Something Fun To Try

I like Twitter, I enjoy taking the 140 characters I've been allowed and make a message. I like reading the short, pithy comments and thoughts of people I want to hear from. It's a powerful discipline to be brief and clear in a world so full of words. I'm an extroverted, verbal processing teacher and speaker, and one of the hardest things for me to is work to keep things brief. So it's good to work hard to be concise.

Here at LifePoint Church, we've put together a team that is working to rethink, revise and reconnect to the vision God has for our church family. It's exciting work, important work, and just plain hard work. The first exercise: express a statement of belief for each of several concepts in 10 words or less.

So, reading scripture, praying, thinking, I sat down to work on this, and can I just tell you: THAT'S HARD TO DO!! Say what's really important about what you believe about prayer in 10 words or less. Go ahead. Or the Holy Spirit. Or church. It's not as easy as you think.

Now, imagine sitting in a room with a group of people who all come from different backgrounds, different church experiences, different educational experiences, and different life stages, and all of them have their 10 word statements, too. Now, you've got to combine, discuss, sift through and, most importantly agree on a single statement out of all you just did.

This is what I've been doing all weekend (around the great services at LifePoint), and it's been the most amazing experience. I'm learning a ton, sharing what I know, and growing along with the rest of the team. It's been hard, but it's been amazing. I can't tell you how great this experience has been. I'm so proud of the Lifers on this team, I'm so glad to have Dr. Bill Hoyt from Growing Healthy Churches come help, and I cannot wait to see where this whole process leads us as a church. More to come on all this, but I'm exhausted, exhilarated, and excited to see what comes next after all this work. So, in 10 words:

Preparing for God's powerful next chapter of ministry at LifePoint!