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Friday Five

Happy Black Friday (that's an oxymoron for sure).  Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

Catalyst Space - Old Couch Churchology - I would add to the analogy that people also hold on to it because it's comfortable (broken in).  

Ben Arment - Love Affair with LEDs - Interesting thoughts about the future of video projection

Nelson Searcy - Character and Reputation - A Sunday Quote - A good one

Steven Furtick - Set the atmosphere - Great thoughts about the leader leading the environment

Carey Nieuwhof - 2009:  A Missional Marketing Decision - Carey share's Connexus' decision to put marketing in the hands of attenders to further their invest & invite strategy.

Men's Health Stats on Guy's Beliefs

Every Men's Health magazine I get has a page in the back with statistics about something related to....men's health.  Anyhow, this month was about the average guy and his beliefs.  Here are some interesting stats:

• 71% go to church or synagogue once a year

• 77% say asking for divine intervention paid off at least once

• 83% have prayed in a desperate moment

• 73% believe in miracles

• 69% have watched a televaneglist and 6% of them have opened their checkbooks

• 40% seriously considered making faith a full-time job

• 26% of Evangelical Christians get divorced (much lower than the 50% of Christians we hear about)

Of all of them I think the 40% that seriously considered a "faith job" surprised me the most.  How about you?

Friday Five

Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

Ben Arment - Your Church is a Gift Colony - Interesting thoughts on church plants finding their niche

MMI - Florida Pastor Cleans House:  Fires SIX Staff Pastors - Interesting story with tons of comments

Mark Batterson - Broken Windows - Mark talks about the importance of excellence in small things

Craig Groeschel - Meetings - The first of a series of posts with Craig's thoughts on effective meetings

Tony Morgan - Empowerment Versus Delegation - Great list of differences between the two

Control - Part 2 of 2

In the previous post I talked about the fact that I have been thinking about control a lot lately.  I said that I've learned 2 things about control, and here's #2:

The more control I have the more selfish I am

That's definitely not a good thing.  But, as I reflected, I'm typically more selfish when I have control. I think that's primarily because I want to do well with whatever I'm in control of (a schedule, a team, a project, etc).  On the surface that may not seem like a bad thing, but I think it makes it easy to miss other opportunities because I'm so focused on what is in my control.  God may very well be placing an opportunity in front of me that I might be ignoring. 

Becoming less selfish is central to becoming more like Christ.  In my spiritual disciplines class the instructor talked about the fact that the discipline of fasting forces us to give up control of something we normally have control of.  Giving up control forces us to become less selfish, but just how much selfless we become depends on us.  Hopefully I'll learn to become more selfless when I have more control, instead of the opposite.  

Control - Part 1 of 2

I've thought about control a lot recently.  Probably because I've become more and more aware of how little control I have (a big thanks to the economy for that).  The economy hasn't been the only thing forcing me to think about that, watching Ravens games and other things have contributed as well.  I have thought about 2 things I've learned about control, the first of which is:

The less control I have the more stressful a situation makes me

Watching Ravens games drives me crazy.  I love it, but with absolutely no control over the outcome I am stressed the entire time.  If I had a control, they would really lose.  I yell when they do well, and I yell when the don't.  Our dog doesn't know the difference and is scared in either case.  As Dave Ramsey said at Catalyst, people have watched 401Ks become 201Ks.  Very stressful as well, no matter how little or how much someone has invested.  The stress for me is the fear that I have not managed God's money well.  I can become stressed when volunteers don't show up and we're understaffed, because I have no control.  

The problem isn't that I don't have control, the problem is that I don't like it!  Rather than recognizing the fact that I don't, and can't have control, I stress over the situation as if it will make a difference.  What I need to do is find out how I can best serve God in that situation because lets face, the situation usually isn't going to change based on anything I do.  However, that is MUCH easier to say than it is to do.  

The Baltimore Project

The Baltimore Project is a website where you can find out information about a new church plant coming to Baltimore.  Tally Wilgis will be the lead planter.  I have never met Tally, and only heard about him through the internet world (Twitter, actually).  I immediately subscribed to his blog because as I have said before, my dream is to see Baltimore flooded with new church plants and renewed existing churches.  

In this post Tally calls for church planters and people who love them.  I love church planters, particularly in Baltimore.  He will be launching a site tomorrow on www.thebaltimoreproject.com where you can follow him on a tour he is taking to learn from church leaders and raise the awareness of this project.  

Baltimore needs a ton of new church plants.  I'm pretty much going to stalk every new church plant I hear about in order to be networked with as many churches in Baltimore as I can.  I really believe that it will take tons of churches and leaders working together to make Baltimore known for strong, healthy churches.

Portable....inflatable church?

As CCC launches more multisite locations, maybe we don't even need a building!

Hours/Week - 7 x 50 = 7 x 40......what?

I just finished up my first graduate class and it was on Spiritual Disciplines.  One of the books I had to read was Sabbath Keeping by Lynne Baab.  One thing that grabbed my attention was a quote in the book that apparently came from a study written in The Seattle Times on August 24, 2003:

"If you work seven 50-hour weeks in a row, you'll get no more done than if you worked seven 40-hour weeks in a row."

What?  I'm not saying I don't believe that's possible, I just want to know how!  It's been a busy season filled with many long work weeks and I would love to know how to get the same amount done in less time.  This made me think about ministry work because ministry work is never done.  So, we can spend weeks working 50+ hour weeks and neglect our family.  But, if this statement is true, not only are we messing up our priorities but we're not gaining anything for it!  

Friday Five

Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

Pudge Huckaby - look "in" before "out" - Good thoughts about leaders needing to self evaluate before shifting blame.

Craig Groeschel - Team Dynamics - Good post about building a strong team

Mark Batterson - The Numbers Game - Interesting issue for churches to address

Tony Morgan - 10 Reasons Why You're Probably Going to Fail - Great list to keep in mind

Buckhead Church - 5 Things - Jeff Henderson posted a recording of Andy Stanley teaching the staff at an all-staff meeting.  Great discussion about "The Five Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith" series North Point just did, and how they built their church strategy around those 5 things.  Key point - spiritual growth is not linear, it's circular

Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treat has become an annual event that our church puts on for the community.  This year we had Trunk or Treat in White Marsh and in Dundalk.  We estimate that roughly 2500 people went to the White Marsh location and 1000 went to the Dundalk location.  Chris Hope and I dressed up as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunn from Dumb & Dumber.  Our trunk was the shaggin wagon, and it was glorious.  I'm not sure how we didn't win first place, or any place, in the trunk contest.  Here are some pics:

"Chicks love it, it's the shaggin wagon"

"Cripes!"

This inflatable for adults was pretty sweet

 

We reenacted the following scene multiple times: