Here's what I wrote to lift's weekly communication to all our lift leaders.
This week we’d like to continue our exploration of what it looks like to be a part of what it means to serve at Shoreline. These are not pronouncements to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and work harder in our own efforts. This is a reminder to surrender to and depend on Christ’s finished work on the cross and to focus so much on the beauty of His love that we cannot help but live a transformed life. We want to interact with you more about these thoughts. You can do so at shoreline.net/lift or liftyoungadults.com. Please click over there and give us your thoughts.
Now for the leadership thought!
Our mission is to unveil God’s love. As those who serve in lift, we are actually responsible for that vision. It's not enough for us to merely get behind it. We must own it. We can’t sit back and wait for Pastor Rob to do the work. It is not enough for us to clap for him when he preaches, and admire how beautiful our mission statement looks written on our screen in weekend services. As leaders, volunteers, youth workers, or whatever we are – WE MUST OWN THE VISION for ourselves. It must bleed into every area of our lives.
So what does that look like? Please comment and tell us what you think. How do you “unveil God’s love” at work? In Your neighborhood? Campus? In your family?
11.05.2009
11.04.2009
When things go better withouth you: Weekend Service Review
This weekend we launched Life Hurts God Heals during our first service North Campus gathering. I hung out for the launch to make sure everything went ok and Had Chris Gorham teach. He preached spectacularly of course, what I wasn't expecting however, was the overwhelming participation from the youth in the service.
Pierre broke some of our normal "lift rules" to start out our worship set. It was not a peppy, rah-rah, let's hop up and down feel. He shared from his heart and played an acoustic set reinforced with video clips from "The Passion of the Christ" movie. Usually teens need something super engaging to capture their attention for a service like that, but Pierre's authenticity and creativity broke down the usual funk we have to get past in order to get through to the young people.To me, this proves that teenagers respond first and foremost to authenticity instead of a cool light show, smooth transitions, and edgy video elements. That speaks to a deeper yearning to connect with the person of Jesus Christ.
Chris seamlessly wove in stories from Halloween experiences with his message on fear. It was full of great concreate examples of abstract concepts so that it was perfectly suited to young teenagers. The content of the message was actually suitable for any age group though, this guy has the right stuff!
I love that the service was run for the most part by guys younger than me. I realize that my value to shoreline and ultimatly the kingdom of G-d is directly related to my ability to let the Lord use me to reproduce other disciples, pastors, poets, prophets, and preachers! It was both humbling and exciting to catch a glimpse of that process because reproducing myself in others is beyond my capacity as a leader.
Pierre broke some of our normal "lift rules" to start out our worship set. It was not a peppy, rah-rah, let's hop up and down feel. He shared from his heart and played an acoustic set reinforced with video clips from "The Passion of the Christ" movie. Usually teens need something super engaging to capture their attention for a service like that, but Pierre's authenticity and creativity broke down the usual funk we have to get past in order to get through to the young people.To me, this proves that teenagers respond first and foremost to authenticity instead of a cool light show, smooth transitions, and edgy video elements. That speaks to a deeper yearning to connect with the person of Jesus Christ.
Chris seamlessly wove in stories from Halloween experiences with his message on fear. It was full of great concreate examples of abstract concepts so that it was perfectly suited to young teenagers. The content of the message was actually suitable for any age group though, this guy has the right stuff!
I love that the service was run for the most part by guys younger than me. I realize that my value to shoreline and ultimatly the kingdom of G-d is directly related to my ability to let the Lord use me to reproduce other disciples, pastors, poets, prophets, and preachers! It was both humbling and exciting to catch a glimpse of that process because reproducing myself in others is beyond my capacity as a leader.
10.29.2009
What We Are Responsible For: Part I
As those who own the vision of Shoreline and Pastor Rob and Pastor Laura, we have certain responsibilities. It’s important to remind ourselves of the nuts and bolts of how to carry out their vision of “Unveiling God’s love” to our broken world.
I compiled these ideas over the years from various sources. It’s not the only things we’re to own, but a few great places for us to start.
We’re responsible for :
1. The spirit of Shoreline- Pastor Rob says all the time, “More things are caught than taught.” I think that is so true and I'd like to highlight someone quickly. Have you observed Oneka at lift? Have you seen the way she treats new visitors? We need to “catch” that idea. You can regularly observe her searching out first time guests, connecting with them, sitting with them in service, and introducing them to others at jhi, lift, and lift young adults…wherever she is.
What if we all did that? What would the tone be like at our lift environments? As leaders and vision bearers at lift, we are responsible for the tone of our gatherings from parking lot to the end of after hours. Within a couple minutes of exposure to us people need to know shoreline is a place of life, a place they can be themselves, a place where they have value, a connected place (small groups), and so so fun!
Make sure you keep a look out at the lift environment that you serve in for new people or people you don’t know. As leaders it isn’t your responsibility to know every detail about every person. That being said, it’s not too much to expect that you connect with 5 new people every week. Our challenge to you is to meet 5 people at each meeting you serve at/attend. Exchange phone numbers, facebooks, myspaces, twitters, or house keys…ok maybe not house keys but you get the point. Let’s make lift a place that truly Unveils God’s Love by the way people are valued. Let’s do it! How couldn’t we in light of all Jesus did for us?
I compiled these ideas over the years from various sources. It’s not the only things we’re to own, but a few great places for us to start.
We’re responsible for :
1. The spirit of Shoreline- Pastor Rob says all the time, “More things are caught than taught.” I think that is so true and I'd like to highlight someone quickly. Have you observed Oneka at lift? Have you seen the way she treats new visitors? We need to “catch” that idea. You can regularly observe her searching out first time guests, connecting with them, sitting with them in service, and introducing them to others at jhi, lift, and lift young adults…wherever she is.
What if we all did that? What would the tone be like at our lift environments? As leaders and vision bearers at lift, we are responsible for the tone of our gatherings from parking lot to the end of after hours. Within a couple minutes of exposure to us people need to know shoreline is a place of life, a place they can be themselves, a place where they have value, a connected place (small groups), and so so fun!
Make sure you keep a look out at the lift environment that you serve in for new people or people you don’t know. As leaders it isn’t your responsibility to know every detail about every person. That being said, it’s not too much to expect that you connect with 5 new people every week. Our challenge to you is to meet 5 people at each meeting you serve at/attend. Exchange phone numbers, facebooks, myspaces, twitters, or house keys…ok maybe not house keys but you get the point. Let’s make lift a place that truly Unveils God’s Love by the way people are valued. Let’s do it! How couldn’t we in light of all Jesus did for us?
10.27.2009
Weekend Review
Youth ministry is funny. It's so unpredictable when young people will respond to something like a service and when they will disengage. For some reason or another they really got into it this weekned. I have a few hunches why things seemed to click.
Volunteer Attendance: First service's volunteer to teen ration was super high. I think that anyone who will show up at 8 AM to serve and interact with 12-14 year olds deserves a special place in heaven, but those who do it with excellence? Wow. This week I want to highlight three amazing youth workers.
Jessica Worthy has been with Marie and I since we came to shoreline over four years ago. She's one of those people who "get" relational youth ministry. She's fantastic with logistical things, but doesn't sacrifice relationships with our kids to get things done. She's taken on several roles over the years, and now she is truely a leader of leaders. I'm fantastically greatful for the way she serves the Lord and our young people.
Chris Kennedy and Jeremy Fry - The universal cry from most youth pastors is "Lord, please please please give me more youth workers!" Next is, "Lord, we need more guys!" G-d answered both of those cries of mine. These two guys love kids, are great relationships, show tons of initiative and are all around all-stars. They have changed the culture of our normally difficult and sleepy first service time.
Our services are nowhere near perfect, of course. However, they are not what they used to be at all! I'm excited to see our team grow in health in these significant ways.
Looking forward, I'm spending more time developing these leaders who will in turn, develope other leaders. I am also spending significant amounts of time learning how I can better partner with and equip the parents of our church community by going to trainings such as the D6 conference and Real World Parents presenters training. I feel like God's taking me into a different season of life, where things will be added to what I already do. Instead of only pastoring teens, I'll train others to do it too and I'll also be more intentional about my responsibility to encourage parents.
Volunteer Attendance: First service's volunteer to teen ration was super high. I think that anyone who will show up at 8 AM to serve and interact with 12-14 year olds deserves a special place in heaven, but those who do it with excellence? Wow. This week I want to highlight three amazing youth workers.
Jessica Worthy has been with Marie and I since we came to shoreline over four years ago. She's one of those people who "get" relational youth ministry. She's fantastic with logistical things, but doesn't sacrifice relationships with our kids to get things done. She's taken on several roles over the years, and now she is truely a leader of leaders. I'm fantastically greatful for the way she serves the Lord and our young people.
Chris Kennedy and Jeremy Fry - The universal cry from most youth pastors is "Lord, please please please give me more youth workers!" Next is, "Lord, we need more guys!" G-d answered both of those cries of mine. These two guys love kids, are great relationships, show tons of initiative and are all around all-stars. They have changed the culture of our normally difficult and sleepy first service time.
Our services are nowhere near perfect, of course. However, they are not what they used to be at all! I'm excited to see our team grow in health in these significant ways.
Looking forward, I'm spending more time developing these leaders who will in turn, develope other leaders. I am also spending significant amounts of time learning how I can better partner with and equip the parents of our church community by going to trainings such as the D6 conference and Real World Parents presenters training. I feel like God's taking me into a different season of life, where things will be added to what I already do. Instead of only pastoring teens, I'll train others to do it too and I'll also be more intentional about my responsibility to encourage parents.
10.26.2009
U2 Crazy
Since the concert in Dallas, I've chronically listened to U2. A live stream from their Rose Bowl performance isn't making me want to listen less. Check it out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)