- Great night tonight
- Really different, but a great night
- To emphasize how many people it takes to make Revolution happen, we had “no show Saturday“
- It was the best way we could think of to emphasize how much our volunteers do to make Revolution happen
- Without them, our church would not be able to last
- Instead of telling our church that, we showed them
- It was pretty eye opening and incredibly awkward
- I don’t know if people felt it, but tonight was one of the most personal messages I have ever preached at Revolution
- I am humbled by the leaders I work with and that so many people have bought into the vision of Revolution
- If you missed tonight, you can listen to it here
- Tonight was really a culmination of spiritual readiness, something we as a church and leaders have been trying to get better at and make more of a priority
- Been reading The Contemplative Pastor this week and have been really challenged by the ideas of what it means to spiritually direct a church
- Lots of good thoughts
- Went out to dinner with some new Revolutionaries
- They were 3 Ph.D. students in Reformation History
- Fascinating discussions
- Love hearing how people find Revolution and how excited they are about Revolution
- Right now, God is moving in so many powerful ways at Revolution
- Have my coaching network call this week
- This month has really stretched my thinking as it is all about preaching and calling people to a decision or some kind of action
- Hoping to get better at this in my preaching
- If you have not picked up Carlos Whittaker’s new EP, you need to
- Got to hang out with some church planters this past week and have some more on the schedule this week
- Love hearing about how God is working in Tucson and what is working at other churches
- We have our second small group tomorrow
- What I love about this small group is how diverse the group is and how many people in the group are in a group for the first time
- We announced tonight about Rev Up starting in the next month
- If you are a parent of a student, mark February 13th on your calendar
- Cody and Hannah will be having an informational meeting that night after the service
- Came across this this week on Clayton King’s blog: How to pray for your pastor
- Had three second time guests tell me tonight, “Your follow up is awesome”
- Excited for next week
- Not only to have all of our volutneers back and the band is going to rock out
- But my mom will be there
- Always love being able to speak when my family is there
- Going to sit back and watch some Saturday Night Live with Katie
Archives
All posts for the month January, 2010
Tonight I preached on Nehemiah 3 at Revolution. You can listen to it here.
Nehemiah 3 seems to be just a list of names, most of them are difficult to pronounce. But as a leader, those names matter. The book of Nehemiah is mostly made up of the journal of Nehemiah. I can imagine Nehemiah sitting at his desk in the candlelight writing out of each of those names with tears streaming down in his cheeks.
Most leaders will talk about how important vision is and vision matters. Nehemiah 1 & 2 are about the vision and plan that God has placed on Nehemiah’s heart. And then we get to Nehemiah 3, the list of names. “A page out of the Jerusalem phone book” as Mark Driscoll calls it. What seems like a waste of a page in the Bible might be the most important chapter in the book of Nehemiah. Without those names, the wall never gets built.
Now, I realize one could make the case that without Nehemiah and his vision the wall doesn’t get built either. Which is true. But every leader (Nehemiah included) would say, without the names in chapter 3, Nehemiah is just a man with a dream.
I am reminded every Saturday night how important all of the leaders who lead with me are. Without them, Revolution does not exist. Nehemiah 3 resonates so deeply with me as a leader because of the great honor I have to serve with the leaders I do. Men and women who give up hours to make Revolution a reality. Men and women who show up early and stay late, who lead groups, set up stuff, do follow up, print and fold paper, position lights, run sound, play instruments, teach and love on kids and students. All because they believe in a man and a dream.
Nehemiah 3 is not just a list of names. It is the realization of one man and what it takes to make a dream come true.
- 10 power principles on church strategy. These are 10 principles we work hard to keep in mind at Revolution.
- Tony Morgan on It’s about life change, stupid.
- Ed Stetzer on Missing the missional mark.
- If you are on twitter, here are 111 can’t miss twitter tools.
- Perry Noble on the Difference between a coach and a critic part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.
- Clayton King on How to pray for your pastor. I can’t tell you how important it is and how grateful Katie and I are when people are praying for us.
- Tim Keller’s review on The Shack. Great review of this book. As always, Tim says it better than all of us.
- Scott Thomas on How can a loving God allow devastation in Haiti (and in my life)?
- Ten reasons churches stall. Great article on how to keep your church healthy, vital and growing.
Saturday we are continuing our series in Nehemiah at Revolution.
The last 3 weeks have been nothing short of amazing. We have had 2 of our highest attendances the last two weeks, and we are seeing God do awesome things in the lives of Revolutionaries.
This coming Saturday will be unlike any other Saturday in the history of Revolution. We are doing something we have never done, it is going to be a night to remember.
It is going to be a night that you will have to see to believe.
See you at 5 this Saturday.
For the last 3 weeks as we have been going through the book of Nehemiah at Revolution, I have been clarifying the win for Revolution. I have been defining for our church who we are, who we are trying to reach, how we plan to do that, why we think this way, etc.
The response has been overwhelming. The excitement among Revolutionaries who have been with us from the beginning, all the way to first time guests has been awesome. Hearing stories about life change, having courage to invite that friend to church, taking first steps in tithing, being in groups, serving.
And on top of that, we have had two of our highest attendances in the last two weeks! We have had to put in more chairs each week and we are seeing God do things we only dreamed about 14 months ago when we got started. And the cool part is we are only scratching the surface.
But past the celebrations about what God is doing, lies how to get there. To get there, requires vision, prayer, planning, and a team. All the things Nehemiah had. But, there is a dark side to vision and it is this side that keeps leaders and churches from having one and moving forward. And ultimately, it keeps God from using them. These churches and leaders would never say this, but God doesn’t use them because they don’t want to be used. The biggest killer of vision is complacency, comfort, what has always been.
Vision divides. Vision draws a line in the sand. Vision says, “This is the win. This is what we are about.”
John Maxwell said, “Vision is everything for a leader. It is utterly indispensable. Why? Because vision leads the leader. It paints the target. It sparks and fuels the fire within, and draws him forward. It is also the fire lighter for others who follow that leader. Show me a leader without vision, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t going anywhere. At best, he is traveling in circles.”
For Revolution, our vision is right up there with our core beliefs about Jesus, the Bible, heaven and hell. We are not looking to debate them. We want as many people as possible to buy in and be a part of what God is doing and will do at Revolution, but we will not sway on them.
I remember once speaking to a group of pastors at a conference and I asked them to write down why their church existed and who they were trying to reach. Many of them sat with blank stares for several minutes without writing anything down.
Vision is not just important because it is good business or because it is right. Vision is important because God calls us to have it. Proverbs 29:18 says “Without vision, the people cast off restraint (or the people are discouraged).” Vision matters in business, but it matters even more within the church because there is more at stake. We aren’t selling something, we are helping people find their way back to God. We are talking about eternities, people’s lives, the way kids are raised, the way marriages are done, the way money is handled, we are talking about heaven and hell.
It needs to be clear.
I am in a lead pastor coaching network with Nelson Searcy. One of the things he talks about is the area of spiritual readiness. Many churches and pastors (and Revolution/I) operate with a “wait and see” approach.
Here is what I mean:
- Ask a church how they follow up with new believers and they will say they will know when they have one.
- Ask when the next baptism is scheduled and they will say, “When we have someone to baptize.”
The point is, God works in people’s lives and in churches who are ready for Him to work. We need to be spiritually ready.
We started taking a proactive approach in the recent months. We put a baby/child dedication on the calendar without having anyone ask for it and had 3 families.
We put a baptism on the calendar for February 20th, even though we don’t know how many we will baptize. If you want to be baptized, just email Christe LePeau.
We raised up leaders to start a student ministry when we had 1 or 2 students. Since starting to plan and making it public, we have almost 10 in less than a month!
Bottom line. God moves in churches that are ready and expect Him to move. That is what being spiritually ready is all about. Asking God to move and then being ready for Him to move.
- Unbelievable night tonight
- Blown away by how God is working at Revolution and the people he is entrusting to us
- We had our 2nd highest attendance ever
- I was reminded tonight looking at our church worship, just how much God has done in the last 15 months
- Tonight was all about clarifying the win for Revolution
- Who are we trying to reach, why we are trying to reach them
- Here is some of what I said
- One thing I laid out when it comes to vision and what I shared tonight was “vision answers the why question, not the how”
- We’re still figuring out the how
- But we know the why of our vision
- One thing I have learned about vision is, it divides, it draws a line in the sand
- No matter what you say though, your vision is always misunderstood and misconstrued
- Which is okay too
- I love the example of Nehemiah when the critics showed up at the end of chapter 2
- He lovingly but firmly said, “We hear you, but here is the win for us” and then moved on with the vision they felt like God gave him
- Tonight laid out one of the hills Revolution has chosen to die on
- If you missed tonight, you can listen to it here
- So many people signing up for small groups tonight
- If you want to join a group, you can sign up online or email Christe LePeau
- Read a great book this week, that if you are exploring Christianity, you should definitely read, if you are unsure why you believe what you do about, you should read this book
- It was excellent
- Heard from so many first and second time guests tonight who were pumped about finding Revolution
- I love the excitement of new Revolutionaries and how God is growing a force that wants to see this city changed
- So excited about our small group starting tomorrow
- Most of the people in our group are people we don’t know, it will be great getting to know some other Revolutionaries
- It was sad to see the last Tonight Show with Conan O’ Brien last night
- He will be missed
- We’re also hanging out with some neighbors this week
- One thing that has been on mine and Katie’s heart has been our neighborhood and being more intentional about getting to know our neighbors to “invest and invite” them to church
- Got a huge day of meetings on Tuesday
- Meeting with someone about a potential mission opportunity for our church to be involved in
- Meeting with Cody to talk about Rev Up
- Ever since we announced we are starting a student ministry, God is sending us families with students
- It is awesome
- We are having a baptism on February 20th, so if you would like to take that step, just email me
- My heart is just full right now with all the things God is doing people’s lives at Revolution and the people’s lives He is stirring in that we will be a part of reaching in the coming months
- Revolutionaries, be praying for our church, for protection from critics and how Satan would like to derail us, and that God will continue to use us to reach people
- Come early next week, we keep packing it out
