I was suffering from a severe case of munchies this afternoon and so I decided rather than eat my way out of the temptation I would type my way.  Allow me to live vicariously through my blog pretending I’m eating my favorite snack foods.

If I could eat anything, with no concern for the calories, fat content, or detriment to my body or health, the top 10 things I would eat lots of:

1.    Jelly beans (I have a special craving for them lately, especially unique flavored jelly beans.)
2.    Gummi Bears and Starbursts (pink, orange and red only!)
3.    Pies and cakes made by someone’s grandmother.
4.    Chips and pretzels
5.    Ice Cream
6.    Chocolate (I will eat dark, but if there are no concern why would you not do milk chocolate?)
7.    Fried chicken (Left over fried chicken is an awesome snack food)
8.    This amazing cupcake covered in chocolate fudge icing that I found in Louisville.  (I still have dreams about that cupcake.)
9.    This amazing iced-covered sugar cookie ice cream sandwich that I found in Hopkinsville.  (A pregnant woman and her husband from our church was with Cheryl and me when I had this and she has craved one every day since.)
10.     Fresh fruit.

What would be on your list?  Perhaps compiling your list would make you feel better like it did me.)

Here’s a principle of leadership we are learning the hard way as a church plant.

It is easier to loosen structure over time than to add more structure to an established organization.

We started, as most church plants and new organizations do, with loose rules and fun times. There were just a few of us and we didn’t need much in the way of structured systems. In fact, some of us were running from the strict structure of larger environments. What we have realized, as we’ve gotten to be one of those larger environments, is that we need more structure in place in order for growth to continue. We need some rules to help level the playing field among staff and volunteers, making things fair for everyone, improve accountability, and insure we are good stewards of the resources entrusted to us. We need to use words like policies and manuals and enforce office hours and do staff evaluations and offer constructive criticism and keep an organizational calendar and….well, you get the idea. We have to put on our big boy clothes and be a real organization.

I have warned the staff, although I’m not sure any of us fully comprehend yet, that when we start creating structure, the structured side of my personality (strong “J” on the Myers Briggs Personality indicator and an “A” type personality) will insist that we live by that structure. It would have probably been easier had we started with some of this structure before we got big enough to need it.

Just sayin…

Grace Community Church is co-sponsoring an Easter Egg Hunt with Christian radio station WayFM. The event is on Saturday, April 4th from 2 to 3:30 PM at River View Mounds Century Farm.  There will be lots of events for children besides the egg hunt.

I have recently been asked, not by someone from our church but from the community,  why a church would do an Easter Egg Hunt. Their arguement being that Easter is about Jesus, the cross and the resurrection, not about Easter bunnies, colored eggs or chocolate. I completely agree with that statement. The difference for us as a church is that we are trying to reach those who don’t even care to hear our “Easter Story”, but they are interested in Easter bunnies, colored eggs and chocolate.

At this event we are putting Scripture in the eggs, as well as stickers with a Christian theme in the preschool eggs and we will have a storyteller on hand to creatively tell the resurrection story and why we celebrate Easter to children who wish to listen.

Grace people, let’s get the word out to our community and have a great event. Let’s continue to show our community how much we care. Only then will they want to know our life-changing story of the cross and redemption.

What are your thoughts?

Facebook announced today that it is addressing the criticisms received from 1 million of their 200 million subscribers to the new Facebook design.  Read this article on the changes HERE. 

The thing I find interesting is the speed of reaction.  This is a redesign of a design that had recently been redesigned.  I don’t remember when the latest changes were made, but it hasn’t been long. Facebook is obviously an “in the NOW” organization, fully capable of making major changes to its product at the pulse of its customer’s wishes.  Has there even been a faster response rate by a company that wasn’t caused by some crisis situation? 

It makes me think of a few questions:

1.  Is the speed of change and adapting to customer demands seen by Facebook going to force other companies or organizations to be equally as fast to respond?
2. Will there ever be a Facebook design that satisfies everyone?  What if 1 million complain when the next changes are revealed?
3. Obviously 1 million people are a lot of people, but out of 200 million subscribers, that’s half of 1%.  Is that enough to cause a company to react in this way? 
4. Did you like the new Facebook design? 

You can connect with me on Facebook HERE. 

Recently I wrote this post about the increase in stress as our church continues to grow. Several responded via Twitter and Facebook that said things like “You don’t seem to get stressed about anything” or “I wish you would give us details”.

Well, first I need to explain that perception is not always reality.  People are surprised to hear I’m an introvert or to know that I still get nervous when I preach.  I am and I do.

Often it seems the demands placed on us exceed the strength, wisdom and resources we have to meet them.  Philippians 4:13 seems to indicate otherwise, (I can do all things through Him who strengthens me) but I still struggle at times to try to handle things on my own.

Getting to the place where we don’t allow stress to control us or keep us from being effective in life is a process.  I have found it improves some with age and maturity.  You come to realize some things just don’t matter. In some people’s case a lot has to do with personality.  My 20-year-old, a “P” on the Myers Briggs Temperament, rarely stresses about anything.  Most of us, however, need a little help dealing with stress.

As a teacher, and because I was asked repeatedly, I will share some tips I have found effective in battling stress.

• Prayer.  God really does answer this request.
• Time management.  Most times a good schedule will greatly diminish stress.
• Exercise. This may be my best secret for battling stress. The more stressed I am the more I need to run.
• Disciplined life.  There are activities and habits that add to stress.  If you stay up way too late and never get enough rest, your stress-factor will increase.
• Balance. You have to learn to say “No” to some things and balance your time between all the things that pull for your attention.
• Not allowing problems to build long without addressing them.  If a relationship is causing stress, the sooner you deal with it the quicker you will find relief.
• Asking for help.  When I am really at my wits-end with stress, I am not too proud to tell someone.

What tips do you have for people to lower their stress?  What do you do to handle stress?

Did you know Detroit is printing its own money?  Karen in our office sent me an article today that made me think about our economy.  Apparently some small business owners in Detroit, a city which has been devastated more than most by the current economy, have taken things into their own hands.  They are printing their own currency.   Read the story HERE. 

I guess it would work in my neighborhood also.  If I print some cash from my study to pay my neighbor to mow my lawn, he might accept it if the market down the street would accept the homemade dough to pay for his groceries. The grocer could then use this money to shop a neighborhood yard sale.  Our neighborhood economy would be instantly improved, all with a good computer and some high quality ink. 

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not making light of a serious situation.  I know firsthand people who are looking for work and struggling to meet their obligations.  My poor attempt at humor is to illustrate a point.  The basic key to a capitalistic economy is perception. The dollar is worth what people perceive it to be worth.  When working people begin to feel better about their current situation they will spend money again.  The economy will improve when people’s perception of the economy improves. 

I often hear church planters say to expect to lose half the original core members within the first year of a new church plant. While I agree that is the trend, I don’t think it has to be that way.  I am now in my second plant.  With this second church we went about the core selection in a very methodical way, fully intending to keep all original core members if possible.

I love the fact that 3 and half years after we launched every one of our core members are still actively supporting Grace Community Church.  (We did have one couple move, but we knew they were going to before we launched and they return often and still support us financially.  Another couple moved to accept a call to ministry, but they are back with us at the time of this post waiting for God’s next assignment for them.)

As the founding pastor, I actually interviewed all potential core members a couple of months before we had our first informational meeting.  (I have a co-pastor, but he had not committed to the plant at this step in our formation.)  Everyone I talked with was told they “may receive an invitation in the coming weeks to an informational meeting”.  Not everyone I talked with was invited.  It wasn’t that they weren’t great people.  In fact, I only talked with great people. It was that we were looking for some certain characteristics of great people.

What makes a successful core group?  Some of these we didn’t understand until a year or more into our launch, but we are so glad God led us to these characteristics.

Here are the common characteristics of our original core members:

1.    The people were placed on our hearts before we ever approached them. Cheryl and I both agreed I should talk with each one.

2.    They were passionate about the church plant from the first conversation. We didn’t have to talk them into being core members. You might say we looked for the Mary heart not the Zechariah heart. (Luke 1) If they asked “When?” it was different then if they asked “Why?”

3.    They had a holy discontent with their current walk with Christ.  They knew they wanted something more, but didn’t know how to address it.

4.    They understood and were willing to own the vision as their own. They were willing to sacrifice and, once we started, would have planted the church even if no one else ever came.

5.    They planned from the beginning to contribute time, money and resources to the cause. (Everyone assumed responsibility.)

6.    Although not a requirement, every man I met with (I met individually with the man first) got teary-eyed during the initial conversation about the church plant.

Obviously planting a church should be a work of the Holy Spirit.  As you are praying for the people God wants to use in this way, trust the impressions He places on your heart.  You are certainly not a failure should you lose core members. I would encourage people to go elsewhere if their heart is not in it, but I do believe it is possible to keep all core members in a new church plant.

If you are a church planter or part of a church plant, how did you find core members?

We recently began video-taping our services, which for me seems kind of scary, since I’m often the one on camera, but today I talked about the foundations of our faith examining the life of Abraham.  The key to a Biblical faith is that it is based on a personal trust in the person of Christ and the promises God has made.  (You may see me tear up a bit during this service….sorry about that.  It doesn’t happen every week.)

You can watch 10 minutes of the service here. You must loginto TruthCasting to watch the full length service (and see me cry).   Your email address is only used as a login and gives you the ability to forward this message.

Cheryl and I were driving in Nashville today and she said, “Speed limit strictly enforced” as she read a sign on the roadside.  I knew what she meant.  She thought I was driving too fast.  I Twittered this and got several comments on Twitter and Facebook from other women regarding their own tactics to subtly tell their husband they are driving too fast. 

Here are some comments Cheryl has used before:

“Wow, I didn’t know the speed limit was 35 here.” 

“They must really be strict about speeding on this road, because I’ve seen several people pulled over lately.” 

“I wonder how much speeding tickets are now.”

“I’ve noticed Jeremy (our son) sure has been driving fast lately.  I don’t know where he gets that from.” 

“We don’t ever get to just talk.   Let’s just slow down today, take it easy, and catch up.”  (Okay, she hasn’t actually used that one, but it’s only because she hasn’t thought of it yet.) 

So my question is: Why not just say, “YOU ARE DRIVING TOO FAST YOU IDIOT!”? I think I’d understand that one better.  When talking to men, it’s best to be direct.  They may get mad at first, but that’s the way we handle things.   (For more on this subject, read my post “My Right to Get Angry/Your Right to Cry”) 

Women, what tactics do you have to get your man to slow down?   (or speed up as the case may be)