Happy birthday Sesame Street!

On November 10, 2009, the longest running children’s television show will be 40 years old.   You can read more about it HERE.  The fictional neighborhood characters have been engaging and teaching children most of my life.  I was 5 years old when Sesame Street hit our black and white, rabbit-eared television for the first time.  For a compilation news coverage from multiple sources to detail the history and evolution of the show and examining how these changes have affected the relevance of the show, click HERE.

What I love about this program is that in spite of competition from other shows and other things that draw kid’s attention, Sesame Street isn’t giving up their vision that if you capture the child’s mind you can teach them has never changed. The also have a great, fun website for children of all ages.  Click HERE for that link.

Today they are revamping some of their format, but their desire is ultimately to achieve the same results.

Just for fun, play along with me and tell me who your favorite character of all time is from Sesame Street.  I’ve created a fast, two question survey.

Click on this sentence to be taken to the survey. (I will share the results soon, so answer quickly please.)

Did you watch Sesame Street when you were younger?  Do you watch it today?  Do your kids?

For more thoughts about parenting click HERE.

I was honored this week when Jesse Phillips with CatalystSpace blog called me a “seasoned leader”. I feel I still have more to learn than I have learned, but it did cause me to reflect on some of the experiences I have had and people that have influenced me in my leadership ability.

Here are a few of those experiences and people that quickly come to my mind:

When I was in high school I served as student body president of a large, new school. My principal gave me freedom to do things most students never get to do. We wrote the student government constitution, organized clubs, hosted assemblies, and had a load of fun doing so. (I saw my principal recently and thanked him again for his influence. He taught me to release responsibility to people early and be willing to take a risk on others.)

I worked full-time all the way through college. As a sophomore, I became a retail department manager of a large store. Most days I was in over my head, but one of my colleagues was an older, mature, retired businessman. Although he technically “worked” for me, he taught me more about leading people than I could learn in college. (I learned to listen to those with more wisdom than me.)

I remained in retail after college, completed a management-training program for Belk Stores Services, and then served in several positions over a few year period. When my family began to grow, I decided to look for better working hours and so I became an independent insurance agent for Farmers Insurance Group. I was extremely successful in this venture and learned the principles of building something from nothing, marketing, and managing cash flow. (Funny how much those skills are needed in church planting!)

An opportunity to buy a small manufacturing company came available, and I convinced my wife to join me. We closed out successful careers to chase a dream. If it could go wrong, it did, and we sold within 5 years to the first serious buyer to come along. Through that negative experience, however, I learned huge principles of taking risks, leading under pressure, managing stress, to not run when things are difficult, and ways to overcome obstacles.  (Failure sometimes teaches us our biggest lessons.)

When God called me into ministry, He had me begin with nothing, then quickly sent me to an old, historic church seeking to rebuild. That rebuilding experience led to my first church planting type environment and it was there God instilled in me a passion for church growth and ultimately the desire for church planting.  I left this church to become involved  my first church plant and, a few years later, God called me to plant the church where I am today. Today God is still allowing the experiences and people in my life to shape my leadership abilities.

Where did you learn leadership? Who are the people and what are the experiences that have shaped the leader you are today?

For some of my leadership principles, click HERE.

In our series “Hot Topics”, where our people were able to text in their greatest questions about God, the Bible, life, etc., one of the biggest areas of questions centered around the issue of the afterlife.  Apparently people want to know what’s next….imagine that.  There is a lot of fear associated with this topic, mostly because of the unknowns. In this message I tried to address some of the most repeated questions we received. (Unfortunately it makes you go to the Truthcasting site after 10 minutes.)

Dr. J F Burney

(1929 to 2009)

My father-in-law was one of the strongest men I know. Into his late 70’s he could outwork most men in their 20’s.  He learned to work hard the old fashioned way.  He had to in order to survive.  He is truly a rags-to-riches kind of story, rising from the poverty of a single mother’s home to the prominence of President of Civitan International and the Dean of Business and Professional Studies at Austin Peay State University.

Dr. Burney was a true southern gentleman whose name is his honor.  Throughout the community he is remembered for the life he lived and the influence he made.  The joke when I married Cheryl was that I wanted into the family for the political connections it would bring. Some even said I wanted to improve my reputation. While that wasn’t my motivation, (Cheryl was) I’m certain it did and I couldn’t be more proud of that fact.

Dr. J (no period) F (no period) Burney was a down-to-earth scholar. Dr. Burney, well known for his creative ways of making people laugh, used his intelligence to keep a sharp, keen wit and sense of humor ever before him, even to his last days.   Dr. Burney never forgot his humble roots.  He could be just as at ease with leading dignitaries and businesspeople as he could be with those of lesser means.  His humility in serving others was Christ-like. Although Dr. Burney was an accountant by trade and education, he was a servant by heart.  Through his efforts and dedication, our community was made a better place, from providing programs for the handicapped to treatment for those seeking kidney treatments.

Perhaps one of his greatest accomplishments, however, was building a strong family and home environment.  The tables are always crowded at the Burney home, welcoming visitors locally and across the globe.  I never knew who would show up at family gatherings.  His children and grandchildren were his treasure and his gift to them is a lasting heritage.

God bless the memory of Dr. J F Burney.

In the four years Grace Community Church has been a church we have received much praise from people that love what we do.  Hundreds of lost, hurting people have chosen to unite with us.  We have had some previously churched people join us who felt we were a better fit for them or their family, but mostly we have reached people who previously did not attend church.  Most exciting to us is that we have baptized more adults than children in our four years, indicating to us that we are truly evangelizing and not just helping people swap churches.  It has been a wild, exciting, thrilling time watching God shape us over these first few years.

Along with the praise, however, there have also been many false assumptions and even criticisms made about who we are as a church and who we are not, mostly from people who do church in a different way from us. It seems I hear a new wave of those each time we have a growth spurt, which we are currently in this fall. The fact is that we are not the church for everyone, but that has been hard for some people to understand.

Here are a few false assumptions that come to my mind about who we are or are not as a church:

• We get many offers to host an evangelist or hold a revival, but if you advertise your speaking ministry in a 3-piece suit, you are probably not a good fit for our church.  For some churches that would work fine, but for our church it’s just not a good fit.  Please don’t be offended by that.
• We frequently get request from other family or friends of people asking, “Can you send someone to visit _______?” We don’t knock on doors or do home visitation.  It’s not that we don’t care, but it is simply not our method of recruitment.  Again, for some churches this works great, but we are trying a different approach.
• We get many requests to book groups for special music venues, but if you sing Southern Gospel music exclusively, you are probably not a good fit for our church… I even love some Southern Gospel music, but it’s not the style we have chosen for our church.
• Yes, it’s true we don’t currently advertise unless it is to support a cause we believe it, but not for the purposes of increasing church attendance. We think that should happen as our people invite their friends and family…
• Yes, it’s true we allow people to serve in most volunteer positions without first passing a litmus test.  We believe (and have seen) that serving can often help change a person’s life.
• We don’t have Sunday school, but we do teach the Bible.  We do small group meetings in the homes…
• If the Bible makes an issue clear, we land on that clarity.  If it is simply a matter of tradition, me may dismiss it if it gets in the way of our vision to reach people for Christ.
• With the previous said, we do have some traditions.  We meet at the same time and place each week, for example, but everything traditional is subject to change.  We actually like change if it helps us better complete our vision.
• We haven’t watered down the Gospel…
• We haven’t tried to alter the way to salvation… (It’s all Jesus for us too!)
• We aren’t trying to offend you…but if you are offended by how we do church, we are probably not the church for you….
• We don’t believe we are the only church in town where people can find truth…
• We are not the church for everyone, but we are a church…
• We aren’t like every other church.  That in itself doesn’t make us better or worse…

…We just do church differently.  Please do not be offended just because we are different.  It takes all of us working together, even though we look different on Sunday mornings, to do the Kingdom work.  Look at our people, see if they are becoming more like Christ, loving God and loving people more, and make assumptions based on those results.

The great news is that we are a church for many people.  If you are not currently attending a church and maybe have had some false notions about church yourself, come give us a visit soon.  You may be surprised how much fun we have!   And, by the way, everything you hear about how friendly our church is, how much we love our community, and how welcoming we are to others….ALL TRUE!

Are there any false assumptions made about your church?

As we announced Sunday, Grace Community Church has purchased 58 acres of land on Dunlop Lane, just a couple miles from our current meeting location and down the road from our community’s new hospital. We are excited about the future. To answer some of the questions we did not have time to share Sunday, I wanted to share some details about this process.

Grace was only six months old when a member in our church heard about an incredible deal on 79 acres of land one day and called me on the phone immediately. (Interestingly, a member of another church in town called him about the land.) Within a few short days, after meeting and praying with numerous leaders in our church, we had purchased the property. That seemed at the time to be a wise investment. I still completely agree that it was.

In the next couple years several things happened that helped shape our plans for a future building location.

• The growth focus of our community shifted to another side of town.
• Our church outgrew the rented facility where we launched.
• Renting a school became an option. It had previously not been.
• We moved to the center of the largest growth area of our community.
• We began to reach people from a broader area of our county than previously targeted.
• We sold 20 unbuildable acres of our 79 acres.
• We paid off our existing property.

With those dynamics in place, the leadership of the church began to pray about what God would have us do in regards to property. Sensing we needed to explore other options near our current meeting location, we asked a small team of people in our church to search for available properties. When we discovered land available to us at an incredible price, considering the cost of land in the high-growth area, we decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up and we initiated the purchase of a new 58-acre track of land. We also entertained offers on the remainder of our existing property and it appears we will sell it within a matter of weeks.

With this new purchase, several things need to be understood:

• The vision of the church has never changed. We want to produce “growing followers of Jesus Christ.”
• The passion for our community is even greater than when we started.
• The future is brighter than we could have imagined.
• We love and are investing in our community even more than ever before.
• Our focus remains on blessing the community as much as our church with our property and any building we ever build.

It is exciting to watch what God has planned for us. We continue to seek His will, knowing that we can only act upon what we know today. His plans for us continue to be bigger than we might have dreamed.

Has Grace Community Church made a difference in your life?

Do you marvel at the way God does things at times? Have you watched His plans be bigger than yours?

For other posts about Grace Community Church click HERE.

Don’t say no to opportunities…say yes to an organized plan…

People always ask me how I do it all…

The truth is I don’t…

I just have a plan for my life…

And I do the things that fit in that plan…

I hear people say, “I know I need to be ______, but I don’t have time”….

I say “Yes” to Twitter and Facebook, for example, because right now, it works in that plan….(You can read about how that works HERE.)

But I don’t play Mafia Wars on Facebook either…

Why?  It doesn’t fit in the plan…

I don’t read everyone’s status updates or look at all the pictures either…

Why?  Same reason…

It’s more important that I’m there….making a presence….building connections…

That’s the plan…

Saying no is not the answer….

Saying yes to a plan is…

What are you not doing that you should be doing, because you don’t have a well-defined plan for your life?

“So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.”

In case you ever get into a close game of Bible trivia, here’s a good question: Who was afraid so he or she pretended to be insane?

In addition, He’ll do the same for you and me!

What’s making you afraid these days?