And Then I Cried Like A Baby

I’m at home today…not what I had planned. I have vertigo and last night it decided to kick in pretty bad…which doesn’t happen often…should be better tomorrow. Anyway…my day is filled with heavy meds and much bed rest…not easy when you have ADD. I thought today was going to suck…saw the video below…and then I cried like a baby. Some of the tears I shed were for the pain I had to endure from Perry’s heretical comment concerning Clemson (everyone knows God is a Gator fan)…but they were mainly for an incredible mom…and an incredible church. All joking aside…take five minutes and check it out…it will rock your world…and your tear ducts!!!

A Phrase I Don’t Understand

There is a phrase I keep hearing over and over again…that I just don’t understand. The phrase is “getting it done”. I read it in blog posts…I hear it at conferences…and listen to pastors use it to “one up” each other. The thing I don’t understand about the phrase “getting it done”…it is almost always used when talking about worship attendance.

It would seem to me that a church that is fulfilling all areas of Matthew 28:18-20 is actually “getting it done”. That would include teaching and discipling…not just the going and baptizing part.

How can a church that baptizes 100 people a year, yet only get 1/2 of them into the discipleship process be considered “getting it done”? How can a church that has 3,000 people walking in the front door each month while 300 people walk out the back door be considered “getting it done”? How can a church with 1,500 in weekly worship attendance and less than 60% of them in a regular Bible study be considered “getting it done”?

Your thoughts???

Emergent Take 2: Naming Names

Since November I have repeatedly been asked about the response I have been getting to this post about Compass Point’s stance on Emergent. Quite honestly I have been surprised by the response. The folks that align with Emergent have been pretty positive in their responses. They…of course…disagree with Compass Point’s take on Emergent’s main spokespeople leaning more and more toward Universialism…but were thrilled that I did not name names or take shots at specific people. As a result I have remained friends with many inside the Emergent movement…and continue to have a healthy, private conversation with them.

On the other hand, those that share the same stance as Compass Point concerning Emergent have been pretty upset that I didn’t name names or take shots at specific people. They have commended me for taking a bold stand against heresy…but have also been extremely critical that I didn’t go more in depth and detailed with my blog post.

I would like to clear up a few things about me…the Lead Pastor of Compass Point…and this blog.

1. It is important to disagree in a disagreeable manner. This may not be the case for everybody with a blog or in church leadership…but it is for me. When I first started blogging I was pretty immature…and ego driven (I still fall into this trap on occasion). I would name names and take shots just for the sheer desire to get more readership of this blog. It was cheap…it was hateful…it was destructive. My grandmother used to say, “Any idiot can destroy a bridge…it takes a genius to build one”. The purpose of my post was to make a public declaration about a doctrinal stand that Compass Point was taking…not to cut off ties or start a war with the Friends of Emergent. As a result…the bridge is still there…and the friendships continue.

2. I stay in my own yard. I pastor Compass Point…I don’t pastor any other church and am therefore not responsible for any other flock. I don’t want Emergent pastors (or any other pastor for that matter) talking directly to the sheep of Compass Point…therefore I will not speak directly to the sheep of their flock. In essence, I deal with the weeds in my own yard…it is not my responsibility to weed someone else’s yard. I will not comment on what others do that I disagree with…unless those things find their way into Compass Point. The Emergent and Universalism weed had begun to grow in my yard…so I plucked it. That was only reason for the post…not take to shots at those that planted the initial seed.

3. I am not a watchman on the wall. There are many ministries out there that are called to police doctrine, church practices or a pastor’s actions and make the world aware of discrepancies with the teachings of God’s Word…I am not one of them. Other than the pastoral staff, Elders, members and attenders of Compass Point…no one else falls under my accountability. I may not agree with something a church or pastor does…but it’s not my calling to correct him…privately or through my blog.

4. If I’m not on the inside…I’m on the outside. I have no clue what the bylaws of another church say. I am not privy to the inner turmoil that caused a staff member to be fired somewhere else. I was not in on any of the meetings when another group of church leaders determined the doctrinal foundation for their church. Basically, the only thing I know for sure…is what happens at Compass Point. I have felt the sting and pain of accusations from others…when they don’t have a freakin’ clue about what went on within the inner workings of Compass Point. I’m certainly not going to subject others to it just because I’ve formed a feeble opinion based on an outside view.

5. My time is limited. I really don’t have the time, resources or help to research every church movement, pastor, book or strategy out there that I may have a problem with. The “No Friend Of Emergent” post took several weeks to write…mainly because I didn’t have a lot of time to concentrate on it or complete it all in one sitting. I am called to be a Godly husband to my wife and a shepherd to the flock of Compass Point. If I’m spending time cyber-arguing on blogs, commenting about everything that gets my dander up and writing lengthy posts about everything I have a doctrinal beef with…then I am disobeying God’s calling on my life…and wasting His time.

In conclusion…I didn’t name names when I initially wrote the post…and I won’t be naming them today…or in the future. Compass Point’s leadership took the stand we thought was best for our sheep after much prayer and outside counsel.  We Biblically removed the wolves…took steps to make sure that the same problems don’t arise again…and have moved on. I doubt I’ll ever be addressing it again through this blog.

Servant Evangelism Myths

Every since Compass Point launched three years ago we have been conducting servant evangelism projects throughout Polk County. We have met some really great people, impacted thousands of lives and have seen God move in mighty ways. However, the main reason we do servant evangelism is not for what is does for the people of Lakeland…but for the people of Compass Point. The internal benefits far out weigh the external benefits…it makes our people think outside of themselves and fulfill the calling of Christ in the Gospels. As far as the external benefits…well there seems to be a lot of myths floating around the “church world” about that. I thought I would take some time and dispel a few that we learned about the hard way.

MYTH #1 - Servant evangelism helps get your church’s name out in the community. - If you do servant evangelism correctly, the name of Christ is proclaimed and not your church’s. In fact the less your church is named (a website address is all that we use - no logos, addresses or service times) the better off you are. Unchurched people can sniff out bad cheese like no one else…they get turned off BIG TIME when you give out free gas and then pimp your church the whole time they are filling up their car. In essence servant evangelism and marketing should never go hand-in-hand.

MYTH #2 - Servant evangelism can bring about life-change in unchurched people. In some rare cases yes, but in most cases disconnected people are just trying to get as much free stuff as they can. Ever since the dawn of the “Baby Boomers” America has gotten more and more lazy…looking for a free hand out. We have found people scamming us by sending twenty-eight of their “children” up to us just so they can get a free month’s supply of bottled water. It’s sad…but that’s how many people roll in the United States these days.

MYTH #3 - Servant evangelism will cause unchurched people to come to your church. I honestly can’t tell you one unchurched person that has come to Compass Point as a result of our “Outflow Teams”. I can give you a fairly large list of people we have prayed for, stayed in contact with and began a relationship with as the result of our servant evangelism projects. We feel that it will pay off in the end…but there are no hard numbers to back up the need for servant evangelism.

MYTH #4 - Servant evangelism will cause the press to take notice. In a few smaller cities where “Ghostbusters” is still making it’s first run and leg warmers are the “hot ticket item” at the county WalMart servant evangelism still causes a stir among the press. However, in most cities it’s been so over done…and wrongly done…that most newspaper editors, television producers and radio station managers take a pass on covering it.

MYTH #5 - Servant evangelism helps to change people’s negative thoughts about church. Not in any way, shape or form. There are two reasons for this…

1. There are plenty of churches in America that are doing so much stupid stuff that no amount of servant projects can change people’s negative opinions.
2. The Bible tells us that if we love Christ…the world will hate us…no matter how many free car washes you have or bottled water you give out…nothing is going to change that.

MYTH #6 - Servant evangelism is a great way to lead people to Christ. Maybe in the long run…not so much in the short run. The conversation is just too short per person for a proper verbal presentation of the Gospel…and handing out free Starbuck’s gift cards doesn’t exactly convey the “Four Spiritual Laws” or the “Romans’ Road”. Free coffee is a wonderful thing…but does very little in convincing people they are sinners in need of a Savior.

MYTH #7 - Servant evangelism is something everyone can participate in. This depends on your perspective of Scripture. The Body has many parts with many functions…not everyone is suppose to do everything. The reality is that some people just can’t do servant evangelism. Some are too timid to actually walk up to someone with a free can of Pepsi. Some are just so aggressive that they try to tackle anyone that doesn’t take a free donut. Still others are not called to servant evangelism…they are here to fulfill another purpose in God’s Kingdom.

MYTH #8 - Servant evangelism will grow your church. Again…this depends on your perspective. Servant evangelism will rarely grow the church numerically all by itself. It will, however grow your people in their faith in God’s guidance, expand their ability to think of others before themselves and create a deeper desire to see people come to Christ. In the end it is more the byproduct of servant evangelism…than servant evangelism itself…that can help take your church to another level.

Apparently I’m Heading To Africa

I got an email this morning from a local newspaper reporter asking me about my upcoming mission trip to Uganda.  It was news to me…so I Googled myself and it’s seems that Chris Elrod is indeed heading to Africa.  Go here and scroll down the page to see what I’m talking about.  Apparently, I’m also a top real estate agent in Nashville…and gay. 

Seriously, a bunch of Christian bloggers are heading to Africa with the fine folks from Compassion International for ministry and to report what they experience on their blogs.  The Chris Elrod referred to in the blog post is actually Randy Elrod’s wife. Randy and Chris use to be at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks in Largo back during my comedy days.  The church brought me into their Smiley’s Coffeehouse one night for a concert.  Half the church showed up thinking that their Music Minister’s wife was launching a stand-up comedy career. 

One of my favorite people and bloggers…Carlos Whitaker…will also make the trip.  Please remember them in prayer…as well as the people they will encounter.  I can’t wait to read what they write once the trip is done!!!

Just a side note to the other Chris Elrod - If you ever want to acquire ChrisElrod.com…I’ll be more than happy to trade you for it.  Let’s see…how about my domain name for an even trade on this house you are selling in Nashville.  That seems fair to me. 

Part IV: The Conclusions

Now that the story has been told…it’s time to add a few final observations, comments and conclusions. I came close to not posting any of it for fear of offending friends, being too open, being seen as a negative person, people getting the wrong idea…and of other pastors trying copy what we are doing…thus perpetuating the clone cycle.

I want to make a few things perfectly clear…

1. Compass Point is not a huge church. Most other pastors that blog are reaching thousands. Compass Point is reaching dozens and sometimes hundreds during any given week. We are not a success compared to what is seen as successful churches these days. That is fine with us…but might not be fine with you. We are reaching people that no other church in Lakeland is reaching…thus it means slow growth…but no overnight success. So I wanted to give full disclosure…nothing I wrote about will make you a megachurch in 30 days or less. I think it will eventually…but who knows?
2. The things we are seeing in Lakeland…most other communities in America are not seeing (maybe they are and I just don’t know it). We are growing into a very large town…a bedroom community for Orlando and Tampa. Most of the folks here are blue collar workers, lower income white collar and artsy college students. What works for us will probably not work for you.
3. The folks that we are reaching…and the numbers we are seeing…doesn’t look too good on paper or in denominational reports. But it sure is rewarding…and humbling.
4. I have nothing against megachurches, modern worship technology or stool-sitting communicators. Those things are fine and work in many situations around the country. They didn’t work for us or our people…so we ditched them.
5. While the leadership of Compass Point and I have limited the amount of input from other resources…it doesn’t mean we have completely cut them out of our lives. We still read books, check out blogs, hang out with other pastors, listen to podcasts and go to conferences. However, we make sure the resources more closely match the direction that Compass Point is moving and are affecting the kind of folks that Compass Point is reaching (more on that in a later post). God uses others to speak to pastors…it would be pretty dumb to ignore what other churches and pastors are doing.
6. This is all still just an experiment. In the end we could be really wrong…and wouldn’t you look like the fool for following what God called us to do.
7. There are a bunch of people going to Hell everyday. There are way better things to do than argue over what may or may not be the best church planting or outreach strategies out there. The purpose of the posts were to help others avoid the mistakes we made…convey what was working for us…but not to start some asinine online argument.
8. So far the negative emails about the series have been criticizing my honesty. Look guys…church planting isn’t easy…and some days just stink!!! If you want cute, happy stories there are plenty of blogs out there that will pump sunshine up your skirt. This isn’t one of them. I love church planting…I love being a shepherd…I love being used by God…I’m having the time of my life right now….but I refuse to pretend that there aren’t difficult days…or that I know what I’m doing. If I knew what I was doing I wouldn’t have to worry about seeking God’s guidance everyday…and someone would ask me to speak at a pastor’s conference.

Now it’s time to move on…

The “Secret” To Church Growth

I have alluded to the fact that the third year of Compass Point’s existience was the most difficult and rewarding in our history.  I’ll share about that in more detail sometime this week or next.  However, I think one of the benefits from this year has been that I’ve discovered the “secret”…or rather “secrets” to church growth.  They are…

1. Follow others.
2. Follow God.

Both will acheieve growth in attendance.  However, only one will acheive growth in baptisms, discipleship, leadership development and truly carrying out the “Great Commission”.  For the shepherding-disabled…that would be the second one listed above.

Though I have never really talked about it on my blog for fear of sounding like a name dropper…I have been honored that men like Shawn Lovejoy, Perry Noble and Dr. Ed Stetzer have taken the time to converse with me about church leadership.  All of them at one point or another in our discussions have talked about limiting input from other sources and just getting in tune with what God was revealing…what His vision is.  It took it a while for the message to get through my thick skull…but once it did things began to change for the better around Compass Point.

I am not opposed to learning as much as I can about church processes and structure from other resources.  I am not opposed to learning how to streamline church strategy from blogs, books, magazines, podcasts or other church leaders.  However, I have learned that it is not okay to get vision from any other source but God.  Vision from other resources can grow a church in the short term…but it cannot grow the Kingdom of God in the long term.

Too many times we as church planters and leaders read about…or hear about…great churches doing great things…and we fall in love with their vision and their flock.  We try to reproduce that in our own communities with our own churches…and deep down I feel that is a sin. When I say sin I mean as in the actual disobedience of not following God’s revelation in our lives.  He calls us to be at work in our community in the way in which He guides us…and we ignore that to chase the latest, greatest church strategy concept so we can sit at the cool kid’s table at a pastor’s conferences.  You can’t call it anything else but sin.

True Kingdom growth by the church you lead can only come from true vision provided by God.  It took me three years to learn to put down the latest business leadership book, turn off the church growth podcast on my iPod, switch off the growth strategy DVD on my  television, set aside the church leadership seminar notes, attend a few less pastor’s conferences…and just take a bunch of time to get with God…and listen.

Church growth is easy…Kingdom growth entails following God…and God alone!!!

Things That Worked For Us In 2007

In contrast to my other 2007 review post here is a list of things that worked for us this year at Compass Point.  It’s a pretty small and simple list…but was hard to come by (more on that in a later post).  We tried most everything else out there to grow a church…only to throw in the towel…and come back to the basics.  In 2007 what worked for us was…

1. We studied the Bible.
2. We followed the Bible.
3. We preached the Bible.
4. Finally, we prayed about everything before we did it…no matter how big or small.

This list reminds me of that scene in the movie “Bull Durham” where the coach is talking to the team in the locker room and says, “Baseball is a simple game.  You throw the ball…you hit the ball…you catch the ball.” 

Seriously…the marketing, technology, programing, music style, etc. is all just window-dressing.  The real meat is with the vision…and you can’t get it…or pass it on…without doing all of the stuff listed above.

Things That Didn’t Work In 2007

Around this time of the year most bloggers are putting up “best of” lists. Leave it to me to put up a “worst of” list. I’m beginning to realize just how different Compass Point is from other churches around Lakeland and the United States. What works everywhere else usually bombs here. 2007 was Compass Point’s third year as a church plant and we did a lot of experimenting…and discovering. When we started the year we were still trying to flesh out who we were…by the time the year ended we knew. The following is a short list of things that didn’t work for us in 2007. It is not to say it wouldn’t work in other churches…it just bombed for Compass Point.

1. Topical messages series as the norm. In 2007 we started the year doing one topical messages series after another. It bombed. We began tp realize that our folks…and the unchurched people they brought with them…we hungry for a deeper teaching of God’s Word. I am not saying that any and all topical preaching is not deep…just the stuff we were doing wasn’t deep. We we just threw out the cute themes, graphics and sermon notes…and concentrated on preaching through a whole book of the Bible…it seemed to click for us. We still do topical series about three times a year (no more than four weeks at a time). The rest of the time it is expository preaching through the whole counsel of God’s Word.

2. Anything affiliated with a movie, television show or the culturally cool. Basing marketing and message series on LOST, Spiderman, 24, sex, bling, Desperate Housewives, etc. works in other churches…but crashes and burns at Compass Point. Our people have a low threshold for cheese…and anything associated with television shows, motion pictures or the latest cool thing…is cheese. We learned that the hard way with the “Evan Almighty” push.

3. Servant evangelism as an organized thing. No offense to my emerging brothers and sisters…but not everyone is called to feed homeless people. After we tried a church-wide, organized servant outreach push…it bombed. That is when we started taking the Scriptures about the body of Christ being separate parts functioning as one unit seriously. There are certain people at Compass Point that love to feed homeless people…there are certain folks that don’t. There are certain people that like setting up sound equipment at 6:00AM on Sundays….there are certain people that don’t. Compass Point needs both types of folks to do what God called us to do. We’ve stopped trying to force people to be “emerging” and just let them do what gifted them for. It’s working for us.

4. Marketing. I have no clue why marketing doesn’t work for us. Some of the disconnected folks coming to Compass Point say they came because “we didn’t send another stupid postcard to their mailbox.” That may be true…a bunch of churches in town send out mass mailing and bombard the local cable television with ads. Most of it is cheesy (see #2 on this list). We’ve put some invite cards into our folks hands to give out if they ask people to come to Compass Point…and that has seemed to work. Our attempts this year to truly market just tanked…hard. We doubled in attendance and tripled in giving…when we just stopped trying to put our name out there…and started trying to put Christ’s name out there. Go figure.

5. Functioning without structure, parameters, accountability and rules. We always prided ourselves with being a church that could make changes quickly. In order for that to happen we had little structure and almost no parameters. It looks cool…sounds cool…it isn’t cool. It is one of the main reasons we couldn’t take the next steps because you can’t manage what you can’t measure. Without parameters, written expectations and doctrinal guidelines we were failing fast. In September we started talking to some other churches about what they do. In October we went up to the “Best Practices Practicum” (there’s another one coming up May 12-13, 2008…don’t miss it) at Mountain Lake Church in the Atlanta area and hung out with Shawn Lovejoy and his staff. God literally used it to save Compass Point Church. We came back with ideas, plans…and most importantly parameters. We are going into 2008 with bylaws, leadership structure, job descriptions, doctrinal guidelines, rules, regulations, evaluations, budgets. etc. It has rocked our world for the better!!!

6. The junk we found in leadership and business books, magazines or podcasts. The secular world is not the Christian world. Companies are trying to make billions…churches are trying to reach people for Christ. Businesses have the idea that first is best…Christ said the first had to be last. Companies are trying to get ahead as quick as they can…churches are suppose to take the time to disciple. Trying to apply anything from a Fortune 500 company to a church is like trying to mix oil and water. We tried it…it was stupid…it bombed. We chunked the business books in 2007 and started reading the Bible. Way better stuff about leadership in it…not to mention it’s Godly leadership. Enough said.

7. Bigger is better. This isn’t a shot at megachurches…just something we discovered for ourselves. At Compass Point every time we tried to do something huge or really hype something…it bombed. The whole “be sure to be there next Sunday because we have a HUGE announcement that is going to totally change Compass Point in a HUGE way because I’m so pumped about it” fell into the cheese category for us…and thus came crashing to the ground. We discovered..the hard way…that our folks hate hype, but love to be crammed in. We stopped the hard push on events and started downsizing our meeting space. Last month we went from using all of the gymnasium to only using half. Our people loved it…and brought a bunch of new people the following weeks. In a time when most churches struggle with attendance because of the holidays…we had record attendance and salvation responses.

8. Winging, stealing, copying or borrowing sermons. Trying to use what God laid on other pastor’s hearts…and waiting until the last minute to prepare for the message I was going to bring…just wasn’t working. In October we just ditched it. When I get a little burned out from preaching week after to week these days…I just take a Sunday or two off and let someone else have it. Though I must admit I don’t take that many Sundays off these days from burnout. Spending more time in God’s Word each week and having an structured study and prayer regiment has opened up so many new avenues for fresh preaching and sermon ideas.

9. Lack of spiritual discipline. The whole “go along to get along” concept works well in liberal politics…but has no place in the church. We were so afraid of offending people and running off disconnected people that Compass Point allowed anything in the doors. Consequently there were various types of cancer within our midst. You can only do two things with cancer…cure it or cut it out. We spent too much time in 2007 trying to cure cancer to no avail. We learned that many times the best Biblical approach was to cut it out. It sounds harsh…it sounds unloving…but mostly is sounds Scriptural. It is not easy…it is painful…it is needed for both the church and the person causing the offense. It is rare…it is a last resort…it is something that Compass Point no longer puts off doing when needed.

10. Trying to be a communicator. The whole sitting on a stool sipping coffee calmly talking into a Countryman mic strapped over my ear just wasn’t working for Compass Point or me. I grew up listening to “fire and brimstone” preachers like Sam Cathey. I use to be comedian that walked all over the stage with a microphone in my hand. This whole civilized sit down and teach thing was not what God designed me to be. I am a preacher. I get loud…I get animated…I get up and walk around. I think of myself more of a barbarian in the pulpit than a statesman. In November we chunked the stool, canned the coffee and ditched the Countryman mic. God began to move, I got energized and the folks of Compass Point responded. We discovered that a mule may not be as pretty as a stallion…but most folks relate to the mule.

My Favorite Post Of 2007

This post got me in an international Associated Press article and on Fox News. This post received the most flaming emails. This post received the most criticism from other blogs. This post caused the biggest hits ever to my blog. However, it is the following post from June 11th that is my favorite from 2007. The cloning of churches in America is one of my biggest pet peeves and this post is probably the closest to my heart over the last year. I have reposted it for those that initially missed it.

CLONES

I’m a clone.
I know it and I’m fine.
I’m one and more are on the way!
- Alice Cooper in “Clones (We’re All)”

Clones are everywhere. Everyone is “real, relevant and relational”. Everyone is “doing church differently”. Everyone is “authentic”. Everyone is a “new community of faith”. Everyone…is beginning to look the same.

The same tag lines. The same lighting system. The same message series. The same praise band. The same videos. The same…welll…the same.

You’ve never seen church like this? You can’t throw a rock in any direction in America without hitting a church that looks like that!!!

It started out with a few in each town. They did it…and did it well. They reached people for Christ, baptized them, discipled them and then shepherd them into leadership. It was successful. It was incredible. It was a mighty tool for the Kingdom of God. It was yesterday!

Move on. Think outside the box. Be creative. Innovate. Paint a new picture on a blank canvas. Color beyond the lines. Invent. Redefine. Provide an alternative. Imagine. Inspire. Be original. Become the first. Lead the way. Raise the bar. Blaze a new trail. Go where no man has gone before. See past the horizon. Dream. Dream big. Dream new!!!

Whatever you do, aspire to be more…than just a clone. The Kingdom of God…and a lost world…needs it.