My good friend Jason Reviewed my book Watermark on his blog here. My original intent was just to write the book for our church and explain baptism in very simple terms. But what has been exciting is how many other churches are using it for those who want to be baptized. Shameless plug alert: If you want to order multiple copies, don’t pay Amazon.com prices. Email me and we’ll hook it up…
Who are you trying to make it easy for?
“To make it easy for them, it’s going to be a little harder for us.” – John Solaroli (Assistant Pastor @ Calvary Fellowship with Yoda-esque wisdom) Our goal is to see people take their next steps in their walk with Jesus. So we try to give people opportunities to do so (Baptism, small groups, classes, etc…). So we give them different ways to sign up and take that step (email, web, connection center @ church, our connection card). Does this make the system more effort to manage? Yes, but we think it’s worth it because our desire is to make … Read More
Secret Shoppers…
A couple of bloggers visited our church on Sunday: Bill LaMorey, who used to be on staff with us and is now the Lead Pastor of Calvary Fellowship in Hartford, CT. Here’s his thoughts… Lew Graff, who is on a church tour of sorts, shared on his experience at CF. Here’s his thoughts…
Get Your Own!
The the challenge that every generation and person faces if the lure of living our lives out of the past. Instead of encountering our own experience with God, we live off of someone else’s faith, someone else’s stories, and someone else’s relationship with God. I think that church leaders are primarily susceptible to this. Because our history is so rich, we can rely solely of that and not on where God wants to take us next. It’s so easy for this to happen. We start making decisions like this: – “What did they do back then?” – “How would they … Read More
Endorsing a book…
I just got send a manuscript from Nelson Searcy, Pastor of The Journey in NYC. He has a new book coming out called Fusion on the subject of assimilation and he asked if I’d write an endorsement for it (my first thought was, “I think he emailed the wrong person :). I’m a big fan of Nelson’s and have gotten to know him over the last year. I love his strategic thinking and passion for people far from God. Anyway, I read the book in just a couples of days and it’s fantastic! I sent in my endorsement, but I … Read More
Pleasant Surprises…
My favorite thing in the world is when the door to my office opens and it’s Carey and Mia. We had lunch together. Carey took care of a few things she needed to for this weekend. Mia just made everyone in the office happier with her presence. I love being a dad!!!
My Baptism Dilemma
We normally do our baptisms at a Baptist church down the street and have everyone being baptized share their story before they go into the water. But this past Saturday we went back to the beach and I’m torn. I prayed as each person came forward and asked God to give me a word for them. So as they walked up, I prayed for them and spoke into their lives something that God had put in my heart. The “indoor” baptisms are great because each person’s family and friends are able to hear them tell the story of how Jesus … Read More
Book Review: The Unity Factor
The Unity Factor was recommended to me and I picked it up. I have heard a lot about what God is doing at North Coast, so I wanted to read something that Larry had written. The book wasn’t what I expected, but I still really enjoyed it. The book is about how to develop a board of directors primarily, but there are principles to leading a team that are useful in any context. I got a lot out of it from a team building perspective. I was encouraged and affirmed in that I am already doing much of this with … Read More
Why People Choose a Church
Warning: Some Pastors may be insulted by this even though it’s true… I have watched people’s habits of choosing a church for many years now and here’s what I have discovered: People choose a church the same way we choose a supermarket to frequent. It’s got to be good and close. There might be one better that we know of, but if it’s not good and close, chances are we’ll be infrequent attenders at best. Case in point: My wife and I love Whole Foods. If we could choose 1 place to buy everything, Whole Foods would be it. So … Read More
The Thing about Teaching Expositionally
I’m a verse by verse type of teacher. We do some topical series throughout the year, but I mainly preach through books of the Bible. I think it’s a great way for people to learn, but also it’s how I teach best. (Rule #1 for communicators: know thyself) Yet here’s one of the strengths that preaching expositionally has, you hit topics you might not normally hit on a strictly topical diet. Last Sunday as I am preaching through Mark, I taught on the beheading on John the Baptist (besides that John the baptist is my favorite Bible character – of … Read More
