I’m wiped out tonight. Here are a few things on my mind before I crash:
- I love my bride so much. I’m grateful for her influence in my life, kids and church.
- The atmosphere was great this morning at C3 but our attendance was down.
- Dallas stinks
- FSU doesn’t
- Florida - that’s just hilarious
- Praying through some major decisions
- I’ve challenged the people of C3 to bring a special offering next Sunday and bring a guest as celebrate the 1st anniversary of the sale of the old campus.
- I can’t wait for next Sunday morning, seriously I need it now!
- Baptism tonight was great - I love hearing people’s stories and hanging out with them.
- Christmas will be here soon - I love Christmas.
- Dallas stinks.
- and finally, Dallas stinks.
Recently, one of the guys on my team overheard a conversation at a local coffee shop. Two pastors were talking about church. One asked, “so what is our win?” to which the other replied, “seeing people come to Christ.“ Then the response. The response floors me, but honestly it’s reality for many churches. The response was, “of course that’s not going to happen every week!”
WHAT?! Hold up. What does it say if we as leaders have that philosophy? What does it say about the state of our churches if that statement is true? Why do we think in terms of what we know is a win being impossible?
At C3, not only is people coming to Christ our main win, it does in fact happen just about every Sunday. In fact it’s extremely rare if we don’t have some people make decisions for Christ. And I know of many other churches that are seeing people come to Christ almost every week as well.
Pastors, we have to dream bigger. If we buy into reaching people being occasional rather than continual, our people will believe the same thing. We don’t have to accept that our passion and mission are dead before they’re even launched. We don’t have to think small and redefine what a real win is because we think the main win is unattainable. It’s not. The life-changing message of Christ is just as real and powerful and has just as much traction in this culture as ever. So, if you’re not seeing people come to Christ continually, perhaps it’s not the message, but the way in which it’s packaged - or a lack of our people delivering that package throughout the week.
There is no greater win, or more achievable goal, than people experiencing life-change through Christ weekly. Dream big, then make sure all the systems are in place to achieve the dream. Don’t settle. Create a culture of investing in relationships and inviting people to a life-changing experience on the weekends - keep the truth simple and applicable and watch God do what he does daily… win people!
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I’ve been asked who I’m voting for, so I decided it’s time to let you know.
I just finished an in depth conversation with Ethan (our youngest, he’s 7). He informed me that he’s the superstar student of the week, so he got to write on the board what he wants to be when he grows up. He put, “run for President.” I asked him how that was going and he said he has every vote in his class but one. When I asked if I could vote for him he said, “Dad, I’m going to be President when I grow up, you’ll be too old to vote, rules are rules.”
Then I asked him what bills he would sign into law. He answered, “I would make prices cheaper… and definitely no taxes!”
Well, he’s only 7, and we can’t even be sure he’ll be able to do what he’s promising - but I think I’ll vote for him because I like what he says!
Oh, you thought I was really going to tell you… pleazzee brotha!!!
In August we decide to make a major change @ C3. I wrote about it here. We actually asked people to renew their membership to C3. Church membership should mean something, but it should never give false impressions or false hope. There are thousands of people who have their names on church memberships but they never attend, invite, serve, pray for or give to the church. That’s ridiculous!
At C3, being a part of the movement means something! A few years ago when I became pastor of the church that birthed C3, we had over 4,000 members! At least that’s what the records said, but it was B.S. (below the standard…). Contrary to some inflated opinions we never averaged more than about 1,600. We never saw most of them and the F.B.I. couldn’t have found half of them - but to our denomination (and for them) it looked really good.
We just don’t flow that way at C3. Today our membership is 313. That’s right. But those 313 are committed to attending, praying for, inviting to, serving through and financially investing in C3. What I love is that we actually run hundreds more on Sundays now than our membership - we have less members than our attendance, and growing. In Thom Rainer’s new work, “Essential Church?” one of the things he talks about is expectations - at C3 we’ve raised them and it’s causing greater impact in this movement!
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