Can A Pastor Have A Friend?

The longer I pastor, the more I wonder if a pastor can successfully pastor a friend. I can remember John Maxwell sharing that it can be lonely for a leader at the top. Some in the congregation may befriend the pastor for the wrong reason. What are your thouts?

a New Addiction!

Pastoring a church with so many in recovery, I see people who switch addictions; and if not careful, the damage can be just as devastating.

From you perspective' how can we encourage people to love Jesus passionately without falling into the trap becoming addicted to ministry?

Go SpeedRacer!

I had a recent experience of a lifetime. About one hundred people from our church came out to see me in a stock car race. I was only the passenger; but what a thrill. The driver leads our Raceway Ministry. He prays with the racers and pit crews every Saturday night before the races begin. We have a biker ministry; and, of course our recovery ministry is the fastest growing ministry in the church. How are you reaching people in "outside the box" ways?

Apple or PC?

Which do you use for your worship services? What program(s) do you use or recommend for churches and leaders?

Personally, I'm on the verge of making the switch - getting tired of the PC experience (anti-virus ugrade scams....pc slowdowns, etc...) What are your thoughts?

Fall Quarter Kick Off

This Wednesday we will have a Fall Quarter Barbeque Kick Off to announce our fall programs. (pulled pork & beef brisket - yum)

This will include a revamp of our college/carreer class, new marriage class, financial class, connections, etc.

Personally, I will be launching a new mentorship group on Wednesday mornings.

There always seems to be a lot of momentum during this season.

"Beyond The First Visit"

A few weeks ago I was preaching Jr/High School camps for the Central Cal District. While in my "Man Cave" otherwise known as my modest sleeping quarters I read a book by Gary Mcintosh called "Beyond The First Visit". I want to reccommend this to all of our leaders due to it's simplistic but all to often ignored truths. Several months ago we (our team) began asking some very tough but necessary questions about the "Connectivity" of our church and found this book to be helpful and confirmational to our many discussions. In this book Gary deals with churches and how they handle "Guests" beyond the first visit, an area we and too many other churches struggle in. He covers first impressions, facilities, follow up, intentional discipleship and much much more. We have made some very tough choices in letting some ministries die and letting some leaders go in our church. We have also spent countless hours creating a path for our guests to not only come and experience Legacy, but how they can connect beyond their first visit and this book has helped. Hope you enjoy the book and if you do, let me know what you got from it. If you have already read it, what did you like about it?

1 church, 2 campuses

Eddie raised a great question last week about merging churches. In So Cal we have a number of churches 30 min or less from one another but in different cities. It was mentioned last week in Eddie's blogs about pastor's operating outside their gifting meaning that some should be assisting i n a church and not leading a church. Maybe something for some of us to consider is those pastors who are capable to maybe take on one of those struggling churches that is somewhat close but in another city and place a campus pastor there. Those who have proven that they can build and lead a congregation could take on one of the smaller struggling churches and merge them into 1 church, 2 campuses type of thing. I realize that some of those who "hold credentials" or are looking for "a place to preach" may get upset and it goes against the norm for us but we need to consider the ongoing problem of finding someone to "fill the pulpit". I as a board member hate putting someone in a church simply because we don't have anyone else! We have some great visionary leaders who pastor near struggling churches who could help lead that church into health. We have some hard choices to make and talking about them is only a start!

Your Thoughts!