Category: church

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big little details

as someone who is trying to plant a church my days vary a great deal. some days i’m doing really cool things involving developing relationships and connecting with new people, while other days i’m working through details that will be important one day. today has been one of the detail days. the tapestry launch team is presently praying about a date for the launch of our public services. it’s all very cool because all of us have already experience conversations with people who are not presently connected with a church who have expressed serious interest in being involved in tapestry once its launched. i’ll tell you more about the launch date once we have all finished praying and have a chance to talk with each other. that means sunday evening.

anyhow, a part of launching the public services is finding a place in which we can hold them. i’m not sure we will ever have a building but having one is never a viable option for a new church plant. so i’ve been calling people and pulling connections to find possible places that we can look at and pray over once we have a date set. right now the main places that i think will be in consideration are:

  • an elementary school
  • a private club
  • a friendly church building

i’m sort of dreading the day we actually have to start deciding because there are a ton of aspects to the decision. we’ve got to consider what building will best fit within the “d.n.a.” of tapestry, while at the same time considering practical considerations like parking, location, facility, and the primary and secondary costs of the location. i think the school will be the best fit for who we are and who we will become, but it will be hard to make that choice when the school is three times more expensive than the club and the church is basically free. when you have a tithing base that consist of your own family money is a big consideration. i would start to think that that we might choose one of the other two options except for the fact that the club is next to impossible to find (i think they took the idea of “private” very seriously) and rather small (which is fine at first) and the church building is well .. a … church building. they all have their pros and cons and i’m sure within the next two months i’ll find another two or three options that will muddy the waters of decision even more.

fun, fun.

SIDE NOTE – tonight pam and i are taking the first of four latin dancing lessons. by the end of april we will be latin dancing fools.

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k.i.s.s.

i was just reading a post on grant’s blog in which he reviews the book “flight by christopher kraft (n.a.s.a.’s first flight director).

first, its a great review.

second, in the review grant mentioned some of the things that stood out from the book. one of those was that “simple is better.” simple things are truly powerful. it’s kind of weird how the word “simple” has almost developed a negative connotation. call someone “simple” and see how they respond. it’s almost seems better to say something is complex. yet simple things work, they don’t break as often, when they do break they can be repaired more easily, etc. i remember how confused i was at first when i first heard GOD referred to as being simple. it was within my first semester of systematic theology and my prof kept referring to GOD as simple. i would love to say that i was a great systematic student and immediately understood that GOD being simple meant that HE was whole and not divisible into parts, but i can’t truthfully say that. what i understand now helps me to understand GOD as love. HIS justice and mercy aren’t separate things. instead they both flow through HIS love and are different expression of HIS love. GOD is simple and therefore everything HE does flows through the same pure (i.e. simple) motive that is HIS character.

i wonder if our ministries are simple? not just simple in the manner in which we do things, but simple in their thoughts, theology, and motives. do we have one thing that defines us and that everything flows through? i know that we do different things. we’ve got programs and events that have different purposes or checkpoints but are they still simple? are we maintaining an indivisible mindset?

i’m just wondering out loud here because i am beginning to like simple things more and more.

SIDE NOTE – if you constantly lose things you might want to grab a free copy of “how to find lost things. in the book “professor” solomon details out the habits and thoughts that help us all to find the things we’ve lost. i thought it was interesting.

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shoe polish – post #1

last week was spring break in wisconsin and so the family and i went to chicago to visit the windy city. it was a great time. i thought i would post about one incident over there.

my kids have been in and lived in big cities but they have all been southern cities. in other words, they were cities that required driving from spot to spot. they are not familiar with cities where the major forms of transportation are your feet and other public means of locomotion. it was all very interesting for them.

of course, all this interest also means that they experienced much more closely than ever people begging for money. the kids have joined pam and i as we’ve worked at shelters, or had supper with new friends who were struggling financially, or helped as we have interacted with numbers of other people who have been at desperate times within their lives. yet they have never had someone walk up to them and shake a cup in their faces while asking for spare change. it was a different experience for them.

however, this post is not about poverty, the causes of poverty, or possible solutions to poverty. instead, it is about one pan handler’s strategy for gathering spare change. while we were walking on the sidewalk to the chicago institute of art’s museum a casually dressed guy walked up to me and said “man your boots are really scuffed up.” i have to admit that i was not ready for a guy to walk up and say such a thing so my response was not very eloquent. i responded to the man by saying “huh?” as i said, i was’n’t really ready for the original statement.

anyhow, the guys stated once again that my boots were really scratched up. he then said that he had just the stuff necessary to fix scuffed up shoes. it was at this point that he pulled out a pill bottle which contained a gel (i’m assuming it was vaseline), bent down to my shoes, and began to rub some of the gel onto my left boot. it was at this point that i woke up and realized what was happening. i finally understood that the guy was trying to force some psuedo-shoe polishing on me and then hit me up for a “contribution” for his hard work on my “badly scuffed” boots.

like i said earlier this is not a post on the causes or solutions of poverty so please read this next part for what it is … a comment on the guy’s method. i hate it when someone pretends concerning one thing just to get me to do whatever it is they desire. for example, i hate it when a telemarketer calls saying they are conducting a survey, but in reality they are just trying to make a sale and not collecting information. it drives me nuts because i actually will answers the questions of a telephone survey every now and then, but when someone pulls this kind of “bait and switch” survey i can always guarantee you that i’m not going to buy from them no matter what the product is. it was the same with this guy. there was a decent chance that i might have given him a little money or maybe bought him a meal if he had asked. yet, the second he pulled the trick of putting valesine on my boots he lost any chance of me giving him anything. he hit one of my buttons. i told him i wasn’t interested in him doing anything to my shoes and i pulled away from him.

i’ll finished my comments on this tomorrow.

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19 miles

today was my long run for the week. it was supposed to be 20 miles but i was REALLY hungry by the time i reached home with still a mile to go (i usually go a half mile past our home and then come back). when i got inside the house i was a little curious if i hand lost any weight during the run and therefore i jumped on the scales. 10 minutes before my run i had tipped the scales at 191.6. after running 19 miles i had lost 2 pounds and 6 onces. i registered 189.0 on the scale. it doesn’t seem like as big a deal when i type it but at least it made me laugh when i saw it on the scale.

SIDE NOTE – i am presently reading a book by bill easum & pete theodore called “the nomadic church: growing your church congregation without owning the building and while i have only reached chapter six i have to say that thus far i am quite impressed. i can’t yet speak from experience whether all the recommendations and thoughts within the book work (because we have launched public services yet) but i figure we’ll be able to try these things out soon enough (hopefully by next week i will be able to tell everyone a launch date). if i had a short list of books to recommend to future church planters right now this book would be on the list. of course, that could change in the next chapter, though i doubt it. i’ll post more after i finish it.

my run for the day
distance – 19.0 miles
time – 3:25:30
pace – 10:49/mile
weather – 36º

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video church

i have to admit that i am not a very big fan of the multi site church concept. it may just be my own personal bias but watching a video for church simply doesn’t work for me. i would love to see some research on these things. i truly wonder how effective they are. are they bringing people to CHRIST? or are they just bringing people from other churches? i have my thoughts but they are just my thoughts. does anyone know of any research that may have been done on how effective they are?

for my friends who are not familiar with church culture and therefore probably not used to the term “multi site church” what it means is a church that does a video feed to several other locations that have their own worship team that may or may not have a different flavor of doing things. the sermon comes from one site and is piped to all the others. these other locations are part of the base church and somewhere in the church’s tag line is almost always something like “one church many congregations.”

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porch-traits

i was looking at the solomon’s porch weekly email newsletter and saw this in it:

PORCH-TRAITS – the artists of the porch are excited to announce a great new project (with an incredibly cheesy name). we are endeavoring to make a portrait of everyone who considers solomon’s porch their home. the portraits will be displayed in our building. this will be an important contribution from the artists as we look to structure our identity in the coming year. we hope everyone here signs up! if you are a portraitee or portraitor please sign up at http://porchart.blogspot.com. all you need to do is write your name and “portraitee” or “portraitor” in the comments section of the post.

what a great idea! i think that it not only does a great job of infusing art & beauty into the church but is a wonderful reminder of the fact that a church is it’s people rather than it’s building. this one has been added to my google notebook idea file and will be “borrowed” later on.

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launch: starting a new church from scratch

i’m not much on following formulas which is why liked “launch” by nelson searcy and kerrick thomas. i just finished it after a long “on again / off again” reading of it. the book is a good resource on planting churches. there was a wealth of what not to do and what to do within it’s pages. thankfully it walked the fine line of offering helpful advice without jumping into the egotistical mindset of telling you that you should plant the church in just this manner. i like it when people acts as guides rather than experts. i am presently using and will continue to use a good bit of what i read within “launch.” if you believe GOD my be calling you to plant a church the book is well worth your time.

my run for the day
distance – 2.5 miles
time – 28:03
pace – 11/14/mile
weather – 21º/windy & icy

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the one thing

sometimes i post things just so i can remember them. this may not be true for you but i somehow remember things better when i write them down. it’s not so much that i remember where i wrote the thing down, rather it’s the very act of writing something down that helps me to remember it. just look at one of my scratch journals and you’ll suddenly understand that i write a lot of things down with no hope of every seeing that scribble again. the act of writing is a wonderful memory tool for me. therefore, i’m adding this entry.

church marketing sucks posted concerning an advertising age article (that i unfortunately can’t see without a registration). while i can’t read the entire article the main jest is apparently about considering what one word your organization owns within the minds of those who view your company. church marketing sucks asked this same question concerning the church. i want to remember to ask it of tapestry.

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guiding voters where?


i love the church that i preached at today so please don’t take anything i am about to say as a statement concerning the church. the church body didn’t have anything to do with the “voter guides” that i am about to discuss. one individual decided to pass these things out – he was a nice guy i just disagree with the “voter guides.”

these guides are from a website called wall builders. as stated on their website the organization’s goals are to …

exert a direct and positive influence in government, education, and the family by (1) educating the nation concerning the GODly foundation of our country; (2) providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect biblical values; and (3) encouraging CHRISTians to be involved in the civic arena.

my main probably with the voter guides is that i believe they have much more to do with a certain political persuasion than they do with a “GODly foundation.” I’m not sure that many of the topics that the “voters guide” addresses are in line with what the JESUS of scripture would. more importantly than the issues that it includes are many of the items that it ignores. if you use the “voters guides” as your source you would come to believe that GOD cares nothing for the weakest of our society because the “voters guides” never mentions them. Seriously, do any of us really believe that JESUS is more deeply concerned about the presidential candidates committing to not raise taxes (which is on the guide) than HE is concerned about the candidates committing to fight poverty (which is left off the guide)? or do we honestly think that JESUS is more concerned about a federal marriage amendment (which is on the guide) than HE is about reforming welfare in such away that it encourages marriage rather than penalizing it (which isn’t on the guide)? i doubt seriously that most of the items on the “voters guide” have anything to do with the kingdom of GOD. It seems more like an organization trying get churches to vote there way.

thankfully the church i was at still sees that JESUS is very concerned about the weakest of our society. one lady carried so much about it that she had to say as much in the middle of the sermon i was delivering. i like it when that happens.

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worth a shot?

a friend of mine sent me this link. it’s about a church handing out shot glasses at local bars that say “give us a shot.” i don’t know anything about the church and so what i am about to say is purely from the fox news article. i’m impressed that they are doing something different and going out into their community rather than just sitting in their church waiting for people to come to them. yet i have very mixed feelings about anything involving the possibility of hard liquor. i don’t have a problem with people drinking alcohol. it’s not my cup of team but i’m fine with it if someone else wants to. i believe the bible is very clear concerning JESUS drinking wine but also very clear about being inebriated being a sin. so i have got to be honest and say that shot glasses are probably a little far for me. i’ve known and been around the effects of enough alcoholics to be pretty uncomfortable with anything that encourages hard drinking. that’s where i have a hard time deciding how i feel about this. i just wish i knew more about this church.

have they crossed the line?

ht spencer