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.

 

 

 

Super-Size Me

August 2, 2011 in West Ridge Church with 0 Comments

We are starting a new Series this weekend at West Ridge Church. This series will be filled with vision and messages that everyone needs to hear. Bring a friend, or maybe three. ~Paul

Super Size Me from West Ridge Church on Vimeo.

Community Makeover Friday

July 22, 2011 in Community Makeover, Community Outreach, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

Community Makeover (the annual serving event facilitated by Engage Atlanta) has grown almost 40% since last year. Below are a couple of things that hit me while I was driving around today, and some things that I saw.

  • There’s more activity than there’s ever been on the Friday of CMO. I think a lot more people have taken off from work and started earlier.
  • Our school teachers and administrators need our involvement. They are under resourced and overwhelmed. If churches really want to make a long term sustainable difference in a community we have to be available to serve our schools and encourage our people to volunteer. The doors are wide open!
  • There is hard core poverty in the suburbs. It looks different than urban environments, and we must engage both with sustainable ideas.
  • In Summer #4 this event is becoming more intimate even as it gets larger. There are some big projects with a lot of people serving, but a huge amount is just one family helping another.
  • I saw people of multiple age ranges and ethnicity serving side by side today. Serving together creates unity and diversity at the same time.
  • Was excited to see Parents with older elementary kids serving with their kids and shepherding them as well.
  • Small businesses and locally run franchises are ready and willing to invest in their local community. It’s not about publicity. It’s about relationships.

Post your own project photos on the Community Makeover Facebook page.

If you are on twitter you can follow Engage Atlanta by going to twitter.com/engageatl. Use twitter hashtag #engageatl11 for all your tweets on this year’s Community Makeover.

Our Celebration Service is Sunday night July 24th, at 7:00 pm. at the Paulding County Courthouse!

Go here for directions


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A Few Things I Love About Community Makeover

July 20, 2011 in Community Makeover, Community Outreach, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

  • 110 Churches, 1000+projects, 12,500+ volunteers. Yep, I love that.
  • Businesses call and ask how they can help. Racetrac said they didn’t care if their name was on something or not, they just want to be a part of it. Atlanta Paint Disposal did the same thing. (That’s my plug for Racetrac and Atlanta Paint Disposal)
  • Media outlets call and ask me questions that have heard from others about this. The little local ones are the most fun, and impact our community more than larger ones.
  • Project needs are getting met at the last minute. A lot of this happens as different churches interact together and different skills and talents are shared. We are able to say ‘Yes’ to even more folks that we were planning on. Unfortunately, not everyone. There will be more to do when this thing is done.
  • Non-profit partners that jump in unselfishly, NW Habitat For Humanity, CAYA Ministry and A Fresh Hope come to mind off the top of my head.
  • We are also serving some great non-profits, like the area Boys and Girls Club and Wellspring Living.
  • If I take just what I know of from churches like Johnsons Ferry Baptist, Gracepointe Church, Bethany Christian, and others more than 3,000 kids will get backpacks this weekend. That’s a lot of families who don’t have to choose school supply money over grocery money.
  • Working with Church Leaders that do things differently (and better) than us. There is so much to learn from each other!
  • Working with churches of different ethnicity. I think working together outside of the Sunday hour can create a culture in a community that creates diversity inside the worship hour. For my money, churches with a little more ‘color’ have better food.
  • Volunteering creates ownership. This weekend is a catalyst. It is not an end unto itself. Tons of people will be more involved in their churches and in their communities because they gave this ‘First Serve’ opportunity a chance.

 

 

Jesus in a Wal-mart Receipt

July 19, 2011 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

I’m not sure what you see in the picture to the left, but national news was made this week as one couple came home from church and found this receipt on the floor with the ‘face of Jesus’ on it. Wal-mart reps said the mark would have been made by heat in a cash register. Pretty soon people are going to start comparing this peace of paper to the Shroud of Turin.

You could probably sell tickets to see this thing up close and personal, but most people I know need something more than Jesus on a Wal-mart receipt. They need a God with some skin on.

This weekend thousands of people from around Metro Atlanta will go out and do acts of kindness all throughout the city. Most of the volunteers come from churches. Churches of varying ethnicity, size, and denomination. We call this effort ‘Community Makeover’ and it falls under a non-profit called, Engage Atlanta.

Hundreds of projects will be accomplished all in one concentrated effort. But beyond that, the hope is that connections are made that last way beyond one weekend’s worth of effort. If you serve a widow this weekend, attempt to get to know her. She is going to need more than just a weekend of lawn work. If you serve on a school campus, go back and offer to mentor a child or adopt a teacher. If you take a bag of groceries to a family living in poverty, you should know those groceries probably won’t last the week.

People need a God who shows up on purpose with some skin on.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

 

An Intro to Community Makeover

July 15, 2011 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

Intro to Community Makeover 2011 from Engage Atlanta on Vimeo.

Update to Community Makeover 2011

July 13, 2011 in Community Makeover, Engage Atlanta with 0 Comments

There are several amazing movements caused by churches working together going around around the World. I really believe we are seeing a seismic, cultural shift of collaboration, and impact that is leading to measurable change in the places where it is happening. I think that change will come in the form of the Gospel being accepted, lowered poverty rates, lower divorce rates, and create a private sector movement of generosity led by (but not limited to) faith-based non-profits. I mean every word of that and then some. I’m privileged to be a part of one of these movements.

This is our 4th Summer doing Community Makeover in Metro Atlanta. Led by Pastor Brian Bloye (at the request of other Pastors) We began with 8 churches in the summer of 2008. There were Churches of different size, ethnicity, and denomination doing various community projects and acts of kindness.

In the Summer of 2011 we are up to 100+ churches, doing more than 1000+ projects, and this year we are projecting more than 12,000+ volunteers, July 21st-24th. Nice round numbers, huh?

The reason for the round numbers is that every year as the word spreads to new circles about what is happening, more leaders and volunteers decide to get involved, and more  incredible things happen. This is a catalyst event leading to deeper connection between churches and schools, community leaders, and under-resourced families. As the connections are made, barriers fall that previously prevented groups of people from coming together, or needs being met. It’s been exciting to watch. I’ll start to share some examples in the next few days.

If you want to get involved go to www.engageatlanta.com and click the graphic that says, ‘Volunteer’. There you will see a unique project management website that many of the participating churches use to collaborate together.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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