upward & inward

As I transitioned from Colorado to Kansas, from church layman leadership to paid staff, from the corporate world to full-time ministry, I've learned a few lessons: The calling from God is not a theory - it is real. I'd known this and had experienced this -but not at this level. In a horrible real estate market, God can sell a house in 2 days after the first showing. God confirms His call on our lives through the most unlikely sources. Therefore, we must be attentive. God knows the training we need and often uses tough experiences to accomplish it. When things seem desperate, they probably aren't. Each leader should be prepared, even after the smallest decision, to lose something he didn't expect to lose. This is the price of leadership. Building friendships take time - damaging friendships doesn't. Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. Success truly rises and falls on leadership: the ability, willingness, and passion of a leader to follow God and to lead leader

As I age, I grow more skeptical of hype of any type as the press takes an issue and over-does it. Global warming is another example of this. Here is an article which offers yet another viewpoint in the global warming/cooling discussion.

(Going through some files looking for the title to one of our cars (oh, the joys of moving!), I came across this article I wrote back in 2004 while I was Council President of PEAK Community Church. Sometimes, we forget the biblical basis for tithing (that is, regularly giving to the church a percentage of income) and need reminding. My apologies for the extended length of this posting....) A long time ago, in a land far away, a peculiar people returned to their wasted homeland – wasted from war and destruction, wasted from sin. This land we now call the Holy Land, was far from holy. It had been neglected by the Israelites and became a place where pagans lived in place of God’s holy people. Over the span of two centuries, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were conquered, scattered, and assimilated into other cultures until God held the land in a state of rest – awaiting the Jews’ return. Once again, God showed His perfect love, grace, and mercy to those not deserving. Just as He shows Hi

What does the Bible tell us to do no matter what we experience? According to 1 Thess. 5:18 , we are to give thanks. The distinction though is that we do not give thanks FOR every circumstance, but give thanks IN every circumstance. Giving thanks releases: us to have godly perspective - to see what He sees. the Holy Spirit to bring us Jesus' peace . This was brought to the team by another speaker this weekend, Bob Horner. Great storyteller, deep thinker, and funny, funny, guy.

While attending the CBMC Retreat at Lost Valley Ranch near Deckers, CO, first on the agenda was Dave McCasland . He spoke of the 2nd coming of Christ as referenced in Mt. 24:36-51. This was the kind of "end-times" discussion I like because instead of talking about the speculative details of Jesus' return, he focused on how we approach that blessed event. The conversation was around our watchfulness, readiness, and doing what is expected of us when He returns. Questions I have for myself: How often do I think that the Lord may come back today? Answer: not often enough. How does the Lord’s coming affect my behavior? Am I watchful? (Mt. 24:42) Answer: I don’t regularly watch for His arrival. How ready am I for the Lord’s arrival? (v44) Good news: if we're always ready then we don't have to get ready. How ready am I for the surprise visits of God? These surprise visits are those here and now visits that we might miss if we're not looking for God in our da

I had the privilege Tuesday to review with the Council my observations of the church ministry after 90+ days here at Central. There has been much progress and a lot of hard work by so many folks on the team. I'm blessed by the senior staff, directors, and support staff. They're rising to the ongoing challenge of excellence and are making the changes required to be leaders at Central. While my observations were more detailed, after further reflection, here are some key summary observations: Paid and unpaid (volunteers) staff require proper development and preparation to ensure they have the best opportunity for success in whatever position God calls them. As we seek to change lives for Christ, we must remember that all servants' (paid/unpaid) lives are also changed as we serve. Leadership at all levels in the organization are important - and should be developed through ongoing investment. Seeking excellence is hard work. It takes time and a detailed approach to seeing what i

Well, it's that time of year. I'm off to go to Lost Valley Ranch near Pine, CO for the annual Colorado Christian Business Men's Conference. It will be my 10th year and, as always, I'm not crazy about leaving the family, but still looking forward to the re-creation that this trip always provides. I'm going with 5 others (including John) from the church which should allow for some good conversations and stronger relationships. We'll leave tomorrow (Wednesday) and get back on Saturday night. As they say at the ranch, "oooh-aaah!"

I got this from Tim Stevens' blog and wanted to pass it along. Top Ten Leadership Mistakes by Tony Morgan All of them are tough to read and to digest (because I've made all of them at one time or another). But, the last one is especially convicting: Spending Too Much Time on the Details Rather than the Dreams. Why is this convicting? Because I'm paid to manage the details yet I know if someone doesn't dream (have a vision) then the only details left for me to manage will be turning off the lights because I'm the last one left in the building (yikes). The good news is (as I've already noted) that God has given my boss (Pastor John Henry)a huge vision for the future - one that I'm looking forward to implementing...:)

Mid last week, Billboard #2 hit the streets. It's pretty much directly south of the church on the south side of Kellogg facing west and the east-traveling traffic. Whether it will bring in additional visitors to our church remains to be seen. However, it has brought marketing calls from 2 television stations within a day or 2 after being installed. I think it's funny!

I'm reading Reveal by Hawkins and Parkinson. I've heard about the book from various sources but hadn't read it yet. Upon its release, this book caused plenty of controversy in the church (from a US perspective). Just google "reveal willow" and watch the fur fly: Willow supporters downplaying the findings alongside Willow detractors smugly saying "told you so." I just started the book, but so far here are my observations: They want to excel to God's glory. In so doing, they're willing to do what's required to get the "hard news" and take action. They're big enough (or humble enough, actually) to admit where their approach has not met their expectations. In seeking excellence, they intentionally seek a "pulse" of their progress. It's this last observation that reminds me that we at Central Community need a church-wide survey to assess what we're doing well and what we're not doing so well. This aligns with w

What do doughnuts have to do with the fully-devoted life of a Christian? Apparently, a lot! We go through dozens of doughnuts each Sunday morning. Dozens! By the way, I love doughnuts and they love me. In fact, the more I eat them the less they want to leave me...:) Anyway, I spoke at length with a few folks on staff who spend an inordinate amount of time over the course of a year ensuring that the "doughnut order" goes without a hitch. Whuh? Did I mention that we also have a cafe that sells muffins and scones that the "doughnut order" competes with? Question: how is the "doughnut order" helping us fulfill our mission of "changing lives...turning uncommitted people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ"?

Although restrooms shouldn't be a big deal, they are! As my Facilities Director put it, they should be "pristine". And, I agree. These should be clean, functional, attractive and pleasant smelling. While this seems like a no-brainer, it isn't always so. We received much feedback on them from the weekend. But now, we're kickin' it up a notch (or two)! Those who visit our building, especially on the weekend, should see/smell cleanliness and good functionality from these common places. Billboard #2 should be up soon. I'm looking forward to seeing it and hearing the buzz it might cause... Vision! It becomes more obvious with each position I take, that the "vision thing" is key to ensuring not only that everyone is on the "same page" but that the right decisions are being made for the right reasons! This is a hot topic of discussion between John and me that he's also fired up about. It's fun to dream BIG and we must be diligent

The building we use to serve God will be 20 years old this year. And, it's big. Real big. Keeping it going is a never ending job. And, thanks-be-to-God, we have a great team who are zealous to keep it clean, maintained, and secure. One of the things that wasn't as prominent, though, was the increased organization and quality that I'm seeing now. Detailed lists of steps to improve (cleaning and updates) each area are now being kept and updated to ensure we prioritize the right tasks first and track each task's completion and completer (who performed the job and how). Strangely enough, even though we have a big place, we have limited storage space. So, the facilities team is taking a fresh look at their maintenance closets (some small, some large) and wringing every square inch of space from them in order to hold more inventory of cleaning and maintenance supplies (including screws, bolts, wall anchors). Of course, this doesn't end there as there are plenty of other

So, a few weeks after arriving at Central , I learned that the "new website" for Central had been in planning for months but had yet to release. And, unfortunately, that meant we were managing 2 websites at once. A big pain. By sheer brute force (from a great team), we released the new website before 2008. Now that January is done, we are ready to redo it - again. While there are plenty of good improvements over the old site, we still haven't hit the mark. For example, people love the splash page, but the organization underneath is not what it could be. So, again, we've got a great team together and I'm hopeful for some really innovative and effective ideas in order to have the impact we all want the website to have for those outside and inside our community.

This is a good explanation of what a blog is and its benefits.

Some miscellaneous thoughts... Yesterday, I had the privilege of teaching a class called: Becoming a Contagious Christian. About 100 people came to learn how they can tell others about Jesus without becoming someone they're not. It's so encouraging to see so many who want to do whatever they can to tell others about Jesus. Very, very cool. While I was teaching upstairs, the Cafe' melted downstairs and chaos ensued. It's a long story, but one that will continue as we marshall our resources under God's leadership to solve the problem(s). I was FINALLY able to get my 76 Corvette into (and out of) a most excellent alignment shop for a much needed all-wheel alignment. Yay! It's safely in my garage awaiting the weather we're expecting tonight and tomorrow. My oldest boy visited my college alma mater and came back with unmet expectations - his chief complaint was that his hosts were too conservative. I could think of worse problems...:) Had an interesting se