wakebird » Church

Pray for Me if You Read This

wakebird — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 14:42:00 +0000

I am sitting in my office at 6:45am right now and I got here 25 minutes ago. I like to get to church really early on the days I preach. I look over my notes and my PowerPoint one last time. I practice my “talk” one more time out loud. I love the method of out-loud practicing. Some don’t. I think it’s a total personal preference thing.

I am about to spend some time in prayer and then practice a bit and then I can go be a part of all the ministry preparation that takes place before everyone shows up. After I’m ready to speak mentally and spiritually, I like to stay busy and not think about it. Usually I will have to make a trip to the restroom. I have done this pretty much before every “talk” I have given for the past 15 years. The body has strange reactions to public “performance.”

So anyways, please pray for me if you read this. Pray that God would speak through me and that my flawed and faulty memory would work better than it usually does.

The Student Ministries Office Video

wakebird — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:05:00 +0000

Victor finally put this up on his site so I could grab it. This is a video that some of our college students made for our College Ministry Christmas Party that had a theme of The Office tv show. It’s a full 20 minute episode of The Office based on our Student Ministries at Calvary Church. I “act” quite a bit in this piece. It’s funny and embarrassing. Enjoy. Tell me what you think. It’s in two parts to make it easier to view.

New Job

wakebird — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:18:00 +0000

Well, it’s official. We announced to our Calvary Church staff today that I am moving into a new position. Starting sort of now and officially in January, I am the Executive Pastor of Ministry at Calvary Church. Michael is the Executive Pastor of Administration. If you’re not in ministry, it’s like Michael is the CFO and I am the COO of the company under the CEO/Senior Pastor.

This is a huge change for me. I will be overseeing the majority of the ministries of Calvary Church including having a level of oversight of the school and preschool. We have something like 150 employees in the church, school, and preschool. So this is a big responsibility. I feel like this is the kind of position that God has created me for. It’s going to be a challenge with preaching still in our Elevation service about 15 times per year, giving some direct oversight to Mens Ministry, and overseeing Children’s, Students, Young Adults, Outreach, Assimilation, Counseling, Recovery, Small Groups, Adult Ed, Seniors, and some other ministries.

I also can recognize that I am on the younger side for a position like this. But I know that’s part of why I am in this position – to bring a fresh and new approach to ministry at Calvary Church. Please pray for me and for a ton of other changes taking place at Calvary.

One of the biggest aspects of this change for me is that I won’t be a “Youth Pastor” anymore. My identity (for better or for worse) has been pretty tied into being a youth pastor. It’s odd to be on the other side. I think I will be grieving that for a little while.

Church Security

wakebird — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:30:00 +0000

Did you realize that New Life Church heard about the YWAM shootings and beefed up their security? They had an armed security guard on the premises who was the person that shot and killed the gunman who had killed the church-goers. They said they had a plan for this kind of thing.

Right now my prayers are with the families who lost loved ones. But this is such an interesting question – should churches have armed security guards? Maybe just high profile churches? It’s also crazy to think that a paid church “employee” shot and killed someone? I know that this security guard saved tons of lives and I’m not saying we shouldn’t protect ourselves, but it’s just an odd thing to think about – church staff with guns.

Church Should Be Simple

wakebird — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:45:00 +0000

I have been reading Simple Church lately and it’s a good book. We do make church too complicated. We need to simplify what we do and be willing to cut programs to make the ministry we do more effective. Making disciples is the key. How to do it? Get people to connect with God and each other, grow in their faith and knowledge of God, and then reach out to others in your own community and around the world. That’s what makes sense to me. I know there’s a lot of opinions on this. This seems basic and sort of “duh” in some ways, but it’s so easy to make church about programs – more, more, more! Simple Church = effective church. Any thoughts?

Strength Themes

wakebird — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:53:00 +0000

I have done the Strengthfinders test from Now Discover Your Strengths or Living Your Strengths a couple times now. We have been discussing them with our VP3 group at church lately. Here are mine:
Responsibility – this means I feel a deep sense of ownership in the things I do and I feel personally responsible for making things happen.
Significance – this means I want to feel significant in what I do and that I want to do things that have significant meaning. It also has a dark side of needing to be significant or feel important.
Belief – this is where I have to do things that I feel a strong sense of calling about. I have to believe in something for me to succeed in it.
Maximizer – this means I’m gifted at taking something good and making it great rather than starting something new or rescuing something that is in the dumps.
Relator – this means I connect really well with a smaller group of people, but I’m not as good at working the room or talking to people I don’t know.

We had a good time yesterday seeing what each others strengths were and how we all relate to each other through them. Who shares strengths? Who has strengths that no one else has?

What are your strengths? What do you think of mine? Agree/Disagree?

One Service Sunday

wakebird — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:49:00 +0000

Today is what we call a One Service Sunday at Calvary Church. We cancel all children’s, youth, and adult Sunday School classes and have everybody in the big Worship Center for one service at 9:30am. I don’t have any responsibilities in today’s service. I will show up a bit early and Bea and I will do some greeting, but other than that I am a “normal” church-goer.

I love that I am still sitting on my couch in my pajamas at almost 8:00am.

It’s been good to have a restful few days. I feel like this is going to be a big week or two coming up at church.

Preaching Today

wakebird — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 13:53:00 +0000

I’m preaching today in Elevation on 2 Samuel 7. Pray for me if you think of it. The service is from 10:45-12noon.

Ninja Turtle Mask

wakebird — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:49:00 +0000

Last night a Jr High had a superhero theme and I was wearing a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask covering my whole head. It was fun to walk around and have nobody know who you are. I would walk up to people and not say anything and it would freak them out. They would all say, “Who is that? Who are you?” I would just walk away, but some would guess or get me to laugh and then they would know. It was funny.

Then we rocked out and led worship. Here is a classic Jr High worship moment.

We played a few really loud songs with a ton of energy. The third one was My Glorious and at the end we dropped all the instruments out and we backed off the microphones and all the kids are singing the awesome chorus, “God is bigger than the air I breathe, the world we’ll leave, and God will save the day and all will say, My Glorious.” In the middle of that sweet moment we had been working towards, the Jr High tech helper accidentally hits the play button on the CD player and the Rocky theme song, “Eye of the Tiger,” starts playing real loud throughout the whole room. Let’s just say that it broke the mood but it’s still something I love about Jr High.

So Tired

wakebird — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:36:00 +0000

I have felt like my eyes have been super heavy all week and at any moment I could lay down and sleep. Last week was pretty crazy and I think my body is just tired out from it and Ella has been waking up a bit lately in the middle of the night (I’m not complaining though because Bea goes in to get her back to sleep about 95% of the time).

I preach again in Elevation this Sunday and I’m looking forward to it, but it’s weird when the last Sunday was so awesome that it takes some effort to get pumped up for this weekend. It’s a different focus of a message with God saying no to David about building the temple, but then God says that He will build a house for David. I am also leading worship tonight for Jr High for their BARF Night which is an outreach focused Wednesday night. We are going to rock hard!

I have a lot on my mind with waiting for a response about the house, wanting Moses back soon, thinking about my sermon, thinking creatively about vision and branding for the church, waiting for decisions to be made about the consultant process, and then dealing with some volunteer staff issues at church.