Beating the Blues - Spring Edition

It can be hard to keep the blues from piling up in your life and making it hard to serve Jesus with joy in your heart. As a pastor, I can get down for a lot of reasons that are unique to full time ministry, but as a PERSON, it is common to all of us to have times of being down, and I'm no exception. Spring is nice with the sunshine and everything turning green, but it can also stir up tough issues for folks. I have friends going thru some relational issues, others dealing with finances, some with ministry related disappointments. I've got my own list of 'downers' right now. Any or all of those can add up to a tough stretch.

I believe in being proactive. It can be hard to step into intentionally improving your mood when you feel more like laying in bed and pulling the covers over your head, but (as silly as this will sound) the only way forward is taking steps forward. So, a list of suggestions that help me when I'm down, I hope they help you. And if you have any to add, feel free to reply and share.

• Find Some 'Up' People - It can be so easy to gravitate toward negative people when you're feeling negative, down people when you're feeling down. Look to be around people who build you up. Find some encouragers, some folks who will remind you of your good points when you're not feeling so good. And avoid not only the "Debbie Downers" in your life, but also the tendency some of us have to want to hide from the world. Take a field trip, get out, get moving, don't sit home and keep thinking about the things that keep you down. Get some encouragment, and that will come from 'up' people. (Heb. 10:25)
  
• Laugh At Something - I have a collection of movies that make me laugh, plus a growing collection of (clean) stand up comedy DVDs that I break out when I'm down. It gets the endorphins firing, it moves my blood around, and it changes my attitude when I laugh. I try to avoid romantic comedies with emotional entanglements when I need a laugh, aiming more for the screwball, slapstick, or just plain stand up. Laughter really is good medicine. (Prov. 17:22)
  
• Exercise - Yeah, I said it. Move your body. Get some air thru your lungs, some blood thru your heart, and some sweat on your forehead. All the physical benefits are matched by emotional and mental benefits, so make yourself move. Your heart and your heart will both thank you.
  
• Pray - Of course I was going to say this, but here's the deal: not because I'm a preacher, but because it works. Honestly, I have a hard time with God's timing sometimes, but I know from experience and from reading His word that there is a time for everything, and there is a time for down as well as up. Mourning can lead to dancing. Tears can lead to laughter. I pray and ask God to show me His time, and to turn my life toward Him. I know that in His time, it will turn out just right. (1 Thes. 5:17)
  
• Give Thanks - Making a list of the things and people you are most grateful for helps turn the tide of the blues. Mine starts with the 20-25 people who came to Christ last month, and the 40 people who've volunteered to do ministry the last two weeks. God is up to something very good at FBC, and I'm thankful that I can lift my eyes past how I'm feeling right now and begin to see the impact this church family is having on eternity. (1 Thes. 5:18)
  
• Serve Someone - When you give of yourself, when you begin to allow the work of the Holy Spirit through you to touch someone else's life, it always has benefits in your own life. Find someone who needs help, and offer them some love in Jesus' name. Give some time, give some encouragement, give something to someone that will make their day. God will use that to make yours better, too. (Luke 6:38)
  

If you're down right now, I'm going to be praying for you. Feel free to pray for me as I'm working thru my list, too. And if you have a suggestion that works for you, let me know, I'll add it in. But don't let the blues get you down. Don't give up, Look up!

What's Next? - Part 1

After a weekend of God making Himself known, it's good to look and ask the question: Based on what we've seen, what is God wanting us to do next? What's next? God has a plan for our church, and He's showing us glimpses of it, but what's next?

So, let me share three ways we're seeing God show us He's working and that there's something coming from Him:

• The Opportunities: We saw the opportunity to share Christ thru the madatchurch.com series, and took it. We saw the opportunity to help a family with the house project, and we took it. We saw the opportunity to move our small group ministry forward, and we took it. We saw the opportunity to go to New Orleans, and we put it out there to challenge people to go. God is putting opportunities in front of His church, and they are leading us to what's next.
• The Responses: We keep putting the opportunities in front of people, and people are responding. The opportunity to start following Jesus saw 20-25 people accept Christ during the Easter season. The house project has prompted dozens of volunteers to step up and serve like Jesus. The small group ministry challenge has produced excited people, folks calling and emailing to get into groups. And the mere mention of going to New Orleans has more than a dozen people either preparing to go or preparing to give to those who go. God's Spirit is stirring in His people!
• The Distractions: This is hard to write, but the distractions are powering up. God never said that doing His will would be easy, and between God wanting to strengthen our faith and dependence on Him, and satan trying to get us off mission, we will have hurdles to jump over to get where God is taking us next. They almost always fall into the same basic categories: money distractions, time distractions, relational distractions, and doubt. None of them go away from being ignored; they need to be met head on and proactively. But just because something is hard doesn't mean that God is saying don't do it. There's a book on my summer reading list this year called Do Hard Things. Can't wait to get my butt kicked.
  

When God is moving His people, there will be opportunities, there will be responses, and there will be distractions. That's both individually and corporately. Look for them, pray for them, then attack them with the faith and courage that Jesus gives!

God Stories on a Friday Night In Jersey

Feeling the wave of what God is doing? Coming out of Easter, here's what I'm feeling:

• Live to serve - The response to the message last Sunday was amazing!! We had a mob people sign up to help with the project house, someone offered help with carpet, and in the best possible way I can say it, folks got it - following Jesus means serving! I'm so proud of this church!
• Taking it (to the Big)Easy - a number of folks also stepped up to either be a part of the team that is going to New Orleans in the fall, or help someone else get there. I can't wait to see what God is going to do through us, but I'm really excited for what God is going to do TO us when this trip finally happens. (And thanks for accepting my apology for waiting so long to get this moving. I love how you let your pastor be a human being sometimes!)
• Giving and giving - the food pantry is still a hot spot in our ministry, lots of bags of food moving through there to help other people. I got to hand out some bags myself this past week, and it's so amazing to see the looks on people's faces when you hand them some groceries in Jesus' name. In a down economy, we as a church have more opportunities to step up and serve people generously, rather than step back in fear. Thank you for your heart to help people in our valley for Christ's sake.
• Hope in the house - On Thursday night, we had over 70 people out to hear the Dave Ramsey simulcast, Town Hall for Hope. Dave was amazing, as always, and the whole event was a constant stream of God stuff. From lifechurch.tv and Fox News hooking up with Dave, to how the technology worked so well (mic glitches aside), to how many of the folks in our worship center were guests (the FBC folk were happily outnumbered 3 to 1!!)
• Giving what I've got - I'm writing this from New Jersey, where I'm helping another church to find God's plan for their ministry life together. It's so much fun for me to sit with a group of church leaders and tell YOUR stories, YOUR triumphs, and YOUR lessons to people and help them see that God is wanting to do great things in their church, because He's been doing them in OURS. And by OUR church, I mean HIS church.
• Bonus coverage - On the way home, I get to stop off and see Quentin and Patty Mullinix, former FBC'ers who are pastoring a church outside Chicago while Q finishes seminary. I'll get to hear him preach, then meet with their leadership to talk about maybe helping them in the future. I can't wait to see those guys - two missionaries we as a church have sent to the wilds of Illinois.
  

What am I missing? You got a God story for me? Let me hear from you!!

Wrapping Up madatchurch.com - Part 3

Last one for this topic (unless someone writes me with more that makes me want to share). There are always consequences to our actions. Some are intended, some are unintended. Here's some of both:

• Intended: We wanted people to bring friends who had a problem with church so that they could hear that we knew we weren't perfect, and we were trying to chase after God even in our imperfection. That really worked for some folks. One woman spoke to me after the message about rules vs relationships and said she was so glad to have the CD to give to her husband. He had been part of a very rules-heavy church, and every time they found a new church, there would be some weird, unexplainable rules come up and he'd bail. She was fired up to have him hear that there were rules that mattered, but that mad made rules weren't as important as loving God and loving others. Easter Sunday, I saw here with her husband in church, both smiling and glad to be there. A great beginning!!
  
• Intended: we learned a ton about using media to share Christ! The website went up and stayed up, no glitches, but some of the things we wanted to try, like posting comments to the madatchurch.com site, we found were just too advanced for us. Maybe next time. The billboards worked, but where they were in town wasn't as visible as we'd hoped they'd be, so it limited our exposure. Turns out that when you only want a billboard for a month, they are harder to get than if you want them for 4 months or even 6. But the connection from the billboard to the site to the fbcpoky.com site to the staff blogs all increased traffic, so people looked, they clicked, they learned, and some of them came. Yeah God!
• Intended: there was buzz! I had several conversations with people about the talk in their offices about the signs. The Chubbuck City offices were all abuzz when the first sign went up just down the street from them. A couple of folks from FBC work there, and they heard people talking all about it from day one. I also got a call from a leader in another church here in town that overheard a conversation between two coworkers at his office. He interjected that they site wasn't bashing anyone, and invited them to check it out for themselves. He and his pastor were both very excited about our attempt to get the message of Jesus out to the culture, and he wanted to tell me that it had connected in his office.
• Unintended: Inside issues. There were people inside our church family who were upset by the series. I was somewhat surprised by the anger it generated in some of our people. I have tried to say we're not perfect as a church, and we're not always going to get it right, but even with that, folks were upset that we would talk about rules vs. relationships, etc, knowing that we have messed that up in our life together as a church. In a way, I was glad that it stirred up some folks, because some were willing to talk through their issues and disappointments, and for some, the messages could begin some healing from hurts they've had in our own church, not just somewhere else. All in all, while aimed at helping the outside world come closer to Jesus, I'm glad to say that it helped some people in our FBC family get closer to Him and to each other, too.
  
• Unintended: God smack. I wasn't really prepared for the way God was going to smack me in this series. Don't get me wrong - every time a pastor steps up to preach, God has been at work in their life and stirring them in whatever area the message is about (unless of course they are so cut off from the Holy Spirit that they are just on autopilot, which can and does happen), and I was expecting some of that. But what I got was more. I was really pushed around about my lack of faith in God's ability to draw people to Himself through our church. I kept seeing the reason we put rules up, the reason we get our agenda in God's way, the reason we are so excited to talk about end times things instead of now times things, the reason we get so obsessive about issues is that we don't always trust God to make change in people's lives. I realized that I was thinking way too often that God was waiting for me to DO SOMETHING rather than waiting for me to let HIM do something. It was a constant God-smack for the two months leading up to the series, and the four weeks of the series, and now some of the fall out is being seen in our church in cool ways. More on that later, but God is still working on me after this series.
  

If you've got more stories to share about madatchurch.com, let me know. God did some amazing things, and I'm glad for all the wins along the way. Even if there were some tough lessons to learn, it was all worth it in the end, so PRAISE GOD and keep rolling!

Wrapping Up madatchurch.com - Part 2

More thoughts as we look back at the madatchurch.com series and Easter. We are in the process of evaluation, which is key to not only getting the most out of an event/ministry/ experiment, but also figuring out how to learn and grow in order to make future efforts more effective. Here are some evaluative tools we're using:

• Cost/Benefit analysis - Whenever you do something new in a church that costs money, there will always be the question: Did we have to spend the money on ________? It's not a bad question at all, it shows that people are at least thinking about good stewardship and making sure that the limited resources of a church family are being used effectively. Sometimes money is used as a tool to control pastors and leaders ("We can't afford it/It's not in the budget"), but shortsighted financial planning can hurt long term ministry if done poorly, without prayerful guidance from the Holy Spirit, and without accountability. In the case of madatchurch.com, we saw the need to be strategic in getting this series idea out beyond the church and into the community, and of all the media that we could use, the most effective in terms of getting 'eyes on message' for the people of our valley was billboards. It worked fairly well, considering that the locations we got were not the most high traffic in town, but we also did get a break on the price, so that was a bonus. In all, the traffic that we got to the website, then to the church website, and even to this blog (up 100 hits over last month here) seem to indicate that it did get the attention of some people in our valley. The postcards we purchased did not - we have more than half of the 250 invitation postcards left over. We need to rethink that part of the strategy for next time.
  
• Risk/Reward - Sometimes the fear of risk leads pastors and leaders not to try anything new. But if you have a spirit of innovation and a willingness to risk failure in order hit it big or at least to learn whatever lesson there is to learn, then the question of risk is just one of the filters thru which to run a new idea and see what comes out. It is a risk every spring for a farmer to put seed into the ground, but if there is no seed, there is no crop. Having never done anything like this before, we were unsure of all the risks associated with such a campaign. We knew that it might generate negative backlash in the public (only a small amount that we heard about), and that it might make people from other churches mad at us (I sent a letter to local pastors ahead of the billboards gave them a heads up, which several commented to me that they appreciated. No damage there.). We did not expect the angry response from some in our own congregation who needed to process how they've been hurt in church or by church people. But that's not a failure at all - I hope that the series itself and the conversations that it sparked will help people to heal from their hurts and allow God to work in and thru relationships that need repair. The rewards of this effort have totally outweighed the risk.
• Outcome Oriented - In some church efforts I've seen and been a part of, making the effort is seen as enough. The idea that we the church are just supposed to show up and then whatever happens, happens is a hard one to overcome. There has to be some results that ministry is aiming for, and then some evaluation to make sure that either the results were captured or that the lessons why they didn't happen are learned. In this case, we were looking for two main results: buzz in the community that would bring in new people, and salvation in those new people. We got both! I've had many, many conversations with people who heard numerous conversations in their office, shop, neighborhood about the signs, the website, the concept and their experiences with church. I had several of those conversations myself. There were many new faces during those four weeks of the series, and 20-25 people who indicated they had given their lives to Jesus. That last part makes this the greatest reachout/evangelistic effort we've had in decades! Seeing the outcome makes the risk and the cost make sense. Knowing that we followed what God was telling us to do, and that we focused both prayer and strategy on this effort, and then seeing the fruit that came from it makes the difficulties seem less harsh.

Next week, I'll talk more about the individual stories of people touched by this series. If you have a story to share, email me and let me know, I'd love to be able to share it!! You can tell me you want to be anonymous if you'd like, but if God has used this series in your life or in the life of someone you know, please share it with me and let me share it with others.

Wrapping Up madatchurch.com - Part 1

The day after Easter is always slow mentally. There isn't much left over after four services, even when I'm talking about the most exciting topic in history. But there are many people who have been following the madatchurch.com series, both here in Poky and around the country, so I'm going to do a few posts as we look at what God has done thru this effort. Some of the early pieces we are processing:

• 335 - the number of hits on the website. We didn't get exactly the highest traffic, most visible billboards in town, but we had a bunch of traffic on the madatchurch.com website during the time they were up. Traffic was also up on the fbcpoky.com site and the staff blogs, so people were using the web to connect to our church family. It goes to show that our culture is using technology to find answers, and even to check out churches. We as a church need to continue to find ways to use technology to the advantage of God's kingdom.
• 20-25 - the number of people who indicated they became Christ followers. In the four weeks of this series, we had the greatest response to the gospel of anything we've ever done as a church. When Aaron brought the message week two, 17 people raised their hands to acknowledge they were giving their lives to Jesus! There were 5 people who marked on their communication cards the past two Sundays. The reason we're a little vague with the numbers here is that we can only follow up on the people who tell us who they are, so we don't know if some of the people who raised their hands also checked the box the next week, or if there were more people but they didn't check the box... We're working on whatever the barriers are that keeps us from being able to follow up effectively with folks, but the big take away is this: there was a move of God in the past four weeks that has touched lives and made an eternal difference!
• Beginning or end? - We're praying and thinking about what works better: starting a series on Easter or ending a series on Easter. Over the years we've done it both ways, and it's hard to tell if there's an advantage either way. The next series we're doing is about following Jesus, and flows naturally out of both the madatchurch.com and Easter, so we're praying for people to get on board with what it means to follow the risen Christ.
• Sacrificing for others - There were several folks who gave up their usual seats on Sunday morning to come either Saturday night or to the 9 am service Sunday to make room for others. For some, that's a big sacrifice, for others a small step, but for anyone who did that, thank you! We had the largest attendance of the four services, the largest 11 service we've had in years, and three of those folks in that service gave their life to Christ! Your sacrifice in moving paid off, and I want you to know that. Thank you for loving God and loving people enough to move to another time slot.
• Taking it Personally - I met so many people who were introduced to me as guests by the person who brought them. As much as we want billboards and invitation cards to bring people to meet Jesus at Easter, it's always, ALWAYS going to be the personal invite that brings them in the door. Thank you THANK YOU to each person who brought someone to hear the good news of the resurrection this weekend. When you risk enough to ask, God smiles.

More later as we continue to process this. If you've got stories of how this series impacted you or someone you know, email me and let me know. And pray for this next series, Follow Jesus, I think it's going to push our church family toward the next step of challenge we need to hear. I'm being challenged by it already, and it's only Monday!!

Living In Between

This is Easter week, and I'm living in between.

I'm living in between birth and death. The dash on my tombstone - the one between the dates of the first and last days of my life - is all I get. I'm trying to make the most of what I have in between.

I'm living in between a funeral and the Resurrection. I attended the funeral of a long time FBC member on Monday night. It was a good service, with lots of amazing music (our own Becky Moore sang and led the hymn, great job representing, Becky!!). But any funeral in the context of Easter reminds me that death doesn't get the last word, Jesus beat death, and Brenda will get to tell us what Heaven's been like when we get there.

I'm living in between despair and hope. I have no ability to change people's hearts, lives, pains or choices. I have no ability to say the right thing or do the right thing. I can in no way make people happy, and I can't make anyone listen, think, pray, change, serve, worship, learn or grow. But as God has been teaching me, I have hope in the God of Heaven, who can open hearts, change minds, empower hands and feet, fill hearts with forgiveness and courage, and use even an imperfect, underwhelming vessel like me to speak grace and truth, and then by His Spirit, change lives for eternity.

I'm living in between writer's block and a flood. I'm trying to narrow down what God has been burning in my heart for over three months about the message for this weekend. I seem to be stuck in between not being able to think of a thing to say, and trying to say everything there is to say about Jesus, the Resurrection, sin, death, faith, life, hope, power, grace and forgiveness.

I know with all my heart that after the past three weeks, God is lining this up to be an Easter where He shows up and blows us all away. Pray that I will be able to get out of the way, get the right pieces in place to point to Jesus, and then that God's Spirit will turn up the volume in people's lives until they hear His love for them. Invite your friends, they will hear the good news, I promise.

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

This blog from Tim Stevens really got me thinking.

From time to time, one of the comments/criticisms we get at FBC is that we pay too much attention to what larger ministries, what some people call mega-churches, are doing. Some times it's simply questions, and sometimes it's a little more critical. We've had people say, "Why do you want to try what those churches are doing?" or, "You just want to be 'Little Saddleback of Pocatello.'" (that's one of my favorites), or"Bill just wants to be like Rick Warren (or Andy Stanley, or Bill Hybels, or...)."

So let me just lay all of that to rest for everyone right now: Yes.

Yes, I want to be AS EFFECTIVE as Rick Warren. I'd hate to have the problems and challenges he's faced, both personally and in his ministry, but if I could be a part of a church that reached thousands of people each year with God's grace and love, experienced thousands of baptisms each year, helped thousands more mobilize in ministries that change the culture of their community and region, and sent thousands overseas on short term missions, I'd really be okay with that. Effective is good. I want to be effective, so yes, I want to be like Rick Warren.

And yes, we as a church pay attention to what bigger, EFFECTIVE churches are doing. Why? Because of all the choices we have, that makes the most sense. We could be the church that never learns from anyone else, but that would be foolish. We could be the church that has to make all the mistakes ourselves, but why not learn from other people's attempts and failures? We can make enough of our own mistakes, why not learn from other people's, too?

I pray, I study God's word, and I lean on the Holy Spirit to guide me. Our leadership folks all do those same things. If it's a choice between what Jesus is telling us to do and what Bill Hybels said to do, I will pick Jesus. But I also firmly believe that leaders need to learn from other leaders, just like teachers need to learn from other effective teachers, businesses need to learn from other effective businesses, and cooks need to learn from other effective cooks. Seriously, have you ever eaten a meal created by someone who's never, ever read a cook book, followed a recipe, or seen someone else prepare a meal? Was it any good?

I choose to spend the limited resources we have in terms of time, talent and treasure on ideas and opportunities that have been tested in other places, then adapt them for use in our culture of S. E. Idaho, rather than think that the only good ideas are the ones that I can come up with here. I get some good ideas myself. And some colossal flops. There are others in our church family that have great ideas, and we need to weigh and filter everything we think about doing in ministry (more on that in a future post) to make sure we are doing the best we can with what we have. I'm just not smart enough, talented enough, or arrogant enough to turn down help from people who have proven to be effective.

I have a strong opinion of pastors that won't learn from others who are getting the job done: I think they are arrogant. If their pride won't allow them to learn from other people, then I guess that's on them.

Rick Warren says, "All leaders are learners. When you stop learning, you stop leading." Feel free to argue with him if you'd like, but I don't have a problem saying I don't know everything. I don't know enough, and I need to keep learning. I also don't have a problem saying I would rather learn from someone who has proven that they know what they're talking about than just anyone with a book deal or a business card or an opinion to share. Call me crazy...

If we ever start talking about changing the name of the church, I guarantee that the words "Saddleback," "Willow Creek," "Northpoint" and "Mars Hill" will not be among those we will consider using. But I also guarantee that we will not fall into the trap of thinking that we can't gain and learn from other ministries who are getting it done for the kingdom. I want my life to matter, and I want to be all that God made me to be. I want to squeeze every ounce of ministry out of my gifts and talents that I possibly can. So I'm always looking for people who do what I do better than I do it, so that I can learn from them.

Who do you learn from?

Today

Want to get a post in before things get any more nuts around here. Getting you up to speed:

Last night, on her way home from a great visit with her family in So. Cal., our Office Manager and the new Connection Group Director, Stacy Rude, was in a shuttle bus that tried to win a gold in ice skating. Apparently, the bus spun three times and flipped over four times. She was taken to a hospital, treated and released, but she's banged up pretty good. Praise God she's safe and sound!

And, last night at around midnight, Brenda lost her battle with cancer. I don't have any details at this point, but her friends and family are both mourning her loss and celebrating her arrival in heaven. We are going to celebrate that arrival later this week sometime.

Soooooo...

I'm touched by both of those stories and what I read in my quiet time last night: Psalm 39 talks about knowing the number of our days, and how short our lives really are. If we only knew what time we really have, and how short it is in comparison to eternity, then the trials, the tests, the pain, the problems - they are all just a blip on the radar compared to forever.

And so are the opportunities - the opportunities to learn, to grow, to share hope and love, to be Jesus to other people, to point someone to God's plan, to forgive - they are all fleeting as well.

I prayed last night for God to show me how short my time on this earth really is. I was not expecting Him to answer this fast OR this LOUDLY!! Bad on me. God answers prayer. So I want to ask all of you: how much time do you really have? And way more importantly: what are you going to do with it? Can you endure the tough stuff, knowing life is only a vapor, a mist that is gone in the sunlight? Can you step up and be Jesus to people in the opportunities you have in front of you now, knowing that life is a mere handbredth long, and you don't really know how many chances you will have?

The time is shorter than we know. The day is today. The chance is in front of you. The choice is yours: blessing or cursing, heaven or hell. Please - for Christ's sake - do something with it today.

Psalms 39:4-5 (NIV)
"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath."