Insights from "It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get it and Keep it"

One of my goals for 2011 is to be more intentional in my reading. Over the next year, I hope to read 50 books (not overly ambitious by my previous standards). I'll try and share some of the insights I learn along the way.

The first book that I read in 2011 was "It" by Craig Groeschel. Craig is the senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, which has campuses around the country. Craig and LifeChurch.tv have done an incredible job of maintaining a "kingdom-minded" focus. They have developed numerous resources that they give freely to others to grow the kingdom. One great example is YouVersion.

In "It," Craig shares his heart on how the church can get it. Here are some of my favorite insights from what truly is a great book.

• "...it is what God does through a rare combination of these qualities found in his people: passion for his presence, a deep craving to reach the lost, sincere integrity, Spirit-filled faith, down-to-earth humility, and brokenness."
• "It tends to follow big vision." Cast crazy big vision that is rooted in what God has called and gifted you uniquely to do.
• "Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." I could write for days on this one thought. I am so thankful for the team that God has surrounded me with, the team that He has assembled at Discovery. They make life (and ministry) so much fun.
• Push past the local max. Groeschel draws on Seth Godin's work to say that we need to be willing to fail (and sometimes fail big) in order to see the very best innovations come to life. We need to be willing to push through the failure to experience it.
• "Let him stretch you. Attempt what others says can't be done. You have more in you than you realize. God has put more in you than anyone else sees."

One question for you: Have you ever experienced it? Where are you seeing it right now?

Wild Goose Chase (Part Five)

Over the next week I will be posting some of my learning points from Mark Batterson's new book, Wild Goose Chase. Thanks again to Billy Chia for providing me with this new read.

"Faith is not logical. But it isn't illogical either. Faith is theological. It does not ignore reality; it just adds God inot the equation...Faith is not mindless ignorance; it simply refuses to limit God to the logical constraints of the left brain." -- Chapter 4, Eight-Foot Ceilings

Faith is amazing. By faith, Enoch walked with God and was no more. (Still trying to really grasp how that one works.) By faith, Noah built a boat that saved his family. By faith, Abraham believed it was possible to have children even though he was really stinkin' old.

But even as I type this, I hear my own voice say, "Yeah, but those were all in the Bible." And I'm right (my wife thinks that I always think I'm right). They were in the Bible. But that does not make the principle wrong. I could continue. By faith, he trusted God for a job. By faith, they prayed that the infertile couple might conceive. By faith, they believed that she would be healed.

I like the statement that Batterson makes: Faith "adds God to the equation. " Too often we strive under our own might while God is waiting in in the wings. We try and try and God is simply saying, "You're weak. Allow me." His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses, therefore we should boast all the more of our weaknesses.

Where do you need faith? In what part of your life do you need to add God to the equation?

Wild Goose Chase (Part Four)

Over the next week I will be posting some of my learning points from Mark Batterson's new book, Wild Goose Chase. Thanks again to Billy Chia for providing me with this new read.

Within the third chapter is this amazing story of a person who decided that they would just start thanking God for the miracles that they experienced at that moment. They started with things like a beating heart and respiration. By the middle of the afternoon, they were praising God for amino acids (by name) and the process that creates those important chains. As I read this, two thoughts struck me. First, I no absolutely nothing about my anatomy and how my body works. Second, I take a lot, perhaps too much, for granted.

I experience miracles everyday as well. While I might not be able to lecture on how the hip bone is connected to the leg bone, I can celebrate the laughter of a 10 month old rejoicing in her father's attention. While I might not understand how muscles repair themselves, I do understand the power of community working together. While there is a much that I do not understand about how the world around me operates, I do know the God that makes such operation possible.

What are you overlooking? What are you forgetting to thank God for?

Wild Goose Chase (Part Three)

Over the next week I will be posting some of my learning points from Mark Batterson's new book, Wild Goose Chase. Thanks again to Billy Chia for providing me with this new read.

"Sometimes God will provide a miraculous sign that will give you just enough faith to take the first step in the pursuit of your passion. But more often than not, faith doesn't follow signs. Signs follow faith. It is the biblical pattern." -- Chapter 2, Goose Bumps

I remember it very clearly. Kitten and I felt clearly led to help start Discovery Church. We had told the congregation at Olivet that we were resigning effective the end of May. We had placed our home for sale by owner. I had even circulated resumes looking for a job to provide for the financial needs of our family. Nothing. No real interest in the house. No real interest in me. Nada. Nothing. Zilch.

I was beginning to wonder if I had heard God's calling right. I had a conversation with my dad and he reminded me that God is an "on-time God." He often will not provide too far in advance and He is never late. He is on-time. With less than a month before our time at Olivet was set to end, God showed up. He sold our house (at a very fair price). He got me a job (with a great company).

It makes me wonder what might have been. What if I had given up on the calling instead of setting out in faith? The pursuit of God is worth everthing, like a treasure found in the field, like a pearl of great price. We should be willing to risk everything to discover and follow Him.

Wild Goose Chase (Part Two)

Over the next week I will be posting some of my learning points from Mark Batterson's new book, Wild Goose Chase. Thanks again to Billy Chia for providing me with this new read.

"Boredom isn't just boring; boredom is wrong. You cannot simultaneously live by faith and be bored. Faith and boredom are antithetical." -- Chapter 1, Yawning Angels

How is that we can bore people to death with the only true source of life? What is it about the way that we worship the God of the universe that people would prefer to dream about Sunday's lunch? Why does our teaching and preaching inspire more drool than life change?

I believe that this complacency has less to do with what is happening on the platform (or front) and more to do with what is happening in the individual's heart. Too often, I think we come to worship expecting nothing to happen, expecting nothing transformative, and guess what happens? Nothing! What if we expected more? What if we expected the creative God, who formed all that we see from nothing, to show up and lead us on adventure? What if we expected more than the same-old, same old.

If you're content with your Christian life and bored, I pray that God will turn your world upside down. I pray that He would remove all your securities so that in your insecurity you can learn to rely on Him. I pray that He would destroy the map that you've laid out for your life so that you will be forced to follow Him on a terrific journey.

Wild Goose Chase (Part One)

The book finally arrived. Thanks to the incredible generosity of Billy Chia, I now am the proud owner of Wild Goose Chase. Billy created a contest in which he would award a free copy of the book to one of his readers. The sole requirement is that the recipient would post a review on her/his blog.

To satisfy that requirement I will be posting over the next week one of the learning points for me in each of the seven chapters. However, you still need to read the book (and its companion, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day) yourself. There is so much in the book for you to digest on your own. So tomorrow morning the journey begins. Chapter One: Yawning Angels.

Some quick thoughts before we begin:

1) Mark Batterson is a truly gifted writer.

2) How cool is it that this book has its own trailer?

3) Will the website to Mark's next book be chasetheplatypus?

4) His church meets in a movie theater. What a swell idea!

5) Billy Chia is awesome...and quite generous.

Tuesday's Thoughts (a day late)

Without power, I was unable to blog yesterday and share my weekly mind dump. So without further ado:

• So apparently the service at Discovery Church wasn't the only thing that was powerful on Sunday. Looks like Hurricane Ike was still being felt all the way up in Indiana.
• Communication is critical. We had a case this weekend where communication did not happen early enough or clear enough. Either way that can cause big problems.
• It's awesome watching people invest not just with their checkbooks, but also with their lives. Our volunteers rock.
• Our Starbucks is closing next month. What should we do?
• Vince's series on the Church Planter Assessment Center (CPAC) is spot on.
• I passed my ordination exam even though my answer to the question regarding immutable was anything but. Don't know what immutable means? Look here.
• Can't wait to get my hands on Wild Goose Chase. Thanks Billy.
• My girls are incredible and beautiful. Good thing that they take after their mother.

People of the Book (part four)

In the end, the summary of the article is that we must fall in love with the book. We must return to being a "people of the book." Like the Israelites, we should rise with a desire to hear from God afresh each day. We should listen to Him as He speaks into our lives. We must direct our attention and our affection to the One worthy of both. We must develop an insatiable appetite, an unquenchable thirst for the Word of God.

People of the Book (part three)

John Ortberg describes the prophets as the "orginal performance artists." God would give them a message, but also creative ways in which to live out that message. To illustrate the desperate situation that would be the siege and exile, He commanded one prophet to make bread over a fire fueled by excrement. He commanded the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer (to which the only appropriate reply must have been..."Golly.")

Today, as we share the message of Scripture, as we teach and live it, how are we bringing the gospel into three-dimensional reality for those around us? We must find creative and powerful ways to communicate the love of a creative and powerful God. I believe that this should include the use of video, media, art, photography, drama, comedy, poetry, prose and a variety of other expressions.

People of the Book (part two)

"In many ways our situation is increasingly like that of the early church. The gospel had to compete in a multi-religious, pluralistic environment where, as Edward Gibbon put it, "the masses considered all religions equally true, the philosophers considered them equally false, and the politicians considered them equally useful." Historians like Rodney Stark say that the reason the church exploded across the ancient world was, to a large extent it was because the church incarnated the word—cared for the poor, fed the hungry, embraced the orphan, risked sheltering the sick." (People of the Book)

As I read those words, the truths and maxims came rushing back:

• "They do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care."
• "You are the only Bible some people will ever read."
• "If you were charged with being a Christian, is there enough evidence to convict?"
• "I would have became a Christian if I ever met one."

How is that we allow the gospel to be proclaimed on Sunday morning, yet stay dormant within our lives the rest of the week? How can we talk about how Jesus cared for the poor, the broken, the hurting as we retreat to our middle-class, suburbian like dwellings? How can we claim God as our Father, Christ as our Lord, the Spirit as our Counselor and not care for the very same people that they care for, the widowed, the orphaned, the immigrants?

Plenary Session 5b -- Rick Warren

Rick is the author of the NY Times best seller, The Purpose Driven Life. He has also recently made it his goal to work to bring P.E.A.C.E. throughout the globe. Here's the highlight of his closing talk.

• Listen to your wife. She's often the Holy Spirit.


• Before you marry, opposites attract. After you marry, opposites attack.


• The purpose of marriage is not to make you happy; it is to make you holy.


• God gave you your wife not just for sex, not just to mother your children, but to be a counselor to you too. You don't have it all together. You need other people, especially your wife.


• God said, “I never called you to compare yourself to others. If you do, you will limit what I want you to do in your life. I want you to be you.”


• Growing churches require growing pastors. The moment you stop growing, the church will stop growing. Leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you'll stop leading.


• There is one thing you cannot delegate and that is faith in God.


• Rest and relaxation are so important that God put it into the Big 10 right next to murder and adultery.


• Don't call it a day off, call it a Sabbath. If you call it a day off, you'll violate it.


• Don't pay attention to critics and compliments. They are both like bubblegum: chew on it, but don't swallow it. You have to do your work for an audience of one.


• A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church, Christian, community.

Plenary Session 4b -- Dave Ferguson

Dave Ferguson is the President of the Conference this year. He does an incredible job in leading the New Thing Network. He also wrote an incredible book entitled The Big Idea. The highlights of his talk:

• Community :: grow in their love for God, their love for God's people, their love for God's world.


• From the very beginning of time, God has been all about community.


• If it is what God is about, maybe it should be what we're about.


• The most important question might be: Are we coming together to create community? Are we loving God and loving God's world?


• Be the community. Be the church and go create community.

Breakout session -- Vince Antonucci

I confess. I have a church planter's crush on Vince Antonucci. Why? Ten reasons...

10. His church name has a golf term in it: FOREfront.

9. In a world of tall, handsome, perfect teeth church planters, I'm actually taller than Vince.

8. He has an awesome sense of humor.

7. He is a genuine great guy. I sent an email asking for some advice last fall and he quickly replied (multiple times). He wasn't too busy for others.

6. He told people not to join his church.

5. He has a church service in a bar. You could blame someone sleeping on them "passing out" and not on the fact that they didn't like the sermon.

4. He's really good at top 10 lists.

3. He is an incredible story teller.

2. He wrote an incredible book that I highly recommend.

1. He takes God's work very seriously. He doesn't take himself too seriously.

So I got to meet Vince in person today. Awesome experience. Here are some of the highlights of his talk:

• God is an uncivilized God. He acts in uncivilized ways. He calls people to act in uncivilized ways.


• If it seems like the right thing to do, it's probably not. If it seems like something that we can be criticized for, it's probably of God.


• Do what God is calling you to do, not what someone else is doing. The Bible says that God gives us visions and dreams. Perhaps God has a vision or dream for your ministry.


• To reach people who haven't been reached, you have to do something that has never been done.

So much more good stuff. I encourage you to look at his blog to catch even more details.

Being Chosen

I remember high school dances. They frightened me. Especially the winter dance, Santa Switch, because it was there that the girls chose the guys. On other occasions, I could always blame my lack of guts as a reason I did not have a date to the dance. But with Santa Switch, it became an issue of the finer, gentler sex not wanting to ask me. Ouch...I hated not being chosen.

I was afraid that I was setting myself up for another Santa Switch moment. Tim Stevens recently asked for 10 leaders to read his upcoming book, Pop Goes the Church, and to offer him feedback to make it a better book. Tim would send the selected individuals an electronic copy of the book prior to it being sent to the publisher. I quickly responded that I was excited about the opportunity and that I would love to be selected. Tim was overwhelmed and found over 100 people who wanted to read the book. Who would he pick? The waiting had begun...

I was chosen. Tim picked me! I received an e-mail yesterday from Tim's assistant, Theresa, notifying me that I had been selected to read the book. Now I sit in expectant anticipation for the book to arrive in my inbox. I might not have had a date to Santa Switch, but Tim Stevens chose me.

Goals for 2008 (part two)

GOAL #3: Make my girls laugh on a daily basis. I love my girls. They are by far the most amazing creations in the world. I find myself standing near their rooms watching them sleeping and completely and totally in awe. What amazing gifts from God. In Psalms 100, it talks of bringing a gift of laughter to God. My hope is to bring such joy to my little girls lives that they will laugh, bringing joy to their daddy and to their Father.

GOAL #4: Read & read some more. I love reading. I have read some really incredible books lately including: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, The Dip, The Starbucks Experience, and am currently reading Built to Last. I am really looking forward to reading some other books, including: Made to Stick, I Became a Christian and all I Got was this Lousy Shirt, and Pop Goes the Church (yet to be announced release date). The point is that readers are learners and learners are readers. I want to learn, to stretch, to grow beyond where I am right now. If you have suggestions, I would love hearing them.