A Very Humbling Calling

I have been going through a major personal and spiritual overhaul since I became a staff member at Elevation Church.

The thing that has caused me the most grief has been agreeing with God that He didn't make a mistake placing me in this position.

The most humbling aspect of my job is, hands down, the people I lead. I could list hundreds volunteers who have life experiences, positions of influence, wisdom, skills, talents and a level of spiritual maturity that puts me to shame.

What I have finally come to grips with, however, is that there is no one else on the planet that has been called to do what He has called me to do in this season, at this church. Not because of how great I am but because of His great plans and purposes. And that is very humbling!

What in your life is undeniably the hand of God? If you don't have an answer then you need to position yourself to get one. If you do have an answer, don't lose sight of the fact that it's a gift. Don't ever lose sight of the fact that apart from the blessing of God there's not much left.

It Was Just a Snowball...

Welcome to this week's installment of Friday's fun family facts...

Warning: the content of this entry has the potential to cause hostile sibling confrontation - proceed with care. A special thanks to Brandy Briscoe who always edits my blog to be sure that there isn't no mispelt words or awephul gramer...

It was the last thing I heard my brother say as I was rushed to the hospital..."It was just a snowball!"

In Upstate NY, it snows. When it snows you have a couple options - curse God and die, or try to make the best of it. My brothers and sisters and I would usually find the positive. After all, there were snow forts to build, sledding to be had, and ice-skating near death experiences to escape. Besides, in the Upstate you only have about 10 months a year to experience these wonderful wintry blessings, so you have to enjoy them while you can.

On this particular day we began with simple, innocent sled riding. But as these things go, sledding turned into snow-ramp jumping which turned into ice-ramp-death-tempting-jump marathons which, as always, degraded into a full fledged snowball war. And, during this war, since I was considerably smaller then my older brother, I assumed a defensive posture behind my sled and began to scheme my plans...

My strategy seemed flawless: I would wait until Nathan had to take a break. Then, at just the right moment, I would lob my perfectly formed snowball in his general direction. My hope was that he would be stunned by the unforeseen retaliation from the younger brother and that this momentary discombobulation would be all I needed to secure a technical victory.

This was a dumb plan!

There was a pause in Nathan's flurry - and there was a feeble lob from behind the sled-fortress - but stunned was no where to be found.

In fact, it soon became apparent that the only reason there had been a pause was to allow Nathan time to pick up the entire ice ramp that we had spent the morning creating. So as my pitiful attempt at autonomy splatted unnoticed 15 feet to Nathan's left, a large ice-ramp shaped missile was flying towards me; casting a dark shadow on my future.

To top it all off, I was bamboozled by the doctor who savagely set my arm back into place. While I was still wincing with pain he suggested that I pick the lime green, nylon cast...you can't even sign a lime green, nylon cast!

Stick To Your Guns

I don't know why I'm on a rant about solving problems and relieving pain, but here's my third entry on the subject...

Heather and I have always been nice people - that is, we used to try very hard not to cause even the slightest discomfort in any one's life even if that meant we would suffer terribly.

For our four year anniversary we went to London and Scotland. We had already booked the entire trip in advance and were carrying an expandable folder with an itinerary that organized our 11 day trip hourly. We were very excited! So when the nice people at Air Canada canceled our 6/11 10:30pm flight and put us NOT on the 6/12 9:00am flight but on the 6/12 6:00pm we were very upset.

As I sat there debating internally whether I should just be nice and let this one slide I was reviewing how terrible that would be. Rather than eating at a fancy French restaurant watching My Fair Lady and touring London on our anniversary we would be sitting in a smoky hotel room in Toronto, waiting for our flight, and stewing in frustration - Happy Anniversary!

Needless to say, Heather and I left the next morning on the 9:00am flight to London - first class...

There's something in your life that you are letting slide in the name of being nice and it's causing you undo pain and frustration. You're sitting in the hotel room in Toronto cursing the very existence of that poor mid-level employee at Air Canada when you should be enjoying the sights in London. Pick your battles wisely and then stick to your guns. In the end it's less pain for everyone. In the end, sticking to your guns IS being nice!

(I must give props to Jeremy Scott for reminding me about this event through his blog on world travel - check it out here.)

Solve the Small Problem First

Yesterday, I used the example of a splinter and pointed out that sometimes we have problems that seem really small but cause a lot of pain in our lives. Those blasted things get stuck in your finger and ache for days and yet they're usually tiny. In other words, the pain is disproportionate to the problem. Today, I wanted to pick up where I left off because I feel like sometimes the solution isn't as complex as we make it. I think the best strategy for attacking those big looming problems in your life is to solve the small problem first - let me explain:

I've been trying to figure out how to set up all of our Community Group structures into a new database and it has been very overwhelming! It feels a little like trying to kill fruit flies - just when you get most of them in your strike zone a molecule moves in the next room and, poof, their off again. So rather than trying to tackle all of my database woe's I spent some time solving what is comparatively a very small problem.

The problem: How do I view the people in my group?

The solution: There was a mis-spelled word in a link I had created. When it was fixed I gained relief after two weeks of frustration and access into the portion of the database that will finally allow me to view my groups.

As a bonus, I also learned that the people who transferred our data did it more accurately then I thought. By solving the small problem first I was able to see that the bigger issue was smaller then It had originally appeared...

So here's a challenge - If you're heading out to tackle Goliath, pick up some stones on the way... In other words, maybe you can't eliminate all of your debt today, but you can cut up your credit card. Maybe you and your spouse won't be able to go back to the way you loved each other 5 years ago, but you might be able ask forgiveness for how you snapped at her when you walked in from work yesterday. By focusing on the small problem first you might figure out that the issue wasn't actually as big as you thought it was. Or, maybe you won't but either way at least you'll be relieved of that nagging pain that was being caused by that tiny little problem...

Disproportionate Pain

I used to work in construction and part of working in construction is getting hurt. In fact, I can remember times when I would make it through an entire day without hurting myself only to smash my finger in my truck door while I was getting in to go home. I think it's just part of the job. Somewhere in the bylaws of construction work it says, "while working construction it is imperative that at least once a day you must stab yourself, shoot a nail through your fingers or absorb the shock of a piece of 1/4 inch plywood as it flies off a table saw and hits you below the belt, or everything you've built that day will fall apart and you'll have to start from scratch in the morning..."

One of the most frequent wounds I experienced was the infamous splinter. Now I know this is a small wound and shouldn't be making prime time on my blog, but man the pain would just drag on and on for days. Especially, if the sliver of wood happened to be from a piece of treated lumber. I have actually seen grown men - adult, intelligent, experienced men - cut into their finger with a rusty razor blade in order to dig out a tiny splinter because they would rather deal with the pain of the cut then endure the 3 day paralyzing ache of the splinter.

Why does a splinter hurt so bad? Here's my idea - it hurts so bad because the pain is disproportionate to the problem. In other words, if the tip of a Phillip's head drill bit slides off a 3" screw and punctures the finger nail on your index finger (hypothetically now) you expect that to hurt; you brace for the pain. When it sends waves of nausea through your body over the course of the next few days your fine because you expect it. But when you finally pull the fleck of galvanized metal that has been keeping you awake all night out of your finger you're left thinking, "Was that it?" The pain is disproportionate to the problem and therefore seems more painful...

I think you probably have "splinters" in your life; situations that can be easily resolved with a phone call, or by asking forgiveness for your stubborn, pig-headedness. Pull the splinter out - it's causing more pain then it's worth!

Winter Weather

We are currently planning on continuing with all our regularly scheduled Worship Experience times for January 20th.

Providence:
8:30 - 10:00 - 11:30

Butler:
9:45 - 11:15

For updates check back at the website...

Raspberry Juice Stained Shirt

Everyone knows that upstate New York is famous for snow, maple syrup and brilliant Fall leaves; what is less well known, however, is that there are prolific growths of scrumptious wild berries everywhere! Now, after reading the story below you might be tempted to think that I am guilty of the crime that it describes. I should point out, however, that most crimes are crimes of opportunity and if there had not been acres upon acres of juicy temptation lining our yard, I would have been spared this marring blot on my otherwise spotless record...I'm just saying!

When I was about 4 this unfortunate scenario played itself out in my life. Having been dressed in my Sunday best I was left alone to investigate the contents of the wild raspberry bushes in the backyard. Now, I know what you might be thinking - Don't go into the raspberry bushes, you'll stain your nice white shirt. Well, maybe you and your all-knowing-hindsight-is-20-20 self should have been there to help a brother out instead of logging your remarks into the department of the obvious. So there I was with streams of living raspberry juice running down my Sunday shirt and my mom is coming around the corner.

What now? Even as a 4 year old boy, I understood that it's probably not a good idea to irreversibly soil my only white shirt right before church. So as my mom, who has finally found me, asks, "John, have you been eating raspberries?" I am forced to reply in the way that seems least incriminating, "No!?!" Meanwhile everything from my eyebrows to my Velcro shoes are drenched with raspberry juice. Fortunately for me, my mom is a nice person and being only 4, rather than snatch me up and beat the tar out of me, she took me inside and changed my clothes.

Here's my confession - not much has changed! 25 years later I still find myself in situations where I've made a mess of things. Only now, it's not my mom looking for me, but God. When He finally finds me and asks me what happened I'm tempted to respond in much the same way I did when I was 4, "What raspberry juice?" Why do I do that? Why do you do that? God stands ready to forgive us and wash us clean. Shouldn't we approach Him with that mindset?

God is a gracious God. He forgives us even when He would be justified in condemning us. He washes us clean when we've made ourselves filthy. In fact, even in the face of our blatant rejection of His forgiveness He still offers compassion instead of judgement; when we've stained our only white shirt with raspberry juice he stands ready to get us changed and move us forward. Here's some advice from one shirt ruining liar to another, don't do what I did. And, when He comes and asks you about it, tell Him; He already knows anyway.

The Day Has Come!!!

My son started saying Da-Da!

Wow! That's pretty cool!

I wonder if God feels this way (or a really magnified version of this way...) when his children finally run back to Him and call out His name for the first time?

I had a friend tell me one time that I would have a whole new perspective on the Gospel and God's relationship to us when I had kids. He was right!

There is something both unbelievably amazing and utterly mind-numbing about having another person refer to me as Da-Da. I wouldn't trade it for anything and yet I couldn't even if I wanted to. Life is pretty interesting and getting more so every day!

Now before I get too carried away, he also calls the spoon full of mashed peas Da-Da. In fact, I caught him looking at the dog saying Da-Da this morning. But, it's definitely only a matter of time...

Nearly 1K Fun Run '08 - Behind the Race

For months now we have been preparing...

The mental stamina has been excruciating as we have eagerly anticipated the race...

The hype surrounding the Nearly 1k Fun Run has not only produced a monumental race that will undoubtedly draw crowds of devoted fans, it has also expanded the very boundaries of the athletic competition.

In honor of the first annual Nearly 1k Fun Run I have included some pictures of the event in progress. Enjoy!

On a side note: In an unexpected twist of fates the Nearly 1k Fun Run has also produced spin off secret walking clubs of which I am a member but am not at liberty to discuss further.

I hope you have enjoyed these pictures.

(below) was taken after the entire wing of CS4 got sick.

Communication

My son, Jeremiah is beginning to figure out that the noises he makes command various responses from us. For instance, when he makes noises at night he knows that Mom will be in shortly to feed him. When he screams while in the high-chair, however, he is promptly given a spoonful of mashed peas (something he very much enjoys...). And when he is tired of learning how to crawl he has figured out that by frumping his little body onto the carpet and whimpering in an irresistibly adorable manner he will be picked up - and the crawling lesson postponed. He has not figured out how to communicate things like,

"Excuse me dad, I believe that my diaper is dirty and I would really appreciate it if you could take care of that."

Or,

"Yes mom, I understand that every other time you have put me in this high-chair you have always given me enough food, however, the 2.3 second delay between spoonfuls of mashed peas fills me with the fear that I will never eat again so I scream violently and flail my arms in panic."

So here's what I'm beginning to understand about communication from my son - it is something that is developed over time. We all figure out how to communicate on the fly. In a dating relationship things start out awkward. For instance this scenario might play out in your life, if-I-say-that-to-her-she-knows-his-friend-whom-she-might-tell-and-if-his-friend-knew-that-I-thought-that-HE-might-find-out-and-that-would-be-embarrassing! Hopefully, if the relationship develops, you'll leave this crap behind and realize that you wouldn't worry so much about what people thought of you if you knew how seldom they did...

Tonight I'm going to be speaking with all of the group leaders at Elevation about communication. If 2007 focused on structuring for growth, 2008 will be structuring to sustain that growth and one of the key components to sustaining growth will be establishing open and effective ways to communicate!

I Love This Job...

It's Almost 11:00 on Thursday night. It's been an amazing day packed with amazing experiences. Heather and I left the house this morning at 6:00am, dropped Jeremiah off with Autumn Lineberger - the most generous, loving and wonderful person on the planet - and headed off to Billy Graham for our staff field trip. At BGEA I got to hear Pastor Furtick deliver a killer devotion in less than 20 minutes (Yes, that is a 2 not a 6) and then I got to sit in on a meeting with some of the head guys at BGEA who shared some pretty amazing leadership principles that will undoubtedly come out on this blog in a week or so - once I've had a chance to process them. I got back to the office just in time to spend about an hour continuing to plan for the Community Groups Current coming up Monday and I have finally landed on the main point: I will be answering every group leader at Elevation's biggest question...but you'll have to wait until Monday night to find out what that question is...

After that I went into a sermon planning meeting where I got to sit on the front row of Pastor Furtick's sermon preparation - something that always reminds me what a privilege it is to serve under such a great communicator. Finally, I closed out the day in a meeting with Chunks Corbett and the directional guys discussing some plans for this week's worship experience.

In the morning, I will get to the office early and jump right into the discussion questions for this Sunday. Although I haven't heard the sermon yet, Pastor has given me all the tools necessary to write what I hope will be a good resource for your groups. By tomorrow at about 2:30 when I leave the office my brain will have completely shut down. In fact, I often have to leave it in my office over the weekend to let it marinate and recover. That's why if you ever see me on Sunday and wonder why I can't remember your name...

The best part about this schedule is that I can't imagine doing anything else with my life! I love this job! I love this Church! I love seeing God move in a tangible way right in front of me! I feel like I have a box seat at Pentecost and Peter has asked me to help with the baptisms! Who am I that you are mindful of me? Yet, before I was born you knew me! Amazing!

Leading My Group

So I'm actually packing up my office and running out the door to go lead my small group - which I will likely be late for...

Even though I have been running the Community Groups Ministry at Elevation Church for a year and a half and have seen those groups grow from 8 groups in July '06 to 82 groups at our peak last November. Even though I have personally lead 12 different groups since July '06. Even though I have had a combined 200+ people in one of my groups since I started leading, and, even though I get tired and overwhelmed and feel like I'm too busy to lead my group well, I still look forward to getting together with MY GROUP.

There is nothing like building relationships with people that can hold you accountable and drive you to become more like Christ in a real and tangible way. I hope no matter how busy I get and how big our ministry becomes that I will always have MY GROUP to rush home for.

To MY GROUP: Thanks for being a great group!

To my group leaders: Thanks for making this a possiblity for hundreds of other people at Elevation Church!

Staff Evaluation

This is going to be my shortest blog ever:

I just came through my first quarterly staff evaluation. I'm not one that tends to shy away from criticism shared in the right environment which is good, because that's what we do around here. We deeply and passionately celebrate the victories and then get back to work because it ought to be better next time... Besides, I believe so much in the men that God has placed over me that they could say just about anything in just about any tone and I would receive it in the way it was intended - as a gift!

You can't ever fix stuff if people don't point out that it's broken to begin with. Pastor Steven, Chunks, thanks for holding me to a high standard. I thrive under the type of direction you guys provide and because of your insight I can see things in me, and in my ministry that I might have missed otherwise. I can't believe I get to work here!!!

Pour It All Out

Pastor Furtick preached an incredible sermon yesterday from Jeremiah 1:4-10. I won't go into it here, you just need to watch it yourself when it comes up (check it out here). At the end of the day there were 135 people who checked the box indicating that they received Christ. I am floored! Since I want you to be just as floored as me, let me tell you a little story.

In November, Joey Smith called me. His group, lead by Will and Kerri Ross, wanted to do something for a family during Christmas. Since we have partnered with Crisis Assistance Ministries and CIS - Safe Journey, and have asked them to provide us with the names of families in need, I actually had a stack of potential families on my desk. One of those family's greatest needs was a new vehicle.

Joey and his small group decided to reach out to this family for Christmas. They raised hundreds of dollars in their group and took the family Christmas shopping - the social worker told me that they wouldn't have had a Christmas otherwise. The gifts they bought at Target, however, were only the beginning. Joey had already worked it out behind the scenes to surprise the family with a new car, purchased by Elevation; it was waiting on them when they got back from Target. It wasn't just a beater that we picked up at a local mechanics shop either, it was an '07 Ford Taurus with less than 20,000 miles on it.

I suppose that someone, somewhere is probably thinking that the way we did this or the fact that we bought this nice of a car was too much. To you I point to this principle and leave you to wallow is smallness and self-righteous pride. For those of us with functioning hearts, however, we're going to keep reading and celebrate at the conclusion of this story. Yesterday, the new owner of this car used it to drive herself to her first Worship Experience at Elevation's Butler campus where she was confronted with the truth of the Gospel and checked the box to receive Christ.

God moves when we leverage all that He has entrusted to us for His glory and His fame. He moved Yesterday! Only 134 more stories to go. Praise God for His faithfulness! Praise God for making a way!

Chinese Food With Raisins

Welcome to this installment of Friday's Fun Family Facts.

Disclaimer: My mother is a fabulous cook. Even when she makes foods, such as the ones I'm about to describe, they are still made very well. The only way you will truly understand this blog is to read it through the eyes of a 7 year old boy that would rather be eating ice cream and cookies...

My mom was notorious for making outlandish meals for dinner. I can remember nights where I would innocently come to the table to partake of the days nourishment only to find that we were having rabbit. Now, I know there is nothing wrong with rabbit. Many people eat rabbit and love it, but I, being a boy of active imagination, could not help feeling like I wanted to run and check on Floppy in the next room. You see, we had rabbits for pets -- I just couldn't stomach the thought...

Anyway, this blog is about the food so let me get back to it. One thing that my mom was very good at making, but that I was very bad at eating was an assortment of stir-fried dishes. Looking back I see that these dishes came from a variety of different ethnicity's ranging from your classic American/Asian stir-fry to an authentic Thai, but to my uncultured 7 year old brain it was all Chinese food.

On this particular night we were having "Chinese food". Accept this night, for reasons that are so far removed from my ability to comprehend them that they seemed to be the musings of a crazy person, Mom decided to put raisins in it. So the concoction consisted of tofu, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and raisins (or something like that...).

Now, I ask you, what was I supposed to do with that? Obviously, I wasn't going to eat it. There was no chance that I would be able to pawn it off on one of my siblings. And, if my memory serves me right, my dog opted to stay in the living room during dinner that night.

You can look down on me if you want, but desperate times call for desperate measures and I saw no safe exits so here's how my plan unfolded: I ate the tofu! Since tofu is absolutely tasteless, or rather, since it, like a dish-sponge, absorbs the taste of whatever it touches, I soaked it in soy sauce and threw it back. The water chestnuts made it to the toilet in a napkin that was sacrifice for the good of the cause. The bean sprouts and raisins, in a move of sheer panic found there way to my sock. After dinner, when the crowd had dispersed, I went outside and did what any normal person would have done; I emptied my sock behind the propane tank.

Tune in next week for something that matters!

Community Groups Current

Last year in July all of the group leaders and potential leaders got together at the Providence Country Club for a meeting called Community Groups Current. In my opinion, it was a raving success. We established some foundational talking points for Community Groups and had a great time together. This year we are planning four Currents - one per quarter.

The first Current is right around the corner on Monday, January 14th from 6:30 - 8:30; the topic at hand: Communication!

Being a mobile church it is not always possible to get all of the group leaders together in one place to communicate face-to-face. Not only that, we are all bombarded with so many emails and phone calls on a daily basis it is sometimes difficult to get a message out. So we are going to work hard during this first quarter to figure out how to more effectively communicate the visioin and direction of Elevation Church through Community Groups. I think it will really help us as we gear up for our next GroupLink on March 2nd.

Group Leaders I'll see you there!

The Overreaction

My 7 month old son has recently developed an extreme distaste for his car seat. I can understand, I think. After all he is strapped down so he can't move freely to a plastic bucket facing the opposite direction of everyone else in a reclined position that keeps him from being able to effectively play with the toys dangling just out of his reach...But let's just say that all of these factors do justify his distaste for the car seat, the other day's reaction to being placed in his seat seemed a little extreme.

I mean you would have thought we had strapped him into a pan of burning embers with cold chains. He was so upset that we felt compelled to check on him several times in the coarse of our fifteen minute ride home to make sure he wasn't hurt. Of course, as these things go, the very second we took him out of his seat he snuggled into our shoulder and stopped crying. In fact, by the time we got him into the house he was back to his normal self - laughing, smiling, and enjoying life!

This little episode left me wondering what God must feel like with me sometimes. He puts me through a little challenge to try to help me or keep me safe and I react so extremely that He wonders if He pinched my finger in the harness. Maybe you're the same way! We've got to quit that, we look ridiculous...