Living the New Life

Sunday was entirely different for me.  It was Pastor Appreciation Day and they had my Dad come and speak.  The church had fixed a huge meal afterwards for everyone and it was great.  I have no idea who made the pea casserole, but it was great!  Also, thanks to Luke for the mashed potatoes that I finished up yesterday( yes, I took home 2 extra helpings of it). 

We had 155 in attendance with 6 first time guests.  This is the primary reason why I hate pastor appreciation days.  I feel that at a lot of places the glory goes to a man and not to the Lord.  Thankfully, they didn’t go overboard.  When you have first time guests coming like we have, you want them to see the church for how we really are.  We should always be the church that they have heard about from their friends and family.  Special days should not change who you are or they way you go about ministry.

They church really blessed my entire family and I am very thankful for all of the gifts that we received.  Unbelievable! 

I am so thankful for New Life and I am very excited about where we are and I’m even more excited about where we are going!

Sunday afternoon is here and it is raining like cats and dogs outside.  The church has worked so hard these last few weeks to help get things prepared for the growth of New Life.  I am so thankful for everyone!!!!

We had 169 in attendance this morning which is such a blessing.  I believe that everyone was just a little bit tight and timid this morning knowing that everyone was being evaluated (by the church consultant—more on that later).  Danny, Rhonda, Brittany, and John were on vacation so that also diminished the comfort level in Praise and Worship.  They debuted a new song to us (Revelation Song) which rocked the place. 

I felt the nerves from the start.  I was so worried about preaching too long that I was too short.  Sarah said that it was the shortest that I have ever preached (23 mins).  The first thing the consultant asked me was, “Why did you preach so short?  You had their attention, and then it was over.”  Yes, I am a loser!  It is not everyday that your preaching gets evaluated.  I felt that my content was fine, but I just felt rushed to.  I put the pressure on myself and did not bring my A game.  My fault, but its okay.  We had a great altar response in spite of me.

I love the feeling of Church right now.  It is truly amazing the excitement that we are experiencing.  I love New Life.  I love Jesus!

Today is the last in the series about steps that will help allow us to reach and break the 200 barrier.

Step 5 is simply Expanded Leadership.  Everything rises and falls on leadership.  I love the old saying that states; ”A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

New Life is blessed with a solid core groups of leaders.  The great thing is that in every area we have room for additional leaders.  The more leaders that we develop, allows for a greater potential for growth.  Here are some things I feel about growing future leaders:

1)  Always be on the look out for leaders (Identify)

2)  Take the time to train potential leaders (Mentor)

3)  Once trained, allow them to spread their wings and fly (release)

Leaders get things done.  We have several areas that we need stronger leadership in.  It starts with the Senior Pastor.  I have to improve on my leadership.  If I do not continue to learn and grow then New Life will not continue to learn and grow.  The church congregation will reproduce what it sees in its own church leadership.

Today is a difficult one. 

If we are to continue with our growth we must have increased financial support.  I sporidically have my support staff check on the giving of everyone on our leadership team.  I do not want to dishonor God by having someone in leadership who does not pay their tithe.  I will not let us rob God!

Since we have such a large number of new attendees, we must make it a point to teach on Biblical stewardship.  New Life currently needs $16,000 a month to operate.  This is probably a bare bones number.  As we continue to grow that number will increase greatly.  I am hoping that we see an increase in giving by at least $2,000 a month by the end of the year.  I am praying and believing for that number to be at $4,000 a month.  It is very possible for this to happen.

I believe that money follows ministry and that if people see and believe the vision, then they will support the vision.  I must do a better job of communicating the vision for our church and to our church.  We have seen an increase in giving in the past few months.  I believe that God is providing and will continue to do so.  While God does provide, He also expects us to do our part.

Number 5 is tomorrow…..  I think it is the essential ingredient.

I am continuing my series on steps toward the 200 mark for New Life.  I have discussed relationships and delegation so far.  Today’s step centers around organization and planning.  The larger that we grow the more careful that we have to be with our church planning.  We can’t do everything.  Every event that we do or participate in must revolve and accent the mission of the church.  The Bible teaches that all things must be done decently and in order. 

We having already started this process by using a budget and calenders.  In a couple of months we will be meeting with all of the core leadership and department heads to work on a yearly calender for 2009.  Why?  Because we must be focused and organized with the mission that God has given us.  Every week, I have someone from the community come to me and want us to do something or participate in some event.  I would love to do this, but if we did, I would wear out the entire church.  We must be intentional with our time and resources.  I am trying my best to simplify our process.  I believe that we must narrow our focus and put everything we have into those things.  We must not be scattered with our vision.  We also must be able to define and see reality.  We have to be willing to cut out our past successes if they are not beneficial to the overall mission.  I will end in a question for my readers:  Does it make sense to put a lot of time, energy, and resources (money) into an event that draws a crowd, but fails to win any families to the Church body?  Fire away.

Step 4 tomorrow.

I started yesterday on steps that I feel New Life needs to make for us to break the 200 barrier in average attendance.  Today’s step is really about me (the pastor).

I must do a better job of delegation.  A lot of times it is easier for me to do “something” than to ask someone else to do it.  I have this tendency to feel like I am putting them out or bothering them.  The problem is that I end up with a lot of “somethings” and very little time to rest. 

A primary reason that most leaders fail to delegate is that they believe that they can do it better.  Another reason is that they are afraid of getting burned (the job not getting done, not on time, or done poorly).  The truth is that you will get burned.  They won’talways follow through.  They may not do it as well as you would have liked.  At some point you as the leader must be mature enough to realize that it is not about what you can do, but what you can equip others to do.

It is a hard test in leadership.  I am working diligently on it.  I have to be the vision caster.  I have to force myself to keep inviting people to join our work and to do things for the church and Kingdom.  It is only if you delegate that over time we will not only get more work done, but we will get more and better work done.

More tomorrow

As I begin this blog series on steps that I believe we need to reach 200 let me first say that we need the hand of God upon us.  With out His leading and direction every thing else is a waste of time.

Todays step toward 200 is relationships.  We must do a better job of developing relationships at New Life.  We have started Life Groups, but we must make sure that those who are new to our fellowship get involved in our small group activities.  This must be done with an intentional approach.

There are two reasons why people continue to come to church:  Relationships and Experience.  Relationship with God and relationships with others.  If we fail to build proper relationship with God or with others the experience suffers.  Why do people leave churches?  Most of the time it is because of broken relationships either with God, the pastor, or someone else in the church body.  Why do people visit a few times but not stay?  Usually because of a lack of relationship with God or with people.  Most people will choose relationships over vision.

Relationships are essential for the future growth of New Life.  How to do relationships better is a question that I constantly ask myself.  I am still working on the right answer. 

Number 2 tomorrow.

Yesterday was just one of those days.  I was totally exhausted from traveling.  I learned a lesson (I hope) for the next long trip I take.

We had 129 in attendance which was way off our regular attendance.  Everything was fine, just the attendance and the preacher were off.  I would like to have that one back. Oh, well.

I plan on starting a series tomorrow on my blog about the things I feel we must do to reach and break the 200 level in attendance.  This will lead up to this weekend with our series of meetings with a church consultant.  I am excited but also nervous about what we will learn.