, and Seattle’s Best inside my local Borders book store.

Best Value: McDonalds Premium Roast.
Let’s face it…We pay for the atmosphere.  I, like you, love Starbucks and it’s awesome music selection and I will overpay for a solid cup of coffee just to sit and get things done with some great jazz playing in the background but the coffee McDonalds makes now is comparable in taste and quality (provided you don’t order all the specialty drinks - If you do, than obviously you have to go somewhere else other than McDonalds) to that brewed by Starbucks.  If I’m in a hurry to go somewhere on the road and I haven’t had time to brew my own at home, I stop in to the local McD’s for a cup of premium roast.  It’s smooth and wakes me up everytime!
Other notables: Krispey Kreme, Chick Fil-A (yes, they have good coffee too!), and Peets (they do have a pretty reasonable price for a simple cup of coffee compared to other high end shops).

Overall Favorite: Seattle’s Best inside my local Borders bookstore.
Seattle’s Best wins for me since I love books and bookshops.  My local Borders has a nice, spacious cafe and a good cup of coffee.  (Seattle Best is now owned by Starbucks).  I really liked the old Cafe Borders coffee better but can understand why Borders is getting out of the coffee business in their shops. I’ve tried many different blends but Henry’s Blend is a good overall cup and the tables lend themselves to some serious study.  The music selection is so-so depending on who’s making the choices but the extra benefit for me here is the ability to go grab a magazine or peruse the latest book choices after I’m done working.  This, for me, is the greatest benefit and the reason why I picked Seattle’s Best.
Other notables: Peets, Caribou Coffee, and Starbucks.

I might add, one thing that none of these shops offer that would be a clincher for me is free wi-fi internet.  There are a few local coffee shops around that I visit once in a while and I do so largely because I have some internet work to catch up on and I need a wi-fi hookup.  I refuse to pay the exorbitant rates charged by Starbucks and the others when I can go to my local Atlanta Bread Company, Chick Fil-A, or local coffee chain and get it for free.  If one of these shops (I’ve been begging Peets to get wi-fi) would install a free wi-fi connection, they might be surprised how much additional business it would generate for their stores.  I’m not alone in my thoughts here.  McDonalds has even started offering wi-fi in some locations near me, but they charge for it too.  That’s a shame because I could work in a McDonalds booth as well as I could at Starbucks.

So what do you think?  Do you have some thoughts to add about your local area?  I know this has very little to do with Church planting other than we get to meet some nice people to invite, but what do you prefer in the way of coffee and coffee shops?

Good night, I’m off to brew some Peets Ethiopian blend and hit the bed!