Assimilation

Assimilation; the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger community.

Perry Noble

Unleash 09: Perry Noble 2.0Mar122009 Filed under: Uncategorized Author: tony
3:38 PM tonymorganlive - I’ll be live blogging Perry’s final session here later this afternoon.
3:43 PM tonymorganlive - Final session starts at 3:30 pm Eastern Time.
4:02 PM tonymorganlive - 25 minutes until go time.
4:26 PM tonymorganlive - Worship starts in 5 minutes. I don’t have any idea what Perry is going to say. Should be interesting…as always.
4:33 PM tonymorganlive - And…we’re live. Worship just started for the final session. I’m hanging out in the new student ministry auditorium. I love this new space!
5:01 PM tonymorganlive - Here we go. Perry just took the platform.
5:01 PM tonymorganlive - “If this is the first time here, we’re one of those megachurches that waters down the Gospel.”
5:02 PM tonymorganlive - He’s talking about the shirt Steven Furtick bought him.
5:03 PM tonymorganlive - “If you don’t have leadership that’s on fire, you can’t expect your people to be on fire.”
5:03 PM tonymorganlive - “Aren’t there days when you just want to quit?”
5:10 PM tonymorganlive - “I want to talk with you about staying in the game.”
5:10 PM tonymorganlive - Question #1: “Who is with me?”
5:13 PM tonymorganlive - “Average stay for a pastor in America is 22 months.”
5:15 PM tonymorganlive - “Satan doesn’t want to split your church. He wants to split your staff.”
5:18 PM tonymorganlive - “You’re going to get pissed at your pastor. It’s going to happen.”
5:19 PM tonymorganlive - “He’s called to lead. The sheep don’t lead the shepherd.”
5:20 PM tonymorganlive - (Perry, I’ve got your back.)
5:21 PM tonymorganlive - Question #2: “Am I pleasing you?”
5:21 PM tonymorganlive - (These are questions to ask God.)
5:24 PM tonymorganlive - “I was wearing the shirt that Pastor Steven bought me.” (You had to be here.)
5:28 PM tonymorganlive - “You might have to get out of church work to get back into ministry.”
5:29 PM tonymorganlive - Rick Warren: “Ministry is not achieved but received.” (I can picture Rick saying that.)
5:30 PM tonymorganlive - “Why are you in ministry? The mercy of God.”
5:31 PM tonymorganlive - “Am I placing limits on me that God hasn’t placed on me?”
5:32 PM tonymorganlive - Question #3: “Will we see you?”
5:36 PM tonymorganlive - “Do you want attendance or repentance? Because you can have attendance without repentance.”
5:38 PM tonymorganlive - Question #4: “What’s next?”
5:42 PM tonymorganlive - “We don’t want to become a museum. We want to be a movement.”
5:58 PM tonymorganlive - (Praying for my pastor.)
6:02 PM tonymorganlive - That’s it. Thanks for hanging out here today. Read more: "Unleash 09: Perry Noble 2.0 TonyMorganLive.com" -

Wouldn't this be great...

Now wouldn't this be amazing to be a part of. This level of professionalism focused on leading toward a stronger commitment to Jesus. I am always conflicted about this Subject. What do I do to further his Name?? Can I make changes, or hard decisions because it's better for what He's doing?

Is any one person's desire more important than making a larger impact for Jesus?

a post from garylamb.org

This is a blog from the Pastor of Revolution Church. He is a little bit crazy but I like reading what's happening in his head. On a side note this church is only a few years old and reaching people like crazy. And reaching people does not mean christians from other churches.


Titled: It's Midnight
It’s Midnight and I’m up which my mind is racing and I’m thinking about Revolution. Here is some of the questions I’m ‘rasslin with right now:
Do we have the structure to get to 2,000 people in Sunday morning attendance by the end of the year?
Are we comfortable as a staff? Seeing zeal and passion in new additions to our team makes me wonder have some of us (including myself) lost that “sense of awe” at what God is doing here.
We have two services that are 85% full and one that (8:30) that due to time will probably never be completely full so how do we create more seats? 4th Sunday morning? Sunday night at Conference Center? Sunday night at different location? Sunday night in Jasper? Sunday night in Towne Lake?
I have the right people on the bus but do I have them in the right seat?
Have I surrounded myself with leaders or servants?
Is there an initiative to grow as leaders in the people around me?
Who are the volunteers in our church who are ready to take the next step into leadership?
Is what we WANT to be known for the same thing we ARE known for?
Is what what I WANT to be known for the same thing as what I AM known for?
Are we doing ALL we can to reach lost people?
In what areas do I need to grow as a leader?
What things do I need to take off my plate?
Are we empowering volunteers to take their areas to the next level?
Are we celebrating wins?
What is the next step for Revolution?
Am I limiting God?
Do I dream to small?
Can we do a better job at reaching people with hurts, habits and hang-ups?
Am I letting critics distract me?
Am I focused more on those who attend Revolution or those in the community who don’t have a church home?
Is my walk with God where it needs to be to lead Revolution to 2000? 3000? 5000? 10,000?
Am I allowing GOOD things to keep me from GREAT things?
Questions are a good thing. You can’t get answers without questions. The entire book of Nehemiah happened because he asked a simple question on how the people in his homelad were doing. That question changed his life and changed the life of those around him.
Now, you see why I’m not sleeping.

Politics and the Church

The church would seem to be a strange place for politics since the mission of the church is the Great Commission. Where does Global Warming, Obama, an economic stimulus plan, or even Neil Boortz...fit in a service. Right before the greeting??? Probably not. It's an interesting question when placed in the context of a brand new church. Different groups of people are coming together with differing views on these issues and many more issues too. At Discover Point Church we decided a long time ago that we would focus on the things that unite us not the things that divide us.
When we first were starting the church we went to an older pastor with many more years in ministry than any of us. He focused in on this core value that we shared and said....we have to much of that in the church. To many times we are focusing of things that divide each other. I didn't know how wise that counsel was until years later. We have a richly diverse church. Many different people who think alot of different things. Some about politics, some about gifts of the spirit, some about parenting, or budgeting. We have the freedom to believe differently on non essentials.
So i would say politics are a nonessential while I am sure it doesn't feel that way when you have to pay more taxes or watch the congress spending your money in crazy ways. Leave it at the door to reach more people for Jesus.

"Churchy" Games

In the past churches seem to have been started when an area was void of a local assembly house where Christians could come together. A piece of land was donated in the area and a church was birthed!!! People came together to build it, and created groups to help with everything from financial to beautification (which is a real word... I think). It was a huge event for the community and that was great for reaching new people for Jesus. A core value of my church www.discoverpointchurch.com is "new churches reach new people." This is true.
Now a days you can find a church or many churches with in a mile. In the south it's not uncommon to have a church on every corner and in between. Churches seem to have turned from looking like churches to being rental spaces, or looking like corp. offices. Now you may ask what does a church look like. .... That depends on which denomination you have been a part of. Modern and Post Modern churches seem to be not churchy..... or the our culture normal. Our culture is not churchy... oh they know how to play the game but when it comes to a real passionate relationship with God the game just can't "win" that goal.
Now that brings me to a church strategy that I absolutely love. The bible puts it this way... being in the world but not of it. We can look like this culture in alot of ways. Actually much of this culture is amazing. I am always impressed when I walk into a new school or theater or even a water treatment plant... When these gathering places are designed the past is remembered but a new design that makes that place special is created. Now I know I'm rambling around to get to a simple point which is...Churchy should never be the goal. Churchy buildings, or Churchy marketing, or Churchy blogs, Or Churchy messages reach Churchy people. If that's what you are going for more power to ya... not me. I want to be in this world...with people who need to know Christ... but not of this world... which makes people take a look at what's different inside of me. I have played the churchy game and it gets old quick.

Giving Online

Giving to the church online has been a point of discussion in DPC staff meetings since our start.

We have looked at what people say are the benefits and the negatives, as well as the ethics of giving online to the church. And by the way we are not currently doing this.

It seems strange to me to ONLY allow people to give to the church 1 or 2 times a weeks during a 3 or 4 minute interval during or right after the gathering time. The idea is that giving financially is part of the worship time and I get that. I am all for it, but limiting giving doesn't seem like the most effect way to increase givers to the church. And worship is not only one certain time every week, so why can we only give financially one time a week? I know a big part of this innovation is the fact that card services charge for the service. So...if someone gives 100$ bucks some of that money goes to pay for the service. Not much money but still the entire gift does not make it to the church. This could pose a problem for some and to them I say bring the gift on Sunday or mail it in to the church, but most people use debt cards for purchases all week. They pay their bills with the card, they buy from ebay, they give to charities online that touch their heart, they use the internet to make life a little bit easier.

That is my biggest reason for supporting online giving. I want to make giving to the church as accessible as possible . Any way to raise the value of giving in the church is a step in the right direction in my opinion. Give online. Give on Sunday. Give by mail or billpay. The point is making giving a real part of the church's life.