This Is Too Funny

I blew my morning Coke all over the computer screen when it showed the guy’s feet dangling. The dude kind of reminds me of “Mad Jack“….which has quickly become one of my favorite Internet stars. Thanks to Rich/Luthsem for giving me a head’s up on the video above.

My Two Hats

In my calling I wear two hats.  One hat is that of a shepherd…one that leads, guides and helps the sheep.  It involves going after the one that is lost…provide comfort for the one that is distraught…and actively love the one that feels that there is no hope.  The other hat I wear is that of a preacher…one that must bring forth the Word of God without compromise.  It involves teaching the truths of the Bible without cultural interference…a desire to confront sin where ever it may lurk…and a willingness to live or die by the Scriptural revelations.  Half of the sheep want me to wear only one hat…half of the sheep want me to wear the other.  The God that I serve…the Maker of this universe…the Creator of Truth…the One that called me…wants me to always wear both.  Some days that is difficult…but it is what is needed in today’s society!!!

“The times demand Christian courage. These days, courage means that preachers and Christian leaders must set an agenda for biblical confrontation, and not shrink from dealing with the full range of issues…” - Dr. Albert Mohler

Why We Don’t Do Sex Series…

I got a kick out of reading Bob Franquiz’s post today about their upcoming sex series.  He’s a great pastor…with a great church…doing some great things in the Miami area.  I guess the biggest kick for me about the post is that he can do a series on sex…at Compass Point it would work against us.

You see we reach some pretty bizarre people…with some pretty “colorful” pasts.  The first counseling session I ever did as the pastor of Compass Point was to convince a young married couple to stop using multiple partners.  Seems the husband would bring guys home from work several times a month to…hmmmm…”enjoy” his wife.  The second counseling session I ever had was with the same couple…to convince them that…while we enjoyed the tithe on Sundays…they should really stop selling the videos online of the wife with the guys from work (no, I never saw them even though the husband kept bragging about the production quality). 

Seldom is a week that goes by that I’m not dealing with someone…or some couple…about not having “relations” until they are married.  The general thought from unchurched folks around here is that you should live together before you get married…so you can “kick the tires” and make sure the “thing will run” before you commit to the “purchase”.  Our youth guy is dealing with middle schoolers (yes, I said middle schoolers..as in 12 & 13-years-old) that are having full-on intercourse. We’ve had more swingers come through our doors than I ever knew existed.  For most pastors they have to warn their flocks not to bring porno into the house.  For me…I have to warn our people to stop making pornos.  I mean…we live in redneck, backwoods, “country values” Polk County…yet people are living some pretty sick and “active”  lives.

In essence, what I’m saying is that a message series about sex is good for other churches…but not for us.  I don’t need our flock having better sex, more Biblical sex, intimate monogamous sex or more romantic sex.  I need most of our flock to stop having sex!!! 

First I’ll Evolve, Then I’ll Unleash And Then I’ll Go Exponential

If you are a church planter, church leader…or thinking about being one…I cannot stress enough the need to go to the “Evolve Conference” (February 18-19) by Mountain Lake Church in Atlanta (Cumming), Georgia, the “Unleash Conference” (March 13) by Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina and the “Exponential Conference” (April 21-24) in Orlando. I’ll be taking the entire Compass Point staff to “Evolve” and several young leaders-in-training to “Unleash”. Since “Exponential” is in our backyard…we’ll be taking a bunch of people from our church (lay leaders, staff, Elders, etc.) back and forth each day. All of these conferences are very affordable, have some of the best church plant pastors lined up to speak and offer great opportunities to network with some of today’s top church leaders. If you are planning to go to these conferences…drop me an email or put a comment on this post so we can make plans to hook up. Again…get these on your calendar and get registered…QUICK…they are filling up fast!!!

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.

The Title Of Lead Pastor

At Compass Point we take the titles of our leaders very seriously. We don’t set a title just because some other church has done it…or it looks cool. We mainly give a leader a title for two reasons:

1. To clearly communicate to the flock of Compass Point what that leader’s role is.
2. To remind the leader what they are there for as a servant to God and as a shepherd to Compass Point.

Over the last few months I have noticed some bloggers kind of taking shots at the title of Lead Pastor. I can only speak for myself and why I have the title of Lead Pastor at Compass Point. It is solely for the the second reason listed above.

I truly believe that the head earthly shepherd of a flock should be leading out in all areas of spiritual development and example. I think that the CEO model of church leadership is flawed and is not in any way Biblical. The idea that the Lead Pastor…Senior Pastor…sits in an office, only interacts with the top level leaders, studies for preaching 50 hours a week and never gets out among disconnected people was not an example set by Jesus Christ. I realize that there comes a numeric size in church where it becomes difficult for a pastor to do everything…to be there for everyone…we are seeing that firsthand at Compass Point right now. I also realize that there has to be times when teaching, preaching and leading pastors shut out the world to concentrate on God. However, being an example and setting the bar for accountability, lifestyle, discipleship and evangelism is something a Lead Pastor or Senior Pastor should never delegate.

The reason that I prayerfully chose the title of Lead Pastor over Senior Pastor is strictly a reminder to me that I’m not a CEO setting at the top of major corporation barking out orders to my underlings. It is a title that reminds me that I have to be out in front actively leading others to do the things for which God has called us to do as followers of Christ and the Bible. It reminds me that I must be more than just a hearer of His Word…but an actual doer of His Word. I should always being setting the example by leading out in…

• Developing a more deeper personal relationship with God.
• Developing a more deeper understanding of God’s Word.
• Spending many hours a week in Bible study and serious prayer.
• Being a Godly, loving husband that knows when to say “no” to the outside world.
• Living a life above reproach.
• Leading my family in the ways of the Lord.
• Modeling submission to proper accountability.
• Fleeing from all appearances of evil.
• Knowing good, sound doctrine and being able to convey that to others.
• Planting Scriptural seed in the lives of those I come in contact with.
• Being open and active in the areas where the Holy Spirit is watering planted seed.
• Mentoring those that can take the next steps in following God’s calling for their lives.
• Encouraging folks to really development an intimate relationship with our Father.
• Developing authentic relationship with others…both believes and non-believers.
• Physically helping around the church.
• Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.
• Being a friend to “the least of these”.
• Displaying wisdom in the things that I say, do…and write (I struggle in this area)
• Not allowing “snakes in the playground” by tolerating bad doctrine or false teaching.
• Go to places that Jesus would have gone…which isn’t always the four walls of the church.
• Being a shepherd…not a CEO…to the flock of Compass Point.

Seldom is a day when I am not giving out my business card to someone. I’m reminded each time I see my title on the card…that as the Lead Pastor of Compass Point…I am to do more than just tell people how to live their lives according to the Scriptures…I am also to show it.

Accountability: The Bible

Over the last several months God has really been laying into me about accountability. Not only accountability to make sure we are following God’s Word as a church….but also personal accountability in my own life.

For years I had friends…three in particular from my Prison Fellowship days…that I could share anything with and thus I felt totally accountable to them. I guess that in itself is the main difficulty in true accountability…finding people I can be totally honest with that can also be truly honest with me.

With me no longer working with Prison Fellowship on a regular basis, there became a need for new accountability. I still talk with those three dear “prison” friends very often, but our lives don’t intersect enough for them to know me on a day-by-day basis. They also have never really had any ties with Compass Point…so it would be impossible for them to also provide accountability for the church.

The accountability process I now have in my life…and the life of Compass Point…has been…and will continue to be…a growing process. Accountability is based…not only on Scripture and God’s leading…but also on unwavering trust in another human being. With that in mind, over the next several set of posts I will lay out a brief sketch of my accountability structure. I’ll start with…

THE BIBLE – It begins and ends here. If it’s not Scriptural…not just one verse taken out of context but according to the whole counsel of God’s Word…I do my best to flee from it. This is also the case with Compass Point.

In order to do this I must be…my accountability partners must be…the Elders of Compass Point Church must…scholars of God’s Word. That means that I am daily reading from Scripture, but also several times a week pouring into it for hours at a times. I will admit…there are times that as a pastor of a growing church…”life stuff” and “ministry stuff” gets in the way. I really have to block out time when the phone is turned off, the world is shut out and I just spend uninterrupted time in God’s Word.

As I’ve said before my greatest regret is not finishing seminary (something I will rectify one year from now…more on that in a later post). However, I do not let that stop me from being a scholar of the Word of God. I read MacArthur commentaries like most pastors read business or leadership books. I almost always have one with me and I really use them as a text book. While I study hard for what I’m going to be preaching on…at least once a week I spend several hours studying something I have no current plans to present to my flock. This is done for my own growth and knowledge…something just for me…that I look forward to.

Finally, I have QuickVerse loaded up in my Mac (my main way of studying…but I wish they’d get MacArthur’s stuff on Mac) and I use Sprugeon’s “Morning And Evening” as a daily devotional…well…morning and evening.

Other accountability measures to follow…