We Are Family

Last weekend wrapped up the "Awakening" Series at Grace. It was a cool series that I was privileged to be a part of. I love when ideas become reality from our creative team meetings for each series. This is the video for the family service. The first part was played as a sermon lead in - the last part was played as people exited the worship center. People start dancing at 3:34. Enjoy



We Are Family from Dave Hartland on Vimeo.

Late for Church

I'm on vacation and will posting some pics soon. But before that I want to send a word out to all Grace folks who read this blog. PLEASE GET TO CHURCH ON TIME! Seriously... is it that tough to pull yourselves out of bed, to pull yourself away from that coffee you're sipping in the cafe, to pull yourself away from your kid in the nursery and get in to the service on time?? I'm just going to say it... it's disrespectful to our teams, to our pastors, and to our God to be consistently late. There I said it.

You are putting our team in a jam because we don't know what to do at the beginning of the service. We seriously spend wayyyyy too much time debating this issue in our service planning meetings, and if everyone would just plan to get there 5-10 minutes earlier than you're getting there now, and begin waiting expectantly for the opportunity to worship God - our teams wouldn't have to talk about it for one more minute.

This past weekend at 11 we literally had 1/2 the crowd come in over 5 minutes late (many 10-15 minutes late). We are wanting to do our communication segment at the beginning of the service so that it doesn't disrupt the flow of worship - but we're geeked that so many people are going to miss the major communications that we have to do for the week. We want to put worship there sometimes - but don't want people always missing the first two worship songs that set the tone for the rest of the service. We sometimes want to do the sermon off the top - but realize that many people will miss the lead in to the proclamation of God's Word. Please begin arriving on time...and forward this to all your friends.

- the management

Unbelievable Team

It's about 7:30 AM- I'm sitting in a small motel room somewhere around the border of NY and MA. We're on our way to Plum Island, MA for vacation. We drove about 6 hours yesterday after a crazy afternoon of packing and mowing and cleaning. We left at about 4:30 and started driving. I'll be posting some thoughts from vacation - probably more on the personal and family side of things - but before that I wanted to mention a few things that I appreciate about our team at Grace. I had some time to ponder on the drive.

1. Services this weekend were awesome. Not without challenge or difficulty - but in the end just really awesome. Brian and AJ have the ability to pull off creative, and challenging, and excellent like no one I've ever worked with before. They have challenged our people to bless others and bless our enemies in some very cool ways over the last two weeks. I love working with those guys.

2. The skill level of the people we have on our staff is unmatched. I would put this team up against any other in the country. The quality of our ministries at all levels is hitting its stride right now. Sure we have plenty of stuff to still improve on - but there is no group that I'd rather have on it than this one.

3. The camaraderie among us is just really fun. Not only do we work together, we really love to work together. A good number of us have been there a long time- and that's beautifully mixed with those who have recently joined - but there is a family atmosphere among us that is rare in many workplaces. Man do we laugh.

I'm going to be gone for two weeks - and I'm being honest when I say that I'm going to miss this team when I'm gone. I love doing ministry with them. On the other hand I'm really going to love this time with my family - and I'm going to soak up every moment with them. It is truly a privilege to serve on a team like the one we've assembled at Grace - buckle up because there's still some huge stuff around the corner!

Technology

So I haven't made huge progress on my sermon for this weekend yet - it's a really difficult subject - blessing your enemies. But I had spent 4-5 hours in and out of study this afternoon and had been typing notes into a research document. This is usually my first step. Before I left the office at 7:22 this evening - I pressed save and then unplugged my laptop and packed it up for home.

When I got home- I had a quick bite for dinner and then plugged in to get things set up for after the kids go to bed. I opened the document and it didn't include any of the notes that I took today. I was sick to the point of wanting to vomit. Not only am I behind already - but now am 4-5 more hours behind. I called Dave Winn (our I.T. guy from church) to see if he could rescue me. He promptly came over and remotely found a document on the server at church that was saved at 7:22 pm. He then rescued my document from the server - thank you Jesus for Dave Winn and all I.T. peeps out there. Holy smokes I might have done myself in if it weren't for him!

Dave made me promise that in return I wouldn't convict him too much with the sermon this weekend. Sorry - no promises on that one... Maybe he should "get sick" during services because I have a feeling the sermon is going to be a whack between the eyes for some.

I Shed My First Olympic Tears

Last night I got misty eyed for the first time this Olympics. You can usually chalk me up for 3-5 teary-eyed moments per Olympics. There's just something about the competition and teamwork, and laying it all on the line, and performance under pressure that does me in- it's just intense.

I'm not a big swimming guy, but the men's 4x100 freestyle relay was unbelievable. It looked like Phelps' quest for 8 golds was over. The US was behind by a whole body length going in to the final leg - against the heavily favored team from France. France's best swimmer and relay anchor was the world record holder and the one who said they were going to "smash" the Americans in the finals. So when it came to him with a whole length lead - it looked impossible. The US anchor, Jason Lezak swam the fastest relay leg in history and came all the way back and beat him by a fingertip for the gold. The reaction of the rest of the team was priceless. You can read about it here.

If you read it and don't cry - don't think I'm a wuss - I mean....you really had to see it live.....and well....I've had a really long and stressful week.....plus I'm emotionally spent from preaching three times this weekend...I'm just saying....

17 Incredible Years with Kim

I have the most amazing wife. I pity all other men because they simply have to settle for second best! I teased her from the front during my sermon today, but honestly Kim is completely perfect for me in every way! We met at age 15 in German class. I thought she was hot then, but she was a punk rocker, wore all black, and had half her head shaved. I was a three sport athlete and it wasn't exactly the ideal match. We didn't date until our senior year at McDowell in 1988 - brought together by our faith in God. We started a prayer ministry at our school to pray for God to pour out His spirit there. We were married 3 years later at the very tender age of 20.

I love this picture that Caleb took a few years ago because I think her face sums up what she's probably thinking most days, "what the heck did I get myself into!?" I could go on ad infinitum singing her praises, but here are 10 things I adore about my wife:

1. She is one of the most intelligent women I've ever met and carries that intelligence with humility and dignity.
2. I love the peaceful look on her face when she sleeps.
3. She rarely wears makeup or jewelry and remains the most breathtakingly beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on.
4. She designs and builds really beautiful houses and uses power tools (and is very handy to have around the house I might add.)
5. She is a tremendous example for our kids of what a strong, devoted, successful, Christ-following, driven, loving woman looks like. I want Ayden to grow up to be like her, and I want Caleb and Chase to marry a woman like her.
6. My heart still beats fast when my mind drifts to her as I'm trying to get work done at the office.
7. She's mysterious and very deep - people who meet her or see her from a distance get one impression - but to know her is a deep and rich experience.
8. I love how hard we laugh with each other at night after the kids go to bed.
   
9. She's spontaneous with the kids and loves when they make messes - perfectly complementing my type-A/ neat-freak tendencies.
10. She balances being a mom, and wife, and career woman, and sister, and daughter, and business owner, and friend with a gracefulness that is really beautiful to watch.

We ask each other the same question each anniversary, "if you had it to do all over again would you still take the plunge?" After 17 years it's still a resounding, "YES!"

College Memories

This weekend I'm telling a story from my college days to start off my sermon. It led me to a land of recollection about my years at Taylor U. - definitely one of the most hilarious times of my life. I was reflecting on some of the situations and names and faces that defined my life during those years.

Then randomly I remembered a secret wish I used to have.

I lived next to a guy named Dan Gin (pronounced like "jin"- same as the strong drink). We also had a friend named Esther. For a while they were thinking about dating. I always hoped that they would get married simply to call her by her new married name...

Esther Gin.

Reaching the Next Generation

Our guest services guru here at Grace, Miriam Crossman, sent through some interesting statistics today. One that got my attention was that 43% of first time guests who have come through our doors at Grace since we've moved into our new facility last November are between the ages of 18-29.

That's right - almost 1/2 of the nearly 500 people who have visited Grace in the last 8 months are 20-somethings. That's a staggering number. There are churches across our country who would kill for that number. The majority of churches are struggling...aging...dying. Why are we reaching this age group?

1. We've been intentional about reaching them through our hiring practices and our programming.
2. There is a spiritual hunger among this generation that if tapped will turn the world upside down for Jesus.

We cannot be one of those churches who get comfortable. Who continue to do things the way we've always done them. To plateau and age and eventually die. We will not stop this pursuit - of reaching out to those who are far from God - and of reaching out to the next generation and mobilizing them to love Jesus and lead the church.

We had a heart-thumping vision and strategy session at Management Team on Tuesday that has the potential to change the way we do ministry here in the coming years and will put us on a course to chase down the next generation for Christ like we never have before. I can't spill the beans yet ... c'mon. But stay tuned.

Olympic Spirit

Yes, I'm excited for the Olympics. I always am. I love watching some of the best athletes in the world lay it all on the line. And the fact that it's only once every four years only raises the stakes and intensity. I know it's a place for all the lesser known sports to have their day - but I'm really looking forward to Track and Field and Basketball. Never really got in to people skiing and shooting at the same time and stuff like that (I know that's Winter Olympics - I'm just saying...)

I read a great article in ESPN the Magazine about certain funny lines in different countries' national anthems - I had to share a few excerpts from Rick Reilly's article:

• Andorra - "I was born a princess maiden" -I look forward with great zeal to the day when a 350 lb. Andorran shot putter stands on the podium and sings these words.
• Ukraine - I love it because it asks so little - the first line is, "Ukraine has not perished." I call that managing national expectations: "we're not dead OK? give us that."
• Algeria - "We have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm and the sound of machine guns as our melody." This is why no one invites your band anywhere.

You can read the full article here. I thought these were the best ones! Happy Olympics everyone - the opening ceremony is on Friday. God save the Queen.

Interesting House Guests

So when the very random opportunity to host some people in our home presented itself this week, I figured I better put my house where my mouth is and use my stuff for kingdom purposes (a quote from a recent sermon i delivered). To top it all off - any hesitation I had in housing two Chinese folks traveling from Chicago to Niagra Falls - was trumped by the fact that all three of our kids were away for the night leaving three empty bedrooms available - OK God... I get it.

I thought they were missionaries, they weren't.
I thought they would speak English, it was pretty broken but we could still have a conversation.
I thought they were familiar with American culture and ideas, they were members of the communist party.

That's right. One guy was a mid-level communist government official in a northwest Chinese province. The other was his younger brother - a businessman in Shanghai. The older brother has been in the States for almost a year getting his masters degree in Business administration and the younger brother and sister had come to visit him and do some traveling before they all return to China.

We talked about everything from the free-market system, to physicalism/spiritualism/ dualism, to Taoism and Buddhism, to best practices in leading businesses and staffs of people, to family issues, to Jesus' love for the poor. It was a fascinating and mind-expanding few hours. Some of my favorite questions from them included:

• how many children are you allowed to have?
• how many square feet does the government allow your houses to be?
• what career plans do you have for your children?
• do you think people are only physical or do you think they have spirits?
• who does the cooking in your home?
• are 100% of Americans politically active because it seems like that's all they talk about?
• how much did your house cost?

In the end we moved to spiritual matters - it was literally like watching the scales fall from someone's eyes. As we talked about Christianity as a world view and how it does a better job than any other world view in explaining the reality that we all live in, as we talked about the life of Jesus, and the principles of scripture the older brother (the government official) acknowledged the truth of Christianity. An amazing foundation had been laid by Chinese Oversees Christian Missions (COCM) with whom they were now traveling - but it seemed like our time reallyaffirmed in him the truth of Christianity and the trustworthiness of Jesus.

One of the more fascinating exchanges was between the brothers as the younger brother began to express concern over what would happen to the older brother if he began to talk about his new-found ideas in the workplace, etc. The older brother explained that Christianity is a better way - it influences the way you treat people and the way you make decisions and the way you go about your life, and that if he simply lived out his faith but didn't talk about it all the time, that his superiors would eventually see the truth and that it would begin to affect necessary change not just in his family, or in his department, but in China. It was amazing!

He pulled out a New Testament and asked for some guidance in how to go about reading it. I stayed up well into the night putting together some reading guides for him to follow and directing him to certain sections of Scripture that I thought would be helpful to him.

I asked if he had ever heard the story of Joseph - he said no. I told him that it would be a story of great interest to him because Joseph was a leader of his government and he had to walk the fine line of being a follower of the Most High God among people and systems that were unlike his own- he faced persecution and rejection from his family and others along the way - and still remained faithful to God and saw God's faithfulness expressed back to him. This gentleman could affect real change in China. I teased him that the communist government got more than they bargained for in that they had sent him to America for an education and he is coming back a Christian!

As we said goodbye early the following morning I realized that God had connected us in a sovereign way. The older brother expressed to me that life-change had occured in him because of our encounter. Same here.

5 Insights from Recent Tragedies

There has been plenty of tragedy around here lately. A mom and dad from Grace lost their 16 year old son in a horrific automobile tragedy while he was on a mission trip with another youth group. The depths of pain and grief were palpable around here. A young couple from Grace, after 3 years of trying, lost one of their baby twins. They're nursing a daughter along in ICU while mourning the loss of their son. Al has been brought in at some level to minister to the family who just lost their 18 month-old daughter after being mauled in her living room by the family dog. There is a distinguishable heaviness around our office here at Grace in the midst of tragedies like these.

I have not yet personally walked through tragedies like these that have hit close to my immediate home- though I know they are coming in the days and years ahead. How do we respond when tragedy strikes? A few thoughts:

1. Recognize that for all of us - our days are numbered. And God knows that number. None of this comes as a surprise to him. Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. (Job 14:5) The time of our birth and the time of our death are secure in God's providence and we have no control over either.

2. Recognize that God has marked out our time on this earth for a purpose. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) Even if those days and those good works are very short - our time here was for a purpose. Recognizing that some good works (in the case of this three-day old baby) were very brief, completely selfless, and intended entirely for the impact of others. Good will come of his time on this planet.

3. Suffering is real and we should walk through the depths of it - with the understanding that Jesus will grant us peace and courage through it all. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but have courage--I have conquered the world. (John 16:33)

4. Be attentive to all that God is teaching us as we walk through times of tragedy. CS Lewis has a great quote in The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

5. Be sensitive in the things we say to those going through tragedy. Having stood by grieving people in many a funeral home, I think I'm qualified to say that Christians say really stupid things to grieving people. We often play the role of Job's "friends" by being trite or presumptuous or insensitive in our comments. I usually try to say as little as possible to those who are grieving other than - "I can't imagine the pain you are feeling right now...." and then let them do the talking at their own pace. Be a listener, a hugger, a broad shoulder to lean on.

National School of Leadership

I had a meeting last week with two leaders from our denomination - (used to be the Baptist General Conference now is...) CONVERGE Worldwide. Pamela Heim from the National Office flew in, and Gary Shroeder from our Regional office, and I met in Dubois on Wednesday to discuss the National School of Leadership. Grace is going to be one of the pilot sites for the school. We will be one of only a few churches from around the country to pilot the program.

The NSL is a leadership development program for people who aren't pastors or church staff. We'll be encouraging emerging and existing Grace leaders to go through the school. It is a one year program that will meet for a group learning experience 6 times (every two months). These times will be taught some by Grace Pastors as well as other experts that we'll be bringing in from around the region and around the country.

We are thrilled to be involved at this level in this program - we're aware of at least 5 other churches that will be sending folks to our site and the promotion of the thing hasn't even started yet! At this point it looks like we'll hold our first class in late January sometime. Keep your ears open. You can find out a little more info here.

5 Things I Learned During the Power Outage at Church This Weekend

OK - for those of you who don't know - we had a whacky church weekend. Definitely the whackiest I've ever been a part of in my 15 years! During the 9:15 service - mid-way through my sermon - the power just went off. Everything went down. Microphones, lights, screens, toilets, drinking fountains, sound system, band equipment, computers, copiers, everything off. Well the only things that really affected me were lights, microphone, and screens. It was a little crazy.

AJ (our audio tech) went in to high gear but to no avail - it was a bigger problem - the whole area lost power. So I just belted out the rest of the sermon without amplification and we made a bunch of adjustments - scaled back the 11:00 service - and went on. Electricity ended up coming back on right in the middle of my sermon at 11:00 - so neither sermon at either hour went un-interrupted. I learned some stuff from the experience.

1. We're really dependent upon electricity for how we do church. If the window shades hadn't been raised right before the electricity went out - we would have been "up a crick" because it would have been pitch black in the worship center.

2. Our team is amazing. They handled the set back with grace and excellence. Instead of panic or egos or short tempers or just freaking out - what I saw was a calm, confident, God-honoring, solution-driven experience. The few that I witnessed were awesome: Larry - gathering bottles of water for the nursery for drinking and baby cleanup, AJ calmly making contingencies if the power came back on during 11 (which it did), Brian and his musicians sitting in a circle hand-writing words and charts for the completely ad-hoc worship set, the skit actors going on as if nothing was wrong, Al easily explaining to everyone that today might be "a little different," Bill kicking into gear getting all the info he could from the electric company ... and there was obviously a bunch of other stuff that I didn't see...

3. We don't need electricity to worship God. While we're dependent on it - we don't really require it. The worship time was sweet - people were loving the spontanaity and having to figure out worship without any words. Brian did a great job picking out familiar songs and the team pulled them off so well in their little acoustic circle down on the floor. People totally got into it. It was awesome to hear just the voices rising up in the room. We need to incorporate some very simple worship like that from time to time in the future.

4. The acoustics in our room are pretty sweet when there is no amplification. I talked to people who sat all over the room and everyone could hear every word just fine without amplification (though the teaching pastor's throat would be a bit tender after a weekend of that.)

5. We should probably think of investing in some kind of generator at some point...

Was anyone at 9:15 or 11:00 this weekend? What are your thoughts?

Crazy Sermon Weekend

My day today and my weekend this weekend will be filled with crazy sermon stuff- I'm coming down the homestretch on my sermon for the weekend at Grace. I'll be preaching at all three services. I also prepared two sermon rationales for our Creative Team meeting this morning as we plan out August creatives. I'm preaching on the 10th and 17th of August at Grace. And also today I'm preaching at a wedding for a former youth ministry student who is getting married to a lovely bride (way over his head!) I absolutely love preaching, but preparation and study for it is hard, slow, and sometimes painful for me.

To be a conduit for the word of God is not a responsibility I will ever take lightly. I am very hard on myself (ask Brian!) and want to be at my very best every time. Please pray for the sermon this weekend- we are in a series dealing with what I believe to be the biggest idol in America today- our money - specifically this weekend I'll be touching on greed. Because money is an idol that is worshiped faithfully by so many, it is a somewhat sensitive and difficult subject to deal with. But if we don't preach about the greatest idol in a culture, have we really preached the gospel?

I Love the Church When it's Working Well

I've walked out of a couple of meetings this week just amazed at how God builds his church. It is awesome to see different people with completely different gift mixes come together as a team around a common vision and chase it down together. The meetings are revolving around the continuing development of ServErie (Grace's new initiative to stop the advancement of poverty in our region).

It is awesome to see leaders and organizers and IT people and web developers and creative thinkers and detail people and big vision people and vision casters and behind the scenes folks all come together and chase a common dream. The spirit and heart of this team is amazing. We're working on the two strategic next steps for ServErie:

1. Organizing our core team around the major departments that have presented themselves and
2. Getting ServErie web based.

Right now we are doing it the old-fashioned way with a job board in the lobby where people can sign up for a service opportunity with one of our smiling ServErie staff members. Getting to a web interface is going to open up a bunch of new opportunities for Grace folks to get involved. It is also going to be the first step in taking ServErie to a wider audience. We're dreaming about the day when other churches, and colleges, and businesses in our region have a centralized location at which they can sign up to serve alongside some fine organizations in our city that are working to alleviate the stranglehold of poverty. It's an exciting endeavor to be a part of and we're praying for the day when the statistics and percentages related to poverty, and teen pregnancy, and high school dropout rates, begin to go down instead of up. May our city be changed forever - and may the body of Christ continue to work in all her glory!

You might be a metro-rednexual if…

Since my teen years I've lived in the suburbs. Protected from the harsh realities of city life and country life. My parents decided a number of years ago to move to Union City- for those of you from around here - I don't need to explain. For outsiders - Union City is the butt of many redneck jokes and worse. Anyway - I've teased my parents incessantly since their move because they don't seem to quite belong. They are attractive and always have themselves together and the whole bit. That's why I found this post from Tony Morgan so funny about a week ago. He lists the top 10 ways to know if you might be a metro-rednexual here

Should the Church Set Goals?

During the years that I've been involved in the strategic leadership side of the church- we have set annual corporate goals. I understand that people have a variety of opinions about churches setting goals ranging from:

• "of course we should set goals - all successful organizations set goals for themselves" to...
  
• "we should let the Holy Spirit lead every step and he usually leads through spontaneity and not planning" to...
  
• "goal-setting is too business-y and secular - the church shouldn't be getting caught up in secular methodologies."

Needless to say- I believe that setting goals is extremely important both for organizations and individuals - especially Christians who have the high calling of Jesus on their lives and are challenged to consistently self-reflect and evaluate their followership of the savior. A goal is an aim or objective intended to guide actions toward a desired end. I have been involved on enough athletic teams in my life to know that defining what a win looks like and then setting goals to get from here to there is essential to casting vision, and building momentum, and mobilizing people to chase it down.

2 years ago we brought in a local organizational expert to talk to our staff about the process of goal setting. She challenged us that one of the more effective ways to approach the goal-setting process organizationally is to frame it in terms of problems that need to be solved. At our recent staff getaway - we had an amazing time hashing out the major goals for 08-09. Our staff is currently working on their "success maps" - each department's piece of those bigger goals. I already leaked one - but will be leaking out some of the other goals in coming posts... I'm so pumped about what God has in store for Grace this year!

The Human Mind is an Amazing Thing - Points to an Amazing God

This has been around the blogosphere for a while - but I find it fascinating...

Cna yuo raed tihs? fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a graet mnid…Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 cna.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?

How to Keep the Church from Closing it's Doors

I viewed an advertisement for a church for sale the other day. It was a church much like ours. Large auditorium, mutli-media capabilities, beautiful children's areas. And it made me think, "what would ever cause us to put this new facility that we're in on the market?" (this is a horrifying thought for me after 5 years of intensive investment into this new facility!) We have tons of acreage for future expansion - so I don't forsee a space issue. The only reason to sell would be that Grace would one day die, board up the windows, close the doors, and throw in the towel (what an uplifting blog post Derek...)

A trend is already underway - in Roman Catholic Churches in Boston, Toledo, even Johnstown, PA, churches are boarding up their doors and windows, or consolidating 4 or 5 churches together into one because of dwindling numbers in the pews and dwindling financial streams. Mainline denominations are not far behind. United Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran... We at Grace are experiencing just the opposite - growth - life - vibrancy.

Now don't get me wrong, the Church - as in the universal church - will never die. Jesus promised that he would build his church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. However, individual local churches are not automatically protected from extinction - as we can see by all the churches across America that are closing their doors every day. My prayer is that all types of churches who promote Jesus Christ would thrive and grow and be fruitful. I also believe that some churches need to die because they may be doing more damage than good for the cause of Christ. Churches whose vision does not match the vision of Jesus should just stop.

So how does Grace take steps to ensure vitality and life for many generations to come? In addition to maintaining an intense focus on our vision to reach out to those who are far from God, and to help those who are following Christ to follow him with more vigor and depth, in addition to consistently challenging people to invest their time and resources in kingdom causes, and hiring good staff members to champion the mission of Grace - we are taking an interesting step this year to insulate ourselves against extinction - or even worse than extinction - irrelavence. We feel so strongly about this - we have made it one of our 4 major church goals for the coming ministry year.

Here is the way we're phrasing the goal: "Begin the process of empowering younger generations to lead the church and influence ministry by assuring that we achieve 10% growth in the number of millenials (those born between 1980-2000) who are serving in each ministry department at Grace." One of the ways that the church can fight off extinction is to stay young and continue to reach and empower new generations to follow Jesus. We have modeled this philosophy by the way we have staffed at Grace (our last two hires are ages 20 and 29). But we need to assure that "young blood" is filtering in to each department and affecting how we do ministry.

The world is completely different for teenagers and 20-somethings than it was for this 37 year-old dinosaur and those older than me. Without compromizing the scandal of the gospel in any way- we must figure out how to reach out to them, and grow them in Christ, and connect them to the church, and empower them for ministry, and facilitate their worship to a Holy God. The way that we do these things will be different than the way we have done it up until now.

With the ministry staff that we have thinking and strategizing about this, I am confident that Grace will continue to re-invent herself for increasing effectiveness. Those in our church who are older will be called on like never before because the Scriptures command them to be involved in this process of training and investing in a new generation of Christ-followers. I'm convinced that Grace's best days are ahead.

What do you think are the most dangerous enemies to a local church's ability to survive and thrive?

I Met a Godly Man Today...

I had a pretty intense day today. I traveled down to Pittsburgh with a couple of ServErie colleagues to visit a ministry called Hosanna Industries, Inc. It was an eye-opening visit. The organization basically used a similar concept that we used for TARGET (a program back in the mid 90's that we did through the youth ministry at Grace to rehab homes of needy families in Erie) but they do it a 365 days a year. They do construction projects throughout the city for poor and needy families.

They now have a campus that houses a dormatory for up to 60 volunteers, warehouses for equipment, trucks, tractors, supplies, a training center for basic construction skills, a staff housing area, office complex, etc. The ministry began in 1990 by a man named Donn - who was a pastor at the time.

I knew as soon as we joined him at the table that he was a Jesus follower in the true sense - he took all of Jesus very seriously. He had plumbed the depths of faith and obedience - it was all over his face, it was in his voice, his soul was out in front of his words. I learned some stuff in the 2 1/2 hours we spent with him. Here's some of it:

1. Big dreams often start very small - in the last 18 years - this organization has done over $26 million worth of construction. It started with Donn driving around town stopping at run-down homes and knocking to see how he might help. No strategic plan, no org chart...

2. The key to the success of any organization is deep love and trust among its leaders- he repeated often that the difficult ministry times always involved a breakdown of relationship among the team. But the love of the team and their love of the mission is what keeps him going.

3. Even really godly leaders struggle with criticizm - a huge downer in ministry is when you pour yourself into what you think Jesus has called you to do and what you think is the right thing to do - and Christians criticize. It happens to him regularly and when it does he wants to quit.

4. You can tell alot about a person by what makes them cry. Three times during our conversation Donn came to tears. Once when he was talking about Jesus and his love for the poor, and twice when he was talking about the love and community that exists among his core team. Too many people only come to tears about themselves.

5. I like smart people. I've known this for a while - but I love to be around bright shining bulbs. It challenges me and puts me into "learner mode" - I just begin firing questions and writing furiously. Donn is not only a great servant -but he's really smart.

6. Even really godly leaders can have messed up families - Donn was honest about basically working 80-90 hours per week for the last 18 years and that it has been unhealthy. It's had a negative affect on his wife and kids. Ministry can be intoxicating and addictive - and before long all kinds of stuff can appear to be more important than family - and then before you know it your kids are gone and you've missed the whole thing.

7. Sometimes our hands and feet should do all the talking - some people go into the business of serving the poor with the expectation that they will lead a goodly number of them to salvation - many times, just serving them is enough. Leave the heart-changing business to God.

8. Being taken advantage of is part of what we signed up for as Christians - following the savior that we follow - we should know that we will never insulate ourselves from beging scammed, abused, and taken advantage of. There were a number of jobs that Donn walked away from in the end knowing that he had been scammed. They try to not let it happen but when it does it's in God's hands - they seek no retribution.

9. Jesus loves the poor - Donn never mentioned this one time - but it bled through in every comment he made, every breath he took, and rang true in my spirit just being near him.

10. I have an affinity for older guys who smoke pipes - after lunch Donn took out his pipe - lit it - took a robust draw on it - and kept talking - man did that thing smell good! It also somehow added to the mystique of the moment. CS Lewis, a hero of mine, also smoked a pipe. I've never owned a pipe - never smoked a pipe - maybe I'll have to run out and get me a corncob pipe and some tobaccee. (please don't send me hate mail about how christians shouldn't smoke and how I shouldn't be advocating it here on this blog - I know all that - I'm just sayin...)

It was quite a day - some debriefing is in order.