Jason Roy is the lead singer/founder of the well known, Dove Award winning Christian band Building 429. Recently Jason has a new title in addition to the lead singer role. Jason has joined us at Grace Community Church as our worship pastor. The plan is to do both. We are excited about the prospect, but this obviously raises questions in some people’s minds as to how the two will work together. Jason agreed recently to sit down and talk about his new role with me. Here is that interview:

What does “Building 429” mean?

It’s based on Ephesians 429, which says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

We wanted to take the word building from a noun to a verb and make it a challenge for the way we live our life so that any person that hears our music or buys our products becomes more Christ-like in everything they do and say.

Talk for a minute about your heart for Grace. What attracts you to this particular church?

Since day one, my wife and I were looking for a church where we could be a part of and raise our family when we are home. We were wanting pastors that both challenge the people, but live transparent lives in front of their people was important to us. We wanted a church that would be the hands and feet of Jesus, which we found through Operation Serve and other ministries of Grace. (Cortni, Jason’s wife was a huge part of bringing Operation Serve to the church.)

How will this relationship work? Will Building 429 continue?

Building 429 will continue. We are blessed to be in a position where we can slow down some and choose the dates we put on our calendar. I have felt strongly that from a ministry perspective there was a piece of my heart that was not fully developed on the road. That missing piece is the ability to connect and develop long-term and lasting relationships. I desire to invest in other worshipping musicians and allow to invest in me. In this type of situation, it appears that both sides of my life will compliment and help strengthen each other. I’m a worshipper at heart, but will be able to continue to write songs and lead a band when not at Grace. It’s a great partnership.

I would want people to understand that both of these are still exciting opportunities for me. I believe Building 429 still has incredible opportunities to minister to people. I know God continues to challenge me to write new songs of worship. Without a doubt God is using Grace Community Church in this community and region. I’m excited to see how God has me in the middle of such incredible work in each of these areas.

What will your role be at Grace?

I am the worship pastor, leading, guiding and directing the worship aspect of the church. I will be responsible for developing new leaders in the ministry within the church body. I will also be a team member with the rest of the amazing Grace staff.

How did this change come about in your life?

I have spent the last 2 to 3 years wondering if God was calling me to a position at the local church level, always saying internally that Grace was the perfect scenario for a home for me, never knowing if it would even work. God has opened a huge door of opportunity for me that creates opportunities for Building 429, Grace Community Church and me. I’m humbled once again at God’s plan, which are always bigger and better than I could have scripted.

Why do this now?

Another point in this whole process is that not only is my heart’s desire being fulfilled, by my family has the opportunity to be home more and stop always living on a tour bus. We finally feel that we are home…my family needed that.

What does worship mean to you?

I’m sure there is a better definition of this, but for me worship happens when you forget about yourself and recognize more about God in that moment. You can put that in the context of a worship service, where a person recognizes that I don’t care about myself or my struggles; I just care about God, or you can put that in terms of a work situation, where a person says, “None of this matters except for me bringing glory to God.” When self disappears and the image of oneself disappears and God’s purpose, design and plan becomes the most important thing, that’s worship.

When I walk onto a stage to lead in worship, it’s the one time in my life where I truly give up all my personal desires and simply desire to help people and me encounter the living God. That’s a pretty awesome opportunity.

We are excited to have Jason more often at Grace Community Church. Welcome to the team!

 
One of the things about which I’ve been most excited as a church is the amount of artistic talent we have assembled.  We have artists in every field.  We have considered ways to allow them to share their passion, such as an art fair, but so far, mostly due to not having our own building, nothing has come together.

That’s one reason I was motivated to promote a new ministry venture I recently learned about. My blogger friend Kent Shaffer’s wife, Evie has assembled a creative initiative to allow artists to use their talent to help other charities.  A Beautiful Idea (ABI) allows artists to showcase and sell their unique product, with 100% of the sale of that item going to charity. This can be ongoing, or a one-time deal.  What a beautiful idea!

The potential for this is huge.  It allows artists to see their gift have greater impact, it builds branding for the artist, and it helps fund charities.  This is a win/win situation.

Help spread the word.  Click HERE to sign up or HERE for more information.

Karen on our staff has been asking Cheryl to do a guest post for the Grace Community Church website for months and she finally agreed. She chose the title “Who me – a pastor’s wife?”. Let me say that I believe one of the most important jobs in the church is that of the pastor’s wife. I’m thankful I have such a good one. For more of my thoughts on Cheryl, click HERE or if you want to know how to honor a pastor’s wife, click HERE.

This is what Cheryl wrote:

Who me – a pastor’s wife???

After numerous requests to do a Guest Blog for Grace, I realized I had resisted as long as I could. It may be because there are so many great bloggers living at my house that I feel so intimidated at just the thought of trying.

The thought that kept going through my mind was what do I have to say that anybody would WANT to read? I feel God told me to just take this opportunity to share a little about myself….Ron’s wife … a mom to Jeremy (21) and Nate (18) … a daughter … a sister …. a friend …. a co-worker (again) … most importantly a follower of Jesus Christ and oh yeah – a pastor’s wife.

For the rest of her story….click to the Grace blog HERE….

 

One thing we have done well at Grace Community Church, if I may be so bold, is to see new ministries start and other ministries grow and prosper from among our people. We have duplicated our efforts to make growing followers of Jesus Christ through the efforts of others in our church.

Basically that has happened in a four step process:

1. Energize and connect to people – We realize we first must build a relationship with people that attend our church.
2. Discover their passions – We are always open to hearing the ministry interests of others.
3. Provide Resources – If people will supply their passion, knowledge and labor, and the ministry extends our vision as a church, we are happy to invest resources and publicity into their vision.
4. Get out of the way – We know that our efforts are far more effective when they are duplicated by the efforts of others.

A perfect example of that is the launch of The Lantern Ministry, a new community-wide support and outreach ministry for military spouses. Find more information HERE and join them for an informational meeting February 18, 2010 at St Bethlehem Christian Church (where we have youth services) from 7 to 8:30 PM.

I’m personally excited about this ministry, having dealt with military family for years and having so many friends affected by deployments. Some families are facing their fourth and fifth deployments with the upcoming one. They are tired, frustrated, and stretched, while remaining amazingly faithful to their mission to keep us safe. God bless our soldiers and their families. I’m praying The Lantern Ministry offers some help.

Have you noticed the stress on our military? Will you join me in praying for them and this ministry?

We have had rapid growth at Grace Community Church. I am very thankful that God has chosen to share His grace with us for such a time as this. I am in a week of reflection (Read about that HERE) and the thought occurred to me this week: You can cover over a multitude of problems in an organization with enough growth.

For example:

• It’s more difficult to determine if people are moving from visitors to regular attendees, because we have so many new visitors coming every week.
• It’s more difficult to tell if people are connecting to groups and serving, because new people keep coming to join groups, serve, etc.
• It’s more difficult to tell if people are developing in their giving habits, because new people keep arriving that bring new offerings.

I am not saying we have problems in these areas or any area.  I am really saying I don’t know, even though every organization has room for improvement. What I am saying even more is that if there are problems they have most likely been disguised because of the tremendous growth we have experienced. One day the growth may not be as rapid as it is today, and we will need solutions to problems that are uncovered. I am more proactive than that. I would rather uncover the problems that may exist now and find solutions before the problems arise.

I am questioning if there is a need to find ways to evaluate our progress in reaching our core objective, which is ultimately the same as our vision, “to make growing followers of Jesus Christ”. We aren’t looking for just numeric growth, we are striving to produce people that are growing in their passion and walk with Christ.

I realize that any line of thinking that involves evaluation in a spiritual context is controversial at best, but evaluating now may help us continue to grow and stay healthy and enhance the future growth that we experience. I lean towards the thought that the church must be evaluating progress towards objectives, as any healthy organization should do.

For similar thoughts on evaluation in ministry, read HERE and HERE.

What are your thoughts on ministry evaluation? It’s okay to disagree with me. Just share your thoughts. I will share more of mine tomorrow.

If you think evaluating ministry is important, do you have any thoughts on what kinds of things we would measure?

One would have to be living under a rock (or a shoe) not to have heard of Soles4Souls Ministry in recent months. Soles4Souls has a simple concept: they get shoes and give them away. You can read more about their history HERE. This is one ministry that went to work immediately and is making a huge impact in the Haiti disaster.

Grace Community Church recently became a collection location for the ministry, but I thought it would be good to get to know the man behind the vision.  Wayne Elsey is apparently an incredible leader.  The proof is in the growth of the ministry.  You can read more about Wayne HERE and follow him on Twitter HERE.

More importantly to Wayne, to get involved to the cause, click HERE.

Here are 10 questions with leader Wayne Elsey:

When you were growing up, is this what you thought you would be doing vocationally? If not, what did you want to do?

My goal was to get out of school, leave home and do something. I was not the best student and did not like school or my home life.

What’s the most different job you’ve had from what you are doing now and how did that job help you with what you are doing now?

When I was 12 I was the kid over the summer that did anything. The most opposite I have ever done was scoop dog poop at a dog show. Candidly, that taught me a lesson that I am not too good to do anything – I feel the same way today.

Who is one person, besides Christ, who most helped to shape your leadership and how did they help you?

One person is hard to drill down but there are two people that motivated me to excel – One was my English teacher that told me that I can do anything I wanted to, it was all up to me and that I was in control of me. This encouragement was needed and I have not forgotten. Candidly, she made a huge difference in me shaping my character and desire to succeed. Two would be Bill Hybels – I have read every book he has ever written and watched him in many settings. This guy is a firm leader that gets things done. It is one thing to talk but doing is something totally different.

Besides the Bible, what is one book that has most helped to shape your thought process in life and ministry?

Good to Great

What are three words other people would use to describe your work style/ethic?

energetic, creative, results

What is your greatest strength in leadership?

Role model – leader – I do what I expect.

What is your greatest weakness in leadership?

Too hands on

What is the hardest thing you have to do in leadership?

Empower people more. In my current role as CEO, I have to empower people and back off. I am getting better everyday about this as I develop the right people.

What is one misconception about your position you think people may have?

I have an easy job.

If you could give one piece of advise to young leaders from what you’ve learned by experience, what would it be?

Just do it. Put your mouth into action with your hands. Do not just talk but do. Work hard, work smart and surround yourself with the best people forming a great team.

Do churches need a marketing plan? I realize even using business language bothers some church people, but personally, I think we need to learn to better market our message. Earlier I posted the need for the church to market like the local grocer does (Read that post HERE), but we also need a comprehensive marketing plan. We are trying to tell people our story about the love of a God they do not know in a way that captures their attention, when many times they don’t even care to listen. Sounds to me like we need a plan.

Here are a few steps to creating a church marketing plan:

Define your target market – Whom are you trying to reach as a church? You can’t reach everyone. Our church will not appeal to some, but we have to know the group of people to whom we will try to appeal.

Learn the market – Once you know whom you are trying to reach, learn everything you can about those people. A church needs to understand the culture, language, interests and desires of the people it is trying to reach.

Identify your competition – You need to know what has the people’s attention you are trying to reach. (Just so I’m clear on this one….it’s not other churches!)  This is important because again, they are not necessarily listening and you are competing for their attention against a crowded world of noise and activity.

Plan strategy – The next step is to develop a plan to market yourself to the people you are trying to reach. That could include advertising, social media, websites, etc. For us, our major marketing strategy is our people speaking on our behalf to people they know, but we need to consistently remind them to do so and encourage them to be in the community where the people we are trying to reach are located.

Evaluate your plan – Any good plan includes evaluation. Consider what is working to reach your target market and what isn’t working. Make changes as needed.

Do you have a marketing plan for your church? What would you add to my list above?

Here’s a quick church growth thought that was convicting to me recently…

Ask yourself:

Is your passion more for Christ or more for growing your church?

Have a sincere passion for the Person of Christ and share that passion with others…

…in the way Christ shared His passion…

…not with more rules…but by offering grace to hurting people…

And your church will grow!

(And you will have a chance to share even more truth with them as they know you care.)

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. Luke 1:5-6 NIV

For a couple days I want to focus on the character of Zechariah from the Christmas story. Zechariah was a priest.  As a pastor and leader, I have a special heart for those that do ministry.  Zechariah was a man who strived to live a Godly life. He and his wife, Elizabeth, from all Biblical indications, was a couple committed to doing the will of God in their lives.

In my years of Christian work, I can honestly say there are a certain people who make the most difference in the life of the church and in the Kingdom of God. A church can have many members, but those who really get serious about the Christian experience, and do real ministry, the kind who represent Jesus to the world, are very rare. Perhaps you are one of those people. If so, please accept my thanks and appreciation for giving of yourself to Christ and others.

Maybe someone immediately comes to your mind; someone who is always serving others, not for show or for personal gain, but simply to the glory of God. You may be thinking of a couple or an individual. It may be a pastor or a layperson. Perhaps you should send them a note of thanks this holiday season. They may not even know your name, but they will be encouraged because you took the time to care. Your note may be just what they need to keep going.

The ministry is sometimes a lonely place. Zechariah and Elizabeth surely knew the loneliness and hardship of ministry. This Christmas you can play a part in building up God’s people who serve!

One of the most frequent “encouragements” I have heard from pastors to those that are sensing a call to full-time vocational ministry is:

Don’t do ministry if you can do anything else…

I have made it a practice never to give that advice to people seeking my counsel. That cliché sounds good, but I am not sure it is practical, helpful, or even completely true.

For years, I resisted a call to ministry, partly because of this advice. The simple fact was that I could do some things besides ministry. I had some success in business. In fact, at one point I was extremely successful in my field. In my own strength, I found I could do many things.

What I could never seem to do on my own was find contentment. Resisting God’s call on my life for vocational ministry took me down numerous career changes looking for that one thing I was “supposed” to do. It wasn’t until I surrendered to full-time vocational ministry that I discovered what I was “designed” to do. I never knew contentment in my work life until God was my employer.

My advice if you are truly called to ministry is to do ministry, even if you can do something else. Nothing provides peace and contentment in life like obedience to God’s call on your life. For more thoughts on the call to ministry, click HERE.

Are you running from a call upon your life? Are you resisting something God is calling you to do?

The contentment you are looking for in life may not be found until you obey.

Just saying…