Dean Craig

The local press is picking up on the “new thing in town” that we’re getting ready for at MapleGrove. For the first time in our (Lapeer) county, there will be a Saturday evening service at a protestant church. I know this is nothing new around the country, but for our area … it’s really nothing short of a miracle.

Tuesday a reporter interviewed our staff for an article they are working on - she was very intrigued by the idea that a church was willing to do something different to meet people where they are.

We’ve got fliers up at many of the places where people have to work on Sundays (Restaurants, the Hospital, Party Stores) and when we talk to people about it they are really sounding excited about it. Did you know that 30% of Americans have to work on any given Sunday morning?

Today our first paid advertisements came out in our local newspaper. They are almost as much about making people ask questions as they are to answer them. We have the domain name ChurchLapeer.com and we link it to a list of all the churches in the county, not just ours.

We are hoping to make church more accessible, more relateable, to more people.

Stop in and check us out. Bring a friend that has to work on Sundays.

Small groups are very important to church growth today.  They get people connected with each other, and keep them connected to the body in a way that is impossible in one hour a weekend.

I believe that one of the greatest threats to being successful (in whatever you are doing, or trying to do) is not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of doing. This applies as much to getting small groups going as anything else.

Think about all of the books you have read, the classes you have taken, and the Bible you have studied. Consider every lesson you have learned up to date. Now ask yourself - how often do you actually do what you know is best?

• You know you should exercise, but do you?
• You know you should get more sleep, but do you get to bed earlier?
• You’ve heard the principal of compounded interest, but do you consistently put money in savings?
• You know what the Bible says, but do you always obey it?

So how does one learn to “just do it?” Several tips that might help are:

1. Cut
   If you find that you are having trouble doing something new, look for things that might be getting in the way. Cut out stumbling blocks, unnecessary activities, and distractions that keep you from focusing on what you need to do.
2. Narrow Your Focus
   If pruning is not enough, narrow your focus so you concentrate more on the most important thing that you need to learn to do.
3. Commit
   Plain and simple - you need to commit, stay focused, and just do it.  There may be times when no one comes, but if you keep changing the schedule or canceling meetings because you think no one will come, then no one can.
4. Make it Reflex
   Do not stop focusing until you begin to do by reflex. Once it becomes habit, you can switch your focus onto the next thing. However, always be mindful, and refocus if you begin to slip out of habit.

If you believe that small group were important enough to start, then they’re important enough to keep doing.  Sometimes the only difference between success and failure is “just doing it” enough to let it happen.

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs over the last year or so. I used to just get them emailed to me, but as email gets more and more about spam, I decided to finally start using google reader to organize my reading so that I could do it on my schedule. Wow, it really helps me. Anyway, I wasn’t doing a blog myself until recently. I really didn’t think that I had much that anyone else would want to read. But I was recently impressed upon that there are more reasons for blogging than that.

Here are some of them;

Stewardship of Information — God has given me many great opportunities to learn from others. I would be wrong not to pass what I have learned along to help others. It’s not up to me if they listen or not.

Stewardship of Time — I can’t possibly answer all the questions or emails that come in from others and still have time for my church and family. Blogging allows me to answer a question once and then refer others to it.

I make more sense in Writing — My ramblings don’t always make much sense unless I take the time to write and refine them. As I write, I become a better communicator.

Journaling – In Jeremiah 31 it says, “Set up roadsigns, put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came.” Blogging gives me a way to track the goodness of God and the journey I have traveled.

Personal Growth – Blogging makes me a better leader. It keeps me humble. Just as teaching helps you learn, blogging keep me on the learning edge of leadership.