You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2007.
Over the past year I have received a few very attractive invitations to apply for Lead Pastor positions of some large and established churches. It has been very easy to pass on these without much thought because I absolutely love The Journey North people and the God sized vision we have.
Two weeks ago I got rocked a little when one of the leaders of the Minnesota Baptist Conference’s search committee called and asked if I would be willing to apply for the position of Executive Minister.
That popular phrase to help you learn what to do if you ever catch on fire could also describe my night. I tossed and turned as if I was Jacob, wrestling with God.
It is strange for me to feel a need for this degree of crystal clear direction. As an ENTP (old school Myers Brigs), I am fairly content suspending decision in preference for more information. I was after all, able to suspend determining OJ Simpson guilt until moments after he was pronounced innocent.
Yesterday, Caleb and I created lists of pros and cons. We thought through implications of decision outcomes. We read Scripture from the Psalms and prayed asking God for wisdom and guidance. As we spent hours seeking God, the one conviction we both shared was that He met us there.
As we looked from a place high on a rock in the middle of Beaver River we laughed out loud at what was both perfect and at the same time a “beautiful mess” (a phrase that has become a central operating motif at TJN). There were logs that had fallen and lodged against rocks by a raging river that has long ago fallen back leaving them hanging far above the waters movement. Trees bowing to unseen powers and boulders that look as if they were just tossed about with out any thought of design, made the river look un-kept. All this chaos and yet so beautiful – perfect!
We found ourselves thinking of the Church in general and The Journey North in particular. We could see her brokenness, her imperfections, blemishes, sinfulness, chaos, and pain. We also saw, God’s sustaining hand, His majesty, the awesome way He was revealed in His creation and in His Church. It really reminded us that it is in our brokenness that Christ is seen in power. He is made perfect in our weakness. And I am so thankful for that.
So in the end we have walked away from our time in prayer feeling like God has showed us a picture of The Journey North and stirring my heart for her again and afresh. I am so thankful for God, His Bride the Church and the role I get to play in serving the The Journey North as I serve Jesus with my whole heart.
Sunday was awesome as 30 got baptized:
I have taken a few days off and have headed up to the North Shore. There were times in Jesus ministry when he just walked away from the crowds to spend time with the Father. I have found that it is this principle that while easy and essential, is often over looked by people in ministry.
About ten years ago I began taking silent retreats once or twice a year. These times away have proven to be some of the richest and most rewarding times with God. I have learned more about myself (my heart, my hopes and dreams as well as my weaknesses). God has used these times to clarify who I was and where I was going.
In addition to these times of solitude and silence, I have developed an awareness that when big or important decisions needed to be made, I need to step away. These times to step back and process and pray have proven to be invaluable. I have made great, godly decisions over and over, when I have invited God to speak into the quite places. When I have slowed down, and listened, God has always been faithful to lead me and guide my steps.
So, I have come to the place again when I am feeling the need to have God clarify some things and speak into some major decisions. At the same time I have a unique opportunity to model how I invite God into my process with my son.
Caleb (10) and I sojourned to a cabin in the forest of Northern Minnesota for a few days of reading the Scripture, processing “dads” important decisions, and seeking God together.
This is perhaps the first time in my life, wherein I have been aware that the process of making a decision is probably in all likelihood going to be more important and more impacting than even the decision itself. This moment of parenting my son, teaching him, how to be a godly man could in fact be the most significant thing I have ever done as a dad.
We are starting today with a great breakfast at Bluefin Bay and then we’ll hop rocks up the Beaver River, find a great spot and spend a good chunk of the day in prayer. I would appreciate any prayers for these few days away.
Every now and then I read something that just stops me in my tracks. Today I thought Shawn Lovejoy nailed it as he addressed an increasingly bantered around notion of “the Church”. Thanks Shawn for putting words to what so many of us have been thinking.
Read the rest of this entry »
I went golfing today with Wayne Zitzloff. Wayne ran a company called Galtec (Gas and Liquid Tech) a subsidiary of Entegris. He also sat on the board of Entegris from 1980 to 1999 (formally Fluoroware).
His company was an innovator in valve fittings and anything/everything else that worked with acids for computer wafers. He understands innovation and is a management genius.
He was telling me today that one of the biggest concerns for the future of wafer encoding is the cleanliness of the environment. It isn’t even micro partials anymore so much as bacteria impurities that they need learn how to deal with.
As we were talking today he shared with me a ton of management principles. I asked him for one new idea that I could begin implementing tomorrow at my church and he gave me this acronym:
O – Objective (What needs to get done)
A – Activity (What are you going to do to get it done)
T- Timetable (When are you going to finish each step)
S – Systematic Checkup (Who is going to check and when)
I loved it! It’s simple and I can’t wait to introduce this tool to my staff.
Now that The Journey North has gotten larger (and being in a smaller community), as I am out and about, I have the unique phenomena of being recognized by a lot of people with whom I don’t really know. Most of the time the conversations are comfortable… I love meeting people and chit chatting. I love getting eye to eye, toe to toe and sharing a little life. But I have on more than one occasion had people ask me if I remember them, and not wanting to offend, I have (I’m embarrassed to confess) acted like I have.
Thankfully, it never went quite like this:
I love using props and visual tools in my messages.
This morning I was reading a few blogs and stumbled across this dude from Countdown2Innovate podcast. His presentation ideas have me really thinking. If you use PowerPoint for presentations this is worth the read:
Whenever I see men and women stand up and say, “Count me in for this God deal…I believe!”, it inspires me to do church better, pastor better and reach out better. This weekend is a real celebration at The Journey North. There are over 25 people who have said they want to say to the world that they have made Christ their life leader and follow his example and instructions to get baptized.
I still remember when the launch team was being formed and the first TJN Baptism. That was a huge day as we really became a church who’s DNA was one of outreach, drawing people into some significant commitments to Jesus.
You won’t want to miss this Sunday. Also, if you have ever wished you had brought someone and didn’t, you know how it feels. This week’s messages will create a real stir in peoples hearts who may be far from God. Call someone you know who is far from God and invite them today, right now.
(Not Necessarily in That Order)
Today was an awesome day as I gathered with fourteen of the sharpest guys I know. This group meets every third Thursday of the month at Ruby Tuesday and then at Grace Fellowship to learn, encourage and dream about building great churches and figure out how to help launch more new reproducing churches. This is such a dynamic group that it is impossible for me to walk way not feeling stoked.
A few of you have asked why I decided to go with WordPress over another blog platform. Here is a comparison that some of you may find interesting.
I have always been amazed that the God, who created the universe, would make the decision to send His son Jesus to pay for my sin. Incredible! The whole of Scripture gives testimony to the reality of a profound love of a holy God and His miraculous decision to partner with the broken and sinful. The Bible says it is His kindness that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). I really find it absolutely astounding that God would be a friend to sinners.
While I was never personally attracted to Jerry Falwell, I was extremely impressed by the words of his friend Larry Flynt in a Los Angles Times article, “How the pornographer found himself in the embrace of the reverend who sued him.”
My hope and prayer is that I will see people with God’s eyes and that somehow God will use me in the midst of my brokenness.
Yesterday, I listened to Pastor Bob Evans’ sermon called “Our Mission” (found on his Blog). I was inspired by both his passion for the future of Temple Baptist and encouraged that The Journey North is part of the same rich history as our 124 year old sister church here in Brainerd.
I am asked about The Journey North all the time. It always seems to surprise people when they find out we are a Baptist church. But listen, I am so excited to be part of the Baptist General Conference (BGC). Below are some excerpts from our history. The Conference has continued to grow and diversify in the past few decades. Here are a few highlights and a little bit of our history:
The perfect collection of worship songs for the man or woman who see themselves as being squarely in center of the universe.
I have a lot of Dell products for the church and my home. I have often wondered if there were any tricks to get the best price, how much support and extend warranty time to buy as well as lots of other little things. Well here’s some insight from an insider:
So I woke up early (typical Sunday) and was the first to arrive at church. It was a quite ride in and while I felt tired I was in a great mood. It was a little after the worship team showed up and I was working with the tech team about morning details that Elizabeth and my kids got there. Bethany (5 yrs) came bouncing in and was quick with a “Happy Father’s Day”.
Most of our office equipment has been Dell. In large measure because I love the Gold Tech Support. I am very excited about the potential of this new product. Jeff Clarke (Senior VP at Dell) announcing Dell’s Tablet PC
[Doing kind deeds for others isn’t a new phenomenon. Fourteen years ago, Pastor Steve Sjogren inspired thousands of people to engage in random acts of kindness in his ground-breaking book, Conspiracy of Kindness: A Refreshing New Approach to Sharing the Love of Jesus with Others. The book ignited a flurry of selfless, unexpected acts of kindness intended to help others understand God’s gift of love and grace to all people.
I have been thinking about leadership a lot lately. I really wrestle with how to identify and develop potential leaders. Building a great church is a leadership intensive endeavor. Are good leaders made or born? Some people believe that if you have desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Others would suggest that there are Spiritual Gifts of Leadership and that without God’s gifting you will never be a leader.
In the past ten years of ministry, I have become convinced that both are true. God can use any number of personalities, temperaments, skill sets and gifting to see a group of people led well. And at TJN we need all kinds of leaders. For those who seem to possess a supernatural leadership anointing it is still imperative that they work to develop those gifts to the zenith of their potential.
The monks grew exasperated with their guest
“An order of monks living under a vow of silence were unable to shut up a drunken guest who sang into the night.”
One thing about The Journey North that has always been awesome is that we love being together. One of my favorite events (does the 3rd consecutive make it “annual”?) is the summer picnic & baptism.
We are a week and a half away and I just can’t stop thinking about it. There are so many people who have experienced a profound life change because of The Journey North. I find it so humbling that God lets me participate with His kingdom plan here in Brainerd.
Every time I watch this video from last year it pumps me up and creates within me a profound desire to serve God with my whole heart.
When I set out to launch a new church I had a prayer that we would be intensely generous. My hearts cry to God was that The Journey North would be known as a group that gave of their time, talents, and treasure in a way that reflected a passion for following Christ that would turn heads.
This past week we had over 20 folks give tirelessly to the clean up of a Northern Minnesota Camp called Mink Lake. This camp is a diamond in the rough…and it is in rough shape. With Bob and Sandi Colbenson’s commitment to spend another summer there and our commitment as a church to give hard earned resources and sweat equity, I am extremely anticipatory for the future redemptive benefit of this place.
Often when people get out into nature they see the God of creation more clearly. This hope of the redemptive nature of this place was realized this week as Brent Prueser made the commitment to make Christ his life leader. PRAISE GOD!
I am so proud of all of you!
OK…I have something to say…you ready??
Professional Christianity by: Justin Adams [from the book Confessions of a Caffienated Christian by John Fischer]
What is it? It’s the addiction to self righteousness and judgement. What does it mean to be Professional about your sin? It means to hide it. Professional Chrisitanity means you have a reputation to maintain at all cost, even if that cost is dishonesty. You want to go back to being an amateur, but you’re too experienced for that. You have to search to find your sin. You have hidden your sin so well for so long you have to search to discover where you put it.
So I woke up crazy early this morning…grabbed my laptop and decided to read a few blogs. It is really amazing to me how the internet has affected my life these past five years. I have guys I consider mentors, encouragers and friends that live all over the country. Most of them I have met on a pastor’s forum (hosted by Rick Warren), where I have gone to learn and grow as I launched this new church. Over the years a lot of them have started to record their thoughts about life and the unique challenges of living out their faith, leading churches, faithfully loving their wives and raising their kids.
Tony Liston is one of these guys who I have come to admire over the years. He pastors a very cool café style church (Adventure Community Church) in Davenport, Iowa. We share a number of things in common, some of which he wrote about yesterday in a post he aptly called: Boys and Tae Kwon Do, Girls and Recital Flowers, and Church Planting. Funny stuff…I totally understand.
My Daughter Bethany
In my role as a Church Planting Coach, I have the opportunity to sit down with a number of Planters. I got started coaching planters around the issue of raising personal financial support. While working for a para-church ministry called Family Hope Services, I developed some skills and insight into both the difficulties as well as the powerful benefit of raising personal support. Since then I have had the opportunity to teach and train a number of pastors and missionaries the art of “the ask”.
I was just reading Church Relevance and found this list of 250+ incredible churches that you may find inspirational. Read the rest of this entry »
We are part of an extremely unique church planting movement. In most organized church planting efforts there is a denomination or “headquarters” that selects the planter and determines an area for the new work to be launched. Our effort differs in that we are totally decentralized. While not all churches are excited about planting there are more making efforts every day. What is really helping is the shared vision that is championed by Joel Nelson with the Minnesota Baptist Conference. The various churches that have endeavored to parent have put some very exciting planters on the ground.
Here is a list of many of these plants:
Providence Community Church is a GO for Crosslake. They had their final Sunday night gathering tonight. Next week will mark their transition to Sunday mornings.
I just read the article “AIMING HIGH” by Paul Johnson.
Paul was a Sem Prof. who taught me about church planting. So when I saw he had an article my interest was perked. Let me just say, I am so excited to be part of a group like the BGC that is setting God sized goals. In the article there are three BHAG’s (Big Harry Audacious Goals):
- 35,245 more disciples - measured by baptisms
- 9788 more leaders - measured by named leaders in training
- 274 more congregations - measured by church planters deployed
One of our sister churches, HopeCommunity Church is getting ready to plant a church in Cross Lake, MN. That is about twenty minutes from TJN. I know the planter and am stoked about what he could see God do there.
The truth is that we could be a huge help in a number of ways.
Andrew Keresey is the planter…he just got back from the BGC Assessment Center and was given the green light.
I am very excited to see another new plant in the area and am wondering if we may not have a “parenting” role (at the least, I’m certain we can be cousins and give some $$$).
Another potential planter has been identified in Bemidji. I am getting to know him and am hopeful that we will have him in Assessment Center within a few months.
Leadership Journal, Spring 2007
I am increasingly interested in behaviors and activities that will keep me in the game for a lifetime. These past three months have been taxing, with many behind the scene challenges. As a consequence I have an increasing tendency to be “short”. This recognition that the stress has begun to negatively affect me in some ways is most easily seen in the cynicism that I find creeping in.
Read the rest of this entry »
I had seen this a few weeks ago but found this clip on David Trotter’s blog…it really is unbelievable.
Two Weeks Ago I Decided Not to Preach but Work with Our Kid’s Church. It was awesome seeing the dedication from the team. Click the slide shows to see some sweet photos of TJN kids and volunteers in action.
It Really Begins with Trust
The church keeps growing. And so does the vision that God has allowed me to see. I am constantly amazed how easy it is for me to put my eyes on the obsticals rather than on Christ.
