Tuesday is for Training
Mark Dinwiddie has been sending us Multisite/Missions Nuggets of Truth each week for a couple of months now and I am starting a new category of them so you can talk about them and comment.
We have really been talking about that dirty word for perfectionists, DELEGATE.? Enjoy.
You have two choices in your work.? When something has been assigned to you, you can either do it yourself or get someone else to do it.? Your ability to get someone else to do it, to delegate it effectively??? —more than anything else— is going to determine your career track, your position and rate of promotion, your pay, your status, prestige, and success in management.? (The Delights of Delegation)
?I owe whatever success I have attained, by and large, to my ability to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am? Andrew Carnegie
I once had one of my dad’s best friends, “work himself out of a job.”? He had worked for this company back before he retired and hired on with another company doing consulting.? Basically, he delegated all of the work to be done by the company employees that he was no longer needed–and he could go back to traveling in his retirement!
Who do you know that is a good delegator?? What makes them good at it?? What prevents you from delegating the way you ought?
Wow, what a weekend!
We have had a crazy busy and productive weekend so far!? Tucker and Jenny went to Springfield on Friday so Jenny could do an inservice training for the Elementary music teachers in Springfield Public Schools–she’s so stinking talented and smart it’s pretty amazing she hangs out with a schmuck like me!! While they were gone, I took the opportunity to fix the brakes on my car that were about 3 weeks overdue and the rotors showed!? Thanks to my friend Devin Bobbett for helping me change my first set of brakes probably about 7 years ago.? I have always tried to repair them since then after I found out how “easy” it is.? There is always something that goes wrong when I try to do anything it seems.? This time, I stripped out some screws and had to go get some screw extrators from the store to finally get the brakes repaired.? Of course, I had to put the old brakes back on, go to O’Reilly’s and then come back and finish them.? I finally got them fixed at about midnight last night. Henry (our new puggle) and I went to pick up Taylor after school and decided to go to the pet store to get some stuff for the dog.? The pet store has another puggle for sale and the girl was really pushing hard for us to get another to keep Henry company.? Funny thing happens–Henry poops right in the store–while Taylor is supposed to be watching him on the leash!? I told the girl, “see I’ve got one that poops all over the place, I don’t need another!” Jenny and Tucker got home and we went to eat at the Ranch House.? We walked in and saw our good friend Kent Doyle and the Ozark High School varsity girls softball team that was in a tournament here in Carthage.? It was awesome getting to hang out with him for a bit.? Sweet people!? Taylor got to talk to Kaleb on the phone and Morgan got to talk to Jenny.? Pretty cool deal for everyone. 
Had our first CONVERGE this morning.? It went pretty well.? The next CONVERGE will be in January.? I am really excited about what God is going to do this fall through Forest Park Carthage! Went to Crosswalk tonight to hear John’s message “Dirty Jerseys.”? We are starting a spiritual growth 
campaign tomorrow called Generations.? It was an awesome message and I am really excited to see the response from our people tomorrow morning.? We have the potential to really reach a TON of people for Christ in the next decade or so through this campaign. The key verse is, “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.” Psalm 102:18.? Stratton, McBride and I went out on Thursday and shot some videos for our children’s ministry classes.? It was a lot of fun!? The best part is related to this verse. . . we have an opportunity in this campaign to reach people of the future generations by our faithfulness to get involved with God in this generation!? I am excited that we are helping Taylor and Tucker’s generation to have a great facility here in Carthage.? My hope and prayer is that they will in turn, because of our example, build His Church for their future generations!? I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through this campaign!? Fasten your seatbelts.
‘To Do’ list
I have been really trying to get my act together and be more organized. (Go ahead and feel free to insert your smart remarks here!) I have begun a process of carrying a list in my pocket of things to do on one side and what I have done on the opposite (to help me complete my “ministry report” each week.). Taylor must have seen my list sitting on my desk the other day, because he has a list of his own. I found this the other day in my car. Man, how awesome is this kid?
Feed dog. Play. Scool. Play. Sleep. Oh to be in 2nd grade again!
Monday is for Missions & Multisite
Here are the pictures I said would be awesome if we had any!? I absolutely love what God is doing through this concept of multisite!? We had 366 people and the 2nd service was PACKED!!? That is the highest attendance we have had since the launch or Easter 2008–on a non holiday weekend!!
Enjoy from Stratton’s iPhone . . .
Awesome Day at Forest Park Carthage!
We had an awesome Sunday at Forest Park Carthage!? We had a record attendance of 366 (high attendance except for launch Sunday and Easter ’08)!? Amazing!? We had an Anniversary Celebration BBQ after church and it was really cool to see so many people stay and hang out with one another.
We finished up the Mythbusters series today with what I think was one of the best messages of the entire series called “We are here by accident.”? John did an awesome job teaching us what an amazing God we serve and that there is no way that we are here by accident.? One quote he used today was from Albert Einstein
“The probablility of life originating from accidet is comparable to the probablility of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing shop.”? Albert Einstein
Reminded me a ton of the the Indescribable and Alive series of talks by Louie Giglio (one of my all-time heroes!)
Huge props go out to my whole team making this day successful!? My staff and lay volunteers are awesome and do such a great job helping people connect with each other and to connect to the Savior!? Thank you so much–all of you!!
Here are some pictures of the BBQ after our awesome day celebrating what God has done in Carthage in just one short year.? (Man, I wish we would have gotten some pictures of the auditorium during services today.? That place was packed!? Three services??? May be having to come soon!? What an awesome problem to have!!)
What we’ve been waiting for!!
We have been looking for a good check-in system as well as Church Management Software.? The other day, Dinwiddie said, “too bad LifeChurch couldn’t just write some software and give it away for free!”? Well, they have done it!? I am really excited about what they are doing over at LifeChurch.? The best thing–it’s totally free, just like their online Bible software called YouVersion.? LifeChurch has been and continues to be a leader in open source church resources! Thank you LifeChurch!!
Welcome Timothy Micheal
Timothy Campbell and Anna Black had a little baby boy on Wednesday. Here are some pics of the fam. I can’t wait to show him off to everyone at church tomorrow! One of the perks of being a pastor is to hold babies, brag in them, spoil them, and give them back to their parents–isn’t that what grandparents do?
New Family Member
We have some great friends, the Terrells, who “inherited” a dog from a family member who was heading off to college and couldn’t keep the dog. Enter “Homeless Henry.”
Taylor and Tucker have been wanting a dog for quite some time now. Jenny and especially her mom have been lobbying hard for a dog since we have more room out here in Carthage. After Justin’s football game, we went to dinner and heard about poor Henry the homeless Puggle (half pug, half beagle). The boys both have pug stuffed animals and Taylor overheard the breed and it was a full court press for this dog.
We got these two photos via email and Henry showed up here in Carthage this morning. I took lots of pictures with a good camera and will post them later. In the meantime, here are pics from Justin’s game and Henry. Enjoy.
Monday is for Missions/Multisite
I am really loving being a part of a great “missions organization” here at Forest Park!? I have always considered myself a North American missionary–what us old schoolers might have called “Home Mission Board Missionaries (slide projector anyone??).”? I am amazed at the extreme amount of churches that Southern Baptists plant here in the states.? These are some older stats (about 5 years old) but they are amazing!? We as Southern Baptists plant about 25 churches per week!? Amazing!? As many as all other Evangelical denominations combined!? Pretty stinking awesome . . . but let’s not get a big head too quickly!? There are actually over 80 churches per week that close their doors for good!? Not good at all!? As John Mark Clifton said on a video for the Church at Finley Crossings, “we are losing the race to plant churches in North America.”? That calling and passion for planting churches has driven me for almost a decade and still continues to this day!
However, the weariness of planting a church began to settle in and I began to pray, “God, there has got to be a better way to plant churches and reach the unchurched.” I truly believe that this “new” concept of multisite is A better way to start new churches and reach the unchurched.? I say, “new” in quotes because it is really not new at all–just new here in the states.? Dr. David Cho actually began this concept of multiple campuses in Korea.? This led to an explosion of expontial growth in his Full Gospel congregation.? As of 2007, they are the world’s largest congregation with well over 800,000 members.? I say “A”? better way because I don’t believe that “traditional” church planting is NOT by ANY MEANS dead or not effective AT ALL.? Traditional church plants need to be intentionally planted all around the world! The problem that I, and many others, experienced first hand is the lack of critical mass and support to sustain the first 3 or 4 years.? Just thinking out loud here . . . but we might think about supporting church plants AFTER launch when the core team has come down from their initial giddiness when they were drunk on vision and couldn’t fail!? However, it’s not all about money either–Ed Stetzer’s research has confirmed that. . . but that is for another post all together!
What is great about this era of church growth and church planting is that we can have our cake and eat it too!? We can plant traditional churches and launch multisite campuses all under the same umbrella of Southern Baptists who care more about lost people than our personal preferences!? One of the best things about being a Southern Baptist is this amazing thing called Cooperation!? We have the Cooperative Program that helps fund Kingdom work all around the world.? We are truly better together!? Here in Missouri, we have a way to support the work of church planters through the Missouri Missions Offering. Go here and check out how you can continue to support the the work of God in Missouri.? As a former “receiver” of support from this offering, it is definately appreciated.