God is Hitting the Accelerator at Community!
Ok so have you experienced this recently?….You’re in the car and someone (maybe it’s you!) hits the accelerator rather suddenly and you kinda feel this “umph!” as you jet forward and continue in a rapid motion down the highway toward your destination… My personal favorite is when you’re in a golf cart and you’re in Park (you golfers out there know this is true in all types of golf carts, no matter how fancy the course is!), then when you hit the gas it’s like this jolt of energy (because all golf cart brakes are so sticky!) that sometimes gives the unsuspecting passenger a bit of whiplash!
Acceleration. It’s that feeling when suddenly everything gets kicked up a notch, the stakes get a little higher, the momentum starts to build a little faster, and the goal starts to get increasingly more attainable.
That’s the feeling we’re having at Community right now. I can’t explain it in any terms better than that. We’ve had more baptisms in the last couple of months than we’ve ever had in a 2-month period in the history of the church. Our student ministry celebration services have a higher attendance than they’ve ever had and our students are preparing for a massive serve-explosion in a couple of weeks where they will impact the lives of literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in the Naperville/Aurora area through generosity. Our Community 4:12 ministry to the under-resourced area of East Aurora just secured a 7,000-square foot space in downtown Aurora that is going to allow us to create a cultural and spiritual renaissance within the community of East Aurora through meeting people’s needs and helping them find their way back to God. Our Celebrate the Journey support and recovery ministry continues to celebrate incredible milestones of life change through recovery from addiction, healing from divorce, confidence through tough circumstances, and they are currently seeking to determine how this ministry can expand to new Community locations so that more communities can experience the freedom of this life-changing ministry.
Additionally, I wouldn’t be telling you everything if I didn’t tell you what else happened this past weekend at Community. In the midst of what many perceive to be a world financial crisis, God continues to further the mission at Community through blessing us with incredible generosity. This past weekend, our offering was over budget by about 15%! And this number is not just about a budget, not at all. This number is about so much more.
This number represents:
Several new families at our newest Plainfield campus who have found their way back to God and have begun experiencing the joy of generosity through tithing and giving to those around them, discovering what it means to truly life a generous life…
Eleven new families churchwide who began giving for the very first time this weekend as a result of God working radically in their lives through this church…
A group of attenders at our Naperville campus who recently came together for a retreat to take a greater ownership over the mission of helping people find their way back to God through exploring new ways to reallocate generosity to this Jesus Mission at Community…
A group of attenders at our Shorewood campus who recently experienced a life-changing day called Walk Through the Bible where they discovered God speaking to them in specific ways through His Word and learned more about what it means to be a true Christ Follower…
Several hundred small groups churchwide who are experiencing what is said to be one of the best DVD curriculums our small groups team has ever put together called The Story of Everything…
Over 5,000 people across nine locations who are encountering God week after week, day after day, and who are living radically different lives than they once lived as a result of God’s Spirit moving in their hearts… and who are devoting their changed lives to helping more people find their way back to God.
I can’t help but feel the excitement measured with the weight of responsibility that this type of acceleration brings to a church like Community.
God, give us the wisdom it takes to continue stewarding these gifts of time, talents, and treasure in a way that glorifies you and helps more people experience the joy of knowing you. We are thankful for each and every person you have brought into this place. Thank you for their hearts, thank you for their commitment, and thank you for their openness to allowing you to work through them in a way that only you can do.
Circumstances vs. Choices
“We are not imprisoned by our circumstances; we are freed by our choices.”
Jim Collins (pictured at the left, author of Good To Great, Built To Last, and pretty much one of the most brilliant guys ever) said this statement last week when we were at the Catalyst conference in Atlanta. It has stuck with me over the past several days, and it continues to stick with me as I think about our current economic situation.
Many of us come home from work each day, take a look at CNN (if we haven’t already been following it on msnbc.com during the day), and watch in dismay at the stock prices falling and the economic crisis escalating as we make judgments, start to panic, and apprehensively watch political giant after political giant explain their predictions and suggestions of what will and should happen.
It’s quite a dismal way to live - remaining on the receiving end of the conversation, not ever actually feeling like we have a voice in the matter and likely becoming frustrated at times. But these simple yet profound words from Collins most definitely bring encouragement at such a time as this. We no longer have to be on the receiving end of the conversation. Instead, we can be starting the conversation - choosing to start the conversation.
“We are not imprisoned by our circumstances; we are freed by our choices.” Freed by our choices. Freed! By our choices!
My choice is to live a generous life, regardless of my financial circumstance. And at such a time as this, that might mean living more simply that I ever have before so that I am no longer consumed by the things around me but rather by the people around me. That might mean giving to those in need that are in our community, giving to our local church so that it can continue to bring hope to communities - being generous with our time, our relationships, and our money. All of it. That’s what I choose.
What do you choose?
It may seem like I’m describing it stupid-simply. That’s because it is simple. Try prioritizing generosity first and see what happens. See where your anxiety is. See where your thoughts are. See where your time is spent. Just try it. I really want to hear from you.
Certainty In Times of Uncertainty
Do me a favor. Take a look at this picture and let me know what you see. Can I tell you what I see? I see two teenage girls, Allie and Sarah, who just committed their lives to following Jesus through baptism last Wednesday night. Through the sacrament of baptism, they died to their old selves by being dunked under the water and were risen again with Christ as they were brought back up again.
I also see a young woman in the middle named Amy Ferguson. Amy is the daughter of our lead pastor Dave and his wife Sue. They have raised quite a tremendous young woman who has led many of her friends to Christ and influenced a young generation of leaders here at Community. Amy baptized Allie, and Sarah was baptized by one of our Student Community leaders and faithful Community attender, Sue Lueders.
Know what else I see? I see a miraculous celebration of baptism that was made possible by the generosity of time, relationships, and treaures of people at Community. It is absolutely critical during these economic times we’re in that we do not let the Church get squeezed out. It is tempting to think that our generosity is something that can get thrown out first when we look at our personal monthly budgets with perplexing thoughts of how to make it happen.
But will we? Will we allow the uncertainty of our economy to hinder the work God is doing through the Church? Will we allow the uncertainty of our own personal finances to keep the Church from bringing hope to the rest of the world? Instead, might we consider the reverse and accelerate the Jesus Mission?
Won’t you join with me in prioritizing our generosity above all else, trusting God that He will provide our material needs so we don’t have to be tempted to shrink our investment in the Jesus Mission? Allie’s and Sarah’s friends and neighbors and all those they will meet throughout their lifetime depend on it. And I’d bet that yours and mine do as well.
An investment in the market is not certain. An investment in the Kingdom most certainly is. I’ll take the ROI pictured above any day!
Congratulations Allie and Sarah! And thank you Amy, Sue, and Community for making it happen!
On Ramps
We’ve been talking a lot lately as a staff about on-ramps – mainly in terms of new staff members and new leadership residents at the church. But it’s got me thinking a lot about on-ramps to generosity as well.
With new staff members and new leadership residents, it’s important to have a process - or at least a conscious awareness! - that is intentional about acclimating them to the team. We’ve missed on this a few times at Community, being such a close-knit team that moves at the speed of light. We’ve failed a bit at taking valuable time to on-ramp a new team member so they can join us at full capacity and become a part of things. We’re learning how to do this better, and I think we’ve all tried to be more intentional about opportunities to bring a new team member into the fast-paced movement of things around here, but it’s got me thinking about our on-ramps to generosity.
What ARE our on-ramps to generosity? For some, the 10-for-10 Worship Challenge has been an on-ramp. For others, each time we do our Giving Back To God (offering) time, it is an on-ramp. For others, being in a small group with people who talk about giving and generosity in a new way is their on-ramp. For still others, they have no on-ramp for generosity. I think we might make a lot of assumptions about people when they walk through the doors of Community, and this area of giving and generosity is a tricky one to figure out.
For instance, I think many of our attenders come from a Catholic background, which teaches all kinds of very specific things about giving - some of which are similar to what we practice at Community, some of which are not. That background alone can change the way someone might receive what we are saying about giving from the stage. Others might be completely uneducated on the subject and when we say ‘tithe,’ they have no idea what it means.
I remember sitting in church a few years ago with an unchurched friend of mine, and when the offering bag passed she opened up her purse, quietly leaned over to me and whispered, “How much does the service cost?”
It’s hard to know what the people out there are thinking, and I’m so thankful that at Community we have so many people from so many different places. It’s wonderful! But I want to do the best job we possibly can at communicating effectively God’s truths about giving and generosity in a way that draws people’s hearts into a relationship with Him – so much that they can’t help but give all they are - in every sense of the word give - because all we are is His anyway.
What are some of the ways you think we could be doing a better job with this? Or what are some of the on ramps we currently use that ARE effective and we should keep using them?
Love The One You’re With
Last week I took a ‘working vacation’ to Oklahoma. Judge if you must, but when you love your job as much as I do, it’s difficult to to take a whole week away from your work. So I spent part of the week without my laptop and BlackBerry (yikes!), and then the rest of the week I spent working down by the beautiful Arkansas River in Tulsa. I love being in our office in Naperville, but it’s amazing how much work you can get done sometimes when you’re in a peaceful place like Oklahoma!
It was a wonderful time with friends and family. I spent time with my brother at his college, had a surprise party with six of my best friends and their kids, spent time at the lake with old friends and co-workers, had some good eats with the folks, went to church at my home church, catered a wedding with some of my old crew out at a beautiful venue in south Tulsa, and got some work done by the river while eating a cheeseburger and chatting with Ron from the River Diner…. it was a wonderful time.
Most of you are probably not aware of the extent of it, but each time I come to Oklahoma I always dream of what it would be like to move back. I miss my old jobs, I miss my old friends, I want to help my friends raise their new kids, I want to take on exciting new business ventures that arise with my old bosses, I want to purchase homes that come on the market for under $100K…. It’s hard not to think about it. And especially during this past year in making a job transition that came with some challenges, I came pretty close a couple of times in Oklahoma this spring to signing a lease, accepting a job, closing on a house… I was weak sauce.
But something kinda crazy happened this time. There wasn’t an ounce of dreaming within me focused on moving back. It’s not at all that Oklahoma has gotten any less wonderful - probably the opposite! I still love it dearly, it has very much made me a part of who I am today, and I have loving friends there that cannot be replaced by any others. But now, I’m dreaming about new things….
I’m dreaming about this upcoming ministry year at Community….
and dreaming about new things we’re doing at each of our nine locations to grow each campus and grow each person….
and dreaming about figuring out our new strategy for recruiting leadership residents to plant reproducing churches with our NewThing networks…
and dreaming about this family that is considering getting baptized as a family at our Naperville campus in a few weeks…
and dreaming why people are generous to Community and why they are not and how we can connect with them better…
and dreaming about being a part of something bigger than simply a comfortable life in a comfortable city with comfortable friends and a comfortable job that relies completely on my own ability with no dependence upon God.
I titled this post, “Love The One You’re With.” A friend of mine is reading a book by this title. I’ve never read the book before, but I’m going to assume the basic premise of it is encouraging people in marriages to continue loving and being committed to the one they made the glorious covenant to be married to. At first glance, this seems to imply a sort of regret or doubt about the commitment they made since they need a book to help them stay committed. But in light of my recent trip to Oklahoma, I have a different take on it. And I hope I feel the same way about my marriage someday.
To ‘love the one you’re with’ is simply a consistant, growing reinforcement of the mission you’ve committed yourself to. I am committed to the mission of helping people find their way back to God - and subsequently to help catalyze a movement of generosity so we can plant more reproducing churches and help more people find their way back to God. That’s the hill I’ll die on, that’s what my heart breaks for, and that’s what I’m committed to. Yes, I will one day commit to be a loving mom and a wonderful wife and raise a strong family, but it will still all occur within the context of this other commitment I’ve made.
And unfortunately the world wouldn’t be the world if it weren’t distracting to this mission.
So it is things like hearing that Community had more baptisms last month than we’ve ever had in our entire history…. and seeing an entire family with three generations in it get baptized at our Plainfield campus this morning…. and experiencing radical generosity in our families and communities like I’ve never seen before… that keep me fueled and energized to ‘love the One I’m with’ and continue on this mission.
Who’s with me?!
What Does Your Heart Break For?
We’ve been continuing in this great series at Community called The Leader Within. In this four-week series we’ve been talking about the Heart of a Leader, the Vision of a Leader, the Struggle of a Leader, and this weekend we’ll be talking about the Legacy of a Leader. Click on any one of these titles to view the message online.
This series has really focused on the question, “What does your heart break for?”
When you think about an effective leader, one who has overcome obstacles and become an unstoppable force for accomplishing his/her vision, you think about someone whose heart breaks for something. The most effective leader is one who takes that absolute heartbreak and channels that into a vision so big that he/she become relentless at pursuing it. These people are the best communicators, the best fundraisers, the most compassionate, the most generous, filled with the most integrity and determination, and they literaly become unstoppable at achieving their vision. They never experience lack of resources, lack of vision, lack of excitement, lack of momentum, or lack of help. They are contagious and are incredibly effective at engaging others in their mission.
Alright let’s bring this to the generosity scope here for a minute if you aren’t seeing how ingrained it is in this already. People ask all the time about the ’secrets’ to raising money. Especially in the economy these days, churches, businesses, everyone is trying to figure this out. There’s no secret really, but the key lies in a perception shift we MUST make:
We act all day long like money FUNDS vision. We stop doing things and we quit moving forward because we don’t have any money. We make decisions and treat situations in certain ways because we don’t have any money. We stop dreaming about the future and start blaming things in the past and present because we don’t have any money. Money doesn’t fund vision, it FOLLOWS vision! So if you don’t have any money, then you might not have any vision big enough to demand that money!
The people who aren’t succeeding at the income side of things can blame the economy all day long. It’s a convenient thing to do in this climate. But ask yourself these three questions to see if it’s really the economy’s fault or if there’s maybe something else going on…
1. What does your heart break for? [Now stop right here if the thing your heart breaks for is not the thing for which you are trying to catalyze generosity. There’s your problem right there. Go hire a consultant and try some fancy tricks, but the best advice is to let someone do this whose heart really breaks for it and you go do something that your heart breaks for. Authenticity will get you further than any fancy tricks. God - and others too! - know the heart.]
2. Have you communicated effectively with your people what your heart breaks for and how that translates into the vision for your church or organization? Let me ask that again. Have you communicated effectively? Have you built relationships with your people first before you casted vision all over their laps? Do they know what you’re about? Do you know what they’re about? Could they deliver your organization’s vision in a 1-minute stump speech? And could you rattle off their interests from memory so you know directly how to speak to them where they are?
3. Have you clearly made an ask of your people to join you in this effort? Is your vision big enough that they can see how imperative it is that they and everyone they know join you? Have you created the space big enough for them to see the huge potential and drastically reallocate their own lives in order to join the mission?
Just the other day I was talking with two new church planters who are planting out in Chula Vista, CA. Two incredibly sharp guys, Chris and Brad. Boy, these guys get it. Their hearts break for helping people find their way back to God in Chula Vista and surrounding areas. You get that within 30 seconds of Chris sharing his vision for the new church plant, Momentum. They want to become a reproducing church that goes multi-site in the Chula Vista area and reaches people in all types of neighborhoods and contexts in that area. They realize how important it is to understand where their people are at and how they can join Chris and Brad and their families on this mission.
My guess is that the majority of us reading this blog have hearts that break for something…. But are we letting it stop there or are we relentlessly pursuing that which we have been called to pursue with those that can help us pursue it?….
Life After the Shopping Fast…
This past Saturday (2 days ago) marked the six month point since I announced my shopping fast back on February 9 and thus the “finish line” of this amazing journey. A friend of mine and I were at a small group barbeque Friday night, so we stayed out until the clock struck midnight and went to the Super Wal-Mart in Oswego to celebrate the breaking of the fast. [For those of you who don’t know, the Super Wal-Mart is my favorite place to shop.]
Well, all I came out of there with was a $9 swimming skirt and a black summer dress that was so much on clearance it was practically free. Seriously?! That’s it?! I literally still felt like I wasn’t ‘allowed’ to shop, so I couldn’t even look at anything. My brain had trained itself not to need or want or view anything at a store. It was the strangest feeling in the world that I was actually allowed (and being encouraged by my friend) to purchase whatever I wanted. I just couldn’t comprehend it.
Now, before you think anything too grandiose about the effects of this experience, I’m quite certain I’ll get back to the swing of things and embrace shopping again - have no doubt. Each time I wake up in the morning and realize I need to replace those 15-year-old pillows, I am motivated to shop. Each time I get made fun of for wearing torn up shoes, I am motived to shop. But you know what isn’t there anymore and I hope never comes back? That feeling of being motivated to shop out of feeling like I don’t have enough. I hope I never have that feeling again.
Sure, there are necessary purchases I will make over the next few weeks - the pillows, a pair of shoes, a new pair of jeans to replace my coffee-stained pair, maybe even a few picture frames to give some memorable pictures as gifts - but I hope I never feel like I don’t have enough. Sure, I am bound - as all of us women are - to look in my closet and say, “I don’t have anything to wear.” But this shopping fast has taught me to get creative and take a second, maybe a third, and definitely a fourth look and discover things from 5 and 10 years ago (sometimes more!) that are absolutely “enough.”
About three months ago, near the halfway point of the fast, I blogged about some of the things I was able to do because of this dramatic decrease in spending. I encourage you to click here to read that list. One of the things I mentioned was increased generosity to Community, one of my biggest motivations for doing the fast in the first place. [Now, before I throw out these numbers, please remember that I have no mortgage and no children and no husband begging to purchase expensive tools and a big screen TV. It’s just me. So really, these numbers are nothing to write home about.] The number at the halfway point was 47%. Because of this fast, God had allowed me to be able to give 47% of my salary in 2008 back to Him through Community. Well I must admit that after discovering that number, I became prideful and started thinking that I had “arrived” in terms of generosity. I “got it.” I thought, “Things couldn’t possibly get more radical than this.”
Well, I am embarrassed to say that I looked at my record this morning and I am now only at 36%. What happened? Did my pride and complacency cause me to lose my motivation to give generously? I’m not sure. But I do know that making it to the ‘finish line’ this past Saturday definitely doesn’t make me feel like I have “arrived” in my generosity. It makes me want to search and pray for what the next challenge in my life will be. There’s no other place I’d rather invest my time and money than in the local church.
At Community, lives are being changed every day. It blows my mind. Just last weekend, 25 people gave their lives to Christ through baptism. It was incredible! The stories behind these 25 baptisms will absolutely change you when you hear them. I’ll try and post some of them up here in the next few days. For me, there isn’t a bigger motivator than seeing someone’s life changed. It causes me to reallocate my spending so that I can give generously when someone gets baptized. I want to invest in the place that fostered this life change and will continue to encourage this life change.
So that begs the question, what now? If you haven’t reached the actual finish line, then what is the next leg of the race going to look like? I’m not sure yet. I am praying about that right now, and I will definitely keep you posted. Any ideas?
Thank you to everyone who encouraged me along the six months, gave me nice clothes to borrow for special events, made fun of me when I wore things from the 80s, and challenged me to take this to the next level. And thank you to Community for being a place that helps people find their way back to God so effectively that it would motivate and inspire someone to stop their spending so that they could give to that cause. I am humbled to be a part of the team, and I am looking forward to what God has in store next….
A Generous Surprise This Morning…
This past weekend when I was campus pastoring at the Yellow Box, my left shoe (in the pic at the right) fell apart just before it was time to start the services Saturday night. These shoes are my favorite shoes - the only brown sandals I have! I bought them at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Tulsa a couple of years ago - normal price was $8 but they were on clearance for $2! I love a good Wal-Mart deal. They have been close to wearing out for a few weeks now, but I haven’t yet made it to the end of my shopping fast (August 9th!) so it isn’t yet time to purchase a replacement pair. Well, just before service I was running around upstairs and the left shoe fell apart. I fixed it with some clear packing tape (as you can see in the picture), and I was on my way! But it may have been kinda noticeable from stage, as the packing tape was a little shiny and crackly-sounding. Well, I’m not sure who noticed it this weekend, but this morning there was an anonymous REALLY sweet card and a $40 gift card to Shoe Carnival in my mailbox at the church! I couldn’t believe it! (For one thing, I can’t remember the last time I spent $40 on a pair of shoes, but I suppose if they’re non-Wal-Mart, then they’re probably about that price.) But more importantly, I was completely blown away by this generosity! Whoever you are, thank you so much. I really appreciated your encouragement in the card, and I really appreciated your generosity with this gift. I’m so thankful for our generous church family at Community!
Take the 10-for-10 Worship Challenge!
If you joined us for our celebration services this weekend at Community, you likely heard about our 10-for-10 Worship Challenge. Hundreds of people at Community have committed to give 10 percent for 10 weeks as their worship to God as part of this challenge! And those who are already giving 10 percent are giving above and beyond so that they are truly worshipping God with a sacrifice! Our message this weekend contained the passage…
“I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God that which cost me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24)
If you didn’t make it to service, you can watch the message here. Won’t you join with us for these 10 weeks? Check out our 10-for-10 Worship Challenge blog, and let’s journey together as we worship God through our generosity.
And you know what? I bet our generosity will not only be a worship experience for us, but it will also fuel our mission of helping people find their way back to God…. !
OMG! Don’t miss this weekend!
I can’t give away too much yet, but you are not going to want to miss this weekend’s service! Make sure you are at one of our Community locations this weekend for the second week in our series, “omg!” This week is none other than “Why Give?” I can assure you, it will change the way you think about giving and generosity… Invite your friends and neighbors!
Kudos to our arts team for an awesome job with the worship and service planning for “Why Singing?” last weekend. If you happened to miss it, make sure to check out Dave’s message here.
We’ll see you this weekend! Hope you can join us!