#4 – I was afraid to teach on stewardship Nobody likes to talk about money. Mostlybecause we don’t want to get lumped into the whole "TV Preacher begging for money"camp. But what it took me a while to realize is that I was robbing people of theopportunity and joy of giving to God. So I decided to start being intentional aboutteaching on stewardship. We hosted Crown seminars, Crown small groups, andstewardship messages at appropriate times. Do you know what I found? People thankedme for teaching on the subject of money. This is a mistake I never want to repeat.God promises … Read More

#4 – We made training a priority One of the things we have done well is make training a priority on our staff.  I buy books for our staff to read and even give office time to read them. We discuss what we are reading and talk about the ideas they give us. I do a training session with our staff every month discussingdifferent areas of ministry. We also go to conferences that we feel will help us be more effective.  Before I went into ministry, I had a boss that was serious about traning.  We asked him about it … Read More

#3 – I tried to be someone else When we started Calvary Fellowship, I started listening and reading to everything I could on the subject of church. What happened is that I started trying things, not because it fit with our strategy and vision, but because it worked for so-and-so. The result as you could imagine was hit or miss at best.  I’m glad I finally woke up to the fact that God wants to do something unique with me and our church that might have elements of what others have done, but it’s the complete package that’s unique. When … Read More

#3 – Unchurched people love us This has not always been the case with us.  The first year of our church, I don’t remember 1 unchurched person that came to faith at Calvary.  Some people made recommitments, but none that I know of were first time commitments to Jesus.  I thank God that has changed.  Our last baptism saw 30 people go public with their faithand most of those were people who started following Jesus at our church!  The change took place when we decided to confront reality and then got intentional about reaching unchurched people.  I´m glad we made … Read More

#2 – I have made some great hiring decisions The team I have is amazing! There is no way our church would be as effective as we are without them. These guys are gifted, passionate, sacrificial, talented, and godly. Their understanding of our style of ministry, their loyalty to me and the church, their relentless desire to see God’s vision accomplished in our area leaves me in awe. These guys don’t just work for me at church, they are like my family. They come over my house on Christmas and Easter. It’s not just about work. We’re doing life together. … Read More

#2 – I gave too much of my time away to complainers This is still a struggle for me. My curse is that I want to know what’s going on and that gets me into trouble. There are so many amazing people at Calvary that I want to give my time to and invest in, but somehow I end up sitting in my office listening to complaints about the decibel levels of the music, my choice of sermon topics, or some other misunderstanding. There are days that it takes every ounce of self-control that I possess to keep from going … Read More

#1 – We haven’t been afraid to experiment I think one of our greatest strengths as a church has been our lack of fear in trying new things and experimenting with new ideas.  Sometimes that hasn’t always worked out, but it has created a culture of change where people are willing to try new things and "work with us" as we’re experimenting.  This has happened because we have an amazing group of people that call Calvary Fellowship home.  How did we grow this change-friendly culture?  That’s easy.  We just started changing things.  I don’t know if there’s any other way … Read More