What Do You Expect?

What Do You Expect? by Rick Warren “Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you’; and their sight was restored” (Matthew 9:29–30 NIV).

A friend of mine, Bruce, taught college in Oregon for awhile. When he began his first semester teaching there, he was told that the college placed students in English classes by their level of ability. Bruce was assigned to teach two “average ability” classes and one “advanced ability.” He really enjoyed teaching the advanced class: they seemed more alert, more fun, asked better questions, and, as expected, had a higher grade average than the other classes. On the final day of the semester, Bruce commented on these differences to the other professors in the faculty lounge. He said he hoped to get more of the advanced classes next semester. But to his surprise, his department director said, “Bruce, I don’t know where you got your information but we phased out the average/advanced distinction a year ago. You’ve been teaching mixed classes all semester like the rest of us!” Bruce couldn’t believe it! He checked his records, and sure enough, there were far more A’s and B’s in the class that he thought was full of smart kids. And he really had enjoyed teaching that class more. But the only real difference between the classes had been Bruce’s expectations of them. You can set people up for success or failure by your expectations. People tend to become what they think we expect them to be. If you communicate to the people around you that you expect them to be lazy, uncreative, and negative, that’s probably how they will respond to you. On the other hand, if you treat people like winners, they’re likely to become winners. Psychologists call it “The Pygmalion Effect.” • The best salesmen expect customers to buy their product. • The best executives expect employees to have creative ideas. • The best speakers expect audiences to be interested. • The best leaders expect people to want to follow. • The best teachers expect students to learn. Would you like to bring out the best in those around you? Here's the key: Treat them the way they could be! Don’t just “tell it like it is.” Tell it like it could be. Jesus said, “According to your faith it will be done to you” (Matthew 9:29 NIV). What are you expecting this week from yourself . . . from others . . . from God?

Forgive Me For Preaching.....

Forgive me for Preaching...

By Ben Arment

But I have no church platform any longer.

And I need an outlet.

"This is what the Lord says: Make this valley full of ditches. For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord." ~ 2 Kings 3:16-18

I have never seen God move mightily without first requiring me to act in faith.

Nor has he ever given me proof that he would deliver me.

But I have dug the valley full of ditches.

My back is sore. My tongue is parched. The end of my well-being is in view.

But I praise God his deliverance. For the rain-fall of mercy and provision that is coming.

For it is an easy thing for God to do.

All I Do is Work Here

"All I do is work here" By Seth Godin Over the past few months, I've had quite a few interactions with several people who work at a (previously great) brand. One person will email to ask me for a favor or a connection, and I'll point out that just yesterday, I got three emails, all spam, from three different people at the organization either selling me something irrelevant or sending me a press release I didn't ask for. And the unsubscribe button doesn't work. And I've unsubscribed ten times before. When I pointed this out, he said, "Oh, that's those guys. I'm not related to them, all I do is work here. If you don't like getting that stuff, you should take it up with them." Then, a few days ago, I heard from someone in a different group at the same company, asking for help with a project she was working on. I explained that the last time I helped someone in her group with a project, I was misquoted, my time was wasted and they violated whatever trust we had. Susan said, and I'm quoting precisely the same line, "All I do is work here. They pay my salary, but I'm me, not them." No, Susan, you are them. The reason your brand is falling apart is because so many of your colleagues are saying the same thing, denying the same responsibility. Consumers don't believe (or care) that there are warrens and fiefdoms and monarchies within your company. All they know is that you leverage that brand name every day, as you have for decades, but now, instead of using that brand to polish your reputation as an individual, you're being forced to accept responsibility for the actions of others. Do you really think someone who worked for Bernie Madoff will go far with this line? "I'm not Bernie, I just worked with him every day and took a great salary when times were good..." Not sure what the difference is. It's even worse in your case, because you know what's happening. You know, but you don't want to do anything about it. If you're n! ot proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. You don't ! get the benefit of the brand when it's hot without accepting the blame of the brand when it's wrong.

10 Stupid Things

Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing

Many of my readers already know who Geoff Surratt is. He's the Pastor of Ministries at Seacoast Church (a growing multi-site church), an author, a blogger, he's on Facebook and yep - he's on Twitter too. This guy is everywhere! His new book, Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing: How Leaders Can Overcome Costly ! Mistakes, came out last May and is a helpful word to those seeking to lead the church to be effective in reaching the unchurched.

I had a chance to ask Geoff a few questions about the book. He'll be around on the blog today to answer any follow up questions you may have.

You talk a lot in the book about mistakes that will keep an existing church from growing, but what advice would you give to a pastor planting a new church?

1. Don't plant a church unless there is nothing else you can do. If you could be happy pastoring an existing church or working on staff at a church or researching other churches, then that is what you should do. Church planting is incredibly hard and should only be attempted by people so passionate that they can't imagine doing anything else.

2. Partner with a church planting group. Church planting is a lonely business and you need people cheering you on from the sidelines. Seacoast helps plant churches through the Association of Related Churches, Mars Hill founded the Acts 29 Church Planting Network and Community Christian Church in Chicago leads the NewThing Network. Each of these organizations is always on the lookout for sharp new church planters. They each provide training, funding and support. Only a crazy person would plant alone.

3. Make sure your spouse and kids are 110% on board before you plant. One of the mistakes I talk about in the book is the wron! g role for the pastor's family. Church planting will take a huge toll on your spouse and your children; if they are not behind you heart and soul you may destroy what is most precious to you in life. When you get to Heaven God is not going to say, "Hey, too bad about your family. But awesome job growing a great big church. Fist bump, Dude!"

How do you strike a good balance with the pursuit of excellence and the willingness to get your hands dirty in order to help someone who's in need?

I think this question goes to the very heart of what it means to grow a church. As pastors we can focus all of our time and energy on excellence and grow a great big church that isn't serving the real needs of the commu! nity. That might be a lot of fun, but it flies in the face of ! everythi ng Jesus taught about servanthood and love. On the other hand we can focus exclusively on serving the last and the least without paying attention to excellence and wind up ministering to only a handful of people. While we are being servants, we aren't fulfilling the charge to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. There has to be a balance.

I think the balance is in the word effectiveness. Two key questions flow from that question:

1. In pursuing excellence are we effectively serving the people in our community? Will the new sound system, video projector or moving lights help us serve the least and the lost more effectively? Will we reach more people for Jesus with a four color brochure than with a black and white photocopy? There is a delicate balance of excellence below which we become ineffective and above which we are just showing off. That is a balance every church should check on a frequent basis.

2. In focusing on serving are we effectively le! veraging the gifts God has given us? We can become so head down trying to meet needs that we lose perspective on the effectiveness of our outreach. The most compassionate, helpful act of kindness wrapped in an unappealing package will often go unopened. Service should be done from the heart with a level of excellence that honors God and compels people toward the Gospel, anything short of that is just laziness.

Your ministry background includes 27 years of ministry in churches ranging in size from 11 members to now over 10,000 attendees at Seacoast. Based on your experience, if you were to go back to that small church in Texas to how would your approach to ministry than it was the first time?

Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing is based on the mistakes I have made through 27 years of ministry and how to recover from those errors. If I went back to pastor the little church in Texas that I left 15 years ago my hope would be that I hav! e learned to avoid at least some of these mistakes. With that ! in mind I would approach pastoring with the following ten priorities:

1. Preparing others to do the work of the ministry rather than trying to do most of the ministry myself.
2. Finding the right balance between family and ministry
3. Focusing on having an outstanding weekend worship experience
4. Creating compelling environments for children's ministry
5. Emphasizing integrity rather than just talent in developing new leaders
6. Being willing to move the church if it wasn't in the right location for the mission of that local congregation
7. Finding God's unique expression of ministry rather than closely copying what another successful church is doing
8. Always working for reconciliation in conflict rather than defaulting to discipline
9. Avoiding any conflict of interest when pursuing any business opportunities outside of the church
10. Building healthy teams rather than getting bogged down with endless committees

You mention in your book that "in spite of the megachurch movement of the last twenty years, more and more Americans are walking away from church and away from a relationship with Jesus." Besides your idea of strategic partnerships between churches, what are some other ideas you have for increasing the fruit of the local church and not just the growth?

First, I think that every pastor, whether they are leading a church of 50, 500 or 5000, should constantly re-evaluate how they can better lead through others. A church built around the personality or skills of just one leader may attract large crowds, but the fruit of that ministry will be short-lived. Every pastor should be giving away ministry on a daily basis. From decision making, to weekend preaching, to oversight of major ministries I believe pastors need to be looking at how they can develop new leaders to carry on the vision of the church. one of Jesus' main focuses while he was on earth was giving ! away ministry to his 12 disciples. If he had not trained those! leaders and entrusted them with ministry Christianity might never have taken off. Nothing will increase the fruit of the local church like investing in the lives of leaders to do the work of the ministry.

The second thing I believe that churches need to do is to get people focused on mission. For too long the church has been about people learning and growing and experiencing. Without mission there is no point in growing disciples. My question when I hear about people being equipped is "What are they being equipped to do?" If there is no mission there is no reason to be equipped. I believe we need to cancel Bible studies, discipleship courses and training events that aren't directly tied to people on being mission in the world to bring the Good News to a dying generation.

Finally, fruit will be increased when churches lower their force shields and begin to work together. At one of our Seacoast locations we go out into the very tough neighborhood once a month to be a bles! sing to people who have very little in life. We take them clothes, food, work in their yards, pick up their trash, anything that will show the love of Jesus in a tangible way. The cool part of the deal is that we have several churches who join together every month to minister to this neighborhood. We aren't worried about where the people go to church or if we can win them for our scorecard; we're all just trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus. There is powerful fruit in dropping our defenses and joining hands to make Jesus famous.

Theology of Leadership

My Theology of Leadership By tony Leadership is less about the words or actions of the leader and more about the character of the leader. That's the conclusion I've reached after revisiting what the Bible has to say about leadership within the Church. For example, we can look at a handful of passages and come to this - a job description for leaders: Encourage others. (Romans 14:19) Set an example with your speech, life and faith. (I Timothy 4:12) Remain pure. (I Timothy 4:12) Embrace humility and gentleness. (Ephesians 4:2) Promote peace and unity. (Ephesians 4:3) Avoid arguments and quarreling. (I Timothy 2:24) Gently instruct others. (I Timothy 2:25) Maintain emotional control. (Titus 2:6) Demonstrate integrity in your actions and speech. (Titus 2:7-8) Live your life above reproach. (I Timothy 3:2) It's not the job description you would expect to see for a leadership position is it? When you think about today's leaders, in politics and business and even the church, these aren't typically the attributes that first come to mind. I guess it's possible that leadership outside the church looks different than God intended it to look inside the church. That may explain some of the differences between the job description above and what we routinely see in the marketplace. Ironically, though, Jim Collins offered some research in his book Good to Great that seems to suggest business leaders would do well to model this biblical approach to leadership. Every good-to-great company Collins studied was led by what he described as a Level 5 leader. Collins wrote: "Those who worked with or wrote about the good-to-great leaders continually used words like quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe his own clippings; and so forth." It's interesting how similar that list is to the list above. Neither list reflects the larger-than-life leadership that we tend to expect from people in these positions. And that, of course, challenges me to think about my own leadership. I may be gifted to lead, but my character will determine the ongoing impact of my leadership. That's something that can't be measured in an interview or through a personality profile or on a resume. Character is proven over a lifetime. Do you have have the character of a leader?

Increase My Faith

Increase My Faith! By perry on Vision Last week I was walking through the book of Luke and Luke 17:5 hit me like a TON of bricks!!! The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" Confession: I need to pray this more! If we truly have a vision from God then we will be driven to desperation, and if we're not then we do not have a vision but merely a daydream! AND: if God truly lays HUGE vision on your heart it will completely overwhelm your faith, which is why we must CONSTANTLY run to Jesus and beg Him to increase our faith! As I look at where I believe God wants to take us, it completely overwhelms me: there is NO WAY I can do this by myself and I am FORCED to pray, "Lord, increase my faith!" The church needs to quit running towards what we know we can do and embrace the risks associated with the unknown! We need for men and women who are NOT passionately obsessed with the way things are, but rather intensly focused on the way things should be! We've GOT to quit doing ministry minus faith because even though it is safe, it never fulfills what Jesus has called us to do: ADVANCE His Kingdom! Those who are not willing to attempt the impossible with never experience the unexplainable! Lord, increase my faith!!! (Hebrews 11:1 & Hebrews 11:6)

How The Mighty Fall

TEAM: An article from Tony Morgan:

On my trip to Florida this week, I had the chance to read the newest book from Jim Collins.How the Mighty Fall is a quick read with some pretty insightful thoughts that have application not only for business leaders, but also for leaders in the church. Here are some of the key thoughts that grabbed my attention:

• “When you are at the top of the world,…the best player in your game, your very power and success might cover up the fact that you’re already on the path to decline.”
• “When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall.”
• “Organizational decline is largely self-inflicted.”
• “A core business that meets a fundamental human need – and one at which you’ve become the best in the world – rarely becomes obsolete.”
• “When institutions fail to distinguish between current practices and the enduring principles of their success, and mistakenly fossilize around their practices, they’ve set themselves up for decline.”
• “Innovation can fuel growth, but frenetic innovation – growth that erodes consistent tactical excellence – can just as easily send a company cascading through the stages of decline.”
• “If a great company consistently grows revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth, it will not simply stagnate; it will fall.”
• “When bureaucratic rules erode an ethic of freedom and responsibility within a framework of core values and! demanding standards, you’ve become infected with the disease of mediocrity.”
• “Every person in a key seat should be able to respond to the question “What do you do?” not with a job title, but with a statement of personal responsibility.
• “The best leaders we’ve studied had a peculiar genius for seeing themselves as not all that important, recognizing the need to build an executive team and to craft a culture based on core values that do not depend upon a single heroic leader.”
• “Those in power blame other people or external factors – or otherwise explain away the data – rather than confront the frightening reality that the enterprise may be in serious trouble.”
• “Whenever people begin to confuse the nobility of their cause with the goodness and wisdom of their actions, …they can perhaps more easily lead themselves astray. Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions.”

Is it just me, or! is it pretty easy to see a correlation between these thoughts from Jim Collins and the decline of once-great churches and denominations?

How Church Growth Happens

TEAM: This article is from Steven Furtick......and he's SOOOO right!!!

How church growth happens:

We enable experiences and interactions that leave our people saying:
I love my church

So they’ll tell their friends:
You’ve got to come check out my church

The friends come.
We worship Jesus and preach the Gospel with excellence.

The friends leave saying:
I really like this church

Inspiring them to come back again and again until they say:
I love my church

And tell their friends:
You’ve got to come check out my church…

The Law of the Little Shovel

TEAM: Another article from Seth Godin.........


If you want to dig a big hole, you need to stay in one place.

If you walk around town with a little shovel, you'll just end up digging thousands of little holes, not one big one.

Call on one person ten times and you might make the sale. Call on ten people once each and you will likely get ten rejections.

The important thing to remember is that separate events are often separate. If you use the same ineffective approach on one thousand people, it's not going to start working better just because you use it more often.

Connected events, on the other hand, often benefit from frequency and trust.

Which leads to two viable strategies:

1. If you can stay still, stay still. Earn the trust, earn the sale by repeatedly demonstrating value and authority.

2. If you can't stay still, get a bigger shovel. Your marketing and your sales pitch has to be so refined and focused that it works the first time, because you don't get a second time.

Winning On The Uphills

Team: This is from Seth Godin......a marketing genius.........


Interesting business lesson learned on a bicycle: it's very difficult to improve your performance on the downhills.

I used to dread the uphill parts of my ride. On a recumbent bike, they're particularly difficult. So I'd slog through, barely surviving, looking forward to the superspeedy downhill parts.

Unfortunately, I had a serious accident a few years ago (saving the life of a clueless pedestrian by throwing myself onto the pavement). Downhill might be fast, but it's crazy.

Lesson learned. Now, I look forward to the uphill parts, because that's where the work is, the fun is, the improvement is. On the uphills, I have a reasonable shot at a gain over last time. The downhills are already maxed out by the laws of physics and safety.

The best time to do great customer service is when a customer is upset. The moment you earn your keep as a public speaker is when the room isn't just right or the plane is late or the projector doesn't work or the audience is tired or distracted. The best time to engage with an employee is when everything falls apart, not when you're hitting every milestone. And everyone now knows that the best time to start a project is when the economy is lousy.

Most of your competition spend their days looking forward to those rare moments when everything goes right. Imagine how much leverage you have if you spend your time maximizing those common moments when it doesn't.

Overwhelmed

Team: This article was written by Perry Noble.......and while it applies to Newspring Church, it does us good to look back sometimes as well.........

This past Saturday on "daddy date day". I took Charisse to the campus of Anderson University for a walk.

AND GOD ROCKED MY WORLD!

We were walking around the campus together and I was telling her about how Lucretia and I used to live there. We spent some time on the swings and enjoyed walking by the tennis courts.

When all of a sudden I looked up and we were in front of the Sullivan Building and I froze and could not move for a couple of seconds as I thought, "That is where Jesus allowed us to begin NewSpring Church."

I am amazed at all He has done; at His INCREDIBLE favor and faithfulness He has shown. I still remember:

• When we owned NOTHING! Everything we had was borrowed and broken, yet we seemed to be able to pull off church every Sunday.
• The summer the air conditioner was ! broken nearly every week and no one complained.
• Sitting outside on January 16, 2000 (our first service) and wondering if anyone would actually show up.
• Sitting at home the night of January 16 (after it was all over) and wondering if they would actually come back!
• The decision to hire Lee full time, even though we didn't have the money, knowing that it was a step of faith that Jesus had called us to take.
• The time Jenn Sangl (who was sort of the church secretary at the time) came to me and told me our money was just about gone and that we might not be able to pay the bills that month (July of 2000 in case you are curious!)
• Getting the staff and leadership together to pray about our financial situation and then taking up more money in our offering the next three weeks than we did the first two and a half months! ($2,500, 2,500 and 3,000 in case you were curious!)
• The time the dude in the bathing suit showed up to an evening service and gave his life to Christ in the lobby during the music.
• Going to two services and people sitting outside of the room on the steps listening to the service.
• Making the decision to move to the Fine Arts Center; a room which would seat 1,100 people (and we had around 180 coming.)
• Challenging people to give generously towards and offering to move so we could actually buy some sound equipment and such and 52 people giving $26,000.

Telling the people at the last service in the Sullivan building that when we got in the Fine Arts Center we were going to fill it up not once, but twice. (I was wrong. We filled it up four times.)

All of these thoughts hit me like a ton of bricks, and it caused me to revisit the original reason why we started NewSpring Church.

I wanted to create a church where people could meet Jesus and walk with Him every single day of their lives. I feel like He called me to that, and it absolutely overwhelms me every time I think about how far He has brought us. Our passion today is the same it was back then: to make the name of Jesus famous one life at a time!!!

Lamentations 3:23 says His faithfulness is great, and I am living proof that HE IS!!!

Why Not?

George Bernard Shaw once said: "Some men see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and ask, ‘Why not’?”

I think we're called, as Christ Followers, to ask the why not question. We're called to take the why not approach to life. Faith demands it.

Any other parents have children that ask "why" when you ask them to do something? It can drive you crazy can't it? I wonder if that is how God feels sometimes. We're always asking why. It's like we need an excuse to do something. What if we asked why not instead.

I love the story in Acts 8 about the Ethiopian Eunuch who has a divine appointment with Philip. He puts his faith in Christ and immediately says: "Why shouldn't I be baptized?" That one question reveals a why not mindset. And it changes the course of history. He becomes the first missionary to Ethiopia.

I can only imagine what we'd accomplish for the kingdom if we had a why not mindset.

Why not.

Dream Big!

We need to dream big dreams.... not because we need to accomplish big things. What we accomplish is a byproduct. We need to dream big dreams because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence upon God. Unless He intervenes we look foolish. Dreams have far more to do with who we become in the process than the what we accomplish. They stretch us. And that's why they are so good for us. You want to take your prayer life to the next level? Dream God-sized dreams!

I'm Guilty Here

This came from another blog......and hit me between the eyes, not just on this subject, but made me do some examination and ask, "Where else am I hypocrite?"

You too? Read it and see..........


The Ethics of Working on SundayThomas Steagald01-28-09

I promise I am not making this up ...

My daughter, taking a break from her pursuit of a graduate degree, is a server at the Chili's a few miles down from our house. Like many others her age she is already pretty critical of the church and its obvious hypocrisies. Her cynicism is neither atypcial nor incomprehensible. Nor does this kind of thing help—her or others.

A group of six church-goers came in the other night after their evening services and sat down, not in her area but in another server's. When the girl came to greet them and take their drink order, one of them said, "We want to tell you up front that we will not be tipping you tonight because ..."Are you ready?"... we do not believe in people working on Sunday.

"The girl, taken aback, stammered out something like, "I wouldn't have to work on Sunday if so many church people didn't come in," or some such. She was furious. So was the manager of the restaurant whom she summoned to deal with them. I think he should have tossed the people out on their ... uh ... Bibles. To his credit, and demonstrating something like agape all around, he did say to them, "Well, we don't believe in making our people work for nothing, so I will be serving you tonight." And he did. God bless him.

No one is consistent. I am clear on that. But better to confess your own sin in such a situation than presume to see it in another who is just doing the best they can. No wonder Jesus had such animosity toward Pharisees who "lay (heavy burdens) on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them" (Matthew 23:4). No wonder an entire generation of would-be believers has such animosity toward the church.

As George MacDonald wrote long ago, "Had you given yourself to understanding his word that you might do it, and not the quarrying from it of material wherewith to buttress your systems, in many a heart by this time would the name of the Lord be loved where now it remains unknown ..."

For my part—and I am a Pharisee myself even saying this, but I cite my practice not with pride but with confession—I pray for the forgiveness of God and verbally ask the forgiveness of the Hardee's drive-through lady each Sunday as I buy coffee on my way to church.

I know I am complicit: On the one hand I do wish, with my head and heart, that all people had Sunday free; that said, I do nothing, nothing to lift a finger to make that happen by even so little a fast or act of self-sacrifice as making my own coffee on a busy Sunday morning—much less by not eating a Sunday lunch or dinner at one of the sit-down places in town.


I share this, not to condemn anyone......like the author, I am the chiefest of sinners here. But this brings us to this point: Are we asking the hard questions? The real, genuine, see the church from the world's viewpoint questions?

Some Things I Wish I'd Known

#1 - Don’t say “we will never do BLANK.” BECAUSE…you probably will!

#2 - There is not a formula for growing a church.

#3 - God loves HIS church WAY more than I do.

#4 - I should spend way less time focusing on being “right” and way more time on being faithful.

#5 - Comparing Osceola Assembly to other churches will either lead to pride or feeling like a failure…I need to desperately seek Jesus consistently to see who HE has called us to be.

#6 - I should learn from everyone…despite theological differences.

#7 - Don’t yell at the entire church just because 10 or less people are mad at you.

#8 - Those who you think will always be with you won’t always be with you.

#9 - I don’t always have the best ideas.

#10 - Excellence can never be compromised just because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.

#11 - Only a pastor can really understand a pastor.

#12 - People will always misunderstand you…don’t waste a lot of time trying to explain yourself.

#13 - Leadership is as easy as listening to God.

#14 - The fights, the sleepless nights, the critics, the spiritual warfare, the long meetings, the frustration…IT’S ALL WORTH IT! When lives get changed…it’s worth it. When hell becomes less crowded…it’s worth it. When repentance takes place…it’s worth it! When marriages are restored…it’s worth it. IT IS SO WORTH everything we go through!!! SO…don’t EVER give up–EVER!!!

Those are some of the things I wished I would have known.

4 Stages I've Gone Through

#1 - I Want To See God Do Something Great.

Even before I came to Osceola Assembly as pastor I really did believe in my heart that God wanted to do something amazing here. SO…I began to pray, to beg God to do some great things. I really did believe that if anything significant was going to happen then He was going to do it and that all I had to do was pray really hard.

#2 - I Want To Do Something Great.

One of the most dangerous things God can give someone is success…I found that out the hard way (and it's a lesson I'm still learning.

I did it all–leading worship, membership class, follow up, powerpoint–EVERYTHING. And…as the church began to experience some growth I began to depend less on God and more on myself. I actually began thinking that God needed me…and that without me the church simply would not be successful.

I still do more than I should, but less than I used to.......and I'm continuing to seek God's leading for people to step in to fill some of the roles I'm filling.......and He's doing it!

#3 - I Want Us To Do Something Great.

I am all about the team…and I LOVE the team of people I work with. Over time I have learned (and am still learning) to delegate tasks that I used to be really involved in and watch people who are way more skilled than me take ministry to levels that they never could have achieved under my leadership.

BUT…once again this was not the picture of what God wanted our church to become. YES…teamwork does make the dream work. YES…a healthy team IS essential to a healthy church. YES…God has surrounded me with incredible people…BUT…at the end of the day 2 Cornithians 4:1 is true of every one of us…and we can do some great things…but if we focus on making plans minus the power of God…then all we do is make a bunch of noise that doesn’t really amount to anything for the next generation.

#4 - I Want God To Do Something Great Through Us.

This ministry isn’t about me…it’s about Jesus!

This ministry isn’t about our staff…it’s about Jesus! John 3:30 is our obsession.
We know that if God isn’t involved in this church…we’re done! We can’t accomplish ANYTHING of eternal significance without Him!

We are more desperate for HIS PRESENCE than we are CULTURAL RELEVANCE!
And we would much rather see REPENTANCE from our people than RECOGNITION from
other churches. AND we know that those things ONLY happen through the power of God.

BUT…we also know that God’s power isn’t an excuse for laziness. God gave Nehemiah a vision to build the wall…but Nehemiah actually had to get his hands dirty to accomplish the work. YES…God did it…THROUGH the willingness of Nehemiah.

God told Joshua that he was going to posses the land…but then Joshua had to go and fight for it. God “didn’t do it all,” but rather worked through a man who believed God was big enough to fulfill His promises through the faithfulness of effort and hard work.

We want to see God work…we beg Him for it…but then we are passionate enough about it to NOT be passive and let things happen…but rather to move in obedience as He leads, knowing that as long as we listen to Him we can NEVER go wrong!

The Dangerous Church in 2010

(Thanks to Ed Stetzer for these.....)

IN CULTURE
The dangerous church over the next few years will have seized economic opportunity. If the current trends continue, some church workers will lose their jobs, and churches will lose money. But more people will come to Christ because in a bad economy they seek God more.

The dangerous church will address sexual brokenness. Homosexuality is an issue that the church must address in the next decade. Most churches don’t know how to address sexual issues of homosexuality, marriage, and other sexual issues in a biblical way.

The dangerous church will wrestle through the issue of gender inclusion. Can women be pastors?

The dangerous church will face increasing intolerance.

IN THINKING & METHODS
The dangerous church will have navigated the post-seeker movement.

The dangerous church will have found new ways to reach people for the world.

The dangerous church will have regained confidence in the Gospel. They will have clarity and biblical discernment.

The dangerous church will have addressed evangelical confusion. Evangelicalism is a broad term, a broad label.

The dangerous church will have rethought discipleship. Many churches are not making disciples well. Only 16% of Protestant church goers read their Bible daily.

The dangerous church will have worked through denominational catharsis.

The dangerous church will learn how to network will other churches. Networking should be more than interacting with clones of your church.

The dangerous church will innovate.

One Share of Coca-Cola

If you purchased one share of Coca-Cola when it went public in 1919, how much do you think it would worth today?

Hold that question.

One piece of the vision for Osceola Assembly is for everyone to be a shareholder in what God is going to do. Part of that, however, means investing financially in the Kingdom through giving. (Yeah, I'm preaching to the choir, but this is a message we can't leave behind just because the economy stinks right now.)

I like to think of giving as buying stock in the kingdom. And the truth is that those kingdom shares will earn compound interest for eternity. Talk about a Return on Investment (ROI). Eternal dividends!

Check this out: If you purchased one share of Coca-Cola stock in 1919, and simply held that one share, by the year 2000 it would have split into 4608 shares. And that original $40 investment, if you kept reinvesting the dividends, would have been worth $7 million. To further your pain, if your great-great grandparents had purchased one of Asa Candler's original shares in 1892, that $100 investment would be worth $7.34 billion.

Here's the bottom line: we'll never regret one ounce of energy, one second of time, or one penny of money invested in the kingdom of God.