Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
Mark 5:15-17

Do we really want Jesus to show up?

Because when He showed up in this community, they lost a huge part of their economy. Yes, He had done a great thing for a crazy man living by himself in a cave. But He was messing up their lives and freaking them out. So they asked Him to leave. As soon as He touched their money, His presence wasn’t welcome.

I think most people want Jesus to show up and have their lives improve. Fair enough. Jesus told us He came to bring us abundant life, full life, and that’s what His presence brings.

The problem is that in addition to wanting an abundant life, we usually want everything else to remain the same. Business as usual. Status quo intact. On both national and personal levels.

We want Jesus plus economic prosperity. Jesus plus national security. Jesus plus safety.

Jesus doesn’t always work like that. It’s not that safety, security, and prosperity cannot coexist with Jesus and His movement among us. It’s just that our desire for safety, security, and prosperity at the expense of Jesus cannot coexist with Jesus and His movement among us.

One of the greatest things standing between you and the uninhibited, powerful presence of Jesus in your life is probably the thing you believe must coexist alongside Him. Big things like the economy. Or smaller things like your boyfriend.

But in order to bring us what we really want – abundant life – sometimes God has to take away what we think we need. It’s often the things that we hold onto most tightly that we need to let go of most desperately.

Do we really want Jesus to show up?
What if Jesus comes and messes everything up?
What if we ask Him to show up in our nation and the economy goes down?
What if we ask Him to show up in our family and our kids decide our preferred career path for them isn’t God’s vision for them?

Some of us probably wouldn’t want Jesus to show up then. But that would be our loss.

Jesus’ presence may mess everything up. But by messing everything up, He is actually putting everything exactly where it belongs and positioning us for exactly what we need. And that’s Himself.

Originally posted on January 11, 2011.

This past weekend I started a 2 week teaching on God’s Favor at Elevation Church. We’re calling it Found Favor.
You can watch the first sermon here.

I told the church, and I meant it, that only setting aside 2 weeks for this study was a miscalculation on my part. I had no idea how much God would show me in His Word about favor as I began to study. Honestly, I don’t think I had a clue how central the concept of Favor is in the Scriptures.

Since I walked to the pulpit with 10 pages of notes, and only got through about 3 of them this weekend, I wanted to take a moment to elaborate on one of the facts about favor I briefly mentioned.

The more favor you receive, the more faith it will require.

God’s favor brings abundant blessing into our lives. God’s blessing is usually associated with serenity, tranquility, and other Thomas Kinkade type good sensations. So it’s easy to see why we can begin to incorrectly assume that when we have God’s favor, life will be more comfortable.

But if you come to God seeking favor in order to establish your comfort, you’ll be disappointed more often than not.
Because what you begin to discover as you walk in God’s favor is that, as much as anything, favor is a disruptive force.

Remember, for mother Mary, being blessed and highly favored meant giving birth in a barn. And bearing public shame and ridicule.

I’m not saying this to depress you. Just to prepare you.

Favor isn’t always synonymous with a series of fortunate events. It doesn’t usually lead to sitting back and relaxing.
Walking in more favor will require you to exert more faith. Because it’s going to take you places you’ve never been, and require you to do things you’ve never done. Things you can’t do, apart from Jesus.

When you ask God for favor, He answers with opportunity.
As you seize the opportunity, He empowers you with His presence, and equips you with His power.

It’s just the way favor flows.

I’m going on a mini-blogging break this week to recharge and celebrate the holidays. But I didn’t want to leave you with nothing, so I’m giving you the top 10 most popular blog entries of 2010.

If you haven’t had a chance to read them, I hope they speak life into you and challenge you to become all that Christ has dreamed and created you to be. If you have read them, it could maybe even read them again. You’ll be surprised what fresh angles God can speak to you from. Or how He can reinforce what He has already taught you.

It’s always an honor to share my thoughts with you. Have a great end to 2010. The best is yet to come.

1. Cheering for failure
2. Staying out of trouble vs. Walking in your calling
3. The ultimate poster child for what could have been
4. Perfect for you
5. Some thoughts on Halloween
6. Grapes and giants
7. But people
8. 3 Things this generation demands
9. Living within the funk
10. One of the worst verses in the Bible

The other week I saw an interesting facet about the production of plays that I think applies beautifully to the all-important practice of casting vision.

Sometimes a new play or film needs outside investment to get off the ground. When this is the case, the creators and organizers of it make a small presentation of the play called a backers’ audition for a group of people who could fund it.

If they win support, the production goes forward. If not, it stalls or falls apart.

When it comes to casting the vision God has put in our hearts, every time we’re presenting it to people it’s like a backers’ audition. Every person you cast your vision to isn’t just a person you’re informing about what you’re doing. They’re people who could potentially back it. Be a part of it. Invest their lives into it. And therefore make it happen. Or make it stall or fall apart if they don’t get behind it.

And we’re not just talking about their money. But also their time. Their energy. Even their lives.

Are we approaching these opportunities with our best shot or are we just throwing it together and hoping it sticks?

In the early days of your vision, you can’t just hope that it sticks. Otherwise, it’s never going to get off the ground. The key differentiating factor between visions that become a reality and those that remain good ideas are backers.

Everyone has passion for their own vision. But it’s those who can instill it into other people who see it come to pass.
Everyone is willing to throw money at their own vision. But it’s those who can get others to do the same who eat past the first month.

What God has called you to do is too important to give a mediocre presentation of it. When you’re presenting and casting your vision, always put your best foot forward. You never know, these could be the people you spend the rest of your life with chasing the dream God has placed inside of you. Don’t let them walk away easily because of poor presentation.

Before you give your next backers’ audition, ask yourself these questions:

Is the presentation of your vision compelling?
Is it sticky?
Is the vision clear? Could they sum it up and give it back to you after you’re done?
Is your presentation of it so short that people can’t get the full picture of what you want to do? Or so long that they lose interest long before you’re done?
After hearing it, is it something people would want to sacrifice for just to be a part of it?

One of my staff recently received his piloting license. To celebrate, a few of us flew with him to one of my speaking engagements. Sort of like a road trip, but a few thousand feet in the air.

Before the trip, he told me something that reminded me of the meetings that make up a significant portion of a church’s week. Or really, the workweek of any person.

Prior to every takeoff, the command tower asks the question, “Who’s the PIC here?”

PIC stands for Pilot in Command. The PIC of an aircraft is the person who is ultimately responsible for its operation during flight. They get the plane off the ground. Keep it on course. And ultimately get it to where it needs to be.

Churches are historically known for being awful when it comes to efficiency and productivity in their meetings. We get off course by chasing tangents. Harp on problems rather than focusing on the solutions that will fix them. Or we just jump from issue to issue with no congruity or continuity.

The reason it’s this way is usually pretty simple: most of our meetings have no PIC.

No one is making sure the meeting is staying on course and accomplishing its intended purpose. No one is corralling the conversation and keeping it focused on a clear agenda. The result is wasted time and frustrated or bored people.

Some might think this isn’t a big deal because after all, it’s only a meeting. But the most impactful decisions and directions in the history of our church have been born or defined in meetings. And my guess is they have been in yours too.

Meetings are where vision is clarified. Where churches push through critical barriers. Where ideas are generated that could have the potential for reaching dozens, hundreds, or even thousands for Christ.

So we can’t afford to have them muddled because of a lack of leadership. There’s too much God-given potential in the room to let our time together be wasted by an absence of guided direction.

If you’re finding that your meetings have been getting stuck lately, the next time you have a one, ask this question: “Who’s the PIC that’s driving this thing?”

It’s a simple fix. But it will exponentially improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your meetings and take your team to a whole new level.

We’re now just one day from the release of Sun Stand Still. The number of available copies on Amazon is dwindling, so order one now if you haven’t already. If for some reason it sells out and you can’t stand to wait, you can always pick one up at your nearest bookstore.

A lot of people have been asking if we’re going to make an audio version of the book available.

We are. In fact we’ve already recorded it. And as a special gift to you, I’m going to give you a preview of it today. In this clip you’ll hear the essence of the message of audacious faith. Take a listen and spread the word.

Don’t forget that in honor of the release of the book, tomorrow I’ll be attempting to preach for 24 hours starting at noon EST at sunstandstill.org. If you have a busy afternoon, don’t worry. I’ll be there for another 19 hours after you get off work. Grab your Bible and join me any time you can.

Thank you all for being a part of this movement of God. Join with me in praying for tomorrow and let’s see what will happen when we dare to ask God for the impossible together.

[audio:http://elevationaudio.s3.amazonaws.com/sun_stand_still_audio_blog.mp3]

Preorder your copy of Sun Stand Still
Access dozens of free Sun Stand Still resources

Next Thursday, Leadership Network is hosting a phenomenal conference called The Nines. For nine straight hours you’re going to get to learn from over 100 of the top church and business leaders as they share the biggest game changers they’ve ever experienced.

And the best part is that it’s free, so you don’t have to pay anything. And completely online, so you don’t have to go anywhere.

When I was asked to be a part of this event, I had a little difficulty choosing which game changer to land on. Just four years in, I’ve experienced a lot of moments and ideas that have shifted paradigms and come to define our church.

So I made two recordings. I feel great about the one I sent in, but I also wanted to give you the other video because I’m convinced it’s a message that churches and their leaders need to embrace and practice now more than ever.

After you’ve watched the video, take a second and go register for The Nines. Even if you can only make it for a couple of hours, you’re not wasting any money and you’re still going to receive teaching that has the potential to be a game changer in your own leadership.

This past weekend we saw one of the most powerful moves of God at Elevation yet. 581 people saved in just two days. We celebrate and stand in awe of a massive outpouring of God’s power and salvation. But 581 is more than just a big number for us. What makes that number really incredible is that behind it are 581 names. And behind every name there’s a story of a person whose life was redeemed and changed forever.

A foreign exchange student from France who happened to come and was saved.
Six students who found life together after a couple of their friends invited them to church.
A couple in their 60s who both accepted Christ.

I think of the greatest temptations any church faces is depersonalizing the miracles it so desperately longs to see. There is nothing wrong with praying for God to move in unprecedented ways. We shouldn’t settle for small goals when we have a God who is capable of the impossible. But we do not need to forget that God’s miracles involve people. And these are real people with real needs and real situations.

When you look through the gospels, the amount and character of the miracles of Jesus is staggering. But what may be more staggering is that when you look at each one in its context, Jesus’ concern is not with the grandeur of the miracle itself. But with the fact that His power is impacting and transforming the life of an individual.

Jesus sees a woman in a funeral procession who has just lost her only son. So He raises him from the dead. Jesus sees a bent over, ostracized woman while preaching in a synagogue. So he straightens her up. A blind man asks for his sight. And so Jesus restores it. It wasn’t just about the miracle itself. It was about the life that was impacted because of the miracle.

We’re never going to stop praying that God’s power will demonstrate itself in ways we’ve never seen before. We will always pray that God would continue to save hundreds and thousands during our weekend worship experiences. But that’s because we know that there are hundreds and thousands of unique people with unique stories and unique needs who need the same power of Jesus to flow through their lives.

We’re ultimately praying for God to save the life of an individual. To heal one person. To meet the needs of one man. To transform the life of one woman.

And then repeat this event hundreds of times.

PXGAQ4JCHP86

One of the things I try to emphasize regularly with my staff is the importance of us not taking the incredible things we’re experiencing for granted. We have been blessed to get to see God do things in four years that most churches don’t see in forty. And the danger for us is that we could normalize the abnormal. Or even worse, come to see what we’re experiencing as something we’re entitled to.

But this isn’t just a danger for us. Or for people or organizations that are doing or seeing things that are considered extraordinary.

It’s a danger for all of us.

Whenever you have something that is essentially a privilege for too long you can begin to feel it’s something you’re entitled to. Something that’s yours by right.

When in fact everything you have is by the grace of God. Everything.

You are not entitled to have a spouse. You are blessed with one.
You are not entitled to have a job. You are provided one.
You are not entitled to healing, forgiveness, or salvation. You are given them.

We sabotage our story when we begin to see the benefits and blessings of God as things we’re entitled to. And that’s because entitlement is the enemy of genuine thankfulness and appreciation. Both to God for what He has given us and for what He has given us.

I think that’s why throughout the Bible God repeatedly tells His people to recount His deeds on their behalf and the blessings that He had given them. It wasn’t because He needed to be reminded of how good He was. It was because they needed to be reminded of how good they had it. And how much they did not deserve it.

We need to be reminded too. None of us deserve anything we have. None of us are entitled to anything. But that’s what makes God’s benefits and blessings so extraordinary. God’s grace is the grounds for our gratitude.

This fall I have the honor of speaking for C3 East in Orlando. You should seriously consider bringing your team to this conference. Some of the most significant and defining moments in our church leadership culture have happened at C3 and I firmly believe that its potential to revolutionize your ministry is exponential in scope. Ed Young has been a model of creativity for me and challenged me to dream dreams worthy of the God we serve. But even more than that, he and his wife Lisa’s love, support, and honor of Holly and I have made an impact I don’t think I’ll ever be able to measure. Check out this video, go to their website for more information, and do whatever you can to be there in October.

Were great sermons delivered to the wrong people.

As pastors we have to remember that the measure of a sermon isn’t just based on the effectiveness of its delivery or its faithfulness to Scripture. Just as essential is that it is designed for the specific group of people God has called us to reach.

The problem usually occurs before the sermon is ever delivered. Every preacher has a galley of people that is sitting in their minds when they are preparing a sermon. The problem is that many pastors have the wrong people sitting in that galley.

Some of us are preparing our sermons for our old seminary professor so our goal is to not make any mistakes or do anything unorthodox. Others of us are preaching to a donor we don’t want to offend by saying the wrong thing. We’re preaching to bloggers who might criticize us and take something out of context. We’re preaching to the person who made us mad and we want to get them back so we bully them from the pulpit.

In each of these cases, the issue isn’t that we’re not faithfully preaching God’s Word. It’s that we’re not faithfully preaching it to the people He has called us to preach it to.

It’s so important that when we are preparing our sermons, we keep two primary audiences before us. First and foremost, God must be the primary person on our minds. Otherwise whatever you preach won’t be worth anyone’s time. But then you have to take the next step and ask yourself the identity of the primary group you have been called to reach or that God has given you this sermon for. Otherwise whatever you preach won’t be worth their time.

God determines your faithfulness to the Word. But your audience determines who receives the focus of the Word.

A powerful temptation for ministry leaders comes when we see the miraculous ways God is using other leaders and their ministries and we want to see the same things happen in ours. Unfortunately our first inclination often is to try to duplicate the way God is moving in their setting by simply implementing their systems, methods, and programs. It’s understandable. But I’ve learned from experience that it doesn’t work that way.

Each miraculous display of God’s power and favor is custom tailored to specific situations. The Red Sea parted once. The walls of Jericho fell once. The sun stood still once-

God has no set paradigm for how He does the miraculous. He wants to do new things in new places at new times. And that includes how He powerfully works in churches. Any time we take a tangible manifestation of how God is moving in another church and turn it into a method that we think can’t fail in ours, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. The strategy that God used in one setting to reach thousands might actually decrease the attendance in yours.

By all means study other churches’ systems and best practices. Learn what they have done to harness the momentum that a move of God creates. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that a system itself can create a move of God. You can’t build a God-infused ministry through trying to mimic the miracles that God has already worked through other people.

But you can through imitating their faith.

The makeup of a miracle changes. The key ingredient of faith in the people who get to be conduits for the miraculous never does. Leaders are first and foremost models of faith before they are models of ministry. God has not raised up ministries and their leaders so that everybody can do what they’re doing. What he really wants is to put on display the kinds of things that can happen when people have the faith to believe Him for the impossible.

Don’t try to mimic anybody’s miracle. Instead, imitate their faith in a God who can do the miraculous.

God wants to do powerful things through you that the world has never seen before. But He wants to do them through bold faith that He has used and rewarded time and time again.

Every time I preach, I try to leave it all on the stage. And in the sense of giving it everything I’ve got-all of my energy, all of my effort-I do.

But there’s another sense in which I don’t. Every week, countless scriptural insights, sermon points, and illustrations do not make it into my final sermon. It’s not that they were necessarily bad or untrue. It’s a simple matter of not having an unlimited amount of time every week to say everything I want to say.

Yesterday was probably the most obvious example of this in recent memory. I began a two-week series on forgiveness conservatively titled “F-Bomb.” Going into the sermon, I had about six pages of possible points that I wanted to give over a two-week span. I probably made it through one page. And that was pushing it.

Now I fully believe that I said everything God led me to say this past weekend. And God showed up in powerful ways beyond description and set a lot of people free from the prison of their own unforgiveness. But a lot was also left unsaid that I think could really benefit people as they’re processing through what forgiveness looks like. So I thought it would be good to give you a behind the scenes look at a few of the things that didn’t make the final cut or that didn’t receive a fuller explanation than what I gave. Think of these as the bonus tracks to yesterday’s sermon:

• Forgiveness isn’t given on the expectation that the other person will change, apologize, or understand. It isn’t based off the response of the person. It’s born out of our response to the gospel. Sometimes, forgiveness precedes repentance. On the cross, Christ forgave the people who were crucifying him long before they ever repented of it, if they even did. His forgiveness did not guarantee their repentance. But it did make it possible.

• Confrontation is not always necessary for forgiveness to occur. In fact, sometimes not confronting those who have hurt you is the wisest and godliest thing you can do. If you insist on having to tell everybody how badly they have wronged you, it might reveal that you really aren’t interested in forgiving them at all. You’re just using the pretense of forgiveness as a platform for condemnation.

• There are many offenses that are beyond your ability to forgive. There are none that are beyond the ability of Christ to forgive through you. For you, forgiveness might be a miracle. But God isn’t relying on your power to forgive any more than he was relying on the power of Elijah to stop the rain or the power of Moses to part the Red Sea. Never let your inability trump God’s infinite abilities. Rather than worrying about whether you have the power to forgive, ask Christ to unleash in you the unlimited power of forgiveness that resides in the cross.

(If you weren’t there to hear it, we’ll have the whole sermon up later today.)

I was watching a football game this past fall and the team I was cheering for pulled off an incredible play for a huge gain. It seemed like momentum had finally swung our way and there was nothing that could keep us from moving forward and scoring.

And then I heard the announcer say, “It’s coming back. It’s coming back. There’s a flag on the play.”

Everything that had just been achieved was gone. The momentum disappeared. And we were now moving backwards.

What’s so frustrating about a play being called back is not that it means that gains weren’t made. Significant gains were made. Momentum was created. What makes it frustrating is that it is all canceled out because of an indiscretion. So much achievement is erased in an instant.

I’ve come to see this as a challenging analogy for us to make sure we’re not canceling out the big gains we have been and are experiencing by having something in our life called back because of a lapse in character.

How many ministries have made significant gains that had to come back because the pastor was caught in a moral failure? If you get the ball down the field and grow a big church but it comes back, what does it matter? Yes, lives will have been transformed. But you won’t be around to enjoy it.

How many successful business people have climbed the ranks of their organizations through the use of their God-given abilities, only to be fired because they tried to cut a corner to maintain the success they had achieved?

The same idea goes for students, spouses, politicians. Everybody.

Pay attention, because I think of a lot of us need to hear this. This is your chance to make sure that the momentum you have in your life continues and the gains you’re making remain intact.

Listen: None of your achievements are so big that they can’t be torn down in an instant by a lapse in judgment. Your talents and abilities can take you where your character can’t keep you. If there is anything in your life that has the potential to cancel out all of the successes you’ve had up to this point, get rid of it now before it undoes everything you’ve worked for.

Yesterday I told you I would be giving you access to my system for recording, cataloging, and implementing my ideas. After writing it out, I’ve decided it’s much too long for one blog post. I don’t want to shortchange you by reducing it, so I’ve divided it in two. The second half will be posted tomorrow. Here is the first half of the process:

The Birth of the Idea

The genesis of any system for getting your ideas from your mind to reality starts with the initial moment of inspiration. I’ve found that these moments occur in two different ways.

Sometimes they will appear out of nowhere. I’ll be doing something that requires zero creativity, yet one of the most creative ideas I’ve ever had will come to me. You’ll find that your subconscious is often working harder than your conscious mind ever will. Collecting random bits of information and making connections you never would. When God decides to use it to present you with something fresh, be ready.

Others come through learned observation. What I mean is that you have to train yourself to become aware of everything around you and its illustrative and revelatory potential. The books I read are no longer just for my own personal edification. They are goldmines for ideas. Every conversation I have, my favorite memories from family vacations, everything has the potential to birth an idea inside of me. Because God has created the world, everything around us possesses the possibility of more fully revealing the One who created it. Or giving us insight into the way His creation is designed to work. So keep your eyes open.

The first source of inspiration requires little to no work. The second may require intensive examination and reflection. Both are required if you want to maximize your mind’s full potential.

Get it Down.

The next step is crucial. It’s the one most pastors never get to and why most ideas never see the light of day. Ingrain this instruction in your head: write everything down.

Record every creative impulse. Every good idea. Every bad idea. Every possible vision initiative. Every potential illustration. When you’re reading, if the author says something in a fresh way that could illustrate one of your own concepts, record it immediately. Don’t highlight the sentence and hope you remember to flip back and find it later. You won’t.

Write it on a napkin. Record it on your phone. Write it on your iPad. Tatoo it on your arm if you have to. Whatever you have to do, just get it down. Some of your best sermon ideas were never preached because they weren’t written down. You thought you’d remember. You didn’t.

I write most of my thoughts in a Moleskin. But I’ll also do whatever it takes. I’ve called my own voicemail before and left a message just so I wouldn’t lose an idea.

However I end up recording it, I follow up and transfer it to either my computer or my iPad to make the second half of the process more efficient. We’ll pick up there tomorrow.

For now, keep your eyes open for every little piece of inspiration God gives you. And have a pen ready.

One of the core things we’re known for here at Elevation is placing a disproportionate value on providing worship experiences that boldly celebrate Jesus and attract people far from God.

Integral to this aspect of our identity is the desire and push for excellence in everything we do. There is absolutely no room for mediocre work. We’ll can a worship element we spent dozens of hours planning and implementing if it doesn’t meet our standards. We want to produce the best videos, play the best songs with the best musicians, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus to the best of our abilities.

But there is a danger in this and it’s something I recently communicated to our staff during one of our times of worship together. It’s one thing to worship with passion and excellence when the room is full and all eyes are on us. The real test of worship comes when your auditorium is empty and the only people remaining are the staff who now have no responsibilities but to stand before God and still give Him everything they’ve got.

In these moments, if we dial down our intensity and offer mediocre worship, we reveal the true motivation of our hearts. Our excellence really hasn’t been about worship. It’s been about performance. We’ve tried to engage a crowd instead of leading the crowd to join us in engaging God.

Pastors, worship leaders, producers, any and everybody involved in leading worship experiences, we can’t operate with excellence simply because people are watching. We have to do it because God is watching and is worthy of our best.

And this truth applies to every Christian. Colossians 3:23 insists that “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”

The consistent and passionate giving of your best efforts in whatever you do is the best gift of worship you have to give to God every day of your life. Especially when there are absolutely no eyes on you besides the One you are worshipping.

It’s hard to admit this, but there are things I do not do well. There are things that are hard for me to do.

For example, I am not good at counseling. If you come to me for one-on-one help, you’re probably going to leave more depressed than you came in. It’s just not a strength of mine. But because I’m a pastor, and that’s something a pastor is supposed to do, I face the temptation to spend my time trying to get better at it.

By conventional logic, this might seem like the right thing to do. But the problem is that I’m spending valuable time and energy trying to get good at something I’m never going to be good at. And worst of all, it steals my focus away from what is easy for me, from what I actually do well.

The easy things are hard for me. Obviously not because they are difficult to do, but because I feel like I should be spending my time making the hard things easy. And that’s what makes the easy things hard.

It strikes me that most people often spend too much time trying to improve their weaknesses rather than trying to perfect their strengths. While the first option sounds commendable, it is actually a bad way to spend your energy. Upgrading from bad to mediocre is not impressive or even useful.

The person who makes the greatest impact is the one who has maximized his or her strengths to their full potential. The thing that is going to set you apart is being the absolute best at what you do well.

I really do not believe God is going to hold you or me accountable for gifts that He did not give us. But He will definitely ask what we did with what he did give us. So I have decided to orient my life around the most significant thing God wants me to do and it’s the thing that I’m good at. I know my strengths, and I’m leveraging all of my time and energy towards them.

Stop making the easy things hard by trying to make the hard things easier.

It’s no secret that worship is a primary priority at Elevation. Our worship team is made up of some of the most gifted and talented people I’ve ever been around. Since I led worship for years before we started the church (and even led worship at Elevation for the first year we existed), it’s just in my blood. In fact, every once in a while, when the mood hits, I jump on the stage, grab the mic, and sing along for a minute or two with the band. I’m really quite rusty. But I like to keep everyone on their toes.

Recently, one of my favorite worship leaders on the planet stopped by to celebrate our four year anniversary with us. Israel Houghton is a Grammy award winning artist, he leads worship at Lakewood, the largest church in America, and he’s a phenomenal human being.

While he was here, he was gracious enough to spend a few minutes with me discussing diversity, uniqueness, and the trends and opportunities he sees in the body of Christ around the world. This week, I’ll be posting excerpts from the interview here on the blog. The content will be helpful to everyone- not just worship leaders. Hope you enjoy it.

Click here for a special birthday something for Pastor Steven

Since you never post on Fridays anymore, we thought this would be a great time to hijack your blog Pastor Steven. We can’t say thank you enough for how you’ve managed to inspire us all to believe in ourselves the way God believes in us.

Thank you for being such a great leader for us. Here’s a little birthday wish from all of us.

Happy Birthday Pastor Steven, we love you.

The Staff at Elevation

They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
-Luke 22:13

Jesus gave the disciples very specific instructions about the preparations they needed to make for the Passover meal. See Luke 22:7-12.

The disciples followed His instructions to the detail. And everything was in place, just like Jesus said.

I can’t count the number of times God has called me to take a step of obedience that seemed somewhat far fetched at the time. But when I got to the place where he told me to go, I found things just as Jesus told me they would be.

When God calls you to obey Him in your finances, career, or relationships, do it. And once you get there, you’ll find everything is in its place.

Just like Jesus told you.

Hurry and sign up for this. Perry Noble & the NewSpring Super Staff are doing it again. Unleash. March 4. One day of fired up, Jesus centered preaching & exposure to the world class team that is NewSpring Church.

Guarantees:
-Perry will say funny stuff, bold stuff, true stuff, helpful stuff.
-Your team will leave full of vision.
-Your team will leave with no excuses.

Perry is one of my best friends. His heart for the Kingdom is huge. His voice is unique and his passion is contagious. There’s not a more gutsy leader in our generation. You owe it to yourself to load the buses and catch the flame firsthand.

Register here. Don’t dawdle. The $59 early bird registration ends January 31, & this thing always sells out quick. Cause it’s ridiculously cheap. And extremely powerful.

When John the Baptist was processing his depression and despair in Matthew 11, Jesus sent him a pretty straightforward message. In summary, Jesus reminded John of the validity of His ministry as the Christ, and commanded him to persevere. You can read the whole response in Matthew 11:1-6 . I’m sure it brought limited consolation to John, and maybe even felt a little cold or callous.

But after John’s messengers left, Jesus started talking about John to the crowd. Keep in mind, John wouldn’t have heard any of this part. Jesus starts saying all kinds of terrific things about John behind his back. He even gives him the distinction of being the greatest man ever born of a woman (Matthew 11:11). Pretty high accolades coming from the Son of God.

But these words would never reach the ears of John the Baptist. Because Jesus didn’t intend for John to hear them. When John died and entered into eternity, I wonder if he read John 11:11 and thought: Why didn’t you say so, Jesus? It would have been nice to know how much you thought of me while I was rotting in prison.

I guess Jesus wanted John to place his confidence in the character of God rather than affirmations sent by human messenger.

You may be in a similar spot today. It’s been a long time since anyone told you: Good job. I’m proud of you. You’re making a difference.

Perhaps Jesus is talking about you behind your back. He’s proud of you. He sees potential in you. He’s accomplishing far-reaching, logic defying purposes through you.

Stay faithful. Even if it doesn’t seem like God is speaking directly to you.
There will come a day when all of your labor in the Lord will be rewarded openly.

It’s not in vain.

Building on yesterday’s post, what does it look like to be faithful in your ministry and trust God for significant impact when you can’t see any tangible miraculous signs? How can you be more like John the Baptist?

I’ll answer by way of personal reflection. Let me tell you a little about a guy who’s a lot like John the Baptist. We’ll call him Chip the Methodist.

I can think of so many examples of people who made a dramatic impact on me even though I’m sure they couldn’t see it at the time. Chip was easily in the top five. He took time to meet with me for coffee every Wednesday night at Alex’s Restaurant before I went to choir practice at Moncks Corner United Methodist Church, where we were both members. Chip was about 20 years older than me, and he had roughly half of the New Testament memorized. Literally.

I was only 16 years old, had freshly trusted Christ as my Savior, and was reading through the Gospels for the first time at a rapid pace. I was hungry for truth, full of zeal, and in great need of wisdom, knowledge, instruction and insight. I would come armed with a notepad full of questions I had collected during my reading. Chip helped me master some basic hermeneutical concepts, and nurtured a deep love and respect for the authority of God’s Word.

You’ve never heard Chip the Methodist speak at a major church growth conference. That’s not his gig. You’ll never see his name on the cover of a New York Times Bestseller. He has no aspirations to be an author.

But Chip’s ministry is present in every word I write, every sermon I preach, and every accomplishment God brings about through my life.

I’ll bet there’s someone you could invest in like Chip the Methodist invested in me. You don’t have to have half the New Testament memorized. Just a willing heart and a passion for Jesus.

Who knows what miraculous signs your faithful ministry will ultimately produce?

John 10:41-42
They said, “Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.” And in that place many believed in Jesus.

I want to drop a word of encouragement for those of you who don’t feel very successful, noticed, important or appreciated.

Just because you’re not performing miraculous signs doesn’t mean you’re not making a significant impact.

John the Baptist died by decapitation in prison, wondering whether anything he had ever dreamed, declared or done made any difference in the end.
(See Matthew 11:2-3).

Apparently, John’s ministry made more of a difference than he would ever know on earth. By the time you get to John 10:41, the Bible says “many people” are coming to Jesus and placing their faith in Him- all because of John the Baptist’s faithful ministry.

Maybe God will allow you to do miraculous signs in the name of Jesus. Or maybe He’ll simply call you to a faithful ministry that will prepare the way for someone else to make a significant impact through miraculous signs.

I have a feeling that when we get to heaven, we’ll discover that much of the heavy lifting for the advance of the Gospel was done by those who never performed a miraculous sign, but through years of faithful ministry, had a miraculous impact.

My brilliant friend Pastor Jonathan Martin made a statement in one of his recent sermons about how much it grieves God when we are suspicious of Him.
(Aside: if you’ve never heard Jonathan preach, check out his podcast here. He’s among the best.)

You know how sometimes someone says something in a way that really gets your attention? I’m sure the actual thought or concept behind what Jonathan said was nothing new. Basically, he was saying that we need to trust God’s nature. That His character is good.

But being suspicious of God-well, I’d never thought about it that way. That really challenged me. It shed some light on why I deal with so much anxiety. Why I can be a control freak quite often. Why, at times, I can’t even fully enjoy the blessings God has given me.

The symptoms of stress and fear have a deeper source than circumstances and negative events. They’re rooted in a suspicion of God’s intention and direction for my life.

Celebrate the Opportunity

[flv:http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/10.flv 480 270]

Leading the Way

[flv:http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/09.flv 480 270]

People give to VISION, not NEED

[flv:http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/08.flv 480 270]

So honored to have the opportunity to speak for my friend Shawn Lovejoy and the folks at churchplanters.com for Velocity 2010 this February. I had the privilege of speaking at this conference a couple years ago, and the energy was electric.

Shawn is all heart when it comes to church planting. He’s extremely wise, and his teaching resonates with balance and practicality. This year he’s put together a phenomenal line up of speakers, including Rick Warren, Ed Young, Brian Bloye, and tons of others who speak from experience rather than pontificating theoretically.

The information is here. Look forward to seeing you there!

In a small town, everybody knows everybody’s business. At least it seems that way. For better or for worse, when something goes down in a small town, word gets around. Quickly.

When you break up with your middle school girlfriend, it gets around.
When you buy a new car or bigger house, it gets around.
When you switch churches, it gets around.
When you accomplish something, it gets around.
When you do something wrong to someone, it gets around.

Alas, it’s nearly impossible to do something, say something, not do something or not say something in a small town without everybody in your circle finding out before the sun goes down. When you slip up and screw up, this can be pretty embarrassing. When you win or succeed, you get a lot of atta boys.

So whether you like it or not, small town living teaches you to live with the reality:
You only get one reputation. You’d better guard it well.
I think this perspective has served me well as an adult, and especially as a pastor:
I won’t sell out my reputation for any amount of money, success, or pleasure.

The book of Proverbs repeatedly emphasizes the enduring value of a good name. Living in a small town helps you stay keenly aware:
Your sin affects others. And what is done in the darkness will eventually be brought to light. In Moncks Corner, there’s a pretty quick turn around time.

I understand that striving to have a good reputation can quickly turn into image management. Because my ministry is public, I have to learn how to live with the fact that from time to time people will misquote, misunderstand, and misjudge me. Jesus was born in a small town. And the people never truly saw Him for who He was. He didn’t waste His time trying to win their approval. He simply kept doing the will of His Father. And at the end of His life, not even His accusers could find anything valid to condemn Him for. He lived with perfect integrity. His reputation stands eternally. He is the blameless and glorious Son of God. And through faith, His reputation and righteousness is ours.

I can’t live my life for the approval of others. And if you make popular opinion your ultimate measure of success, misery is inevitable.

But, take it from this small town boy: what goes down gets around.
Prioritize the importance of a good reputation. You only get one.

The ministry of Jesus wasn’t designed to grow by addition. His investment in a small select group set the stage for the advance of the Gospel through the power of Kingdom multiplication, and exponential influence.

My friend Bil Cornelius and his team at Bay Area Fellowship are introducing an exclusive mentorship experience called Expo Coaching modeled after the ministry of Jesus, and focused on taking your leadership to the next level.

I wanted to let you know about the opportunity because I believe in Pastor Bil and deeply respect his ministry. He has a rare combination of business acumen and spiritual acuity that make him a leader worth following.

The deadline is quickly approaching, and the spots are very limited.
Click here for registration info. Mention code: IS4364CAJESWE345908FWFN when you register. It’s unlikely to get you a discount, because I just made it up. But it would be pretty funny to see how the folks in the registration department responded when you rattle that baby off.

Keep your own “Secret Playbook”

[flv:http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/26.flv 480 270]

The “One Thing” Principle

[flv:http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/25.flv 480 270]

Focus on what you can affect

[flv:http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/24.flv 480 270]

Practical church survival tips

[flv:http://www.stevenfurtick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/23.flv 480 270]

I would like to know if you had anything to do with the blonde hair phase?
Why, yes, I did. I consider myself his chief fashion consultant.

What are ya’ll going to do about school for the boys? Public, private or home?
We are not sure yet. We are open to everything and praying about what is best for our family.

As you may know women tend to be attracted to men in leadership. Do women ever act interested in your husband. If so, how does it make you feel?
Angry. I would kill them with my eyes (and then possibly with my hands).

Here’s my question: How do you, as a Pastor’s wife, address your hubby – the slang intimate ones? Is it Steven, My Husband, Pastor, Pastor Steven, Pastor Furtick or what have you???
When talking to him, 99% of the time I call him Babe or Baby. When writing, I refer to him as PF. When talking to others about him, sometimes I just call him Steven or my husband.

Hey Holly, You have an incredible family but you must go through some trials and frustrations as we all do. How difficult is it being a preacher’s wife in such a fast paced, growing church?
You said it right, we all do. I don’t think that the trials of being a pastor’s wife are more difficult than that of any other woman today. They are just different and maybe a little more lonely. I pray a lot. I have a lot of people who pray for me and my family every day. And I try to keep a good perspective.

I was wondering what you think that it was that your parents or other person did that helped make you the man (Pastor) and woman that you are and that you are going to do with your own children.
I hope so. I pray so! I think our parents did a great job raising us. I know there was lots of prayer involved. I hope we can do the same with our kids.

For the wife’s perspective, how was church planting? What do you do to help your husband? Do you have any tips for other church planting wives or those whose husband are dreaming of church planting?
The church planting phase was just that, church planting. No phase gets easier, it just gets different. My tip- Believe in your husband and tell him that you believe in him. Every. Single. Day. And about a dozen times on Sunday.

Despite busy schedules w/ ministry, how do you and Pastor Steven find time to spend together? Any suggestions on fun dates?
Sorry, we are pretty boring as far as fun activities go. We just like to eat out and talk to each other. We sometimes go to bookstores and read together. Every now and then we go to a movie.

A lot of you asked questions that I have already answered on my blog. Check out my side bar categories. In my You Asked category, I answered a lot of questions about our daily life, bible reading, dealing with judgmental people, raising kids and more. One day soon I plan to give some dating advice and tell our story so check back too.

It’s been great spending the week with you. Your favorite Furtick will be back on Monday with his great and always concise and challenging posts. Have a great weekend!!

Guest Blogger: Holly Furtick

Hello stevenfurtick.com readers. Next week I am hijacking my husband’s blog to answer your questions. This is your chance to hear what it is like to be married to Pastor Steven Furtick. Ask away and I will be candid and honest.

Send your questions to pastor@elevationchurch.org and I will see you back here next week, sort of.

This is probably the least practical, yet most vital foundation to eliminate complaining from your life.

Make sure you measure your circumstances from the baseline
of what you really deserve.

The reality of grace invalidates any claim to complaint you may stake.

The basis of all complaining is one of the following two erroneous beliefs:

1. I deserve something good I didn’t get.
2. I don’t deserve something bad I did get.

Complaining takes your perspective out of the realm of the unmerited, unlimited, inexhaustible grace of Jesus. The spirit of complaining squares it’s shoulders and demands what it deserves.

I promise you – you don’t want what you really deserve.

God loves you. He wants to bless you. He has every intention of being good to you.

But anything short of eternal torment and separation from God in hell is a blessing. No matter how unfair your current situation may be, it’s a lot better than what you deserve. Never forget that.

The next time you’re tempted to complain, check your perspective.
You should be in hell.

That ought to put your complaint in its place.

(Special thanks to Pastor Craig Groeschel for the following perspective.)

When I’m tempted to complain, it’s very helpful to run my potential complaint through the grid of 100 years.

Size up the situation, consider the ramifications, and ask honestly:
Will this matter in a hundred years?

If the answer is no, let it go.
If it’s yes, do something about it.
Either way, complaining is not an option.

The majority of the things I complain about are related to my temporary comfort, not eternal realities. There’s no need complaining about something that will have no impact in 3 weeks. A lot of the things I complain about won’t even matter 3 minutes from now.

Will it matter in a hundred years? Probably not.

So why waste a complaint? You’ve got more enduring work to do.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make in our effort to cut back on complaints is our effort to conceal them.

Don’t conceal your complaints. Instead, convert them into something constructive.

If we simply try to reduce our complaints by biting our tongues and bottling our emotions, we’re bound to take out our frustration on the wrong person at the wrong time for the wrong thing. It always comes out sideways.

When you feel the urge to complain, remember:
Your inclination to address an issue is not a sin. The sin of complaining happens when I miss the opportunity to act on something because I’m too busy griping about it.

Maybe the most detrimental thing about complaining is that it paralyzes your ability to do something about the need you see. It reduces you to a victim. Stop whining that someone should do something about that. Instead, ask the Lord: what would you have me to do about that?

Convert your complaint into something constructive.

Recently I preached a sermon at Elevation on Philippians 2:14:
Do everything without complaining.
Turned out to be one of the most challenging verses I’ve ever tackled. Not challenging to understand. Challenging to live out. I’m a pretty big baby sometimes.

So I challenged Elevation to engage in a one week fast. Not a fast from eating. A fast from complaining. Technically, that may not be fasting. But you get the point.

Every time we complained last week, we had to put a dollar in a jar. The money will be given to one of our local outreach partners to feed hungry families. And hopefully, we emerged from the experiment convicted, awakened, and refreshed in our perspective.

I walked into our staff meeting recently and shared a little “bonus sermon” with them on the subject of complaining. Bonus sermon=all the stuff I would have added to my sermon if I’d had the time. They seemed to enjoy it.

Over the next couple days I’ll pass along some of these practical applications to you. We need all the help we can get if we’re going to do everything without complaining.

Guest Blogger: Heather Bishop, Project Manager- Office of the Lead Pastor
(Doomsday Speaker for Elevation Uptown)

Take a look at this video, it’s a favorite here at Elevation. Trust me, once you watch this, you’ll want to watch it again! Pastor Steven’s 4 year old son, Elijah, teaches us all how to manage our money God’s way- it’s a simple concept, yet so many of us haven’t mastered it. I hope this video challenges you, makes you smile, and encourages you to assess your own financial management of the money God has entrusted to you.
Give 10% to God
Give 10% to savings
Spend the rest

If Elijah Furtick can manage money God’s way, so can you!

I want to have a Kingdom minded approach to ministry. Sadly, my flesh so often pulls me in the direction of building my own kingdom. It’s an ugly, discrete, and unacceptable inclination.

Since I know this proclivity is a part of me, I have to proactively wage war against it. It’s good to pray about it. And it’s even better to pray about it and then act against it.

I’ll share a small effort I made toward this before I ever even moved to Charlotte. I’m not sharing it to brag, because honestly, I don’t think it’s all that heroic. But hopefully, it will inspire you to think of your own ways to fight against a my Kingdom come mentality.

I set up separate lunch meetings with 3 church planters who were already established in Charlotte. I met them at a place that was convenient for them on a day that fit their schedule. I took my notebook and asked questions. I shut up and wrote down what they said. I paid for lunch. Then afterward, I handed each of them a check from my personal checking account for $100.

That may not sound like a lot of money. But when the church you’re preparing to start only has a couple hundred dollars in the checking account and you’ve got your first kid on the way, it’s a pretty substantial sacrifice.

I have no illusion that my $100 made an earth shaking difference in the bottom line of the budgets of any of those churches. But it helped to uproot the weeds of territorialism in my heart as I sowed some seed into someone else’s ministry.

Don’t just pray that God would give you a heart for the ministries of others. Make an investment into someone else’s ministry. And your heart will follow.

The first thing a church planter should do (before he even unpacks his boxes if possible) is identify and honor the spiritual fathers in the city he’s occupying. I did a decent job of this when I moved to Charlotte. I could have done a lot better.

(If the term spiritual fathers doesn’t work for you, how about something like most influential Christian leaders? The important thing isn’t what you call it. What matters is that you do it.)

You may want to make a list of ten churches in your community/surrounding area that are really making a difference for Jesus. I don’t think it necessarily needs to be the largest churches. In fact, the more diverse the list is, the better.

Reach out to the pastors of those churches. But don’t ask for anything – not a meeting or even a return call. Just reach out and express gratitude and support. Send them a hand written note thanking them for their work in the city. Deliver a gift card to a nice restaurant. Pray for them once a week.

In my experience, God will honor those who honor those who have gone before.

This is a friendly reminder to all church planters:
You’re not the first person to ever love Jesus and preach the Gospel in your community. Unless you’re planting way on the outskirts of the middle of nowhere in some sort of deep, deep, dark jungle. Alabama doesn’t count.

It takes nerve to start a church in a place like Charlotte. There are so many really solid, really healthy, really remarkable churches already established in this area. We didn’t start Elevation here because nobody else was getting the job done. In fact, a large part of what has made our ministry fruitful is the labor of those who were plowing and sowing in this field long before we got here.

Sometimes those of us with an apostolic and pioneering edge can come across like God didn’t show up in our town till we got there. This is preposterous. I ask God’s forgiveness for any way that I’ve perpetuated this mentality.

This week I’ll offer a few thoughts on how we might do a better job acknowledging those who have gone before us in our cities as we seek to be a part of His movement in the places He’s positioned us.

Guest Blogger: Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor

Continuing with the IMPART wrap up, here’s a quick hit from a surprise session with Pastor Steven and Pastor Perry Noble from NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. It was a surprise for everyone in attendance-a casual conversation between 2 friends candidly talking about life in the ministry. Here’s a few minutes you should think about sending to every married man you know in ministry.

Guest Blogger: Larry Hubatka, Creative Pastor

Check the tweets, IMPART went off yesterday. Here’s a few minutes from the final session of the day. Pastor Steven covered The Cost of Your Calling during this session and it inspired and challenged everyone in attendance to pursue God without distraction. To address the relationships in your life. To ask yourself if you’re both heading to the same place. To ask if it might be time to quit walking together. Take a deep breath and check it out.

When God denies or defers you a privilege that you really really really really want, follow the example of King David. God didn’t give him the bid for GC of the Temple, but David was determined to serve on the construction crew. David spent the rest of his life making sacrifices and preparations so that the temple could be built after he died. Think about that.

David chose to give his best energy and effort toward the completion of a task that he wouldn’t even be around to see.

When God hands you the Sorry Charlie Slip, will you be willing to participate in someone else’s progress even if you don’t get to enjoy the effects of your obedience?

If God won’t let you plant a church, will you jump into ministry at your current church and serve humbly wherever the staff has the greatest need?

If you love kids, but struggle with infertility, will you volunteer in the children’s ministry and love other people’s kids while trusting in God’s good timing to give you your own?

If you want a diamond ring more than anything, but God won’t seem to send you your prince no matter how long and hard you pray or how many different ways you cut your hair, will you devote the extra bandwidth and time you have as a single lady to service, devotion to him, and preparation instead of feeling sorry for yourself and letting jealousy consume you as you cry yourself to sleep every night?

When you participate in the progress of others it takes the focus off your own perceived lack of progress. It replaces the focus on what you want with thankfulness for what you have.

I need to prescribe a little leadership pill that’s pretty hard to swallow-but oh so good for you-and everyone you lead.

When you come into conflict with someone you lead, mark this:
All of it is never your fault.
Some of it is always your fault.

If you assume all of the responsibility for the conflict, you’ll end up owning issues that are not yours to own. Soon you’ll be overcompensating for someone else’s dysfunction. You’ll aggravate the injury because you’re treating the wrong symptoms.

If you assume too little of the responsibility, you’re passing up a jackpot of learning experience and opportunity for improvement. Plus, you’re the kind of aloof and delusional jerk that no one wants to work for because you’re never ever wrong.

If the issue is theirs, forgive, coach, and appropriately reposition. If the issue is yours, own it, and convert it into wisdom. Either way, you get better with every failure. And that’s a success.

God got very angry with David for taking a census in 2 Samuel 24. In fact, this single act of disobedience resulted in a plague that destroyed 70,000 people. The level of punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime. All David was doing was taking inventory of his kingdom. But God is about to send a reminder: it wasn’t his kingdom. These people belonged to God, and David had no business claiming the increase of Israel as his own. David’s motives had gotten dramatically misaligned.

As leaders, we’ll always be tempted toward an unhealthy preoccupation with quantifying our own success. Most men find their success in certain numbers from a very early age. I’ve always been obsessed with certain numbers that I perceived defined my worth. At age 10 it was my little league baseball team’s record and my batting average. When I was 15 it was my bench press max. Today, if I’m not careful, I can wrap my identity and security up in this week’s attendance, the total offering, or my number of Twitter followers. That’s pretty sad.

If you follow our ministry, I’m sure you’re aware that we are unapologetically concerned about the numbers. One of the core ministry values within our staff is: We are all about the numbers.

Here’s the distinction: it’s good to be concerned with numbers. But we’ve got to be concerned about the right numbers-for the right reasons. We’ve got to make sure we’re measuring ministry numbers to measure our effectiveness and enlarge the Kingdom of God-not simply to placate our ego.

I want to count what counts. It matters to me how many people show up for a worship experience. But it also matters to me how many of those same people are plugged into community and embracing Christ centered generosity. It matters to me how much money we take in. But it also matters to me how many dollars we are giving back to our community to serve the underserved. I want my church to grow. But the day I can’t rejoice at the growth of another Bible preaching church 2 miles down the street with a similar enthusiasm, we have a problem.

Count the right things. For the right reasons.

Guest Blogger: Larry Hubatka, Global Creative Pastor

Pastor Steven has been getting a lot of requests lately to share more about the new offices we recently moved into. That’s all we needed to hear, that there was some interest. So, without further adieu, grab a a bag of popcorn, get comfy and enjoy this video tour of the new Elevation Church facility…kinda.

I was horrible at math in middle school. But I was pretty good at similes. Remember those?

Yellow is to sun as ____ is to moon
Guns n Roses is to best band ever as Tiger Woods is to ____
God is to Satan as dogs are to ____ (the answer, clearly, is cats)

Here’s a ministry simile for all of you who are currently facing a resource challenge.

Resources are to the vision of a ministry what wake is to a boat in the water.

Wake follows the movement of a vessel in direct proportion to the velocity. And it always trails behind the motor.

Resource follows the movement of a vision in direct proportion to the velocity of the vision. And it always follows behind the vision. Behind the risk. Behind the initiative.

Don’t wait for the wake to magically appear. Produce it by moving forward.
Stop waiting for resources to fall out of the sky. Go forward as hard as you can as fast as you can with all that you’ve got.

Soon you’ll be skiing on the wake.

Your best innovation flows from revelation. You must prioritize the presence of God in your life.

More can be accomplished in a nanosecond of prayer, worship, and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit than a month’s worth of strategy meetings in the flesh.

Many leaders have created virtually no margin to make room for the kind of divine encounters that birth true vision and revolutionary concept. I can trace the genesis of many of the most important ideas in the history of our church to a specific moment in the presence of God. I can trace my most frustrating seasons to a deficiency of time allocated to my most important task: seeking the wisdom of the Lord.

What would Moses have missed had he never turned aside to see the burning bush?
If the leaders in the church in the book of Acts had neglected prayer and the Word to serve tables, how might the influence of the Gospel been impeded worldwide?

What revelation, inspiration, imagination and innovation is left undiscovered in your life because you’re failing to prioritize the presence of God?

Here’s one of the most frequent questions we get from church planters:
What position should I hire first in my church?

It’s taken me almost 4 years of reflection, but I think I’ve finally formulated my answer. Any guesses? I’ll bet some of you immediately thought: Worship Leader. Nope. Important, but not most important. You can pray and preach your way into the presence of God without any music for a while if you have to. Children’s Pastor? Again, it’s definitely a priority. But not the first priority. At least, not in my experience.

The very first position any church planter needs to fill is the Minister of GCD. That’s short for Getting Crap Done.

Notice I didn’t advocate a Minister of GTT (Getting Thoughts Thunk) or HLM (Having Lunch Meetings). The most important thing a senior pastor needs in the earliest days of starting a church is a support person that will enable him to fly at a high altitude. A good GCD Pastor is willing to be your children’s pastor, administrative assistant, executive director, and custodian. In the same day. A natural born CGD (Crap Getter Done) will learn to live for the thrill of freeing up the leader to do what only the leader can do. And the vision will flourish.

Over time, your needs will become much more sophisticated. You’ll want to hire specialists and people who deal in big ideas. But in the first year or so, you don’t need theorists. There’s no room for that on the payroll.

The more limited the budget, the more important it is to fire the show horses and hire folks who know how to execute. Someone who specializes in follow through. Someone who’s not afraid to get his/her hands dirty, and can morph into whatever is needed from moment to moment.

This post is dedicated to my GCD Team at Elevation. You know who you are.

I suffer from A.I.O. Acute Idea Overload. At this stage in my ministry, I’m rarely at a loss for initiatives, concepts, and experiments. My dilemma is in discerning which ideas to keep on the bench, and which ones to send into the game. They’re all screaming: put me in coach. But only so many players are allowed on the field at a time.

Hence, a new terminology that has been helping me lately. Some ideas need to be cut from the team. They just suck. Eliminate them. Ruthlessly. They’re taking up valuable space on your roster and sapping your scholarship funds.

But other ideas are great. Just not now. Don’t cut these ideas.
Redshirt them.

When a college coach redshirts a player, it’s usually to give the player an extra year to develop so that his 4 years of eligibility will make the most impact. It’s not because the player doesn’t have potential. Quite the opposite. He has so much potential that the coach doesn’t want to waste a single year of it by playing the athlete prematurely.

Introduce this terminology into the meetings and decisions you’re a part of. When an idea comes up that’s a good idea, just not right now, make the suggestion:
Let’s redshirt that.

But don’t put it in the basement where you’ll never see it again. Make a plan to revisit it in the near future.

There are some Heisman ideas that just need a little more time to mature.”Give them space and opportunity to make the starting lineup.

Guest Blogger: Josh Blackson, Operations Pastor

Pastor Steven asked me to share with everyone about a great resource we have made available to business owners and executives, managers, family leaders, coaches, professors, and anybody else who leads. It is called Elevation Leader and can be found at www.elevationleader.org.

3 to 5 times a year we want to invest in you by allowing you to rip off some of the great leadership teaching here at Elevation. The website equips you with discussion questions, leader reflections, PowerPoint templates, and even short video clips from our very own Pastor Steven. We have made the content appropriate for any workplace.

This past winter we launched the website to the church and it has been really successful. Our people have loved sharing it with their teams so we thought we would let you in on the action too. All you have to do is send $5 via PayPal to-just kidding-it is free because our desire is to invest in you, because we believe that leadership is within you and we’re here to help let it out! Enjoy!

-He overlaid (the ark) with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it-
-Exodus 37:1-2

The ark of the covenant represented the presence of God. It served as the storage center for the Ten Commandments, and was Israel’s most sacred possession.

It makes perfect sense to overlay the ark with gold on the outside. Everybody’s going to see that part every time it makes a public appearance. Obviously, we want to do everything we can to make God look good, and to represent him well in front of others.

But why bother overlaying the inside of the ark with gold? Wouldn’t silver suffice? Is that really necessary? Isn’t it a bit opulent? Extravagant? Wasteful? Secondary? Unproductive?

Not for a purpose as important as the presence of God. Only the best is acceptable.

I recently challenged our staff to find as many ways as possible to overlay the inside of the ark-the part of our ministry that no one sees-with gold. To give great effort to the hidden details. This doesn’t come naturally.

We’re good at getting our crap together in the high traffic areas of our ministry:
Music, lighting, production, videos.
But do we overlay the ark with gold in the places no one sees?
Are we prompt? Do we keep our spaces clean and organized? Is our communication timely and clear?

Let’s make it more personal. Do I overlay the inside parts of my personal life with gold? Do I speak well of others at all times? Do I monitor my private thoughts-even though they aren’t projected on the big screen? Do I wear the SuperPastor cape on weekends only, or am I a loving, kind, thoughtful husband and father Monday through Friday?

It’s important to give our best to the seen and unseen places in our lives and ministries. Here’s an axiom for reflection:
When we honor God in the places no one sees
He will honor us in the places everyone sees.

Excellence is an inside job.

Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.”
-Deuteronomy 31:7

Maybe as leaders we spend too much time trying to employ people to make our dreams come true. Now obviously, I believe God gives vision to visionaries, and assigns others to do their part in bringing it to pass. I also believe that if the vision doesn’t have its origin in the mind of God and its nexus in Jesus it’s worthless at best and potentially destructive.

But when Moses charged Joshua to lead the people out of the wilderness into the Promised Land, he approached it from an interesting angle:

The fulfillment of this promise wasn’t just for Joshua. God promised the land to them. To the people. Joshua was leading them into their inheritance.

As a leader, remember: you’re not the only one God has made promises to. The people you lead have dreams. They dream of impact. They dream of influence. They dream of maximized creativity and realized potential.

Lead them into their land. Develop them to be their best. Help them to establish ownership of their acreage. When you focus on calling out the potential of those you lead, you’ll usually find that your standard will become their standard. And your vision will come to pass as a byproduct.

Guest Blogger: Larry Hubatka, Uptown Campus Pastor

Pastor Steven asked me to share about the adjustments we’ve made this fall at our Uptown campus to create momentum.

When I moved into the Campus Pastor role this summer, I identified 3 areas where I felt like we could make the greatest impact the fastest: energy, unity and vision. A lot of groundwork was laid by the staff and volunteers at Elevation Uptown over the past year, and it gave me a lot to build on right away. Teams were in place. Many of the necessary logistics were handled well. It was the intangible stuff that needed a boost in my opinion.

So what did we do? We sprinted straight at all 3 of those areas.

We came up with a list of ways to instantly boost energy: more training, louder music (is that possible?), more yelling, sugar, we put a lot of things on the list. What we ended up with was a few noticeable adjustments that have paid off.

We’ve got a DJ in our lobby spinning every weekend and larger teams of volunteers who are trained to create a great experience for everyone who walks through the doors at Elevation Uptown. We’ve taken music and people and used them to create the experience we want. We set the tone we want. It doesn’t just happen on accident.

The unity was easy. Get people together. So we started scheduling opportunities to get our teams, our volunteers and our leaders together. Guess what? It works. When you spend time together chasing after a common goal you build unity. It’s the easiest thing to assume will happen, but it doesn’t unless you make it.

And the vision piece is a never-ending process. We try to remind everyone all the time how their role ties into the mission of reaching people far from God. It’s the hardest thing to do without letting it become common. But it’s the most effective thing leaders can do, cast vision. It’s what helps people stick long-term. And it’s what helps people endure on those days when they’re ready to throw in the towel.

We did as much of that as possible Uptown. When people see where they’re going and how they play a role in getting there, that kind of momentum is invaluable.

Ask God to grow your impact and watch what he asks you to adjust next.

Guest Blogger: Wade Joye, Worship Pastor

Pastor Steven asked us to showcase some of the things we have done to kick off the fall and create momentum, so I wanted to highlight the creative elements we used in our worship experience on the first week of our Give. Me. Faith. series. Our team wanted an element that highlighted the various things we attempt to place our faith in that have failed us. The goal was to build the emotion of wanting to let go of these things and instead embrace what will last and can be depended on.

This illustration was a combination of video and live elements, and is probably our best attempt so far at integrating the two together. The video team killed it with this video, so check it out below. This came after our worship set, which included an original song called Give Me Faith.

During this video, we set up three shadowboxes on the stage that each had an image on them. One represented wealth, one portrayed government and leadership, and the last image stood for relationships. These images were also incorporated into the previous video.

The band performed Snow Patrol’s Open Your Eyes as someone came out and interacted with the images for the first verse and chorus. When the second verse hit, the person began to cut through each image with a razorblade. There were super bright lights in the shadowbox that caused light to break through the cuts in the images.

After each image had been thoroughly sliced and diced, the band hit the big ending of the song. At that moment, each image was ripped off to reveal the words GIVE in one box, ME in the other and FAITH in the last. This reveal was very powerful and captured the emotion that we wanted going into the sermon.

What makes me proud of what our team pulled off isn’t that it was just a cool element for the sake of being creative. What made this element great was how cohesive it was with the theme of the day. Everything really built towards Pastor Steven’s sermon and set him up very well to preach on this issue. It ended up being an amazing worship experience as over 500 people gave their lives to Jesus that weekend! And I can’t think of a better way to kick off the fall.

I like the old King James translation of Hebrews 11:1:
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is not an abstract theoretical proposition. It’s not wishful thinking. It’s substance. It’s action.

Most of my life I imagined faith as some kind of force field. And the way we talk about faith dematerializes it. By most definitions, faith is synonymous with hope.

The more I study Scripture, the more I detect a sharp distinction between hope and faith. Hope is a desire. Faith is a demonstration. Hope wants it to happen. Faith causes it to happen and acts as if it’s already done.

Faith is not content to want it really, really bad. Faith consults the drawings and gets busy building. Hope is the blueprint. Faith is the contractor.

Some of the things we’re believing God for will never happen in our lives because we stand in hope instead of walking in faith.

A fellow young pastor asked me this recently. He was sincere. Really wanted to know how he could get meetings with those he perceived to be big name pastors. And while I’m (pretty) sure his heart was in the right place, his approach couldn’t have been more off the mark. And I told him so.

It’s natural to want to learn from the best, and to associate personally with the leaders you admire. And you may get that opportunity-in God’s timing. In the meantime, the worst thing you can do is become a ministerial skirt chaser. You don’t want to be that guy. Trust me. You don’t. That guy gets avoided.

Now, pursue relationships with people you want to learn from. Be proactive about asking for meetings with those who are beyond you in experience and wisdom. But don’t do it to be part of that circle. Do it because you want to add to and receive value from the relationship. And because you really want to learn.

When someone contacts Elevation wanting to meet with me, they’re typically directed to the staff member who could most effectively serve them. Because 99 times out of 100, I’m not the most appropriate person to answer their question, meet their need, or fulfill their request. Usually they’re grateful. Other times they’re highly offended.

And when they treat the staff member trying to assist them like dirt, stepping on top of them in an effort to get to me, it tells me so much about their character and motivation:
They don’t want what’s in my heart, they want what’s in my hand.

Don’t meet with people so you can tweet that you met with them. In fact, a lot of the people we’re dying to meet with have probably answered all the questions we plan to ask them in a book, on a blog, or in a sermon.

God will open doors of relationship and friendship that will blow your mind. He’s done it for me beyond my wildest imagination. While you’re waiting for those doors to open, maximize the relationships he’s already provided, and seek to give more than receive. If you’re faithful with little, He’ll give you more.

I’m not a profound writer by any stretch. And I’m no C.H. Spurgeon in the pulpit. But communication is what I do, and there’s one master tool in my chest that has helped me clean up sentences and craft spoken words. It’s the simple and grueling process of revision.

When you’re about to write or say something, I suggest you revise it at least 2 or 3 times before posting or verbalizing. For example, even if you’re just tweeting about your plans for the night, think of a better way to say it than: Going to dinner. Gonna be fun. Personally, I think the less interesting the activity, the more you should dig until you find an interesting angle to communicate from. At least, that’s the kind of stuff I like to read. Not so clever that you come off like you’re trying too hard. But focused and measured enough to get my attention.

When you’re about to have a difficult conversation, it’s well worth the investment of your time to rehearse what you want to say mentally, or commit it to paper if necessary. You owe it to the person you’re confronting. And you owe it to yourself-a few moments of preparation on the front in may save you hours and hours of explanation afterward.

I can’t tell you how long I’ve thought about certain sentences in my sermons, and how ruthlessly I’ve hacked away at them until they were concise and sticky. A simple sentence like: Between the promise and the payoff is the process-and the process is the point may take me weeks of on again, off again mental energy to perfect. But I suspect that my finished product packs more punch than: life is tough, but hang in there. It’ll be worth it.

Whether you’re preaching, blogging, or speaking a hard truth, the principle is golden: If you think it over, you’ll say it better. Everytime.

Everybody wants to be an original. Lately, I’m concluding there’s no such thing. Don’t get me wrong, you’re unique. One of a kind. Just like everybody else.

When God made you, He encoded a temperament, skill set, passion, and anointing in a measured and distinctive combination. But through the years, that DNA is enhanced and affected for better and worse through your influences and experiences. And over time, you become a mixed breed of sorts.

Let me come at this another way:
People who stand out as unique aren’t original. They’re just really interesting hybrids.

Musical styles that are hailed as groundbreaking typically just fuse certain elements of several existing styles in a way that is fresh to us. Ska is reggae meets punk. Hip-hop is the bottom of the funnel that started with R&B and rap. Before that blues and jazz.

There’s no such thing as an original preacher. Just a preacher who combines all of his influences and inspirations in a way that sounds new to us. And the richer and more smoothly blended the influences, the more tasteful and flavorful the interpretation will be.
Methodist upbringing + Baptist college +
Interdenominational traveling ministry + Black preacher wannabe=
me.

There’s nothing original about my leadership style (yours either). I’m a the product of 5 million different influences, some good, some bad, some potent, some barely discernable, filtered through the Holy Spirit, changing every day.

You can’t be an original. But you have potential to be a really fascinating hybrid. Internalize and integrate your influences-and see what comes out in the mix.

It’s that time again. So kick back and cool off from the summer heat with this special recipe for tasty frozen fun and a bit of sensory overload. Yum yum.

-Ryan “Bobby Flay” Hollingsworth & Chris “Paula Dean” Brown

Guest Blogger: Wade Joye

Recently, our service programming team sought to come up with a good way to evaluate our worship experience each week. How could we determine both on the front end, when we plan, and on the back end as we evaluate, whether or not a worship experience captured the spirit and vision of Elevation Church?

After being inspired by a conversation with Pace from Fellowship Church, we developed the following 5 elements that every Elevation service should have.

These elements are all built on the foundation of worshipping in a way that lifts the name of Jesus high and making Him the center of our time together.

We know that these may change, but right now they are …

Energy – Is the worship experience full of life? Both in the stage dynamics of our band and in the tone of the songs picked, are we boldly celebrating the life we have in Christ? A song doesn’t have to be super fast to have energy either. Hillsong’s Stronger is a slower tune that absolutely explodes in our worship experiences.

Flow – Does every element of the worship experience seamlessly fit together as one, or does the service feel jumbled with a lot of different elements that have no consistent theme? Do the spoken transitions by the worship leaders, the videos used, announcements, etc. all work together in a smooth and meaningful way? Are there any awkward silences or elements not executed well that kill the mood and become a distraction?

Creativity – This category is pretty broad, but is there at least one fresh element in the worship experience? Recently, we took Chris Tomlin’s My Deliverer, a song we have done a lot, and put a Radiohead hook in it to make it come alive in a new way. It reminded me that you don’t have to pull out all the stops to be creative and have a powerful moment.

Far from God focused – Are we too insider with our language, or are we thinking about the person who is far from God that is sitting in our service for their first time at church in years? Do the creative elements we choose speak more to the first time guest, or to “our people.”

Intentionality – Are we taking people on a purposeful journey in each worship service? We always want to have one “payoff” moment where no matter what frame of mind someone was in when they entered the service, they are now engaged in worship and ready to hear the preaching of the Word of God when Pastor Steven steps on stage.

While these standards work well for us, they might not be the best for your church. Pull your team together and work through what the essential elements are for your services. The exercise alone will be well worth your time.

Guest Blogger: Meredith Brock, Executive Assistant to the Lead Pastor

Just made some upgrades to the blog that we didn’t want you to miss out on.
You can get the blog delivered right to your computer everyday through subscribing via email or RSS feed.
Its simple, just navigate to the bottom of the side bar and choose which option you prefer (email or RSS), it will guide you right through the process.
Enjoy!

Never used my blog as a birthday card before. But I wanted to give honor to one of my best friends today.

Today is Pastor Perry Noble’s birthday. Send him a Happy Birthday Tweet, why don’t you?

It turns out that most people will meet with you when your church reaches a certain size. Perry met with me way before then. I mean way, way before then. Like, when Elevation Church was 4 people strong (6 if you count unborn children.) He and Morehead used to take me and Chunks to this restaurant in Anderson, answer questions, and pay for lunch. The perfect combination. Never asked anything in return.

Sometimes you may see a highly visible, highly confident, highly successful pastor like Perry and wonder if he’s the real deal. He is. And I could say the same for many other pastors you’ve heard of. I’ll do that another time.

For today, I just wanted to tell one of the guys who believed in me from the beginning thank you. I’m glad Clayton (one of the other top influential people in my life who bought stock in me at the IPO) hooked us up P. Thanks for checking in with me every (almost) Sunday and caring how my day went. Thanks for answering the questions I didn’t know I needed to ask before I even asked them. And thanks for going first. It’s nice to walk a path that’s a little clearer because you’ve been there.

Our best is ahead man. Happy Birthday. Don’t swat at gnats this year. You’re too big for it. And don’t worry about getting older. I’ll keep buying you shirts-keep you looking young. Just be careful where you wear them. I take no responsibility for the results.

Third and final (for now) Exclusive Leadership Interview installment. I think we’re putting together a CD set of every audio blog from the last 2 years as a prize for a few attendees at Impart, by the way. I hope you’ll be there.

Now, onto the topics at hand: using every season wisely. Turning low times into high times. Spreading out and digging down. How to avoid going suicidal during the summer when attendance falls through the floor and everyone takes their tithe check to Disney World. Stuff like that.

If you’ve enjoyed these audio blogs, you should tell us. We may decide to do them again. Thanks for the opportunity to invest some of our insight into your life. It’s an honor.

[audio:2009-06-23.mp3]

In honor of Fathers Day we have interrupted Pastor Stevens regularly scheduled message:

We love you Daddy!

Love – Elijah and Graham

Pastor Steven’s out of town. But a few old friends from across the tracks stopped by to give a little summer tour of the nooks and crannies of our current office space. The visual mindblow begins in 3…2…1.

-Ryan Hollingsworth & Chris Brown

You need to act fast on this. We’re only going to offer it once. And it’s only for the first 20 people.

Today and today only 20 of you can sign up for our Impart event -
For half price.
I can’t believe I’m doing this.

All the event details are right here.
It’s a very expensive and exclusive event. It’s worth every penny. But some of you can’t afford the full rate. So you’re sitting around making excuses instead of figuring out how to make it happen.

Today I’m rewarding those of you who are decisive enough to pull the trigger and commit to coming-if you’re one of the next 20 to sign up. Consider it the early-early bird rate.
First 20 to respond get the deal. After that the offer is dead. No exceptions.

Hurry. You might be too late already.

June is E.L.I. month here at stevenfurtick.com. (That’s Exclusive Leadership Interviews for you rookies.)

The microphones were rollin’ as we told all about how we imagine and implement the sermon series here at Elevation. You’ll probably enjoy the inside scoop on this whether you’re a leader in another church or a part of Elevation.

Here’s the series briefing questionnaire I mention in the audio blog. Hope it’s a helpful enhancement to these Leadership Interviews-our gift to you.

[audio:2009-06-16.mp3]

After he was restored, Peter started speculating about the future of John. You’ll recall that John was the only apostle who stood by Jesus at the crucifixion (incidentally, he was also the one who actually referred to himself as “the disciple Jesus loved”-bold!). So I suppose Peter and the others were concerned about John getting preferential treatment and advancing past them in position based on performance.

Jesus set them straight with a response that we would do well to internalize:
“If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”
-John 21:22

When you’re tempted to compare yourself to another servant of Christ, heed the words of Jesus:
What is that to you?

If God sees fit to bless someone else with a greater measure of success than me, what is that to me? I’ve got my own race to run, and my own abilities to account for.

If someone else makes some decisions I disagree with, or if another brother stumbles and falls, what is that to me? God knows, I’ve gotten way off track in my own attempts to follow Christ.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. John 8:7
Let each servant stand or fall to his own master. Romans 14:4
Let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12

We wouldn’t have time to misjudge the motives of anyone else
if we were fully engaged in following Jesus ourselves.

Guest Blog: John Bishop

I wrote my Dad a Father’s Day letter the other day. Here are some of the lines from that letter:

“I have a deep respect for you dad.”

“You taught me the value of hard work. You challenged me. You passed on a great appreciation for the irony of life. You put in hours upon hours of work so that I could have food, clothes, a place to live, security and comfort.”

“Whatever dividends are paid out as I spend my life will always be linked to the investment you made in me. Thank you Dad, happy Father’s Day.”

The purpose of the letter was to let my Dad know that all of his sacrifices have been noticed and appreciated by me.

Father’s day is just over a week away. My guess is your relationship to your Dad could use a fresh infusion of life. So rather than writing a bland vanilla note in a generic card that will serve as a nice gesture but will make very little impact I challenge you to honor your father this Father’s day.

Tell him how much you appreciate him. Highlight the things he’s done right. For those of you who feel that your Dad isn’t worthy of honor, I would challenge you to reconsider your stance in light of Matthew 15:4, “For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and mother.’”

Pastor Furtick said in his sermon on James 3:1-12 on week four of Essential James back on April 5^th that taming the tongue was about so much more then not saying bad stuff. “Instead,” he challenged, “Employ your tongue for a purpose that is useful!”

This Father’s day I challenge you to honor your father. Speak life into that relationship. If that relationship is broken perhaps your words will start a process of healing. Either way, it is a great opportunity to obey God’s command.

Whatever you do, don’t miss Father’s Day this year!

Got a real special gift for you. In the month of June we’ll be releasing 3 exclusive leadership interviews (E.L.I.s, as the kids call ‘em) here on stevenfurtick.com. Regular Elevation podcast subscribers, you’ll get them delivered straight to ya. A little icing on your weekly sermon cake.
Oh, if you’re not subscribed to the Elevation podcast, go ahead and take care of that. I’ll wait.

This first installment is all about big events-How to dream them up, maximize their impact, and ride their momentum.

Me and 3 or 4 staffers, one concept, lots of fun. Enjoy.

[audio:2009-06-11.mp3]

My faithful trainer Buck always makes me do 2 things after each workout: stretch and drink a recovery drink. He says a good stretch is vital to avoiding injury. And the protein shake helps maximize gains.

Got me thinking about my post-preaching routine. And I think the implications are appropriate following any intense spiritual activity.

After I preach, I need to get in a good stretch-to engage in activities that will help me avoid injury. This might mean taking my Bible on the deck and just reading for a half hour on Monday morning. Might mean sleeping in. Might mean doing yoga. (Stop laughing..it’s P90x yoga, man). Eating breakfast with my wife. Listening to a favorite preacher or watching a game on the couch Sunday afternoon.
Or it might be what I don’t do: make important decisions. Engage conflict.
Schedule too many meetings.

Then I’ve got to figure out how to nourish my spirit to maximize gains. A few Monday mornings ago, I found a little book of Scriptural confessions of faith. Good ole Pentecostal confessions of faith. I read them out loud in my attic. It was powerful and effective. It helped me flush out my hangover. Hair of the dog.

Remember when Elijah was coming down from the Mount Carmel experience? The angel made him sleep. And fed him. Then God spoke to him. And it kept him from giving up. And it will keep us from giving up, too.

Stretch well. Nourish yourself.
Avoid injury. Maximize gains.

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:19

The depth of your need regulates the level of God’s supply. The more need you have, the more possibility and potential there is for God to supply. He can’t meet a need that doesn’t exist.

So often our prayers revolve around reducing and eliminating the physical, emotional, and financial needs in our lives. If our prayers were answered, and our needs vanished, we would forfeit the opportunity to ever receive from God again. He can only fill empty vessels.

Our needs create demand. Demand creates supply. God’s supply is endless, and He measures out His resources on the basis of our capacity to receive.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

If you want more of God, you need more need.

When conflict comes, you’ve got two options:
Fight it or Ride it.
And those are your only two options, the way I see it. Because the conflict is coming whether you embrace it or not.

If you choose to fight it-that is, resent that it’s happening and resist its implications-I promise you’ll end up frustrated, sore, and no closer to closure than you were at the start. Obviously, this makes for a terrible strategy. But you’d be surprised how often people opt to fight against the wind.

Many churches fight technological and methodological advancement, pining for the good old days. Meanwhile their pews get less crowded, offerings dwindle, and infighting increases. It’s a losing battle.

I often fight against relational conflict, wishing the other person would just get their act together so I wouldn’t have to deal with this intrusion upon my peace of mind. So far, my wishing away the perceived inadequacies of another has never affected relational change.

So, I suggest we resolve to stop fighting conflict. Instead, we’ll learn to ride it. Look at it like a wave. It’s going to come crashing whether we welcome it or not. So we might as well let it take us somewhere.

“I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
-John the Baptist, John 1:23

Most people have a voice. John the Baptist takes it a step further:
I am the voice.

Wow! The expression of his passion was so singularly focused that his message and identity were one and the same. You could read it this way:
“My whole life shouts: prepare the way for the Lord!”

Your life shouts something, too-whether you mean to communicate it or not.
Today’s question for reflection:
What are you the voice for?
What comes through loud and clear in the way you live?

What does your whole life shout?

I heard a famous blues guitarist interviewed one time, and he was asked to share his opinion on a few other guitar players. The guys in question were neo-classical shredders: they played really really fast-lots and lots of notes.
The blues legend made a funny face, thought for a second, and admitted:
“I’m not a big fan of that style. When it comes to guitar solos, I’m a minimalist. I think the notes you don’t play are the really important ones. That way, the ones you do play really count. They stick, man.”

This applies to leadership on so many levels:
Often, it’s the notes you don’t play that make the biggest impact.

The angry words you don’t speak.
The superfluous ministries you don’t do.
The sketchy staff members you don’t hire.
The mild compromises you don’t allow.
The detail oriented meetings you don’t sit in.

If you want to be heard more clearly, play less notes. Make every one count.

I love what I do. The Pastoral calling and mantle is so much more than I deserve. Yeah, it’s a fishbowl, high stress, and diabolically intense at times. But don’t let the negatives fool you-it’s a sweet gig.
And I feel funny expressing this, but I think I’m getting better at it every day. Which creates this insatiable desire to keep getting better. And better. I want to become a pastoral virtuoso. I want to advance in skill, precision, and ability.
In short, I’m unapologetically ministerially ambitious.

Ambition is almost a bad word in the world of ministry. It’s usually regarded as carnal when it comes to spiritual leadership-as if it’s wrong for a pastor to want to be the best at what he does. Trust me, I know all about the dangers of selfish ambition-I have to keep motives in check minute by minute.

But, to all those who think that the desire to be the best at what you do is a forbidden sin for pastors: I think that’s a cop-out. A justification for mediocrity.

NBA players aim to be the best.
And at the end of the day, what they do amounts to-money and entertainment.
I refuse to let their ambition exceed mine.
At the end of the day, what I do amounts to-life and death.

Ministerial ambition isn’t some new-fangled vice for new-school pastors who have allowed business paradigms to taint their ministry philosophies.
The apostle Paul was ambitious. Really ambitious.
Richard Baxter (the Puritan) wrote about and heavily endorsed ministerial progress. So did Spurgeon (take that theologues).

And so will Furtick. And so should you, Pastor.
Be ambitious for the Gospel. For the right reasons. With all your heart.
Live a life worthy of the calling you’ve received.
It’s the highest ambition we could ever embrace.

Okay. Okay. I give. After endless harassment from my friends and an unbearable barrage of peer pressure, I’m gonna give it a try.
I’m committing to Twitter for the next 2 weeks. I’ll give it my best and see if I’ve got what it takes to keep myself (let alone other human beings) interested.

You can follow me here. I think Chunks is taking bets on how long I’ll last.
(Don’t tell anybody, but I did it three times today-and I kind of liked it.)

See you in the Twittersphere. I have no idea if anyone says Twittersphere. Gosh I feel like an old man.

Proverbs 12:27
The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions.

You’ve got to give the lazy guy in this Proverb a little credit. At least he took the initiative and went hunting. He even killed something in the process. But apparently, he stopped short. What good is it to kill an animal if you’re not going to cook it and eat it?

Many of us succeed in obtaining information and knowledge, but we fail in applying and utilizing it. In other words, we make the kill but don’t roast our game.

What good is it to attend another conference if you’re not going to make a major ministry decision based on the wisdom you collect?

What good is it to read the Bible or hear a sermon if you’re just going to let it sit in the same notebook as the last sermon you heard and did nothing about?

What good is it to ask for advice from a trusted friend if you’re not willing to put it into practice unless, of course, she gives you the advice that lines up with the decision you already determined to make anyway?

What good is making the kill if you’re not willing to roast your game?

Here’s an exercise your staff/team/family would really enjoy. I tried it out in our all-staff meeting recently and it was a big hit.

Have people in the room spontaneously complete this sentence:
“I’m really proud of ____ for _____.”

In the first blank, you should insert a name. Preferably not your own.
In the second blank, you should insert an accomplishment. The more recent and specific, the better.

Proverbs 27:2 says that you should let the lips of another man praise you, and not your own. The second part of that verse is relatively intuitive-nobody likes a braggart. But as a leader, make sure you’re creating plenty of airtime for people to praise each other, ultimately giving the glory to Jesus.

You’ll be surprised how the whole room will light up, and some of the contributions that will surface that you didn’t even know about.

A few weeks ago we held our one-time-only Leadership Event, THR3E.
It was so successful and the response was so overwhelming we’re gonna do it again. Kinda.

This Fall, we’ve decided to host another one-day only exclusive leadership event in Charlotte based on the same concept as THR3E:
No music, no programming, no frills, no breakouts. Just me and our staff pouring out everything we’ve learned to a select group of leaders.

We’re calling it Impart. It happens on October 27th. It’s pretty expensive. Registration is very limited. If you came to THR3E, you can’t come back to Impart. And here’s the reason:

This event is about so much more than information. You’ve got enough of that already. It even goes beyond inspiration-hence the stripped down format. This event is all about impartation. We hold nothing back. Everything we’ve learned on the ride from 0 to 5000 in the last 3 years-packed into one day-in an intimate environment. One shot. Everything we’ve got. Only for the people who are hungry and serious. This format allows us to accomplish that vision.

If that kind of talk gets your heart racing, go here to register. Early bird registration ends July 31st, or when the spaces fill up-whatever comes first. THR3E sold out early. So don’t dilly dally.

Bonus: We Plan to hold the event at our brand new (and first ever) permanent campus. So you can see first hand what we did with a couple million dollars and a warehouse.

I have no idea how many more of these events we’ll do. I know God wants us to do at least one more-from there, we’ll see. Hope you can make it.
I’ve got 5 solid hours of my very best teaching waiting for you when you get here. And it would be my honor to pour into you.

Anxiety is sin. My anxiety infers that:

-God is incompetent.
If I’m anxious, it suggests that there’s an issue in my life that God is potentially incapable of resolving. If His arm is not short and His ear is not deaf , why am I kicking and screaming trying to save myself?

-God is forgetful.
Do I suspect that my need has slipped God’s mind? Does the Lord need me to send Him a reminder in the form of my panic and stress-just to make sure He doesn’t miss the appointment?

-God is indifferent.
1 Peter 5:7 teaches that I can cast all my anxiety on Him-because-and only because-He cares for me.
By refusing to cast my cares on Him, I expose my deep down belief that He really doesn’t care-about me-about my particular burden. Anxiety puts the pressure on me to perform as my own personal Savior, thereby undermining the intentions of God on my behalf.

Anybody other than me need to repent?

Be anxious for nothing.
Anxiety is unbiblical. It’s counterproductive. And it’s a direct insult to the proven character of a powerful, faithful, loving God.

My sincerest apologies to all of you who have been waiting to access my One Prayer message. We’re late to the party, but I was just informed that my message is now available on the One Prayer site.

The message is entitled God is Great, God is Good. I think this sermon will really serve you well if you’re looking to infuse your church with a good dose of faith, hope and vision.

Again, we apologize for the delay. I pray the message blesses you and moves you forward.

Here’s the link once again.

Guest Blogger: Wade Joye, Worship Pastor

I must admit that I am a little biased, but I am loving our current sermon series at Elevation. Lift High: The Worship Series has been a great opportunity to impart the spirit behind the culture of worship that is foundational to the vision God gave Pastor Steven for our church.

We want worship to permeate our culture and DNA at Elevation. It is central to everything that we do. In light of that, here are 3 aspects of worship that we want people to experience at Elevation.

Inward Worship – Worship begins as the overflow of a forgiven heart. Before we bring our songs to God, we must first bring our hearts to a place of humility and surrender. When our hearts and lives line up with John 3:30, “He must become greater, I must become less,” worship begins.

Outward Worship – Because of who God is and what He has done in our lives and our church, we gather together corporately for a time of celebration and response. Our worship is loud and bold because it is in direct response to a great and awesome God. Our service is not a performance for you but is rather an experience with you as we celebrate Jesus.

Upward Worship – Our worship, both in our lives and in our services, is meant to point people upward so that Jesus receives all the glory. We want to lift high who Jesus is and how He has delivered us. That is why we celebrate at Elevation. We are redeemed people who have been rescued by a great Savior.

Jesus is worthy of all of our worship, and every week we will be a church that offers Him our hearts, our lives and our songs.

Psalm 121:4
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

For all of you who have trouble relaxing, and often find yourself tossing and turning at night trying to figure out the solution to every possible dilemma, here’s a holiday suggestion for you:

Since God never slumbers or sleeps, you might as well get some rest.

I don’t know what’s got you worked up today, but God is on the clock, He’s on the throne, and He’s got you covered.