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From Back To Front

November 9, 2011 in Leadership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

Of the four major sports in the US, (I’m being really generous to hockey. It’s probably time for that to go away.) David Stern is the only commissioner to make the statement, “The name on the back is more important than the name on the front.” In other words names like Bryant, James, and Anthony, are more important than Laker, Heat, or Knick. Roger Goodell has pundits from every angle criticize the way the NFL protects its brand even down to off the field, off-season player behavior. I think the difference in philosophy and culture speaks for itself.
David Stern will get Christmas cards from all his favorite players, but he is probably not going to get to watch any basketball on Christmas Day, 2011. He will get to watch some NFL Football along with the rest of the US. Players from the NBA can scatter all over the world and still grow the brand on the back of the jersey, make a ton of money, and have no regard for the name on the front.
The same kind of culture can kill a church. If a single staff member’s name and influence, including the Senior Pastor, are highlighted more than the mission and vision of the church, when that person goes away so does all of their followers. The work of leaders focused on their own names have no staying power.
I once heard John Maxwell say (and he has probably written it down somewhere) that the measure of a leader is what happens when that leader leaves. In a leader’s absence, if things fall apart, chaos ensues, if followers migrate on, it’s quite probable that leader made too many decisions flow through and about themselves. If the mission and vision carries on in the hands of someone else who has been prepared to take the baton forward the mission will not only sustain, it will thrive and grow.
The mission and vision that God has given you is bigger than you. God forgive us when we make it about us.
Everyone Belongs,
Paul

Dad, Where Do Volunteers Come From

November 7, 2011 in Community Outreach, Engage Atlanta, Partnership, Personal thoughts, West Ridge Church with 0 Comments

A couple of months ago during the Engage Atlanta Community Makeover (12,000+ volunteers served from 110 churches) my then 8 year old asked me a question; “Dad, where do volunteers come from?” He is not the first one to ask this question. In fact, several church or non-profit leaders over the years have asked me the same question. People who have a passion to start an organization or serve a need that has been laid on their heart have asked that.

I realize this is an important question. If God lays a vision on your heart that is bigger than you can accomplish on your own, you have to answer the question, ‘How am I going to get others involved?’ It’s really very simple, but the first step can be the biggest!

The #1 way to bring volunteers to your ministry or cause is recruiting one on one. You have to make the ask to that first person. When you find someone who believes in you and what you are doing tell them to keep it going. Then you will find yourself being able to ask the second and the third and so on. It just happens, life on life, one on one. I sat down with someone recently who just drips wisdom when he speaks, and he told me, ‘No revolution begins apart from relationships.’

If you think your dream will come true if your company sends an official email, or if your Pastor will announce your ministry/cause from the stage, or if it makes the church bulletin, that’s just not the case. If you need more Children’s Ministry volunteers, parking lot team members, it begins with the existing volunteers believing in what they are doing enough to make the ask. If you are finding fulfillment meeting a need or serving a cause, give others that same opportunity.

Are you engaged in something bigger than yourself? Who are you asking to join you?

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

Do Me A Flavor

September 30, 2011 in Personal thoughts, West Ridge Church with 0 Comments

I love this time of year and where I live. I love heading to North Georgia to pick pumpkins, attend festivals, and eat things like apple dumplings that create in me an echo of another, better world still to come. :)

There are a lot of great events this time of year. I’ll probably tweet pictures when my family is somewhere fun, but if you live in Northwest Atlanta I want to invite you to an event with tremendous personal meaning.

The little man above is Jax Foust. His parents Chris and Kristen are great, personal friends. Chris is a drummer and part of the Creative Arts team at West Ridge Church. Their lives were rocked when Jax was diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) at eight months old. LCH occurs when the body accumulates too many immature Langerhans cells, a type of white blood cell. This disease can affect many body systems such as skin, bone, lymph nodes, liver, lung, spleen, brain and the pituitary gland.

It’s not exactly something you hear about every day. Jax is still battling this disease, but his family would like to take action, raise awareness, and give back to the community in the meantime.

On Saturday, October 8, 2011, from 1 pm to 5 pm, the first annual, “Hope for Histio” fundraiser, influenced by two year old Jax Foust, will be held at Earl Duncan Park (click the link for directions) off of Hwy 61 to aid in the efforts to help raise funds and awareness for a rare blood disorder called histiocytosis.

All families are invited to help support the cure for histiocytosis. For $20 a family, you can enjoy fun-filled activities, such as face painting, food, and entertainment. Enter the raffle drawing to win a chance at a free round of golf at Cannon Gate and other prizes. Funds raised through this event will go to the Histiocytosis Association to be used for research, raising awareness, and education. Since this disease is very rare, funding for research is severely limited.

The Foust Family receives no personal benefit from this, but I know they would appreciate your ongoing prayers for Jax.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

Re:Creation

August 9, 2011 in Amazon, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

When I saw this album was coming out today it made me very happy. Steven Curtis Chapman seems to write and sing from a place of honesty and humility as much as any other artist that I know of. I have been encouraged by his music since I was in High School.

I normally go to iTunes to find new music, but I have learned that Amazon runs new releases at least a couple dollars cheaper if not more. This album has a great collection of ‘Re-Created’ Songs and a few new ones as well.

Click on the picture below and download your copy.

Innovation: The Sequel

August 8, 2011 in Leadership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

I love going to the movies. I love watching a good movie at home with my wife and boys. We watched Soul Surfer at my house the other night. It has some great themes, but for my 8 year old and 5 year old boys all they wanted to see was a shark and some blood.

I love a unique story line that is not predictable. But my favorite movies are ones where the story is being built on and more of the story will be revealed later. I love when there is a larger story taking place that gives you something to look forward to, like Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter.

What gets annoying are sequels. A sequel typically comes along after a movie has made a lot of money and now a duplicate can be made to capitalize on the success. Sequels are typically not very creative. Normally there will be a repeat of several jokes, or action scenes, or relational tension. The formula for success has supposedly already been determined because of how much money was made the last time, so why mess with it?

One of the most creative, visionary minds to walk the planet was Walt Disney. Disney didn’t believe in making sequels. He said he didn’t want to waste creative talent and money on old ideas. Yet for many people the goal is to find something that they feel secure in, and repeat it.

For many organizations, (I operate in the world of a local church) if there is a successful event (most often judged by attendance #’s) a common practice is to do that event over and over again. You only try to refine the formula ever so slightly because of the belief that you have already found what works, why change it?

Often the same people work on the event over and over. They have truly married themselves to it, and if the church or organization threatens to stop doing the event they threaten to leave…

…money and creative talent on old ideas.

From a spiritual perspective I don’t find God making sequels. In the scriptures, God loves to make things new and unique. Anyone or anything created in His image should be able to do the same.

As I work on my own ability to innovate and create new things I’ve jotted down several steps to making that happen, and some things I should stop doing because they are preventing me from doing anything new.

I’ll share them in the days to come.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

 

Transfer or Transform

August 4, 2011 in Leadership, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

I know I am being way too simplistic, but lately it seems as though I am encountering two different types of people in the church. I’ve also come to believe that leaders typically come to a crossroads as to which one of these groups they are going to try to reach. Let me try to describe the first group. They are the Transfers.

They say things like:

  •      We want pure worship
  •      Deeper teaching
  •      They have brought their preferences with them, and occasionally, their agenda.
  •      They don’t trust leadership
  •      They always find something to criticize
  •      They have a lot of pride about their own opinion
  •      They get real excited when someone they encountered in their previous transfer comes to the place they have currently transferred to.
  •      They transferred to your church, and eventually they will transfer away and be replaced by other transfers.

Unless at some point they become a part of this group. I should really put more time into this, but for now I will just call them Transformers.

  •      They love the worship. They sing loud, and to be honest not very well.
  •      They are hungry and are applying God’s word to their lives as best they can. No matter how many times they hear the same passage, they seem to get something new out of it.
  •      They trust God’s leadership in the church (that’s why it’s important not to violate that trust)
  •      They are honest and forgiving, and willing to deal with their own sin.
  •      They get real excited when they see someone they know being transformed.
  •      They will multiply themselves in the form of other transformers.
  •      They are humble, and look for ways to serve and add to the transformation.
  •      They are in an ongoing state of transformation

You can have the largest church in town with just transfers. In fact, transfers normally line up on the first Sunday of a Church Plant. They love to sample different coffee.

The churches that make the biggest difference in the community are the ones made up of transformers.

It doesn’t take a very strong leader to lead transfers. Don’t worry. They will tell you what to do.

You can be in church your whole life and remain in a state of transfer. You can’t have an authentic walk with Jesus very long before you start in transform.

You can choose which you would like to be. You can choose which you want to lead.

 

This Post Is Not About Obesity

August 3, 2011 in Personal thoughts, West Ridge Church with 1 Comment

Does anyone else have an employee at your gym that is seriously overweight? I’m not trying to be mean, and this is not a post about obesity or gluttony. It’s just I’ve been in several gyms over the years where this has been the case. I’m sure they are valuable employees. They are probably great at PR. They are always very jolly people. However, I’ve never seen these people work out, no matter what time I find myself making it to the gym…when I make it to the gym. Like I said, this is not a post about obesity. Day after day there they sit, smiling, welcoming spandex of every color and size. It just seems odd to me that a person would regularly show up at a place, and not even attempt to reap the benefits.

It’s kind of like church. Week after week thousands of people all across the country stuff their faces on sermon after sermon, Bible study after study, and never attempt to put the truth they are listening to into practice. I wonder if people outside the church look in and think, “There lives are supposed to look different. They are supposed to have all of this amazing truth at their disposal, but at the end of the day I can tell they are really not practicing the preaching they are listening to.”

But what if we did? What if we took the consumeristic culture that has infiltrated the church and turned it on its head? That’s a little of what this Super Size Series is all about. It’s about turning the apathy that has infiltrated the church into a passion to live the life that God makes available to us every single day.

Join us this and every Sunday at West Ridge Church for a series that could change not just how you approach church, but how you approach every day life.

 

 

 

Why We Do This Voodoo

May 31, 2011 in Community Makeover, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

When some people hear you talk about churches working together to serve their community or serve a common purpose, it sounds like this mystical, mysterious, crazy talk talkin’ that people just don’t understand. Well to some it is. Maybe we can clear it up with a couple of examples:

All of the storms in the US have given lots of churches the opportunity to be a part of something larger than themselves, and bring healing and restoration to places that need it. I think about what Casey Graham did when Tornados ripped through Alabama (Check this website for an overview). He began to challenge churches to tithe 10% of an offering to Tornado Relief to help those potentially being overlooked in rural areas. He raised 10′s of thousands of dollars in a hurry. No church or individual could have done that by themselves.

I love hearing about my friends at River Church in Charleston, SC who started Love Gave last year. This is a church plant! They began this initiative in their first year. I’m mean fresher than a newborn giraffe, and they have rallied a dozen other churches, and also area businesses, to provide bikes to kids at Christmas and do some needed work in area schools. Shouldn’t church plants be worried about their own growth, and not stuff like this?

Personally, I get to lead the Engage Atlanta Community Makeover. (Last year’s highlight reel, in case you missed it) Churches from all over the city are creating a movement of compassion that is bringing new credibility and opportunity in their communities. There’s also Engage Burkina that has friends all over the country now partnering together to bring clean water, build churches, and expand education.

There are dozens and dozens of examples of this now around the country.

Some people read this and say, ‘Of course’, that’s what you do. But for way too many churches all of this is all a bunch of voodoo. It’s a foreign concept, and they sit on the sidelines.

The amazing thing is that the churches willing to get involved in collaborating with others in Kingdom initiatives larger than themselves are the ones that are growing. In giving ministry away (sowing seed) they are reaping a new crop of people who are coming to discover the Jesus that commanded us to love them in the first place.

The churches working together are becoming a part of life change stories in formerly hardened hearts.

I love this voodoo that we do.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

 

Foster Care Month

May 24, 2011 in Community Outreach, Personal thoughts with 0 Comments

Recently, I was sent this note from a leader in our community. If you and your family would ever be in a position to invest in a child this way it would be incredible. It is especially powerful when Christ-followers take on something like this. Perhaps God plants a seed in your heart to begin to pray about this from this brief note;

Did you know there are just over 7,000 Georgia children in foster care?

These youth need stable, loving care until they can either safely reunite with their families or establish other lifelong relationships with a nurturing adult.

May is National Foster Care Month. This month, Paulding CountyDepartment of Family and Children Services is joining thousands of individuals, government agencies, and child advocacy organizations across the nation in promoting National Foster Care Month with various events throughout the region to raise awareness about these children.

No matter how much time you have to give, you have the power to do something positive that will “Change a Lifetime” for a young person in foster care. For more information, please visit www.fostercaremonth.org today.

For additional information on becoming a foster or adoptive parent, call 1-877-210-KIDS or contact your local Department of Family and Children Services and speak with the Resource Developer, Patty Malone at 770-443-3754.  You can visit Georgia’s waiting children online by visiting www.itsmyturnnowga.com or at www.wednesdayschildga.com .

Christian TMZ

May 12, 2011 in Personal thoughts with 2 Comments

I have an idea for a website. If you steal it I will sue you.

One of my guilty pleasure is the website TMZ. If you are a Christ follower and you ever visit TMZ (which I’m not recommending) you will most likely laugh at a couple of things you see, feel guilty about it, and then find something really inappropriate and have to change the channel.

Plain and simple, it’s a gossip blog that follows celebrities and people love it. People love the wit and humor. TMZ thrive’s on their made up headlines. But they are so popular, and say things in such a creative way, that their made up headlines create a perception that people view as reality. They also break enough actual news stories that they have at least a measure of credibility. I promise you if there were a Christian version of this site it would BLOW UP.

I live in Atlanta. If I were able to walk around with a video camera and get a couple of Pastors on video and throw it on a blog it would be huge. If I could catch Andy Stanley at a Braves Game (which I did last year with his boys, but I left the guy alone), Louie Giglio at the Varsity, or get Bryant Wright to wink and smile while he’s taping “Right From the Heart” and throw it on a video blog, Christians would flock to it like the donut and coffee table on Sunday morning! The funny thing is that some of you are reading this thinking, “Why didn’t you video Andy Stanley at the Braves game?”

To be really strategic in my marketing I could just go church by church. If I could catch a Pastor walking through the grocery store and get a picture of the cart, it would be viewed by the tens of thousands. If I started a section of Pastors wives and their kids and catch a few discipline moments, I could probably be featured on 20/20. The Christian music section could really be a lot of fun. The magazine version of this could sit right next to US Weekly in every grocery store. I could go national with this. If I could catch Rick Warren at a beach, Rob Bell at an NBA game, Perry Noble at a tractor pull, or post the tweet of the day from Francis Chann, I could probably speak at conferences.

I don’t think anyone did it on purpose. I’m not going to accuse anyone of feeding this with their social media sites, but we have let the celebrity and gossip culture infiltrate the church and it is killing us. People in the seats look at decisions Christian leaders make and they create their own headlines. They make up their own realities about the worship leader, or the drummer, or the bass player. They would rather talk ABOUT their church and other churches around them instead of praying for them. They would rather talk ABOUT the couples in other small groups than to them. They would rather talk ABOUT the couple dealing with hurt, debt, brokenness, morale failure, than be a part of forgiveness and restoration.

Leaders have to do their part to confront this. It would probably help if we came down from the stage a bit more and walked through the crowd. It would help if people in the church knew we loved them for them, and not just for the ministry positions they fill. It would help if everyone had a sense of shared mission and battle, and that we are all waging war together to demolish strongholds. It would help if leaders said thank you a bit more to individuals and not just to the crowd.

While we were accepting compliments for our own glory from people we don’t event know, and making God’s kingdom about our own little kingdoms, the enemy was moving in with something much more lethal, and if we don’t confront it, the disunity will crush us from the inside out.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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