SERVOLUTION Rocks!

I have had the privilege of keeping our church's blog for the SERVOLUTION updated, and the experience has been INCREDIBLE! Just seeing the Church be the Church is so encouraging and inspiring. I am both moved to tears and extremely proud of our congregation when I see the pictures and hear the testimonies. You definitely want to check out http://www.servolution-redeemer.org/!

My thoughts from the past 5 days of SERVOLUTION:

nice shirts!

it is so refreshing for the Church to stop talking about how great it is to serve and to actually start doing it - I know Jesus is so pleased with His bride right now!

Dino Rizzo is the MAN! Thank you for the inspiration that has launched this revolution of service. And thank you for all the faithful years HPC modeled this before you wrote the book!

there is nothing better than seeing a little child serve an elderly person and watching both of their faces light up!

it truly is more blessed to give than receive and you clearly can not outgive God - what a blessing SERVOLUTION has been to churches and communities around the globe!

how do we keep this going? we should start a campaign called "capture the servo mo" (as in, "SERVOlution MOmentum")

an excellent debrief to all of these outreaches and the organizational process behind them is essential to keep this from simply becoming a "great week of service" - it needs to become so much more than that!

Let me know your thoughts as you have experienced the SERVOLUTION:

a shout of praise

i want to take this space and time to declare a public praise to God for His faithfulness with our oldest son, Zachary (aka SuperZach). since he was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome a couple years ago, we have been battling the school system for appropriate support and services, seeking every form of recommended therapy (speech, occupational, physical, more speech, social, friendship groups, behavioral managment, dietary supplements and more), advocating with all of our hearts for his best interest, and praying without ceasing... and it has not been in vain.

i declare that God is faithful and He is able to accomplish that which man has said is impossible! today, Zachary still has the symptoms of asperger's and we are all learning to accept the realities that brings, but he has also recieved some incredible super-natural favor!

as of this monday, he is now in a first grade class with a teacher who loves him, understands him, is willing to work within his framework of learning and is willing to partner with us in the process. this is quite a change from a rigid and overly strict teacher who showed little compassion or ability to be flexible with Zachary's learning methods and showed no interest in collaborating with us. this is in a school system where changes like this don't happen, where the administration clearly told us it would not and could not happen. then God inserted one of His own into the administration as an agent on special assignment - an interim principal that is a dedicated member of our church and servant of God! in the 3 months that she was there, she was able to encourage this change to be made and we give God all the glory (and give her a lot of love and hugs)!

so when your situation seems impossible. when the odds are stacked against you. when everyone that is responsible for making decisions says "no" and only offers resistance. when you are just about to lose it because you have prayed the same fervent prayer for the 1,oooth time. keep pressing in and pressing on.

if we will ENDURE then God is faithful to answer our prayers and to give us the desires of our heart. we have grown in the process. we are not finished here and God is not finished with any of us, but today i pause to give Him the glory and honor that He alone deserves!

our God is faithful and He is able. don't you ever doubt that. the same God who parted seas, resurrected the dead, healed the lame and blind, fed thousands with a few pieces of bread and fish ...that same God is at work in our lives today. and if you will continually seek Him He will do incredible, amazing, impossible, miraculous things in your life as well. be encouraged that God works all things together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose!

if you need some practical guidance on enduring through difficult times, check out the series on endure called Built To Last

CAUTION! Install mouth filter before speaking...

is anyone out there an extrovert like me, that processes thoughts out loud for all to hear? how has that worked out for you?

for years, it put me at a huge disadvantage in ministering to people, leading people, and just communicating clearly. especially when the receptor(s) is an introvert, processing most every detail internally. i have been accused of being brash, harsh, opinionated, insensitive, a poor listener, overbearing, excitable, random, and at times a total jerk. for these accusations i stand guilty as charged, but God is helping me to discover a way to embrace who i am and still avoid the carnage.

i call it a mouth filter. it starts with my thoughts and meditations and ends with the abundance of my heart flowing out of my lips, but only after they have had the "Brita" treatment.

three questions. three steps. that lead to more healthy and considerate speech.

MOTIVE . BENEFIT . NEED

what is my MOTIVE for saying this? to bring attention or recognition to myself and my experiences or to encourage and build someone else up?

who or what will my words, if said, truly BENEFIT? are they beneficial to anyone other than myself?

do these words really NEED to be said? what will happen if they are not? what will happen if they are?

this is a filter i have been led to start applying before i say pretty much anything. it accomplishes so many things, not least of which is that it forces me to slow down in my responsiveness and forces me to weigh my words and their impact before they are said.

i have found that taking words back before they are said is more feasible than retrieving them once they have been released!

what is your experience with words - your own and others towards you? Craig Groeschel has a couple great posts on the swerve blog this week regarding the power of our words.

i'd especially love to hear from fellow extroverts, or others who have been left reeling in the wake of our words.

value-based visioneering

what determines and motivates your vision? how do you know when things are getting blurry? are the people you lead getting cataracts trying to stay focused on it?

lately, I have become convicted that as I receive vision from God, I need to embrace and distribute it within the framework of the convictions He has also given to me. that is, what values are non-negotiables in my life and ministry? what in my life have I been convicted about beyond any doubt to hold fast to at any cost?

I am learning that God will give us fresh vision to test and train our sensitivity and to see if we will stay true to our convictions. if He is calling you to extend your ministry's reach to the nations, do you pack up your stuff and your family and head off to Zimbabwe or do you filter this new vision through the convictions He has instilled in you?

how will this impact your family, your current ministry, the fulfillment of your life calling. maybe there is another way to accomplish this without you personally going to the mission field. maybe God is calling you to stick to your value of developing people and is calling you to equip and train others to go to the nations, quite possibly with greater effectiveness than you would ever realize. or maybe He is calling you to go yourself, if it fits in the framework of your God-given convictions.

can our convictions change? I guess that may depend on what they are grounded in.

one thing is for sure, God desires humility and integrity. the vision is not ours anymore than our convictions are self-invoked. we must look to Him and depend upon Him for both and operate as if they come from the same source.

we can not be called to be a husband and father (or wife and mother) and then take a vision to create life transforming ministry and allow the pursuit of that vision to sacrifice our marriage and family on its altar! if God convicts us that as His children we must reflect His priorities in all of our relationships, especially in those with the ones closest to us, then we must make sure that any vision we have is never allowed to compromise that value.

I say start with the values that God wants to be uniquely and strongly adhered to in your life and then pray for fresh vision that supports and undergirds those values. we can not operate in a realm of visioneering that devalues our convictions and we can not lead forward with a vision that has no clear values as its foundation.

replacing me

first of all, if you haven't read Andy Stanley's book 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, you need to! this is great stuff - principles that are essential to developing and leading ANY successful organization.

last night i read the section called Replace Yourself, and though i have heard this concept many times before (i.e. "work yourself out of a job," "grow yourself out of your position" and other common phrases), the principle struck quite a different chord this time.

before even reading the section several convictions came over me: "who am i to even consider myself necessary to replace?" and "what does 'replacing me' really look like?"

well, I am still working on the answer to the first questions, but I think i have to see myself as one chosen to be a part of the work i am involved in but in no way indispensable. i must realize that there are others that could do what i do better and likely produce more growth for our organization than i ever will. it is part of my calling to find and recruit those with great potential and pour into them everything i know, giving them the freedom to own a piece of the vision.

ultimately, i must trust others to lead, allowing them opportunities to fail. i must even allow others to do what i do, even if at first it is not as well or in a designated way. this is two-way, in that they must earn my trust, but i must extend it and allow failure as they experiment with their own style, coaching and encouraging them along the way.

too often, this is not how churches of the past or present have been led, but it is how successful organizations in the future will need to be led. smart, gifted, passionate people will no longer tolerate a lack of mentoring, job coaching and development - they will move on to a different place where they will be further equipped and released into leadership. if we want to keep our young talent, we are going to each have to take responsibility for developing and encouraging them.

p. 161 of 7 Principles outlines 6 types of leaders and their respective strengths and weaknesses: entrepreneurial, nurturing, charismatic, innovative, managing, and high-performance... maybe another one needs to be added - the developing leader. if you have the book, take a moment to access which type best describes you and realize the strengths and weaknesses of that, then realize that we may need to develop a leader with a totally different style than us to replace us. what may be causing you to build leadership walls in your own area of ministry?

in addition to our focus being on us maximizing our potential as leaders, we must also spend time thinking about "what will make others greater as leaders?" i don't think i spend enough time concentrating on this and therefore am not investing enough in the development of others.

where are you in this process of replacing yourself? what are you actively doing about it? what are some of your greatest challenges in releasing leadership?

whether you are a student, in your first years of ministry, a seasoned pastor, or the one in charge, we all can be more effective in creating a legacy of excellent leaders in our ministries. let us remain vigilant in remembering that we are building His Kingdom and not ours, His Church not ours, His Ministry not ours. we may not be the best leader for this ministry tomorrow even if we were one of the most successful in years past, just as there is probably a place of greater effectiveness waiting for us to grow into.

keep the Kingdom growing...

identify yourself

what kind of ministry are you leading? I was recently reading a doctorate thesis online about spiritual formation and the following three metaphors were used and explained. I pray they will prove helpful to each of you in your assessment of how you do ministry and to what end.

some are like highly organized garages, everything ordered and in its place. almost a sterile, clinical environment. easy to find what you need to get the job done and easy to accomplish it because all of the right tools and resources are right at hand. only problem is that not much good stuff grows in a garage. over-structured and over-formalized churches aiming to be "in control" of ministry processes and environments, leave little room for the Holy Spirit to do its formative work. this type of ministry is often led by a control-obsessed leader that does not like surprises, lives on predictability, and is all about accomplishing a lot for the Kingdom. unfortunately, though this would never be stated, there is far too little emphasis or resources invested in actual reproductive and transformational growth. the concern is with doing and completing as opposed to being and becoming.

other ministries seeking to be all about flourishing become like a meadow, where there is total freedom to grow without restraint or convention. a ton of growth happens here, but the type and quality of growth is totally unpredictable. more often than not, the weeds and vines take over and strangle out any beneficial fruit-bearing plants. this is true in organizations led by dreamers and innovators who do not appreciate the value of managers and detail-oriented staff. there is a lot of movement (sometimes more like chaos) but very little lasting productivity. As a side note, it is also almost entirely "un-reproducible."

that leaves us with a solution that takes from the best of both environments while leaving the negative factors at bay - how about a green house? here there is freedom for healthy growth, but with monitoring, fertilization, pruning, and a controlled environment. maybe the most important aspect is there has to be a caretaker that knows what kinds of plants they are growing and what they should look like when they are healthy! this type of organization is led by a team of specialists that each know their plant and what constitutes health, how to care for it specifically, and the willingness to allow it to grow naturally.

which environment best represents your ministry? what steps need to be taken to transform it into a green house? what role will you play in accomplishing that transformation?

looking for the ram?

there are times in all of our lives where we are asked to "lay down our Isaac." these are good things, even wonderful blessings that God has given us, yet there often comes a point where He asks us to sacrifice it for Him. our maturity is measured directly by our response.

do we lay it on the altar and go looking for the ram? (reference to the provision of a sacrifice for Isaac in Gen. 22) or do we try to keep this offering to ourselves, not trusting God to provide deliverance or give us something better?

what must it have been like to be Abraham that day when God asked for his son, the object of the promise? what are we still holding onto that God wants us to release so that He can grow us and give us more?

are there any areas of ministry or control that you are struggling to release but know that God is asking you to lay it on the altar of sacrifice? will you trust Him to provide for you?

I can attest that God is more than faithful. five years ago I was asked to lay down youth ministry, something that God had blessed me in and through which I found incredible fulfillment. it was the most painful experience in my entire life, greatly affecting my wife as well. but can I tell you from the other side that God has been so honored by that sacrifice that He continues to overwhelmingly bless me and my family in ways I could have never seen or experienced if I had stayed in youth ministry. God can be fully trusted with our lives - for He may be the only One that has our absolute best and eternal interests in mind.

I encourage you to "lay it down" and start looking for the ram. Like me, you may be wandering around looking for it for some time, but even in that search God will be blessing your life and making you more like Him. be encouraged. you can do it!