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Some pics from today and last night.

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“Things I didn’t expect from launching Suncrest-East” series

I am writing a series of posts related to launching Suncrest-East. I have no plan for how often or how many. There are just things that I have discovered that I want to share and things that we have done that could be helpful to others. I in no way think I am an expert. These are just some things I’ve learned.

Last night we had the first of our 4 Christmas Eve services jointly at West Campus.  I only had a small part in introducing our Benevolence offering but I was thrown off when I got a case of the  nerves before going on stage.  That was just plain weird.

It was a combination of the crowd and actually walking onto a stage.  I get nervous before I preach every time (regardless of the place) but to feel those nerves before my 3 minute part was surprising.  I had better prepare for that again when I preach at West Campus in early 2009.

The best part of that whole experience though was two parts:

• looking into the crowd at West campus and seeing East campus peeps;
• talking specifically with a new family to Suncrest-East after the service.  That was so exciting to see them there and realize that they are connecting at East Campus.

Merry Christmas!

“Things I didn’t expect from launching Suncrest-East” series

I am writing a series of posts related to launching Suncrest-East. I have no plan for how often or how many. There are just things that I have discovered that I want to share and things that we have done that could be helpful to others. I in no way think I am an expert. These are just some things I’ve learned.

Perhaps the thing that has both surprised and excited me in launching Suncrest-East as been the ownership that the launch team developed.  Somtimes a leader’s job is to motivate his team.  This was never really an issue in launching the campus.  Our launch team developed such a love for the mission that it was not Doug’s campus, or Suncrest’s deal it was OUR campus.

This has been such an inspiration to me as well as many who have witnessed it first hand.  It is something that is so hard to put into words yet so essential to accomplishing our mission.  I know you can talk about it but you can’t make it happen.  I know you can encourage it but you can’t give it to people.  I think it happened for us and happens for anyone when God’s people get on God’s agenda in God’s timing.

I say all this with the full knowledge that the pre-launch excitement of launching the campus has waned with the campus actually being launched.  We are making adjustments to prevent burnout, but it’s their sense of ownership that has given them the determination and tenacity to accomplish the mission no matter what.

The ownership of Suncrest-East was so clear yesterday when those scheduled for setup and serving showed up yesterday at 6:30am with a temperature of 7 below zero.  My wife commented that it really separated the men from the boys.  No offense to the ladies that were there.  You were very manly as well…you get the point.  It was simply amazing to see.

I’m blessed to serve with an awesome team.

“Things I didn’t expect from launching Suncrest-East” series

I am writing a series of posts related to launching Suncrest-East.  I have no plan for how often or how many.  There are just things that I have discovered that I want to share and things that we have done that could be helpful to others.  I in no way think I am an expert.  These are just some things I’ve learned.

I was reminded last week of how many people I miss seeing at West Campus now that we’ve launched East campus.  There are so many that I just don’t get to see that often now that I am not in St. John on Sunday mornings.

It was an odd occurrence when I met two ladies in the hallway (during the week) and as one reached out to give me a hug she said, “Well, hello stranger!” My office is still at the St. John location so to be called a stranger was funny to me.

One of the best parts of launching SE is that most of my “tribe” went with me.  It’s like one big party every Sunday.  No, I’m serious, it really is.  These are guys that I have hung around with for awhile now and we have a blast.  But not everyone of my friends went.  And then there are so many that I was not really close to but that I really enjoyed hanging around.  These are people I miss on Sundays.

Here’s what it has reminded me.  My faith community can’t be about Sundays!  I do miss seeing some people on Sunday mornings but if I miss them then I have amazing technology at my fingertips that helps me connect with them.  It does take more effort but who cares!  If I want to connect with them I can.

I am looking forward o Christmas Eve services when both campuses will be together.  I think it will feel like a family reunion…but in a good way.

If you could narrow it down what would you say is the one distinctive quality of a Christ-follower?

Don’t get me wrong.  These can be great AND necessary things to grow as a Christ-follower but I don’t see any of these in Scripture as being a distinctive quality of a Christ-follower.

Today I read:

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:7-8).

It struck me as I read this that LOVE is THE distinctive quality of a Christ-follower.  Now this is not a new thought, it is a revolutionary thought.

Love is the action that sets Christ-followers apart from everyone else.  Not just any love, but a Jesus-like love.  A love that is sacrificial to anyone and everyone.  Love is how people will know we follow Jesus.

Again, this is something you have heard before as I have too.  It is something we “know”.  But is the knowing being applied everyday?  Today it struck me that I try to focus on so many things when it comes to following Jesus when the one thing that matters most is to ask, “How am I loving others today?”

“What I didn’t expect in launching Suncrest-East” series

I want to do a series of posts related to launching Suncrest-East. I have no plan for how often or how many. There are just things that I have discovered that I want to share and things that we have done that could be helpful to others. I in no way think I am an expert. These are just some things I’ve learned.

In our staff meeting we were celebrating the baptisms that took place at West campus.  One of the persons baptized was someone I knew but I did not know she was getting baptized.  I was so thrilled to hear it.  It made me smile because a little over a year ago her sister sat in my office and professed faith and subsequently was baptized.  Before that I performed “the sister’s” wedding which was really their entry point into Suncrest.  I love hearing of the influence for faith that Suncrester’s are having among their friends and family.

Here is what I did not expect:  How much I would miss being IN on things like this.   Someone got baptized that I knew and I didn’t know about it.  On the one hand it bothered me because I knew the person and I want to be in the loop on people I know. On the other hand I accept it as reality.  Suncrest is a big family and it will be impossible for me to keep track of everyone.  AND that’s okay.

Because I still get to celebrate.

Because God changes lives whether I’m around or not.

And because in Heaven I will have plenty of time to catch up.

I want to do a series of posts related to launching Suncrest-East.  I have no plan for how often or how many.  There are just things that I have discovered that I want to share and things that we have done that could be helpful to others.  I in no way think I am an expert.  These are just some things I’ve learned.

One of the things I didn’t expect and perhaps could not have expected was how launching Suncrest-East would affect my family.  This has been a family affair to say the least. For one, it would not have been possible without my wife being totally on board to do it.  It made our schedules crazier than they ever were.  It turned our home into THE meeting place on many occasions.  And it has made Sunday mornings an early morning for the whole family.

Sunday mornings will never be the same.  Every Sunday our alarm goes off at 5am.  That isn’t really too bad for us adults but the 5:30 wake up time for the kids is a bit tougher.  All that so we can be at the theater by 6:30 to help with the setup.  Now I know what you are thinking.  Does my family really have to be there that early?  The answer is no, they don’t absolutely have to be every Sunday.  But here’s the deal.  And this is what has affected our family the most.  Sheila wants to be because this is not MY ministry, this is OUR ministry.  She is as much sold on the idea of East campus as I am. She is as committed to seeing people find hope in Jesus in our community as I am.  So this is not about what she HAS to do but rather what NEEDS to be done.

These things that have affected my family may appear like a negative.  But in all honesty they really are not:

• having our schedules messed up only meant we needed to communicate even more;
• opening our home has been a blessing because after all, it’s all God’s anyway;
• and the early Sunday mornings…okay they stink for the kids but everything can’t be great!

I value how this experience has brought our family closer.  While there are still days my 5 year old asks if she can go back to our “old church” this Sunday, all of my kids are beginning to see the theater as “real church” and it feels like home.

For some reason my slideshow stopped working so here’s the link to the Staff Christmas party pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougg/sets/72157611124035567/

We had our Christmas staff party tonight.  Great time had by all even if it got a little wild…just kidding.

“I don’t want to waste my time on Facebook” was what I heard from a friend.  I too held a similar belief at one point, that is, until I actually tried it out.  Go figure.  This statement is very similar to people who critique a movie and/or book without ever having seen it.

I would agree that Facebook is useless IF you DON’T want to

• connect with people that you haven’t seen since college;
• discuss a topic of interest with people of like minded interests;
• stay up on what your friends are doing;
• connect with people for ministry purposes.

Facebook has been a tremendous tool to connect with people.  In the last several months my wife and/or I:

• reconnected with college friends;
• have been able to connect with people at Suncrest and other friends who we ordinarily wouldn’t get to spend much time with;
• found out someone from college lives in the same town as we do;
• reconnected with a elementary school friend who converted to another religion but was now reconsidering her decision.

The thing on Facebook I am most excited about right now is the new Suncrest-East group I created.  I think this will be a great way to discuss some relevant topics, shoot out prayer requests, promote events and inform about important issues.  Right now I have a discussion thread up generating some stories on “worst Christmas gifts” for this weekend’s message.  I’m getting some great stuff.

Facebook is working on Facebook Connect which will be released soon.  This will undoubtedly be one of the most valuable tools for churches when it is released.  It will basically give you Facebook functionality on any website.  So, I would be able to add it to our website and create an “intranet” right there through our website.

In the end, Facebook is useless…if you don’t use it.  But if you jump into it, experiment a little, be willing to risk, you may find that Facebook is one of the most useful web applications out there.