A New Blog

Over the past few months Compass Point has gone through many changes in our size and structure. As a result many of our folks have begun following my blog and Twitter to find out where God is taking me as a pastor…and Compass Point as a church. It has been with much prayer, counsel and discussion that I’ve arrived at the decision to stop really posting about the strategy, structure and ups & downs of Compass Point here…basically all of the stuff that was helpful to church planters and other church leaders. With that in mind, we have created another blog…Compass Point Pass…to still let church leaders that want to follow this experiment called Compass Point do so. Not only will you find all of our downloads, graphics and links to companies we use (for free)…it will be at Compass Point Pass that we’ll be blogging about the actual structure and strategy of how we carry out the God-given vision of Compass Point. Take a moment to head over there and check it out…and don’t forget to subscribe to the feed.

Oh Look, More Hollywood Crap

In the last 24 hours…

• Over 40,000 children worldwide died of hunger
• 845 million people worldwide went to bed hungry
• Over 3 billion people on Earth lived on less than $2
• Almost 6,000 people worldwide died from AIDS
• Over 32,000 children in Africa became orphans
• Almost 1 billion people worldwide couldn’t read a book or write their name

What are the fine and caring Hollywood actors and actresses doing? They are making cute little videos in support of the writer’s strike that is affecting Hollywood. A first year writer on a sitcom makes between $60,000 and $100,000 a year…almost below the poverty line. I can certainly see why this worthy cause deserves such charitable attention from Hollywood. Without writers…there are no scripts. Without scripts there are no television shows or movies. Without television shows and movies…actors and actresses may have to live on less than $2 a day. Hmmmmm….

I Posted To Relevant Christian

This afternoon I posted to Relevant Christian the first part in a series I’m writing entitled "True Relevance".  In less than an hour I had already irked someone off. 

Random Thoughts & Links

The following are just random thoughts on a low-key Wednesday:

1. I was planning on writing a post this week about church planters that gripe about…well…church planting.  Leave it to Gary Lamb to do it for me with this post and this follow-up post.  Good stuff!!!  Too many people are getting into church planting just because they got fired from a church, can’t take direction from senior pastors or are just too difficult to get along with other staff members of established churches.  If that’s the case…go flip burgers…you’ve got no business in ministry anyway.  Like Gary, I’m tired of lead-pastor-wannabes planting churches because they thought it’d be a cool gig and then complaining because they actually have to work at.  Shut up already!!!

2. Why is that the Christian press is always two years too late to the dance.  I love Louie and I love the Passion stuff, but…in all honesty…that’s pretty much yesterday’s news. Passion is still around and doing great things…but they were the "hot, in-thing" almost three years ago…yet, Christianity Today is acting like it’s just something that the world has discovered. 

3. What the hell was that on Sanjaya’s head last night???  This year it’s definitely "American Idiot" instead of "American Idol".  I know I should be pulling for the Christians…but they all suck this year.  God doesn’t get the glory when you suck! 

4. I have no clue what they have in the water out in California…but Dan Kimball’s "expert" take on the young 20 and 30-somethings doesn’t really reflect what Compass Point is discovering around here.  I think it is also dangerous to lump any "facts or figures" into such a large spectrum of age groups.  We are finding that the 25 and below crowd thinks completely different than the 26 and above group.

5. I’m not a huge Starbucks fan as I’m not crazy about coffee (it tastes like liquid cigarettes).  I do, however…love their marketing strategy.  Never mind that, I was reading this article about a Starbuck’ conversation and I was reminded of a Gary Lamb comment he made at the ChurchPlanters.com conference in Atlanta.  He said…and I paraphrase…don’t hang out at Starbucks if you want to reach disconnected people.  The only people that hang out at Starbucks are church planters and Christian college students.  That is so true in Lakeland!!!  When you go into a Starbucks in this town it’s filled with Southeastern University students talking about what they are going to do for the Kingdom of God…when they graduate.  It’s pathetic!!!

6. Yeah, I’m in a grumpy mood today.  I’m just sick of little people…with little vision and little work ethic that spend all day talking about what they are going to do if they get the right breaks.  How did the Kingdom of God end up with all of these wussies???  It’s a battle for people’s souls against Satan and his forces.  Armor up, grow a pair, forget about time off and take a shot…or shut up!!!

Random Thoughts & Links

The following are just random thoughts on a low-key Wednesday:

1. I was planning on writing a post this week about church planters that gripe about…well…church planting.  Leave it to Gary Lamb to do it for me with this post and this follow-up post.  Good stuff!!!  Too many people are getting into church planting just because they got fired from a church, can’t take direction from senior pastors or are just too difficult to get along with other staff members of established churches.  If that’s the case…go flip burgers…you’ve got no business in ministry anyway.  Like Gary, I’m tired of lead-pastor-wannabes planting churches because they thought it’d be a cool gig and then complaining because they actually have to work at.  Shut up already!!!

2. Why is that the Christian press is always two years too late to the dance.  I love Louie and I love the Passion stuff, but…in all honesty…that’s pretty much yesterday’s news. Passion is still around and doing great things…but they were the "hot, in-thing" almost three years ago…yet, Christianity Today is acting like it’s just something that the world has discovered. 

3. What the hell was that on Sanjaya’s head last night???  This year it’s definitely "American Idiot" instead of "American Idol".  I know I should be pulling for the Christians…but they all suck this year.  God doesn’t get the glory when you suck! 

4. I have no clue what they have in the water out in California…but Dan Kimball’s "expert" take on the young 20 and 30-somethings doesn’t really reflect what Compass Point is discovering around here.  I think it is also dangerous to lump any "facts or figures" into such a large spectrum of age groups.  We are finding that the 25 and below crowd thinks completely different than the 26 and above group.

5. I’m not a huge Starbucks fan as I’m not crazy about coffee (it tastes like liquid cigarettes).  I do, however…love their marketing strategy.  Never mind that, I was reading this article about a Starbuck’ conversation and I was reminded of a Gary Lamb comment he made at the ChurchPlanters.com conference in Atlanta.  He said…and I paraphrase…don’t hang out at Starbucks if you want to reach disconnected people.  The only people that hang out at Starbucks are church planters and Christian college students.  That is so true in Lakeland!!!  When you go into a Starbucks in this town it’s filled with Southeastern University students talking about what they are going to do for the Kingdom of God…when they graduate.  It’s pathetic!!!

6. Yeah, I’m in a grumpy mood today.  I’m just sick of little people…with little vision and little work ethic that spend all day talking about what they are going to do if they get the right breaks.  How did the Kingdom of God end up with all of these wussies???  It’s a battle for people’s souls against Satan and his forces.  Armor up, grow a pair, forget about time off and take a shot…or shut up!!!

I’ve Added A New Blogger

I added a new blogger to my links section on the righ.  His name is Tony Wheeler and the title of his blog is "The Misadventures Of A Beautiful Letdown"…one of the coolest names on the blogosphere.  He and I have been corresponding by email over the last few months I never miss dropping by his blog on a daily basis.  Go check it out when you have a chance and leave a few comments when you get there!!!

Relevant Christian

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I’m honored to be listed on the blogroll for Relevant Christian.  It’s fairly new, but their ideas and goals with the blog and podcast are exciting.  The sad thing is that on most days I don’t feel very relevant…or Christian.

Politics Goes Viral

Political ads have finally gone viral.  Barack Obama’s peolple are denying any involvement, but this video posted on YouTube is incredible.  Spoofing the original Apple "1984" video, someone spent quite a bit of time making it.  So far, no one has claimed "ownership" of the video, even though it’s received tens of thousands of hits.

It’s a new day in advertising…viral marketing is the future!!!

Journey Church’s Stage

My good friend, Adam Mayfield started a church this past February called Journey Church.  Journey meets one block from Compass Point.  Journey…like Compass Point…is a Southern Baptist church plant (don’t hold that against us).  Journey uses a compass in their logo.  Compass Point uses the word compass in its name.  Most people said that it would never work..having two churches of the same denomination…with a compass identity…launch within a mile of each other.  Most people are stupid!  It’s working and it’s fun!!!

Anyway, I stopped by Journey’s meeting space (a movie theater) yesterday morning to see their new staging.  Man it is AWESOME!!!  The folks that built it create conference displays for Fortune 500 companies.  The guy that owns the display company is related to Adam’s assistant and Journey got the stage for a song and dance.

Adam and his church have truly been blessed by God.

Come to think out it…I hate Adam! 

Go check out photos of Journey’s new stage.

A Couple Of New Links

Last night I changed my header design and added a few new links.  The first new link is Matt Mewhorter.  His folks go to Compass Point and we’ve met through them.  He’s an Emergent guy…but I love his art…and the fact that occasional he’ll take a shot at Gary Lamb on his blog. 

Another link is Ben Arment.  He absolutely sucks at replying to my emails (I think he was bothered by my assessment of Mark Batterson’s latest book), but his blog always offers up some tidbits of great info for church planters.  He’s in the middle of a relaunch and is kind of going through the whole planting process all over again.  He’s really good about updating his blog everyday so you get a wonderful glimpse into the step-by-step process of planting a new church.  Besides, the graphics and website for his church absolutely rock!!!  Ten bucks says Ben doesn’t respond with a comment to this "link love" posting either. 

Finally, there’s Kyle Meets Africa.  Kyle Mitchell is from Compass Point.  He is currently in Africa working with Book Of Hope taking the Word of God to multiple countries.  His blogging is sporadic as they are seldom not in "the bush".  However, when he does blog (about every two weeks) it is raw, stark and emotional.  Many times I have teared up reading about all of the people he is coming into to contact with and spreading the love of Christ.