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Spiritual Survey Results

Barna released results from a survey last week that were based on a study they conducted on spiritual gifts.  Here were some of the interesting points:

• 68% of Americans who say they are Christian have heard of spiritual gifts (here in the northeast it was 58%)
• Teaching was the most commonly claimed gift, at 9%.  Service (8%) and Faith (7%) were next in line
• The gift of leadership was mentioned by just 2%
• Since 1995, the gift of encouragement grew in percentage (from 2% to 6%) and the gift of evangelism shrunk (from 4% to 1%)
• 21% of the gifts mentioned are not actual spiritual gift and included things such as a sense of humor, singing, health, life, happiness, patience, a job, a house, compromise, premonition, creativity and clairvoyance.

I'm surprised that leadership was only 2% but I wasn't surprised to find that evangelism dropped from 4% to 1%.  Many Christian leaders will push back against that and say that it should be more.  I would agree, but only to an extent. 

Apparently there were many more people who claimed to be a leader but did not believe they had the spiritual gift of leadership.  I think part of the problem in the Church is that too many people without the gift of leadership are leading in a big way, and too few people with the gift of leadership are enabled to lead in a big way.

Launch Conference in Baltimore - March 17

On Tuesday, March 17 Nelson Searcy will be in Baltimore to teach the lessons he has learned and put into practice in regards to planting a church.  The Launch Conference will be hosted by White Marsh Baptist Church in Perry Hall, MD. 

You can sign up here:

https://nelsonsearcy.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=4&i=p235&navicat=27&navisubcat=79&naviprod=235

If you have read this blog for any length of time you may know my passion to see local churches in Baltimore thrive.  I believe that will require existing churches transitioning back to a healthy, growing state along with new churches being planted all over.  I will be attending the Launch Conference and I hope any church leader who is mildly interested in planting in or around Baltimore will attend as well.

About 4 years ago I signed up for a similar church planting seminar, and they ended up canceling it because I was the only one.  Maybe that was because it wasn't well advertised, or it wasn't being held by a popular organization, but whatever the case was I hope this event will be much better attended.

Friday Five

Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

Ben Arment - How Not to Seek But to Be Sought Out - Great stuff

Tim Stevens - You Can Be Innovative Without Being Original - There's nothing new under the sun anyway, right?

Craig Groeschel - Generational Ministry - Great thoughts on reaching the next generation

Mark Batterson - Trust His Timing - I tend to be too impatient to take this advice

Vince Antonucci - All the Cool Kids Are Getting 'Em - Buy a t-shirt and help support Vince's new church in Vegas - Verve

Fun: A Great Motivator

In Discovery Island we have been having a "County Fair" theme all month to celebrate the virtue of fairness.  We have the environment decorated like a county fair, complete with booths where kids can play games and do activities you would typically find at a fair or carnival (ball toss, face painting, etc) and they get candy as prizes. 

We had to cut time out of our small group time (the most important time) in order to provide enough time for kids to really enjoy the booths each week.  It was a great decision, because a lot of momentum has been created this month and the fun the kids are having has been a great motivation to them. 

Specifically, they have been motivated to take advantage of everything we encourage families to do at CCC.  We provide take home cards to the kids each week so they can continue the conversation at home with their parents.  In order to encourage kids and parents to use those cards, we told the kids they can get extra booth tickets each week if they completed those cards at home with their parents.  We also told them they could get extra tickets by inviting friends to Discovery Island each week.  So far we have seen a lot of kids bringing in their cards they did at home and bringing new friends. 

Fun is a great motivator and has unfortunately been lost in many church environments.  I just hope we can continue to the momentum in March as we talk about the virtue of hope.

Weighing Risk

Jennifer and I watched the movie Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story this weekend.  It was probably the best made-for-tv movie I have ever watched.  I looked up Ben Carson on wikipedia and saw some of the books he has written.  I checked some of them out on Amazon.com and his book Take the Risk seemed interesting.  For someone who took major risks (life & death) throughout his career I figured he probably had some good insight on weighing risk. 

In the customer reviews section I found a review but none other than Mark Ostreicher of Youth Specialties.  Mark outline the questions that Carson uses when deciding on a risk.  I thought they were quite helpful:

• What's the best that can happen if I do this?
• What's the worst that can happen if I do this?
• What's the best that can happen if I don't do this?
• What's the worst that can happen if I don't do this?

I think the strength in those questions is that he analyzes the good and bad of what would happen if he didn't do it.  Most of the time we only think about the worst case scenario and rarely thinking of what could happen if we didn't do it.  Imagine what people would accomplish if they feared not taking the risk more than the possible problems and failures that would come with taking the risk.

Friday Five

Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

Steven Furtick - Hungry - Steven talks about a less talked about characteristic to look for in a candidate

Ben Arment - One Regret As a Church Planter - I definitely fall into this trap from time to time

Mark Batterson - Is Your Dream Your Idol? - A bunch of good thoughts from Mark in this post

Carey Nieuwhof - The Real Cap On Our Ability - Great reminder about the importance of character

Ed Stetzer - Friday is for Friends - Ed talks about Mark Driscoll, typically a polarizing figure, in this post

Networking Baltimore Churches

I figured I'd blog about an idea I've thought about recently.  With my passion for the local church, specifically in Baltimore, I'm regularly thinking of possible ways to help churches in Baltimore work together to transform this city.  I really believe that it will take churches working together to create the type of change this city needs.

One idea I've tossed around is a website dedicated to aggregating news and information related to churches and ministries in Baltimore.  One step in helping churches work together would be to help churches get to know each other.  Reading about what's going on in other churches around Baltimore would hopefully help churches feel more connected to each other.  It could even prompt churches to help each other if there are clear opportunities in front of them. 

At this point I've pictured a website that is primarily a news page in blog format, but also pulled blog posts, news headlines and twitter posts from churches and church leaders in Baltimore.  The question that plagues me is whether or not churches and church leaders in Baltimore would care enough to follow and contribute to such a website.  But, such possibilities of failure never stopped me before so I'm going to check with my brother in-law who could actually get this rolling from the technology standpoint. 

By the way, if you want to steal this idea and implement it yourself, please do.  Just let me know how I can help.

Friday Five

Here are my five favorite blog posts from the week:

David McDaniel - A Simple Church Facility Strategy - Great thoughts on facilities as it relates to church growth

Kem Meyer - New logos after the financial crisis - Funny stuff

Steven Furtick - God is not always likeable - Interesting perspective and very true IMO

Carey Nieuwhof - Great Ideas - Good thoughts and discussion on ideas Carey posted from Reggie Joiner

Tony Morgan - It Takes 12 Months - I would agree with this assessment about the time it takes to really get to know a new employee or employer/job

Support from Friends

Ben Arment had this post today, where he put in this quote from Hugh MacLeod:

"A big idea will change you. Your friends may love you, but they don't want you to change. If you change, then their dynamic with you also changes. They like things the way they are; that's how they love you - the way you are, not the way you become... Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted." ~ Hugh Macleod

I sometimes wonder how many of my friends would support me and still be my friend if I did something bold and new.  I'm not talking about something sinful or stupid though.  I'm talking about something daring and different.....a good idea as the quote mentioned.

I've thought about this most recently after reading some posts from a couple different guys and talking to another guy about fundraising for their church plants.  All three talked about the fact that the people closest to them gave the least from a financial standpoint.  It was people who they were loosely connected with, or not connected at all with, who really supported their efforts. 

That bothers me.  I don't doubt it's true, but I don't like it.  I never want to be the person who doesn't invest (financially or otherwise) in a close friend's future if they need it.  I imagine it's because those closest to you know your flaws more, but if we needed someone or some vision to be perfect before supporting it, we would never support anything and would instead just be selfish. 

Elevation Church :: Three

 

Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC is having a one-day, one-time only event for church leaders called Three.  There are many things about Elevation Church that interest me and are reasons why I read Steven Furtick's (their pastor) blog.  One is that they launched just a month before we did.  Another, the reason most people know of them, is because they now have over 5,000 people attending weekly.  That's the kind of growth you rarely see in churches.  Especially considering there was nothing special helping that from the beginning.  When I say that, obviously there were a lot of special things (like, God), but sometimes you hear stories of churches growing at amazing rates and don't realize they planted with 1,000 people or split from a megachurch or something like that.  I'm not saying that's bad, it's just different (our church launched from a megachurch). 

Another reason I read Steven's blog and follow Elevation is because Steven is wise beyond his years, particularly in regards to leadership.  I'm sure Elevation has learned a ton of things going from a church of 120-something to 5,000+ in 3 short years.  Three is an opportunity for church leaders to learn from Elevation's wisdom and experience.  If I had the money and time, I would definitely go.  However, I don't, so I'm just bitter about it.  But, now you know about it and maybe I can experience it vicariously through you.