Let’s talk about making that real lasting investment in our communities, and making it outside of our church.  (Catch-up with the introduction HERE.)  I love MY church, THE church, and the calling of the church.  However, sincerely believing that doesn’t mean that the Church Can Do Everything, and it Helps to Make our Message Real.  The other great side-effect of serving in an uncomfortable place is it Forces us as Leaders to Grow.

When we take ourselves of the comfort our churches afford us, we begin to see all kinds of discipleship happen in our own lives.  I know what your thinking… “Where are you getting this churches lead to comfort talk?”

I believe that when all our interaction with people is within the confines of our Christian environments, that we become separate from the real lives of so many around us.  We actually begin to exists in environments we can explicitly control, and when we control the environment of our interactions we can easily grow comfortable.  When we step outside of those things we can control, then we are forced to be hands and feet for a gospel message to those that need it the most.

It’s time that we make personal growth and discipleship a priority, and just as we encourage people to serve in our areas of ministry; we need to back it up with our own service in their lives.  Don’t believe the myth that all your personal growth will happen within the context of your local church.  You can and will grow as a leader and a believer by taking the reality of the gospel outside your church walls and into your community.

Let’s talk about making that real lasting investment in our communities, and making it outside of our church.  (Catch-up with the introduction HERE.)  I love MY church, THE church, and the calling of the church.  However, sincerely believing that doesn’t mean that the Church Can Do Everything, and it doesn’t end there.  One of the most important benefits to us as leaders to serve outside of our churches, is it Helps to Make our Message Real.

This week we are talking about making that real lasting investment in our communities, and making it outside of our church.  (Catch-up with the introduction HERE.)  I love MY church, THE church, and the calling of the church.  However, sincerely believing that doesn’t mean that the Church Can Do Everything.

I believe that it was never the intention of the local church to replace individual outreach.  It’s not the church’s job to reach out to my next door neighbor, or coach my kids baseball team, or volunteer at the public school in my community, or share Christ with the hurting world I interact with everyday.  As Christians, it is our duty to bring life change to wherever we are living.

The purpose of the church is more of a launching pad.  There is no doubt that we can create some effective outreach from within the walls of our church community, and I’ve seen great churches make an impact in their communities as a whole.  But, isn’t church also to be the place that we launch people out into the world?  Isn’t the local church meant to encourage those in attendance to live a life that brings glory to God and therefore spread the Gospel the world over?

Those of us working in churches, are often the last ones to get this message.  We spend 50+ hours a week creating amazing experiences for the families that attend our church (and we should), but many of us spend rarely an hour a year investing in our community without our church name badge on.  Why?  This has got to change if we are truly to be leaders at taking the Gospel to a hurting world.

Let us force the community of believers we serve with to see Christianity as permeating our everyday life.  Let’s bring light to our hurting communities, and in the process bring the light to our own churches.  I’ve never once served in my community, and NOT seen my church get the attention in some way.

Many of us have personal passions that we are dreaming of fulfilling, and fell restricted by our local church.  Let this not be.  It’s my prayer that you find the solution to carry on the mission of your calling both inside your church walls and outside them as well.

I’ve been in a struggle.  This week, I’d like to take you on a journey my family and I have been on for the past couple of years.

I serve in a local church.  I love the local church, and I fully support the mission my church lives to fulfill.  However, how do we take this great message of hope and salvation, and move it outside of our church walls? And more specifically, how do we do it as a family outside of our homes? I’d like to evaluate the different reasons that Church leaders should be investing in their communities on an individual level.

Before talking about any of this, I believe it’s important to talk about what the church is.  For me, I sincerely believe that:

• The Church is the vehicle that takes God’s plan for salvation to the world at-large.
• The Church is the greatest organization to bring about true life-giving relationships in the world.
• The Church should be the greatest collective effort of believers to reach the community in which it resides.
• The Church is strong relevant, and growing!

 Why be involved in your local community, when your church does so much already?

Years ago I managed an IT department on a university campus, and every conversation we had with end-users (those are the ones with problems) began something like this, “Have you rebooted your machine?”  I swear back in the 90′s this would fix 90% of the problems on a Windows 95 machine.

January is official reboot your life month, right?  You might prefer the word resolutions, quick-fixes, or get better ideas for 2012.  I personally like the idea of rebooting things. Well at this time of year, let me ask you…

“Have you rebooted your resolutions and goals this year?”

Here are 5 ways to take the time to push the reboot button on 2011, and amp up for 2012.

1. Quit pretending everything went perfect in 2011.  What went wrong?  Define it, meditate on it, look into why it didn’t go your way in these areas, and then bury it.

2. Quit pretending everything was terrible in 2011.  What went right?  Some of you might have to look hard, but I can guarantee you that you’ve done something noble and honorable this year.  Define it, meditate on it, look into why it went your way, and then bury it.

3. What challenged you this year?  Notice I used the word “challenge”, not the word “troubled.”  What was hard for you to do this year?  Why was it harder than you thought?

4. What do you want to do this year?  <Insert Dream Here>

5. Pray.  Work through these top 4 and then pray.  But why pray?  Well the Bible tells us so!

Psalm 107:28-30 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven

Matthew 7:7  ”Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Mark 9:29  And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

Mark 11:24  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

John 14:13-14 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it

Acts 9:40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.

Ephesians 6:18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

James 5:14-16 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Every year I post a top 10 list, based on traffic that came to the website over a 12 month period.  You can go read that top 10 list if you’d like, but today I wanted to share a top list of my own personal favorites.

My favorites from this year, and in no particular order:

Small Group Leading Tips // The best post content-wise my website has ever seen, and it came courtesy of the 3rd grade boys small group leader at our church.  I also sleep with her and have fathered her three children.  She is my wife.

I Hate Sam Luce // When detailing all the reasons I really hate Sam, I also added a dumb little image of him with horns.  The best part of the posts, was the lady that came up to me at the Kidmin Conference in Chicago and said, “I just can’t see Sam without seeing those horns you added to his picture!”  Greatest thing ever.

Wanna know what my family did this year?  Check out any of these post.

Doing Hard Things and you can see a sermon I gave this year on the topic as well.

On Being a Foster Parent (another guest post from Starr)

Certainty is Overrated

I personally loved writing about Navigating Staff Relationships.  It’s been a big part of my church-life this year, and something I’m still learning to be better at.  Here are the post related  to this series:

What do you Want?

Time to Move

Practice Accountability

Assume the Best

And finally, one of the most exciting things I did this year on the blog was the video interview with David Platt.  I was totally blown away by his presentation at the D6 Conference in September, and was privileged to talk with him some more afterwards about parenting, life, and ministering to our families.

My interview with Pastor David Platt from the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL and the author of “Radical: Taking back our faith from the American Dream.”

Would it be too presumption to ask?  What was a post you loved this year?  Not just on this blog, but anywhere.

These are the top 10 posts for 2011 in this little corner of the blogosphere!

1. Dear Parents, Go to Church

2. Dear Parents, Don’t use Church as a Punishment

3. Dear Parents, Be on Time

4. Listen Up, Whippersnappers

5. Not Being a Jerk

6. Easter Rescue Series

7. Things are About to Change

8. The Rethink Transition (from 2010)

9. Dear Parents at my Church (from 2009)

10. Keys to Leading Leaders

HT: Rankings courtesy of Google Analytics!

Those people really exist.  You know the people.  

Those people find the fault in all you do.

Those people assume the worst of the words out of your mouth.

Those people judge your intentions as faulty.

Those people are quick to criticize.

Those people are slow to defend.

Those people are hurting.

I am those people sometimes.

I am those people.

Instead of hating those people, this time I will choose to encourage, love, and offer grace to those people.

Because as one of those people myself, I need the same from them.

While the past is great, it’s the future commitment to families that has me most excited.  In 2012 we truly and officially will break ground on a building that’s primary impact will be on those younger than 12 years old.  I believe that the Beyond Project will help make Trinity the place for families to be in West Texas. We’ve also undergone an extensive staffing transition over the past year that equips us to reach the family in new and creative ways.  From the size of our budget monies, to excellent quality of staff, to the long-term commitment demonstrated over the years; there is no doubt we are a church that values children, teenagers, and families!

I love my church.  I love how Trinity does everything with the highest levels of Integrity.

Let me list for you the ways:

• We are one of the only churches in Lubbock that submits to extensive financial auditing by an outside financial agency.  I’m not kidding.  Every year we open the books, provide office space, and let the auditors share our work space to make sure that we are continuing to operate in a responsible and legal way.
•  We are fully accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), and publicly make all relevant financial data available for members and the Lubbock community.
•  We hold every individual ministry responsible to a stringent set of values, and yearly goals.  I’ve never heard of a church that spends such massive amounts of time making sure that we are continuing to stay relevant to our community and church members.  We critique, praise, change, and evaluate all areas of ministries yearly.  We are committed to make the best use of our time, and make sure that we are doing all things to fit the Vision, Mission, and Values of our church.
• We give pastors and senior leaders in our church sabbatical at specific intervals of their employment time.  It’s built into the employee handbook!

Probably the most important part of our church culture maintaining a high level of Integrity is attributed to our Senior Pastor, Carl Toti.  Pastor Toti has a unbelievably high level of integrity, and provides my family with a great shelter of protection from all that would seek to destroy the work of the Lord that we are doing here in Lubbock.  In his 10 years at Trinity, he as guided this church to new levels and is continuing to push us to new and exciting places for the future.  There are few men in this world more worthy of being followed than my Pastor.  Most of our integrity as a church begins and ends with this man and his family; and he has proven to be a steady hand to lead us forward.

I love my church.  One of the reasons I love my church is that they deliberately try to reach abortion-bound women.  The Trinity Heartline Women’s Clinic is a real-life clinic for women.  With a full-time Registered Nurse, and caring leaders meeting with women throughout the week.  We offer free pregnancy tests and free ultrasounds to women that want them; and then we offer counseling to help them make an informed decision.

What I really love about Heartline is they’ve recently captured the heart of adoption, and in the last year alone referred over 15 women to put their children up for adoption into Christian homes.  Heartline also provides incentive for mothers that choose to keep their children to attend parenting classes, and then qualify for gifts for their babies.  We call it “earn while you learn”, and how cool is that?  On top of all that, Heartline also provides post-abortion care to women living with the pain of past decisions.

I know that abortion is a sticky subject to address many times, but I’m glad that my church has taken a stance for life in the city of Lubbock.  I’m glad that they do it in a responsible way that brings hope to my city.

I love my church because we have a real ministry to hurting people.  We don’t have to look far in our city to find people in need, and those hurting people don’t have to look far to find us ready to help.  They actually come to Trinity’s Outreach Center by the 100′s every week.  We work hard to feed hungry people, clothe those in need, and offer financial assistance in as responsible a way as possible.  We partner with prisoner release programs, city food pantries, drug rehabilitation programs, health clinics, and other churches everyday to reach as many people as possible.  Did you catch that last one?  We work with other churches.  I love that.

As the NextGen leader at Trinity I am blessed to have ministries like this built into the system of our church.  It’s easy to find a house for teenagers to paint, or a project for children to raise winter coats for.  It’s easy, because our church meets these needs every single day.

I’m not saying my church is better than your church, I’m just saying I love my church.

I love it that my church is old.  Trinity has weathered the storm of different generations and has survived!  Trinity has lasted.  As we approach the 50th year of ministry in Lubbock, I marvel at the impact we’ve had over all these years.  The attendance numbers have fluctuated from “bursting at the seams” to “will anyone show up?”, but over they years has continued to find health and participate as a functioning part of our community for 50 years.

There are unique challenges of an old church, there is no doubt.  But there are great advantages as well.  We have consistent people, both in attendance and in what they give to the vision of our church.  We have a diverse group of people that ranges from newborn children through WW2 veterans.  We have a story that spans 5 decades, and people love to tell it to us young folks!  We have the luxury of experience to draw from with each decision we make.

It’s comforting to me to attach myself and my family to a secure place like Trinity, that values loyalty and excellence all at the same time.  In my travels, I regularly run into people who know about my church.  They don’t know about us from some recent podcast, or popular book our pastor may have wrote (and there isn’t anything wrong with this.)  They know about us, because sometime in the past 50 years our church has impacted their life or someone they know.  That’s rich and I love it.

Isaiah 60:1  Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
3  And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.

We talked with the kids about the differences between hoping and wishing, and kept it short enough that the kids paid attention for most of the 5 minutes. But this year I challenged them to think about HOPE all week long.  I’ve reminded them all week before school to be thinking and looking for examples of hope.  So this week we’ve talked Star Wars “A New Hope”, we’ve talked about hoping that mom will put cookies in our lunch boxes, we’ve talked about how we hope that it snows this week, and everynight before bed I’ve reminded the kids that we can have real hope in Christ.  We don’t have to wish for it, we are given real-life changing hope.

One of the things I found online this week was this great video, which helped illustrate further the idea that we have something inside of us that longs for Hope.  See if you can use it with your family this week to start some discussion as well.

As we celebrate another Thanksgiving, it’s appropriate to remember those things we are thankful for.  We all do this to some degree, right?  If nothing else, we should be thankful for the opportunity to be thankful.  But this year, I’ve been challenging those I’m most thankful for to let our thankfulness be a wellspring of life that allows us to give others things to be thankful for.  That’s a mouthful, I know.  Basically I’ve wanted to let my thankfulness be the things that motivates me to bless others.

This year my family worked together to do something that gives someone else something to be thankful for.  We chose as a family this year to enter into the world of fostering care.  We’ve seen the worst, and we’ve seen the best of the system.  The really strange thing, is that at it’s best…it’s still really hard.

As we drove back from letting the young boy that we’ve had for 9 months reunite with his own family, I was struck with how very thankful I am for my own family.  I’m thankful that life hasn’t presented the kind of challenges that forces me to have to reunite with my own kids.  I’m thankful that my children were big brothers and a big sister to someone that needed them desperately.  I’m thankful that this pain my family feels will be made better by us all being together.  Finally, I’m thankful that we get to imagine big things for our family, and act on those things in big ways.

Psalm 105:1 ESV

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

How has your own thankfulness impacted those around you this year?  

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