Feed The First State

The series Fringe Benefits has challenged all of us to live a life of selflessness and experience the unexpected value of helping someone else.  That challenge is why we’ve begun Feed the First State.  We don’t want to be all talk–we want to put feet on our words and we want to help provide food to people who are hungry.  Here are the statistics:

-The Food Bank of Delaware provides emergency food for an estimated 241,600 different people annually.
-44% of the members of households served by The Food Bank of Delaware are children under 18 years old.

Through partnering with The Food Bank of Delaware, we’re going to help alleviate hunger in our community!

Here’s how you can be a part:  If you’re in a Life Group, do all you can to make sure your party is a success!  If you’re not in a Life Group, here’s how you can be a part:

• Go to this link to see when and where various Feed The First State parties will be happening in our community and drop off your cans of food.
• Stop by The Journey this Saturday (June 25th) anytime between 3-5pm to drop off your cans of food.

When we gather again on Sunday, we’ll celebrate how many cans we collected and how many people we’ll be able to feed as a result.  Plus…we have a surprise.

“When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. 10 It is the same with your grape crop-do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19)

On the journey with you,

Pastor Andrew

::Andrew Wilson is the Connecting Pastor of The Journey

 

Empower Your Team

I follow a large number of blogs and came across this and was reminded about how true it is. I had a chance to interview Brad Lomenick who is the genius behind the Catalyst Conference and this guy oozes humility, leadership, creativity and loyalty. Everything I have heard about him is good and reveals his heart of loving God and serving others. Great example to look at.  During my interview with him on Backstage Leadership he talked about the need to empower those around you.  What blows my mind is that Catalyst is run by 10 full time paid staff people and the willingness of a mega amount of volunteers.  Brad has appeared to master the art of empowering others to greatness.

Couple things I have learned.  Empowerment is not just delegation.  It is not micro-management.  It is not public permission but private control.  It is not easy.  It may never be done like you would have done it.  It is necessary to be successful.  It is needed for a team to stay motivated.

Leaders: one of the key things you must ALWAYS do is empower your team. As I’ve learned over the years, most leaders at their core are control freaks, which is part of the reason they are successful. But we all must learn and recognize the need to empower those around us to succeed and do what they do well. Most leaders think they can do it all on their own, and many try, but ultimately in order to grow a successful organization that outlives the leader you have to empower those around you.

Here are a few thoughts on Empowering your Team:

1. Give them the opportunity to make decisions, and don’t second guess them. A lot of us as leaders are willing to allow our team members to make decisions, but want to step in as soon as we see something done differently than we would do. Don’t make that mistake. It is totally demoralizing to your team.

2. Assign them responsibility by them owning key projects from START to FINISH. So once we allow team members to make key decisions, now we have to allow them to own projects and feel the responsibility of completion.

3. Fight for them. Whether it’s standing up for them to your boss, or standing beside them and supporting them in a disagreement with a vendor, always take the stance of fighting for them and being willing to go to battle for them.

4. Encourage them. This is the one we so often forget. But can go the furthest in creating team chemistry, longevity, and commitment.

5. Counsel, coach and instruct. Not necessarily the same as encouragement. Great coaches do this well. They scream and you and make you better, while also putting their arm around you and giving you “ego biscuits” when needed. Two different parts of empowering, but both equally important. Instruction is key for releasing again and assigning more responsibility.

6. Overwhelm them. Not on a continual basis, but ultimately your team members should constantly feel a bit overwhelmed by the projects or assignments they are working on, not underwhelmed. Many of their projects should cause them to feel like they are not prepared or ready. If they feel underwhelmed, they will probably end up looking elsewhere for greater assignments and more responsibility.

“People” People

Teddy Roosevelt said, “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success in leadership is knowing how to get along with people.”  Were told in Proverbs 27 to be diligent to know those around us.  I learned in college the 10 ideas to becoming a “people” person and since it was a Baptist school at the time, all of the ideas start with the letter “R”.

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1. REACH out to people.
2. REMEMBER a person’s name.
3. RECOGNIZE a person’s potential.
4. REQUEST information about them.
5. Be RESPECTFUL.
6. RELATE on their level.
7. Be RELIABLE.
8. Give REASSURANCE to people.
9. Be a RESOURCE for people.
10. REQUEST their help.

As I read through that list I thought there is at least one missing.  RESPOND.  People want to know just as much about you as you do about them.  There is a certain level of transparency that is required of a leader if the people they lead are to trust them.  There is a level of understanding that people need to have that lets them know you are just like them.

When you ask good questions you will see what they really care about.  You’ll find out about their future dreams and goals.  You’ll find out about what they cry about or what they sing and laugh about.  To do this you must become a good listener and when the time is right you must become a good responder.

There are at least 10 things to discover about someone in order to have a better understanding of them and this is a two way street.

1. Their background
2. Their present situation or station in life
3. Their personality
4. Their spiritual gift (s)
5. Their natural abilities
6. Their dreams for the future
7. Their hurts -past and present
8. Their joys -past and present
9. Their priorities
10. Their key influencers as well as who their friends are

Remember as a leader “you must care more about who they are than what they do.” -Perry Noble. You can have good people skills and not be a good leader, but you cannot be a good leader without good people skills.

As a leader use your head to gain knowledge of people.  As a leader use your heart to demonstrate a concern for people.  As a leader use your hands to help people.  As a leader use your life to connect with people.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  Everybody wants to be someone.  Everyone needs someone.  Take the time to discover the potential that others do not see in themselves and point it out to them.  Be real with people and let them into your life.

That’s Why It’s Here

A person who has always intrigued me is Walt Disney.  When you think of vision you have to think of Walt Disney.  Here is a man who had a dream to build a world that would capture and engage the imagination.  What I didn’t know is that he died before the completion of the project.  Soon after the completion of The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, someone said, “Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” Vance replied, “He did see it. That’s why it’s here.” Even after Walt Disney passed from this life, his vision for the future held strong. He had established firmly in the minds of all those he came in contact with the vision he held for the future. He had a passion and a desire and those things are contagious.  Because of that passion and desire people today plan their entire year around visiting the Magic Kingdom.

Walt once said, “As a leader you must live like everyone matters… too many leaders keep their distance from employees physically & emotionally.” Walt said, “The ability to relate with all types of people and backgrounds is not a gift, but a learned behavior.” Disney has learned that people will return on two things: 1.Satisfied with first visit. 2.The biggest return is positive interaction with Disney staff.

All that to say, for a vision to be complete and for it to last it has to be all about people.  Walt Disney was an example of connecting with people and connecting people with the vision.  Walt Disney World exists today because people bought into him as a leader because he lived out the vision in every area of his life.

What are you trying to sell?  What is your vision?  Are you fighting to be heard or do people listen because you care about people and your vision is compelling?

Rethink Possible

AT&T has a new marketing campaign titled “Rethink Possible”.  On their site is a little intro video type thing that explains this.  Here is what it says: Expand your boundaries of can.  See what’s on the other side of to far.  Play the angel’s advocate.  Outsmart can’t.  Put a restriction on your limits and expect to be wowed.  Explore.  Try.  Do.  Because before it could be done, it couldn’t.  These are indeed amazing times.  Rethink Possible. I love it.  We can argue all day long about what cell phone company has the best coverage, lowest rates and least dropped calls but that is not what this is about.  AT&T is trying to get the consumer to think outside the box and think about what can be.

The church is no different.  For years there was a certain way to do church.  Hymnals, KJV, Sunday’s best.  Long talks that lacked application but were full of information.  Then people started to “rethink possible.”  Churches started adding musicians and became relevant and progressive.  People wore whatever they wanted to church. Other versions of the Bible were taught. People started inviting their neighbors.  Talks were shortened and people were challenged.  Life groups and community began to happen.  People began to think missionally.   Satellite churches were launched and multi-site campuses became the norm.  Churches became portable and met in theaters, schools coffee shops and some churches actually double as a business.  Internet campuses were formed and community was developed through social networks like Twitter and facebook.

How we do things today will not be the way they are done in 5 years or even 3 years.  Culture is changing and the church must adapt without losing it’s true identity.  No it’s identity is not in song selections, clothing and versions but instead in what it is doing to connect people to the very core of it all…Jesus.  All the bells and whistles do not replace the work of the Holy Spirit in an individuals life.  So as culture moves so must the church and so must we as individuals who make up the church.  There are people who would be willing to listen if they could understand what we are saying, not in our words but in our actions.  Live out your faith today and “rethink possible.”

A Gathering Force

Francis Chan wrote an article back in 2008 titled, A Gathering Force for Catalyst.  I found what he wrote to be very exciting, alarming and unattainable, but is it?  Read part of this article and share with me your thoughts below.

“Is there any logic in believing that God started His church as a spirit-filled, loving body with the intention that it would evolve into entertaining, hour-long services?  Was He hoping that one day people would be attracted to the church not because they care for one another, not because they are devoted to Him, not because the supernatural occurs in their midst, but because of good music and entertainment?

Try to imagine what conclusions you would come to if you had no prior church experience.  The things in church services might make sense to the American church-attendee, but they don’t make sense biblically.

Picture yourself on an island with only a Bible.  You’ve never been to a church-you’ve never even heard of one.  The only ideas you have about church are what you’ve read in your Bible. Then you enter a building labeled “church” for the first time.  What would you expect to experience as you entered that building?  Now compare that to what you actually experience when you attend church.

What if the church looked like this?  ’They devoted themselves tot he apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together int he temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’ (Acts 2:42-47)

It describes what the world is looking for.  I used to look at this passage as something that was wonderful but could never happen int he twenty-first century.  There are just too many cultural obstacles for the Holy Spirit to overcome.  He is powerful enough to form a sharing and loving body in our individualistic society.  I doubted God’s ability to stir a body of believers to love tirelessly and give without restraint.  I reasoned that this type of fellowship was probably not intended for our time.  Besides, we don’t have time to love like this.

Looking back, I wonder if I came to those conclusions because there was a part of me that wasn’t sure I wanted it.  It’s interesting how much our theology is driven by desire.

Something real was happening in the early church.  It was something of the Spirit, too powerful to be replicated by human effort.  Imagine taking a friend to one of their church gatherings.  Your friend might not experience a smoothly run, professional service. But one thing he would experience: God.  Do we even need to ask which is better?  So much of church growth today has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.  The right team of talented people can make any church grow.  When people sit through creative services, is it really God they’re experiencing?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that we shouldn’t give our best to God.  If you’re a musician, work diligently are your music.  If your a teacher, labor intensely over your messages.  I’m just asking you to be willing to rethink what you’re doing and ask: How can we create a more biblical environment where people see and experience God?

May people see our churches and know that mere human beings could not have created what they experienced.  May we seek the priorities of the early church and trust God to once again produce the fruit of the early church.  ’And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’ (Acts2:47″

Great reminder for me to not be performance based but Spirit based.

100 Day Prayer Challenge

Eric on Sunday challenged the church to 100 days of prayer.  I thought why not challenge everybody who reads this blog to jump on board and pray as well.  You pray for my church and I’ll pray for your church if you list your church below.  The only way we will see God move throughout is if people humble themselves and pray  for His will and not ours.  Below is what our church [Fellowship Church] is praying for and I believe it to be universal.

• Be unified and motivated to serve
• Grow as a community who love and accept each other and new people wherever they’re at
• Develop a heart for our local community, our schools, our neighbors, in demonstrating our love for them and meeting their needs, expecting nothing in return
• Become people who invest in our community and invite them into our church family

So how about it?  Can you commit the next 100 days to lift your church and mine up in prayer to God?

Discover God’s Heart from Fellowship Today on Vimeo.

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

In case you didn’t know, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.  To be honest with you a year ago I had no clue this existed.  I watched the movie Taken where Liam Neeson beat everyone down [I'm convinced he even took Jack Bauer over his knee in that movie] because his daughter was taken and sold into sex slavery in Europe.  I watched and something happened in me where I wondered if that really went on.  Over the last year I have heard more and more about it and God has really turned my heart towards these social justice causes.  Really God has opened my eyes up to many social justice issues such as: poverty, homelessness, slavery, clean water, free/fair trade products, all things that I didn’t even know were issues a year ago.

Today I want to focus on this Human Trafficking and want you to check out a 3 minute video to simply make you aware of the issue and cause you to ask yourself the question, what can I do?  The reality is this is a huge issue in the United States and affects so many woman and children.

Disclaimer:  This video is edgy and may be offensive to some and this video does not reflect Fellowship Church and anybody affiliated with Fellowship Church.  This is simply my attempt as an individual to get you thinking. This video is taken from the site Sexandmoneyfilm.com, which is one of several sites that brings to light the issues of Human Trafficking.

What are your thoughts?  Did you know this was an issue?  What are your thoughts on social justice issues?

Here is a link to a PDF, 11 Practical Ideas to Combat Slavery.

PDF was taken from Charles Lee blog that was promoted through Catalyst.

Servolution

I am reading a book called Servolution by Dino Rizzo and literally the first page got my attention which is not easy to do with my whole ADD (hey look a butterfly), what was I saying? The idea of the book is starting a revolution through serving. Serving others with no expectations of receiving anything in return. Here is a snippet from the book:

“This book is about revolution. But this is a different kind of revolution-not fueled by anger, violence, and revolt but one of compassion, love and service. This revolution has a clear mission to answer the cries of the poor, the hurting, and the forgotten and is made up of revolutionaries willing to lay down their lives to reach out to people in their cities, in their nations, and throughout the world. This is a revolution aimed at initiating change, but not by overthrowing a government; this change comes by bringing healing to a hurting world and by loving people to Christ. We call it servolution: a significant change in the course of history sparked by simple acts of kindness.”

I know for a fact that I can become a lot better in this area and I wonder could you? If so, what? What can be done to reach this community and serve this community? What ideas do you have? I have heard from some and they are amazing and I am sure I will get a chance to share those later.

Vision 2009

I love vision. I love leadership. I love seeing the local church step up and become what God created it to be. I can’t even begin to tell you how important this previous series we just did was. Gus did a great job communicating what the vision of Fellowship Church is. We are here to redefine church through relationships not religion.

As Gus said all of our resources, time and energy go into what we call the BIG 5: Sunday Morning, Life Groups, Children, Missions and Students…

Everything we do is focused around those five areas. The reality is we could do more, but to do more would cause us to a lot of stuff good but nothing great, we know what God has called us to do. The how is always evolving. That is why our six core values could change at any time as God changes our heart and our focus.

Our six core values are:
Embrace People
We welcome, include and love all people from all walks of life. We reach out to everyone without expecting anything in return.
Live Authentically
We are transparent and honest about who we are and where we’re at in our lives. We do not hide behind a spiritual mask.
Engage Culture
We value culture as a way to connect with people across generational and ethnic boundaries. We leverage culture to communicate our and God’s love for people.
Apply Truth
We seek to live out biblical truth instead of just gaining knowledge. We learn how to apply truth so it makes a difference in our everyday lives.
Empower People
We give everyone the opportunity to dream and be who they are, enabling you to participate in church life regardless of where you are at in your spiritual journey.
Building Bridges
We reach out to others to be good neighbors and meet needs in our local community and across the world.

Jump on board with us as we redefine church for the lost, broken, hurt, confused people in the Delaware Valley.

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