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Satanic Subtlety

September 20, 2007 in Faith and Church with

I’ve mentioned before that my brother Matt goes to RBCC. So sometimes I listen to their pastor Matt preach either on CD’s that my brother Matt gives me or online.

The other day I was catching up on the ‘One’ series they did and the a side point was made about how satan does subtle things to get us off course. The way Matt (pastor Matt) illustrated it was to make an example of changing the time on someones clock by 15 minutes. They probably wouldn’t notice when they woke up but it would be enough to make them late. If it was off by an hour they might notice because light and dark can completely change in an hour, but 15 minutes would be subtle.

The point was to equate that example to how satan puts subtle temptations in our life to cause us to fall in to sin. An example in context of a subject I’ve discussed on here is how satan might not put a real person in your path to tempt you in to a cheating relationship but he might put some porn in front of you that doesn’t seem as bad to you. Next thing you know you’ve sinned and sin is sin. It doesn’t matter if it’s as seemingly harmless as seeing a nudy picture or as wreckless as having an affair. Both are sin and sin is sin.

I thought the subtle time change was a very good illustration. It was easy to imagine someone becoming majorly frustrated because they show up 15 minutes late for work or school and can’t seem to figure out why. The effectiveness of that illustration on me got my odd little brain thinking…

What if a church did that illustration literally rather than just saying it on stage. That wasn’t the main message RBCC was trying to teach that day so it wouldn’t have been appropriate, but what if the message was primarily about how easy it is to drift in to sinful behavior? Couuld the clock analogy be done literally to prove the point?

I think it could. I’m thinking of how NewSpring does things with their atrium depending on what the current message series theme is. (anytime I think of creativity two groups of people come to mind – NewSpring because I go there and see what they do, and corporate advertisers because I work with them all the time for printing).

So what I’m thinking is there could be big clocks in the atrium at NewSpring with the wrong time, maybe only 10 minutes ahead, and everything happening at NewSpring that day is happening by the time on those clocks. The countdown til service starting would be in sync with those clocks. The band would come out to the time on those clocks and begin playing music…

I think you get the picture. Everyone would be so confused and frustrated. People would be asking each other “Is that time right?” and everyone would be checking their cell phone because the time on those is supposed to always be right, but nobody would know what to believe because the service is starting. People like me would be frustrated because they’re late. I’ll bet there would be some interesting reactions.

By the time all the ‘on time’ arrivers are in the auditorium the person doing the greeting/announcements can come out. People will be thinking they have lost it. Just so they don’t get too mad that they missed all the music the band can do a bit more after the greeting before the preacher comes up. When the preacher comes up he tells the confused audience what they’ve just experienced and leads in to the message that explains the parallel.

I think this would be sooo funny, even if it happened to me, and it would be a great literal illustration of a point. You might be thinking this is a cruel idea. But I remember a service where Perry spent about 15 minutes telling this big ole story about how he met Tim McGraw and Faith Hill at a restaurant and then he made out like he had invited Tim McGraw to NewSpring and he was there about to come out on stage. Everyone stood up and erupted with cheering and applause. Perry laughed for 5 more minutes before he followed that tricky illustration with a sermon that made a point. Is changing the clocks to make people ‘late’ any worse than making everyone stand up and cheer like idiots for someone who wasn’t really there? 

Rarely Stolen Items From a Fellow Jesus Freak

September 12, 2007 in Faith and Church, Misc with

Last week as I was traveling I heard a radio show host speaking of an incident he had recently been through. A thief had taken UPS packages off his porch while he was at work. He couldn’t figure out why in the world they had not delivered yet so he called the company he had ordered from and they eventually figured out there is a thief stealing packages in the area.

What was ironic was the goods that were in the box. He had ordered some Christian CD’s of various types off the internet. There were some preaching CD’s and I think he said there were some Christian books on CD and maybe even some Christian music on CD. You have to assume the thief didn’t know that’s what he was stealing and you have to wonder what he thought when he opened the box to find all that stuff. I imagine Christian goods being stolen is probably a rare occurrence.

What I thought was even more unexpected than what got stolen was who it was stolen from. If you live in upstate SC or have ever been here for any amount of time you have heard of the popular radio station B93.7 and their morning radio show hosts Hawk & Tom. These guys are hilarious along with Kato and Heidi.

Anyway, you can listen to these guys long enough to tell Hawk is the one with the best head on his shoulders and who really knows about the rest (my opinion). I had wondered before if they are Christian or not even though they are on the secular radio station (there is nothing wrong with that). Now that I heard Hawk tell his story of having all those Christian materials stolen from his front porch and make the statement “I like to listen to all that stuff during the week too” I think it is safe to assume Hawk is a Christian. I was very glad to hear this.

Now I’ll be praying that he can first of all withstand the others around him and second of all that he can be an example to them that they need Jesus. I think Tom needs brains first and then he needs Jesus, and Kato might be alright if he stops listening to Tom. Heidi just needs to stop hugging her tree and maybe she’ll listen about Jesus too.

I’m just kidding. I don’t really know any of those people and I could have them all wrong for all I know. All I know is what I hear come out of their mouth on the radio. But I think it took some guts for Hawk to mention that he is a Christian on the radio show that he is on and I commend him for taking that stand. 

Baptismal Tailgate Party and Gametime

September 11, 2007 in Faith and Church with

I mentioned here that NewSpring was doing a tailgate party for the next Baptismal service. It was Saturday and it was as big as the tailgater scene at a football game. I can’ t even begin to describe it. The parking lot was full of vehicles all the way around the building (including some large RV’s – one of which was probably worth over a million dollars) and there were grills and tents and plenty of playing around – until the Baptizing got started. It was awesome – over 500 people Baptized, some of which I know personally and that is always special to know and share in someones proclamation that they are a Jesus freak – like we all are at NewSpring. Check out some pics here on Tony’s blog - he didn’t even get the RV’s though. Will has some shots from the County Sheriff helicopter that was there for the festivities – it circled overhead several times taking pics. Also, here is an article from the local newspaper. This should have been on the local TV news…

Also, the Game Time series was started yesterday. And as I write this and check for references on other blogs I’m noticing that I’m not saying anything new, so here – check Tony’s post for the details of what is next for NewSpring, which is what Game Time is all about. The only concern I have that might have already come up is – Is the plan for 1000 seats in the youth facility too small?? I thought the same thing about the Greenville campus but Perry said we would just add another one when that one fills up. But what about the youth facility? I think that thing will be full before it’s finished. Am I the only one who thinks that? 

Listen To Passionate People

September 4, 2007 in Faith and Church, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not, Leadership and Growth, Marriage and Relationships with

Who are you listening to? What are you listening to? I choose to listen to people who are knowledgable and passionate about what they’re speaking about. That is why I love to hear Perry Noble speak about Jesus and introducing people to him. That is why I love to hear Jake Beaty speak about marriage and relationships. That is why I love to hear Joe Sangl speak about finances.

If you’ve read my blog much at all you’ve probably seen me link to Joe before. Now we can all experience Joe’s passion, experience, and knowledge via podcast. Click here and pick which link applies to you. You can hear the passion in his voice and I can tell you from my own personal experience with him he knows what he is talking about and he’s smoking what he’s selling. Check it out.

Tailgating at Church

August 28, 2007 in Faith and Church with

Check out what the homegroups ministry is doing.

Hey Homegroupers! Football season is steadily approaching…so, we are having a HUGE tailgating event for the HUGE Baptism on Saturday, Sept. 8th to celebrate the several hundred people who have recently received Christ.

We are asking you and your homegroup to celebrate with all of us! Please bring food, grills, coolers, footballs, etc and any cheers that you want to perform with you!! There WILL be a prize for ‘Best Tailgate’. Tailgating starts at 3p and Baptism at 6p.

See you there!

Isn’t that a great idea?? I think it is. Those folks at NewSpring sure are creative.

Innovate Traditionalism

August 16, 2007 in Faith and Church with

That title alone is a contradiction, but I’m going to give it a shot. I want to offer my own two cent idea the “traditional” churches might want to consider so they can survive losing so many members to all these terrible “contemporary mega new age” churches that keep “taking people”. I’m not knocking all traditional churches. Just a lot of them. I’ll agree with wise folks I’ve heard say that there is a role for different types of churches for different types of people – as long as they’re reaching people for Christ. That second part of the sentence is what so many traditional churches are missing and therefore making “traditional” ineffective. But I wouldn’t want those people to not have a church at all, so I have a plan. It’s a simple plan and I think it will work. Here’s what to do:

Make a bold move to run off as many people as you can who are at risk of moving to a “contemporary” church. There are several ways to do this, here are a few of my suggestions:

  • Instead of just talking about people who don’t wear their “Sunday best” – go ahead and make it an official rule and stop people at the door who don’t conform.
  • Instead of teaching about sin – condemn the sinner. Take that a step further and make them sit in the back and don’t include them in anything, or even further stop them at the door.
  • Instead of encouraging hope through having a relationship with Christ – scare hell in to people so they have a constant sense of inadequacy because they can’t perform enough holy deeds to earn their way to heaven.
  • Instead of budgeting, sacrificing, being good stewards, and praying over the church finances – have a business meeting and complain about how no one is giving enough.
  • Also at the business meeting… Fight about important stuff like toilet paper and carpet color. Anyone who doesn’t attend the business meeting isn’t on board with the church vision and should be referred to a local “contemporary” church.

Have another business meeting with another church or churches who have made their own bold moves. This is where it gets innovative. This meeting might be with multiple churches who have all made bold moves. Now that both (all) churches at the meeting have decreased their numbers down to only the ones who want tradition it would be wise to make some drastic but wise decisions:

  • Which church building(s) is goint to be sold, abandoned, foreclosed, given to the homeless, donated to the fire department for training, etc etc?? That’s right. Consolidation is taking place. Everyone is going to have to embrace another church body for the sake of traditionalism survival.
  • Which church building is going to be kept. Hint – this would probably be the building that is hosting the meeting because everyone is at the meeting – right??
  • Which pastor(s) and staff are going to be kept? Fire all but one pastor or rotate multiple pastors? A cost analysis might be appropriate here. At first glance it might seem more than one pastor isn’t affordable, but without all those buildings to pay for it would be worth running the numbers to see. Of course their salaries could be reduced if they’re rotating or they could take turns preaching, leading singing, answering the phone, visiting hospital, mowing grass, etc to cover all the jobs each separate church building used to employ.
  • Make contingency plans for replacing the pastor(s). They’re going to die one day.
  • Just keep all the deacons at first because it will only be a few years before enough are dead to get the number of deacons back down to 12 or whatever.

In about 40 years start all over again with everything mentioned above. Why? Mortal attrition is going to bring the numbers back down to where another consolidation will be necessary.

  • What about multiplying from within? Ok, that might make it last more than 40 years but eventually little Sue isn’t going to want to marry her cousin Johnny. And marrying outside the church won’t work because outsiders might corrupt the traditionalism again. Besides there is no room in the consolidated building for an outsider. Maybe arranged marriages will work so the bloodlines can be kept far enough apart.
  • Don’t forget the bold moves. Probably should do those once or twice a year even if the multiply from within method is working – just to keep up and coming rebels flushed out.

That pretty much wraps it up for the most part. Without getting in to all the minor details this simple plan should work. 

Giving Food

August 14, 2007 in Faith and Church, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not with

A few times a year NewSpring asks everyone to bring non-perishable food items to church. We normally load up several small trailers or large moving trucks with food when we do this. It is normally for a local cause or for something specific like hurricane Katrina victims, etc. Shawna and I have found the best place to go and buy for these food drives. In fact we buy there ourselves sometimes because you can get such good deals.

The place is Bargain Foods in Pelzer. From NewSpring you go towards the jockey lot except when you get to hwy 29 you head north and then you take hwy 20 toward Williamston and Pelzer. You’ll make a right turn right before the Bi-Lo when you get to Pelzer then just keep going through town and over the river. Before long you’ll notice the big grocery store building in the middle of nothing off to the left. That is Bargain Foods.

I don’t know much about the place. They get tons of food that has either been dinged at the major chain stores (dented cans or damaged boxes, but the food is fine), or it is food that was way over stocked at the chain stores. The prices vary depending on what it is, but a lot of stuff is about 1/3 the price it would be at the chain stores. I’m not talkinga bout generic stuff either. It’s the same name brand stuff we pay ridiculous prices for at the chain stores. It is unbelievable.

When we go we usually fill up two cart loads of stuff like snacks and cereal for the kids and other items, but we’ve never spent more than $150 for two cart loads of groceries. To put it in perspective even at Wal Mart the stuff I’m talking about would cost $300 for two cart loads.

It is basically a warehouse with groceries in it and some back woods gospel music playing, but it’s worth the trip out there to save money on groceries.

Anyway… I’m saying all this to make a recommendation. If you’re reading this and planning on getting stuff for the food drive NewSpring is doing for the local Salvation Army then please consider Bargain Foods because I know you can get more bang for your buck there. More and more of us are joining the Joe Sangl crusade so we probably all have a dollar amount we’re able to allocate to buying food for the food drive. You can buy at least twice as much with that dollar amount at Bargain Foods and I’m sure Joe would support that decision…

Women’s Ministries

August 13, 2007 in Faith and Church with

Have you ever been to a church with one of thos women ministries?? If you were raised in church for any amount of time I think you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, I’m not going to be all mean about women’s ministries. I’m just going to share about this past weekend.

Shawna went with her mom to a Women of Faith conference and she loved it. She had all kinds of stories about these popular Christian women who were there, the music, the testimonies, etc. She was excited enough she said she wants to go back next year. In Shawna’s words the weekend could be summed up as encouraging rather than discouraging. She said it wasn’t the typical spiritual overload women get at other “women’s ministries” events. They weren’t bombarded with all the instructions and overwhelming demands every woman should follow if they stand a chance at being the Godly spiritual woman she is intended to be.

No – it wasn’t like that from Shawna’s point of view. She told about one speaker who spoke of the peaks and valleys in life. We’ve all heard of the peaks and valleys but what made this speaker’s talk different is she kept it real and let everyone know that we all spend most of our lives in the valleys of life rather than the peaks – so learn to live through it. She didn’t add read your bible for an hour a day, pray for two hours, blah blah blah blah other stuff. She just kept it real. It sounded like all the other speakers shared their own stories of how their lives have been a challenge but they’ve lived through it. They basically gave everyone hope that if they could live through what life has brought their way then the other women could do the same.

I’m glad she enjoyed it. I had the kids to myself and that is always fun but interesting. I was glad when Shawna got back.

Oblivion

August 9, 2007 in Faith and Church with

This week I’ve started going back to the gym early in the morning again. Shawna has changed her part time job schedule with the pregnant sickness she’s been going through so that has made it possible for me to go to the gym early – which is the best time of day to get it done. Not to mention I have some new friends who said they would see me there but they haven’t been there. That’s another story though – I’m giving them a hard time for slacking…

So I’m at the gym yesterday morning about 6:30. I notice some NewSpring folks were there, one of them being Perry. We’re all going about our business – not there to socialize. First I chose a treadmill (I like the new ones the Y has put in with TV’s on them – I can actually tolerate a treadmill like that). Next I begin to stretch a bit before starting. There are two older gentlemen on the machines to my right, and three or four people between me and Perry to my left. I’m painting a picture here in case you haven’t noticed.

All of a sudden I hear the older guys to my right talking about church stuff, and they were talking kinda loud. If Perry hadn’t had on earphones he probably would have heard them from where he was. They said some nonsense about “traditional and contemporary services” and such. Their church has tried this and that to accommodate people who like either type of service but it never works because one prevails over the other (usually the contemporary) etc. etc…

It isn’t uncommon for me to hear old-timers talking like this but when I heard the comment “we’ve lost a lot of people to NewSpring” I couldn’t believe what I heard. They weren’t really being negative as though NewSpring is a bad thing (like some people do) but the context of their “woe is me” conversation wouldn’t have been as bad if they hadn’t mentioned NewSpring. Now these guys wouldn’t know me from Adam but I would have to assume their mention of NewSpring was probably because they recognized Perry, and that’s probably what spurred the conversation in the first place.

Back to the picture… I mentioned the close proximity. I mentioned these guys were talking considerably loud. We know these guys don’t know me and they probably don’t realize they’re talking so loud. But did I mention I was wearing a BRIGHT RED NEWSPRING T-SHIRT?? For cryin out loud – these guys were oblivious.

Oblivion is probably not the most accurate way to term someone who has no clue of their surroundings, but I coined the word for that years ago when I lived in Atlanta traffic. Shawna knows that if I yell oblivious or oblivion that I’m talking about someone who is completely unaware of their surroundings or something going on around them. I am annoyed by it (even though I have no room to talk because I give others an oblivous impression sometimes because I don’t always respond to things going on around me).

Anyway, I was more and more annoyed the more these old guys talked. I wanted to look over at them and point out my bright red NewSpring t-shirt and ask them to kindly shut up about my church or I’ll fill them in on why their church is sucking wind. Instead I increased my running speed to 9.5 miles per hour so that I was the one sucking wind and couldn’t say anything to them. I felt good about doing that – both physically and mentally.

After my workout I had to experience more scarring for life in the locker room. You know what I’m talking about if you’ve read this post. I tell you – oblivion is everywhere.

Church Customer Service

August 1, 2007 in Business, Faith and Church with

I’m not talking about catering to the traditionalist who want to put more emphasis on what the church sign says than on reaching unsaved people for Christ. Just completely block that thought process out of your mind for a minute and think about what kind of experience the people you WANT to stay at your church are having. I’ll never tell what church(es) I’m talking about and don’t assume I’m talking all about NewSpring because I’m not. I’ve been to a ton of churches growing up a preachers kid. No church is perfect. There is always something that can be done better.

We all remember what the customer service is like when we go to a place of business – especially if it is bad. Well what about churches? Should they be concerned with customer service in some way? Of course! Exactly how is a challenge most churches are failing to meet but before a church can focus on that they need to identify all the customer groups they might be trying to serve.

Some of my jobs through the years have taught me that a customer is not always the people we’re trying to sell something to. It could be the department in the next office who is counting on me to perform my job so that they can do their job, such as an accounting department expecting reports from other departments. A better example might be the human resources department. The customers for a company’s HR department would be all the employees in the company who are counting on the HR people to take care of their HR needs. It would be expected that if the HR department does a poor job of customer service there will be a bunch of unhappy employees in the company.

For a church staff the customers would be more than just the regular attenders or the first time visitors. On a large church staff there are certainly particular staff positions that depend on others (like customers) to do their job (provide a service) effectively. Other customers for church staff invlolve the volunteers. The general attenders are customers to the volunteers of course. But even bigger than that the general attenders AND volunteers are customers of the staff.

Have you ever been to a place of business where you’re a regular customer and the owner knows you so you get preferential treatment? We probably all have. What about the opposite? Have you ever been a regular customer to a business that only gives good service to new customers but once they’ve “got you” the service is bad – sometimes rude and arrogant? Sure you have. If you have cable or a mobile phone you’ve experienced 2nd rate service despite being a loyal customer – or am I the only one who dreads calling those companies.

In church it works the same way. If you’ve spent any time at all in church you’ve seen the staff person who is so familiar with the regular attenders that they walk right past you without so much as a head nod so that they can go pay attention to the new visitor. It’s great to offer great service to new visitors (customers) but should the regulars at church be treated like cable customers? The opposite would be detrimental to churches too – treating the new visitors like outsiders who aren’t welcome because the regular attenders (repeat customers) get the preferential treatment.

I’ve got a good business illustration for how church staff can come across to their volunteers too. I’m a regular cable internet and mobile phone customer and any time I have to call those companies I get the same frustrating experience every time. They’re busy and they’re less than thrilled about having to troubleshoot the technical problem or they aren’t flexible to help you with something that isn’t an every day situation. But they still send me junk mail every week wanting me to buy more stuff from them. That’s kinda like the church staff person who is always unpleasant because there aren’t enough volunteers or the volunteers aren’t doing enough for them or the volunteers are showing up late, etc. But they continue to ask the same volunteers to subscribe to more volunteering despite the unpleasant experience. Eventually the volunteers get burnt out. If you read the links I linked to on Tony Morgan’s blog recently you read the wisdom of a very successful pastor on this subject – Ed Young.

(Side note – There are extreme cases in everything just like the legalistic traditionalist who has a butt mold on “their pew”. I’ve seen situations where it seemed like church staff were snotty to everyone like they have elite status being on staff or something. I’ve also seen volunteers that are almost leaches because they’re too eager to serve or they’re trying too hard to get in on the elite staff status or something, but all that’s a different subject. The point is there are always certain people attending church, working at church, or volunteering at church that screw things up).

So how does a church perfect their customer service to give the best experience to the people they want to attract and keep? I didn’t claim to have all the answers but from what I’ve seen I think it is a balancing act. For example – I’ve seen some churches do a good job just greeting everyone while others do a good job with the brief “shake hands with everyone around you” kind of thing during a service so that regulars and visitors alike experience welcomeness (I’ve also seen churches fail miserably at both approaches). Likewise, I’ve seen some churches do a great job incentivizing volunteers while others might be better at giving them purpose and inspiration. Every church has its own unique balance of what works and doesn’t to successfully serve their ‘customers’. Referring to Ed Young’s advice again – he mentioned using variety. Mix it up and keep it fresh.

Visitors aren’t coming back? Maybe the regulars or volunteers are being too clicky and the visitors don’t feel welcome. Can’t get the volunteer effort needed? Give them more than coffee and donuts as an incentive, or do more than beg and complain to encourage more participation. Knowing and understanding the balance is the first and most difficult task and after that it has to be monitored and adjusted to keep it in balance. That’s customer service, and it can apply in everything we do – including church.

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