I’m the kind of guy who needs a shot in the arm every once in a while to keep me motivated. I have a hard time with the “status quo” … I need to see things progressing, be a part of something “new”. When life around me starts to feel “normal” I get uncomfortable. I start looking for things to change.

Fresh is never fresh for long.

Sunday proved to me that things ARE changing. We got to see several of the people we have come to know as family over the last year or so make a life changing decision. A decision to publicly declare their faith. To take a risk.

I know it’s not about me, but it sure feels good to be a part of it.

Take a look;

Sunday we continue a series called “Fearless” – it’s about average people who became champions and overcame insurmountable odds. Just like these people did Sunday.

The church is growing, people are growing, I’m growing. This is why we do what we do. Stay tuned for some more big news next week.

Many churches print a photo directory once a year with color photos of each person and a nice family photo.

There’s also church directory software tools that help churches do their own photo directory and try to keep up with the changes.  They can add new people as they get them and publish new versions, periodically.  (Kind of like the phone book pile in my closet – where we just add the new one to the top of the pile until the next bon fire.)

These might work great for churches where few new people come, but this Sunday when someone new comes to your church for the first time, how do you help them meet people? Do you hand them a directory and tell them to call people?  I don’t think so.

Then there are the privacy issues.  You have names and address and phone numbers for people, but who do they want that information given to?  Shouldn’t each person decide who they want to see their information?

And who keeps all of this information up to date?  Not just the new people being added and the people that leave being removed (if you even dare do that), but what about their contact information?  This could be a full time job.

Many large churches with large budgets attempt to use a web based system that gives each person the ability to edit their own information on the church’s website.  That sounds great, if you can get them there.  The problem is, people are busy, so this is not usually a very high priority on their “to do” list.  Even these types of directories quickly become an outdated list used primarily by leaders.

Some of these “church management” systems have attempted to add social networking pieces to their software in an attempt to get more people to use them, but that’s not working either.  If people are going to use social networking, they are going to be somewhere were their friends are – and the fact is, not all their friends are ever going to be at your church.  Jesus said to “go” and make disciples in “all” the world, not just your church friends.

We’re experimenting with solutions to some of these problems AND we’ve managed to take back a piece of the internet for good … it’s called facebook.  We’ve been working with MapleGrove to help them use the most popular social networking (just a new word for fellowship) tool (a website) as a public member directory (and more) using a free feature of facebook called “pages“.

With a facebook account, each user can decide who they want to share their personal information (contacts, photos, videos, etc.) with.  In just a few months of talking about it, most of our members (that didn’t already use the system) went and created accounts.

Our members (“fans” in facebook lingo) can post stories to our page, share photos with other members, ask and answer discussion questions and invite their friends.

Our administrators can create events, send short “status” messages to members, and moderate the page when needed.

We’ve tied our church management software into facebook as well.

I’ll be writing more about how to use this tool in the near future, but if you want to get started right away you can create a page for your organization here.

A year ago our average Sunday attendance was just over 100.  Now, we’re averaging 170.  We’ve already had three Sundays over 200 this year.  Our biggest Sunday last year was in the first two weeks of December (are we ready?).

Every week we hear a story about someone who has found the true, loving God through MapleGrove – one person recently shared that “MapleGrove is the first church I’ve ever been to that is more about what we CAN DO than what we CAN NOT.”

Kids @ MapleGrove are now experiencing their own praise and worship every week and have nearly doubled in attendance since spring.

Student LifeGroups are meeting weekly, and our monthly Catalyst event had over 65 people its’ first month, drawing students from all over Lapeer – many of whom have never been at MapleGrove before.

We got to be a part of baptizing 11 people in August.

Adult LifeGroups were started again in September and during the FIREPROOF series almost 70 people attended.  Many people’s marriages were touched by this message.  More to come on LifeGroups soon!

People are also getting to know each other better and meet each other’s needs directly on-line through Facebook.  There are over 75 people from MapleGrove using this great tool.

We just had our first Harvest Party, and are about to have our first Winterfest.  We plan to have these become annual, highly anticipated, events for our community.

The clinic continues to expand its services, and we continue to help meet the needs of the pregnancy center and the refuge.  Several new Compassion children have been sponsored by MapleGrove members.  …  Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. – Isiah 1:17

There is a growing buzz in Lapeer about Jesus @ MapleGrove.  This buzz creates a crowd just like it did when Jesus performed his first miracles (… they went out and spread the news about him throughout that region (Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56)), and this growing crowd creates a couple issues;

Parking – our parking lot is in overflow mode.  We are having the grass area south and west of the south lot kept clear of snow, so that those of us with vehicles that can handle it can park on the grass there.  We are encouraging people we invite to park along the east side of the lane in front of the building in special “guest only” parking.

Seating – Many new people like to have the choice to slip into the back few rows their first several times here, so are asking team members to leave those rows open for our newest guests.

Thanks to all of you that have shared your time and talents with others through your work and service @ MapleGrove.

He lifted up the name of Jesus without expecting those who do not yet trust him to pretend to do the same thing.

Watch it below…

Thank you, Joel.

We’ll have LifeGroups meeting in homes and special events through the series in support of marriages.

My wife and I got to see the movie in advance a couple weeks ago.  I have to say, it was very well done and should inspire more churches to reach higher.

When the team doesn’t know, doesn’t understand, or doesn’t agree with the vision of your organization there will be distraction. Why? Because they are not motivated by the same vision you have. And when someone is testing their own actions against a different set of filters, they make different decisions.

Examples:

If someone is thinking more about fixing someone’s idea of theology than helping hurting people, then they will choose debate rather than use their energy to help them.

If someone cares more about what we eat or drink than helping people without clean water to drink, then that’s where they will spend their energy.

If we debate about what we should wear while children around us are naked, then we will buy new cloths instead of trying to cloth the poor.

When we lead an organization, our vision needs to be more than a statement written on our website. It needs to be what we do, where we go, and what we based our decisions on.

At MapleGrove, we say “We Value unity in our vision & purpose and agree to set aside our differences in order to serve people.”  This means we agree not to debate things that distract us from our purpose.  We don’t spend time debating about how we (or others) do things.

This doesn’t mean we always agree on everything, we all have our opinions and experiences, and those are going to influence our decisions, but we agree to get over it and get on with our work. We try not to let our differences distract us.

So what’s the bid deal?  Is a website so important for a church?

Richard Reising, president of Artistry Marketing in Dallas, Texas, and author of the book Church Marketing 101, thinks it is. “Currently, 80 to 85 percent of people are finding their church based on websites,” he says. “Websites are replacing the yellow pages as a key mode of church advertising.”

Yet so few churches take this seriously.  What do you think?

I took this photo of my son eagerly waiting for the gates to open at Tiger Stadium in Detroit this weekend. We wanted to get there early to watch batting practice. We found out that the gates don’t open until two hours before the game time (this was taken about three).

Yea, we were like the first people there. We couldn’t wait! We were conspiring about how we might sneak in through the employee entrance, or find an open door somewhere.

The last several weeks I’ve been starting to see something similar at MapleGrove. It’s been getting more crowded, and since (unlike the Tigers) we don’t have reserve seating, there have been people getting there earlier and earlier and saving seats for the service.

When you go someplace and the parking lot is full and it’s crowded and it’s hard to get a good seat that says something about what’s happening there. When church is executed excellently people notice and the word spreads.

What can we do to make our church services more of an event people can’t wait for?

We’re the hope of the world, and unlike the Tigers Sunday, we do win (I know, I’ve read the ending).

The funny thing was that neither of our two staff pastors, or their families, were there this week due to overlapping vacation schedules.

I can only imagine what the turnout will be in two weeks on FoodDay.

Mark gave a message I called “How I Got Here.” It talked about where Mark came from, and where’s he’s headed in his life; the hopes the fears, some of his views on “religion” and why he’s here. People really liked it from what I could tell. It answered questions, and raised others, got people cheering (several times) and thinking.

You can listen here if you want to hear more.

This, my second year at Change Without Compromise, I really expected most of what I was going to hear would be review. Boy was I wrong. Brad Powell was able to drive home the need for change in the church without compromising the message in a new and engaging way that was totally different than last year.

Here are some of what I felt were his key overall points;

• You have to create your service for the people who aren’t there yet, without neglecting the people who are.
• The church isn’t the temple, the people are.
• Always create new and fresh opportunities for momentum -
  • do things different
  • do things memorable
  • do things fresh & creative or people will think God is boring and irrelevant.
• Accept short-term losses, for long term gains. (Lose the right people)

About Leaders:

• You have to have the right leaders
• Invest in leaders and building teams
  • get rid of wrong leaders
  • help your leaders understand the issues (what church is supposed to look like)
  • develope new positive leaders
• Build teams of positive influencers
• Expose the need for change

Jesus never did the same miracle the same way twice. Why do we “always” do it the same way?

The church must be:

holy – set apart

• nothing to do with culture
• everything to do with character

missional – sent into

• everything to do with culture

And I hear the 2009 conference will be HUGH!