Vision Report

It's been a while since I posted here about how the vision is progressing. There's so much that has been going on that I've wanted to share with you--State of the Church, Annual Meeting & Celebration, Pictoral Directory, Purpose-Driven Workshop, etc.--that it's made it hard to keep you updated with everything that's going on with the vision. So I'd like to take some time this week to bring you up to speed.

So far, in 2008, I've met with 8 different Jackson-area church pastors to talk with them about the idea of partnering together to plant churches in Jackson County. I've had positive responses from 6 of them, indicating that they'd be interested in pursuing the possibility further. They will be attending a luncheon meeting at 11:30 on April 15 at a restaurant in downtown Jackson. If everyone I've gotten a commitment from shows up so far, we'll have at least 4 different denominations represented (U.B., Wesleyan, Missionary, Nazarene) and 1 non-denominational church.

I currently have voice mail messages in with 2 other pastors, trying to establish contact with them, and email messages in with 4 others. I'm hoping to get follow-up calls in this week or next if I don't hear back from them. In addition, I have leads on 8 other churches that would potentially be interested in this project. I'm working hard to get as many pastors contacted as possible before the April 15 meeting.

April 15 isn't a do-or-die date. Churches can still jump in and be a part of the LEAD Team after April 15, but I do want to have as many churches as possible at that meeting for several reasons:

• I want them as many people as possible to be in on this from the ground-up. There's an added sense of excitement, investment, and ownership when you're involved right from the start. I want to extend that opportunity to as many people as possible.
• I believe that the greater the number at the April 15 meeting, the greater the sense will be that this is a doable project. If we can look around and see lots of people who are at least interested in pursuing this thing further, each one representing a potential partner church, then we can nurture an attitude of "Why not?"
• The more people who are involved early on, the greater the opportunities to extend invitations to other churches before it is too late. I don't have any illusions about being the only one capable or willing of bringing other churches to the table. I expect that some of these other churches will bring sister churches along with them, and the wider our circle is from the beginning, the wider it can be when we actually make the commitment to constitute a LEAD Team.
• I don't want to miss anyone that God may want to be a part of this enterprise. I want to be faithful in doing my part so that God can direct, lead, and provide as he sees fit.

It's amazing--I make my family a priority, pastor our church, work at Olive Garden 4 days a week, and still have time to put together this coalition of churches. I'm not bragging because I know it's not me that can accomplish all this--God graciously gives me the grace and strength I need. I see him constantly multiplying my time and efforts.

I recently heard a church leader say that the most dangerous prayer you can pray is, "God, use me." Because if you are serious about it, he'll do exactly that. I guess I should let you know that I've been praying that prayer for years. That's the desire of my life--that God would use me, that I would open up my whole self to let God do whatever he wants through me.

I'm certainly not here to say that there aren't ways that I've screwed up and messed around with stupid things--because I definitely have. There's time that I've wasted and things I wish I could undo. But I keep coming back to that prayer, and every time I fall down, I know that God will raise me back up again, and I strive anew to be usable and blessable, to be obedient to his call on my life.

What's the prayer of your life? What's the beat of your heart? What do you want more than anything else? You haven't yet found the meaning of life if your #1 desire is something other than bringing glory to God through yours. If you want safety, love, acceptance, respect, money, status, or power, you won't have a life that God uses spectacularly--that only comes from laying down everything else for him.

If you want to pray for God to use you this week, try praying and then inviting someone to the Easter Breakfast this Sunday (8:30-10:45) before the worship service. It's a great time to introduce your friends, neighbors, coworkers, or family members to other people in the church. The more people in a church someone knows, the more likely they are to stay. The longer they stay, the more likely they are to be transformed by a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. Think about it--something as simple as an enjoyable meal could be the catalyst to a new life in Christ. We miss so many opportunities; resolve not to miss this one.

Purpose Driven Church Workshop

On Sunday, I shared with you that we will be hosting the Purpose-Driven Church Basic Workshop on Saturday, April 12, from 8:30am-4:30pm. This one-day conference explains what it means to be a church that is driven by the basic purposes for which Christ intended his church to strive, rather than other things--such as finances, tradition, personalities, power, or anything else.

There are a lot of misconceptions of what it means to be a purpose-driven church. It does not mean:

• Following the latest fad. The five purposes are biblical and eternal. These principles are applicable in any church in any culture at any time.
• Adopting a particular worship style. Purpose-driven principles have nothing to do with adopting a particular style. Purpose-driven churches come in all kinds of formats: liturgical, casual, postmodern, charismatic, multi-sensory, traditional, ethnic, and anything else.
• Cookie-Cutter Copy-Catting. It's not about imitating the ministries, programs, worship style, or structure of any church, but about creating a simple system to ensure a balanced, biblical approach to doing church. Each church must do the work of figuring out how to apply purpose-driven principles to their own unique ministry context.

Going through the biblical principles behind purpose-driven, this conference will help church leaders establish or re-establish the core purposes of their church, design an intentional discipleship process, and build an "outward-in" perspective to growth and evangelism.

It's a great chance that we have to host this conference and provide this resource to other churches in our community. I hope you take advantage of the special $10 registration fee for Pathway attendees (this conference will cost $50 for everybody else, and is normally $119!), and please sign up to help out in one of the areas of need:

• Registration
• Kitchen/Food
• Hospitality
• Set-Up
• Clean-Up
• Parking

To serve in one of these areas and/or to register for the conference, please send me an email. For more information on what the conference will cover, check out the purpose-driven website.

Who The Heck Is That?

I can't tell you how many times I'm talking with someone in our church about something that's going on, and I tell them, "If you want to know more, just get in touch with so-and-so," and then they say, "Hmmm, I don't think I know who that is." (In fact, I overheard a conversation just like that this morning!) And this happens not just with people who are new and haven't had a chance to meet a lot of people, but with people who have been here for several years, or even lots of years.

We're great at welcoming new people and helping them feel comfortable. We do a reasonably good job of helping people get plugged in to a small group or a ministry team, and they begin to develop relationships with a few people. But we're still a small church--there's no reason so many people should have to walk in and feel like they don't even know the names of the majority of the people around them. What's going on?

Well, part of the issue is that we have two services, so some people just don't ever cross paths. And that's ok. We have two services so that we can keep open seats and make sure there's enough room for new people to come and be comfortable. If we grew to the point where we were filling up two services, we'd add a third and a fourth and a fifth if necessary! We want to make sure that there's always enough room for new people.

But the other part of the story is that we don't have a tool that helps people make connections in our church outside of their current circles. The best tool I know of for that purpose is a photo directory. A photo directory helps you put names with faces and faces with names. A photo directory prompts statements like, "Oh! That's who that is!" and "I've always wondered what that person's name is!" and "I've seen them before, but I didn't want to introduce myself since I know they've been coming for over a year now" and, of course "I learned their name two months ago, but now I've forgotten it, so I can't ask what it is again."

These kinds of thoughts and feelings make it difficult for us to establish and develop relationships in our church. They cause us to stick with the people we already know and ignore the people we don't know. Eventually, it could cause us to be unwelcoming to the new people, and we could drive them away because we get in the habit of only interacting with the people we know.

I'm happy to tell you that we'll be putting together a new photo directory this spring. Pictures will be taken on Monday, May 12, and Tuesday, May 13. Please put those dates on your calendar as soon as possible, and make an intentional decision to get your family's picture taken on one of those days. The more people who participate the more useful a tool it will be for us.

There are some neat features with this directory that will make it even more useful:

• Phone numbers and addresses next to each photo so that you don't have to look them up in the back separately.
• Email addresses and personal websites for those who want to share that information.
• Lists of favorite family activities, hobbies, and ministries in the church to help us know a little bit more about each other, and to make it easy to find people with whom we have common interests.
• The directory company will give us a CD-version of the directory that we can make copies of and distribute. The CD-version is also edit-able, so that as new people come into the church, we can take their photos and add them in. For those without computers, we will print additional pages that can be inserted in the back of the directories.

You would be amazed how effective a photo directory can be in helping new people get connected and engaged with a church. It's so much more than just a phone book--it's a relationship-building engine.

Our goal is to be a church of relationships, not a church with relationships. It's a crucial component of Real Community. Please make sure that you're involved with the directory in May to help it be as effective and useful as possible!

Hittin' the (Air)Waves

Pastor Brent and I are going to be special guests on Glenn Bone's radio show on Wednesday morning at 8:45am. Rev. Bone is the senior pastor of Good Seed Ministries in Chicago, which is also one of our ministry partners that we support financially. He broadcasts a radio show five times weekly on the Big Gospel Xpress, WBGX 1570 AM-Chicago. You can hear the radio show by going over to http://www.gospel1570.com/ and clicking on the "Listen Live" tab.

Pastor Brent and I have also been working to bring Rev. Bone and several of his lay leaders here to Jackson in April to lead a one-day Purpose-Driven conference, which would be hosted at our church. We would make this conference open and available to other churches in our community as well. However, we would also have a period of time set aside that would be dedicated exclusively to our own leaders and their leadership development. Rev. Bone is also willing to speak at our Sunday services that weekend. He has spoken at our church once before (in 2005), and I know many of you still remember him and his passionate message.

Other conversations we are having with him include:

• Opening up an opportunity for our youth and adults to spend a few days in Chicago and help Good Seed with their different inner-city ministries;
• Joining together on a missions trip to Jamaica in September--if you're interested in going, it will be approximately $900 per person, and you should begin the process of obtaining a passport soon, as it will easily take at least 6 weeks to process. Here's a link to the State Department's website if you're interested.

All these things still need to be nailed down--they're still in the discussion stage. But we'll be sharing plans with you as they develop, and keeping you informed of the various opportunities. This is a great chance for all of us to interact with an exciting church that is definitely impacting their community for Christ.

Good Seed Ministries has a unique vision to reach the discouraged communities of south and west Chicago with the life-changing power of Jesus. Through a holistic approach, they aspire to meet all the needs of the people around them—spiritual, emotional, and physical. Their inspiring goals include the construction of a massive community center that will service the various needs of their community and the birthing of a daughter church that will carry these same values and mission to a nearby community.

They were one of only 80 congregations around the world to receive a Healthy Church Award from Purpose-Driven Ministries in 2005, and Rev. Bone was named Pastor of the Year by Worldvision Chicago. He has spoken at numerous conferences around the country. It's a great joy and privilege to partner with them to advance God's kingdom.

"A Different Kind of Church"

On our postcards that we print up from time to time, it says, "Pathway Community Church is a different kind of church. We offer a relaxed, friendly, authentic atmosphere where people can come and check out the message of Jesus for themselves. Come join us at Pathway Community Church!"

Pastor Brent pointed out to me that it seems every church wants to promote itself as "a different kind of church." After all, you never hear a church that says, "Hey! We're a church just like all the other ones. Come to the church that's no different."

And yet, I believe we are a different kind of church. What is it that makes us different? I think several things:

First, a relaxed atmosphere. This is a church where people really can come "as they are." I was talking with a new couple in our church recently, and the wife told me that as a kid she had always heard that it didn't matter what you wear to church. But that message was always undermined by the fact that you (of course!) couldn't wear jeans or shorts or play clothes. In other words, it didn't matter what you wore, as long as you dressed up in clothes you would never ordinarily wear otherwise. Clothing certainly isn't everything, but it is something. This is a church that really does let people be who they are--in how they dress, how they talk, what their needs are, and what's going on in their lives. We don't get embarrassed or ashamed of people and their problems or their needs.

Second, a friendly atmosphere. This is a church that goes out of its way to welcome people--all people, not just the regulars or the ones who are already "in." All churches are friendly to the people who are already part of the church, but many--while friendly to one another--are cold and aloof to outsiders. Literally every single person who has gone through the Journey Class 101 that I have taught (well over 30 people) has commented about the genuine friendliness of the people here being one of the main things that attracted them and caused them to keep coming back. We value people, we remember their names, we go out of our way to recognize them and show them that they matter to us. We have a greeting time in the service every week--that's by design--because it impresses people when they are noticed and warmly welcomed. Some people are stunned to learn that a church might actually be glad they're there.

Third, an authentic atmosphere. We talk about real problems--the kind that real people have in their real lives--and what God has to say about them in his word. We talk about Real Faith and what that looks like lived out in Real Spirituality, Real Community, and Real Story.

The more I talk with people outside our church, the more I realize just how rare these qualities are. Almost everyone has had some experience with churches and/or church people, and the overwhelming majority of those experiences are extremely negative. Most churches in America today are unhelpful, unwelcoming, uptight, and inauthentic; they do not share "good news" in a way that it can be recognized as something good. It's not that people have refused to give the church a chance--it's that they tried it and found it to be a total waste of time.

We definitely do some things that are unusual here--our themed series, the fact that I preach in jeans, incorporating secular music and movies, and zany skits--but that's not what makes us a different church. All that stuff is just externals. The real difference is in our philosophy, our strategy, and the way we engage people as legitimate conversation partners who are worthy of being convinced of the truth instead of being lectured and threatened with the truth.

Pathway Community Church is a different kind of church. I hope you're taking the opportunity to share that with the people that God has placed in your life. That's not just a slogan--it's really true. We work hard to create an atmosphere where people can come and really experience God speaking to their hearts and lives--where people can come and check out the message of Jesus for themselves.

Annual Meeting & Celebration

We had our annual all-church meeting & celebration on Saturday night. The menu was great--soup, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and lots of desserts. The game time was fun (for example, I learned that Carissa Courtney has eaten three meats you can't buy at Meijer--venison, alligator(!) and bear I think). We also saw a slideshow that highlighted some of the great things that have happened in our church in 2007.

But the highlight of the night was being able to hear from Tom Blaylock, our denomination's Director of Church Multiplication, and Gordon Kettel, the founding pastor of Imagine This, a United Brethren church plant in Grand Ledge.

Tom relayed his own personal experience planting a church in Williamston, as well as his desire to find pastors and churches that are interested in working to plant new congregations. Our vision is one that is extremely exciting to him. He said that so many churches get locked into seeing just their own issues that they fail to see the fields that are ready for harvest all around them (Matthew 9:36-38). He also talked about the LEAD Team concept and one of the LEAD Teams that is already up and functioning.

Gordon shared about his own experience being a part of two church plants. They both took a lot of work, and one involved traveling from west of Lansing (where he lives) to the Detroit area (where the church plant was) each week. However, after stepping back for a period of rest, he felt that God was calling him to plant a church in his own area, and eventually God led him to the Grand Ledge community. Gordon also shared some of the great successes they are seeing (including whole families coming to faith in Christ), some of their key minsitries, as well as some of their challenges. It was truly an inspirational and affirming evening.

After Gordon shared, Tom called me up extemporaneously to lay hands on me and pray for me and our church. That was an extremely moving time for me personally. It's always encouraging to be endorsed and supported by someone in a leadership position.

When the evening was concluded, Gordon shared with me that he saw a lot of positive interaction as he shared his story--good eye contact, heads nodding, smiles. He said that he sensed a real enthusiasm for the vision to plant churches. I believe he's right. I sense a greater unity and support now for our misison, vision, and values than I ever have since coming here three years ago. It really is good to hear of the kingdom of God advancing and taking shape, lives being transformed and eternities changed. That's what it's all about. That's why we want to accomplish our vision--to make an impact on the 100,000 people in Jackson County with no church family.

I believe that as we stay committed to the task, dedicated to the work to which God has called us, keep building relationships and reaching out with the love of Christ to the people God has placed in our lives, we will begin to see the same fruit. God blesses and empowers those who are committed to lives of obedience to him.

Each of the elders on the ballot received the necessary 2/3 vote to serve. John Fisher and Mike DeKarske will continue to serve, and now Phil Criner will be added to the elders team as well. In addition, the proposal regarding how to amend the church structure passed unanimously. Thank you to all who participated in this great evening of celebration and thanks.

My First LEAD Team Meeting

Tomorrow (Tuesday), I'm going to be going to my first LEAD Team meeting. It's not our LEAD team--that's not assembled yet--but it's a LEAD Team that supports Gordon Kettel's church in Grand Ledge, MI, Imagine This LLC. Gordon, incidentally, is going to be one of our special guests this Saturday at our Annual All-Church Meeting & Celebration.

This LEAD Team is headed by Howard Matthews, of Homefront UB Church in Grandville, MI, near Grand Rapids. Howard is also a member of our denomination's Church Multiplication Leadership Team.

I'm hoping that this opportunity will help me learn more about what happens at LEAD Team meetings and give me the chance to rub elbows with some other pastors in our denomination who are working to plant new churches. The meeting lasts from 1pm Tuesday to 1pm Wednesday. Olive Garden has graciously given me Tuesday off to be able to attend. I will, however, be leaving early on Wednesday to report back to work at the restaurant Wednesday lunch.

I'm grateful for the invitation to come and be a fly on their wall, and I'm praying that God will help me learn everything he wants me to learn to make the greatest impact for him that I can here in Jackson!

FYI: This is the 53rd entry for this blog. One full year now of weekly communicating with you about the mission, vision, and values of our church. Thanks to all of you who read faithfully and pray regarding the needs of our church as we journey toward health and obedience to God's plan for us.

Also... wasn't that just the best Super Bowl you've seen in a long, long time? What a game!