#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

#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

Our church’s 5 year anniversary is in 33 days and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic.  So I decided it might be helpful to someone out there if I shared what were the biggest mistakes we have made since we started.  Since I don’t want my self esteem to go into the toilet, I’m also going to write 33 posts about the stuff we did right (if we can think of that many).  What’s amazing is that thinking of the mistakes were a lot easier.  Well, here goes… (By the way, these are in no particular order) #1 – I placed … Read More

I’m deeply saddened by what I read, that Raphael Palmiero tested positive for an illegal substance and was suspended for 10 games for violating Major League Baseball’s Steroid policy.  This saddens me as a baseball fan because Palmiero is such a classy player and just joined the 3,000 hit club.  But it should serve as a warning to us as leaders because it’s one mistake that can ruin your credibility. This has happened in the church too many times.  We all know the names.  But there was this lapse of reason and understanding that credibility is all that you have … Read More

I was sitting in Barnes and Noble and I was thinking about our church’s name change (which we are unveiling on August 12th for those keeping score at home). We are also tweaking our mission statement to be little more concise and we will be sharing that at the same time. So I was thinking about the mission statements that I remember. It wasn’t the most flowery statements or even the most descriptive ones. It was simplest statements that I remembered. So here are the mission statements that I thought of: Apple = Think Different Disney = To provide happiness … Read More

I’ve been reading Culture Shift by Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordiero. The book is great so far. I read a couple of lines that really hit me. I wanted to share them with you. “When asked what’s distinctive about their (Church) culture, people in too many churches admit, “I don’t know.” Or worse, they define their church’s identity by cloning the latest program that’s hot on the direct mail or conference circuit. It’s easier to duplicate than to incarnate.” Powerful stuff! It’s making me think through what makes CCML unique and distinct. Maybe I’ll post about that soon. But while … Read More