I Put Jesus Back In The Box Today

I put Jesus back in the box today. Today was the day. Shortly after Christmas my wife diligently took all of the Christmas decorations down and put them into the garage. Since it takes 2 pick-ups and a trailer to haul the decorations from the storage unit to the house and back, I generally put the return trip off as long as I can. There is no complaining here, just reporting the facts. Some of the decorations exist solely to give me something to haul around at Christmas; they never make it farther than the garage.

Some of the unused decorations are ones made by my mother-in-law in past years and could never be discarded, and then there are those that every year just make “honorable mention”. They somehow deserve the ride, but it stops there. They don’t make the cut. They are never seen!

So today was the day of this annual ritual. Once the key to storage is found, which is always an adventure, the caravan back to the storage unit commences! The most challenging item is a very large statue of baby Jesus.

You cannot break the baby Jesus. If you do you will not go to Heaven, you don’t pass go, you go straight to hell. Great care is taken to secure baby Jesus and all other breakables. There is also the large container of wrapping paper that will have to wait until next year. By the way, if said wrapping paper is not properly secured in the back of a pick-up, you can wrap the entire street. You’ve been warned.

Now it is time to unload. But before that can begin, the annual rearranging of the priceless items I pay to store must happen to make room for baby Jesus and friends. How the junk in the storage unit grows between Thanksgiving and mid-January is a miracle within itself.

So, it is time to make room for baby Jesus.

Things that have to be moved are:
• 400 Bennie Babies-when they make their comeback, I will cash in!
• The giant futon bed that I will never assemble again
• The adult child’s belongings—the nest is not empty until their junk is out of your storage!
• Books, books, books, books,–aren’t there some kids in Africa that need a library?
• Furniture—if the adult children ever leave, their apartment will be well furnished. Wouldn’t want lack of furniture to be a deterrent!
• More books!
• Stuffed animals: A farm that makes old MacDonald’s look like a petting zoo.
• Sporting equipment: this justifies the existence of the storage unit. Good stuff. Needed stuff!

Behind all this, the baby Jesus in the box is placed. He will be fine until we bring Him out again next year.

Where do you keep Jesus? How often do you bring Him out? Is He seen by the world or do you keep Him in a box? What is He behind in your life?

Is He in a box behind the junk or on the throne of your life?

A New Process in Church Construction

Church Construction Re.Defined ’10, November 16-18 in Dallas, Texas is an innovative conference that presents a new process in Church Construction. This process has resulted in over $300 million in church projects being completed without a single one being over budget. It eliminates change orders and allows you to know your actual cost prior to your capital campaign.

The presenters include:

Billy Goff, owner of Goff Companies has constructed projects from California to Florida. This body of work includes projects as small as $800,000 to projects over $25,000,000.  From his first church, First Baptist Church of Euless, to the completion of The Church at Pinnacle Hills (now Cross Church), Billy has been on the cutting edge of responsible stewardship in Church Construction. He has developed this process as a direct result                                              of God’s call on his life to build the Kingdom.

 

Ken Franch, Director of Religious Architecture for Halff Associates has built his career as an innovator in the area of church design. He recently was asked to direct the division of Religious Architecture for Halff Associates, a nation wide Architecture firm. While many things can be said about Ken, the greatest is that when it comes to working with Pastors, he “gets it”. He listens. He understands Stewardship. It is not about the structure he can design, it is about the people who will be reached though it.

 

Lamar Slay, President of Partners in Church Consulting, directs the conference. Lamar has served on the teaching teams of both Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in Southern California and Ed Young at Fellowship Church, Grapevine, TX. He consults with some of the leading churches in America. The desire to develop this process came after seeing so many Pastors lose credibility and trust with their congregation as a result of poorly executed building projects. He leads the PCC Network, which is made up of companies who desire to support the local church.

 

 

 

 

If your project meets the minimum criteria, all of your expenses for the conference could be paid for by PCC. Go to www.partnerscc.com/churchconstruction to see if you qualify.

SIGN UP TODAY

Click on the Church Construction Re.Defined link at

www.Partnerscc.com

or call Partners In Church Consulting at 214.965.9225.

Church Construction ReDefined 2010

Church Construction ReDefined is a conference that is sponsored by The PCC Network that could change the way your church approaches facility construction. It is an educational conference that explains the “partnering” method of construction.

CCR2010 is sponsored by PCC, The Goff Companies, and PSA Architecture. This process has been used by these companies to construct over $300,000,000 in church facilities without a single project coming in over budget. This process has been around for many years, but only in recent years has the PCC Network brought it to church construction.

If your church qualifies, PCC will pay all expenses, including travel, for 2 people from your staff to attend. To find out if your church qualifies and to learn more details, go to http://www.partnerscc.com and fill out the application.

First Time Guest Reception

How successful are you at getting unchurched, first time guest to your guest reception after your worship services. There are two key factors in your being successful.

First, who do the guests get to meet? Outgoing friendly lay men and women are great. That sharp, vision understanding, committed, programming genius, staff person is good in certain situations. He or she can even represent you well in the right setting.

But there is absolutely no substitute for the Senior Pastor. He is who they want to meet. They want to shake his hand and know that he is real. For many, this exchange is the only thing standing between them and your new member class. This gives you the opportunity to meet that need. Senior Pastors, this is an opportunity to make an investment that will pay big dividends.

Second, What are you giving away? As I have conducted “secrete shopper” visits to a number of churches, I am amazed at what I see churches give away to the unchurched guest who visit them. The “special gift” that is announced in the services many times is not so special. From ugly coffee mugs to worship CDs to left over camp T-shirts to the church newsletter to pens that don’t write are offered up. Wouldn’t those items make you want to run to the reception!

Let me make a suggestion. Give them something they have never been given in a church. Something they will tell their friends about around the water cooler on Monday. Make it something useful. Give them something that is non-spiritual. Give them a jar of salsa and a bag of chips. You will be amazed. Your numbers at the reception will increase and you will be the talk of the office tomorrow.

Save the CDs for Christmas presents!  You may have to put up a “Guest Only” sign.

Mark Batterson is Primal!

Mark Batterson issues a strong call to the Christians of this generation to discover the basics of the faith. In an age where believers hop from church to church in search of the deeper experience or a new motivator to holiness, Mark calls us back to the “Primal” state of faith. The state that saw the early believers not looking for a “convenient” gospel but experiencing how “inconvenient it can be to follow in the footsteps of Christ”

This “Primal” state of faith is summed up with the Great Commandment, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This is the core of our faith, the motivation of our walk. A commitment to this command results in radically changed lives. Mark concludes that “we are not great at the Great Commandment”.

“Primal” challenges us to get serious about being serious about the basics. To take the “Great Commandment” as a commandment and not a suggestion. He emphasizes the necessity of the Holy Spirit empowering and leading while placing a high importance on our investing our own “sweat equity” in the Kingdom. The pit many of us are in is not shared with a lion on a snowy night, but a spirit of hibernation and drowsiness that keeps us inactive and ineffective when it comes to making a difference in our world. “Primal” will challenge you to re-evaluate how you are living and the impact you are having and lead you back to the primal spiritual state you experienced immediately following your salvation experienced.

“Primal” is not a book to buy for those in your Bible Study group, it is a book you buy for yourself, first. It is a personal call to power and effectiveness thru a return to THE commandment. Whether he is telling us about “Captain Underpants” or the indescribable magnificence of God, Mark Batterson communicates what he has heard from that same God to each of us. Don’t miss what what He has to say!

Don’t miss what God has to say to you. Start this new decade by letting “Primal-A quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity” be the first book you read. Get your copy at http://www.randomhouse.com.

The 30 Minute Worship Service

If you don’t like contemporary music, topical preaching, and the NIV, you are going to hate this: The 30 minute worship service. (Sorry Mom.) This is not to replace your normal worship services. It is not selling out to a convenient Gospel. It is not being liberal. It is not being lazy. It is not compromising or going soft on sin. It is not the answer for dead churches. It is not the key to growth. It is not for every church.

It is an idea that could give your church one more tool to reach one more lost person in your community. Or maybe the first lost person you’ve reached in a while. It gives you more seats and car parks. Oh yea. It cost you NOTHING!

It is a tool. Another hook in the water to reach the lost.

Here is how you use the 30 minutes.

6-7 minutes Music

20 minutes Message

3-4 Minutes Wrap-up

Who is this for? It is for the lost husband of the young wife who has been praying for and begging him to go to church with her. He just might give her 30 minutes. It is for the senior adult who can’t sit for an hour without being very uncomfortable. It is for the traditionalist who doesn’t like the music anyway. It is for the staff who doesn’t get to sit in a worship service with their spouse. It is for the people who, if they came to one of the regular services, couldn’t find a parking space or a seat.

It is for that lost person who just might hear the pastor for 20 minutes and like what he hears. As a matter of fact, he might just come to a “full” service. It is for that person the Holy Spirit has been wooing to Christ.

It is an entry level worship time with minimum services. No childcare. No youth services. No normal worship service rules. No videos. No announcements  (that will draw a crowd by itself)! And no longer than an integrity protecting advertised 30 minutes.

It is an opportunity to preach the gospel to an audience that, without this service, you might never reach. It is an opportunity to “sell” your regular services to a group of people who need to hear about a Savior who was more interested in their salvation than His own comfort level.

This could be a chance to tell them about a Christ who did things totally different than the popular “church” people of His time. This could be an opportunity to “be all things to all people”. This could be a risk worth taking. We often talk about “thinking outside the box”. This is crawling out of the box of tradition and conformity and into the realm of doing whatever it takes to reach people.

It is certainly not God’s will for every church to use this tool. It is, however, God’s will that every church be aggressive in discovering the tools God wants them to use to reach the lost.

At least spend 30 minutes today asking God to show you one new tool to use in reaching your world for Christ. Mark Evans at http://www.churchatrockcreek.com did and now he has The Rock Creek 30.

Tell us about your idea!