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)