And so it has come to this…my final post.  As they say…all good things must come to an end…and my experiences in the blogosphere has been an incredible journey.  I feel truly blessed for the friendships that have developed and the inspiration I have received from the folks I have met through this online medium.  Words cannot express how grateful I am for all of the people that took the time to stop by my little part of the world…and share my experiences in life, leadership and ministry.

Seasons come and go…a new one takes the place of the old.  I do not know where my next adventures in following Christ will take me…though I suppose it will be a little more quiet.  I have had my fifteen minutes…I have tasted success in many areas…now I want to see if I can be a better Christ follower, a better husband and a better pastor…in that order.

I wanted to write one final blog post so I could properly thank Gary Lamb, Perry Noble, Todd Rhoades and Dave Anderson for introducing my blog to the world.  I am also truly grateful for Louie Marsh, Mike Macon, Hal Mayer and Michael Newnham for helping a different audience discover my writings.  Denise and I also wanted to publicly thank bloggers Scott Hodge, Troy Gramlin, Tony Morgan, Erik Bauman and Ed Stetzer for comforting us during a very dark time in life.  Finally, I want to recognize some of the future voices in the church planting world that inspire and motivate me these day….young leaders like Jeff Kapusta, Austin Porter, JR Lee, Jonathan Herron, Jay Hardwick, Shaun King, Paul Peterson, Jason Salamun, Chris Reeder, Tadd Grandstaff and my good friend Bobby Triplett.  For the most part they are just starting their journey into this incredible adventure called church planting…but they already seem more wise and passionate than those of us that went before them.  I look forward to seeing the Kingdom of God grow because their efforts and leadership.

Over the next several days I will be updating the Links and About pages…and adding a FAQs page.  The Contact page is still active…and always will be.  If you’d like to still keep up with Compass Point Church or me…the best way is to subscribe to the podcast, the Compass Point email newsletter or follow me on Twitter.

And so my friends the time has come to say goodbye.  Thank you for reading…thank you for allowing our paths to cross…thank you for the support…for the friendship…and for the encourage.  Most of all…thank you for what you do for the cause of Christ…keep doing it…the world depends on it.  Thank you…God bless you…and goodnight.

I’m 42-years-old…the mid-way point…halftime…much has changed.  I have come to realize that life moves too quickly…and that you can’t have today back once it’s gone.  Each hour is precious…and each moment brings new adventure.  I finally understand the theory of relativity…that time looks different depending on your vantage point.  When I was 25-years-old life seemed to creep by…now it seems that a decade is but a blink of an eye.  I’ve done much in my life…yet still don’t feel I’ve made my mark on the world.  In the words of that great philosopher of the 20th Century Frank Sinatra, “I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king”…and yet there is still so much more that I want to do…to be…to become.  As I close this chapter in my life…I know that another chapter will begin…and things will be different on so many levels.  There is however, one thing that I’m sure will not change…my calling…my passion…that God-breathed thing that dwells within my heart…that which sustains my joy.  For me…that thing is…the starfish.

I first read about the starfish in one of those cheesy “Chicken Soup For The Soul” books.  It was a story about a kid walking on a beach where thousands of starfish had washed up on the shore…and were dying.  One by one the kid was picking up those starfish that were still alive and throwing them back into the sea…back to life…back to redemption.  An older man was watching the kid’s futile effort and said to him, “You can’t save all of them…there are too many.  What difference can you possibly make to all these dying starfish?”  As the kid picked up another starfish…and threw it back into the water…he replied to the old man, “I made a difference with that one!”

If growing older has taught me anything…it’s that I can’t change the world…but I can change the world around me.  Every where I go…in everything I do…I see dying starfish in need of the life saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Many of them pass me by…heading through life struggling to really live…finally succumbing to eternal death.  But there are others that God allows me to impact with His Word…to quench their dying thirst with His living water.  All I do is plant the seeds…but the Holy Spirit allows that to grow…to impact…to make a difference.  Yes my heart breaks when I see the thousands washed up on the desolate shore of everyday life…but every now and then I get to be a part of helping one back into the water.  Whether it’s a baptism only a few days before their death like Pete…or seeing Scottie kick drugs forever…or simply buying a sleeping bag and instant coffee for Homeless Jason…I get the joy of knowing that God allowed me to make a difference in one…among many.

I’m 42-years-old…the mid-way point…halftime…much has changed…but for me…it’s still about the starfish!!!

Curse words are just words…but oh what a tapestry of division they can weave.  Recently I was meeting in a restaurant with some other church leaders.  Sitting near us were two truck drivers that were cussing up a storm in their conversation.  In between f-words and a-words one of the guys said REAL LOUD…”you gotta love that sh*t”.   That was the final straw for one of the pastors at our table and he asked the waitress if we could move to a different location…because he was offended by the language of the men.  That’s when it hit me…some people are offended by cussing…but it’s music to my ears.  When I hear cussing…I hear people far from God.  When I hear people far from God…I hear an opportunity to make an impact for the Kingdom of God.

I seriously don’t understand “leaders” that plant churches that appeal to themselves.  I don’t understand “leaders” that plant churches to reach other church people.  I really don’t understand “leaders” that plant churches with no real heart to reach people far from God.

Don’t get me wrong…reaching people far from God is messy.  They cuss…they have serious issues…they smell…they drink…they live lifestyles that are at times really repulsive.  Reaching people far God also means going to places that church folks have been taught not to go.  People FAR from God do not hang out in Starbucks or Junior League meetings…they hang out in bars, porn shops, downtown streets, bowling allies, courtrooms, emergency rooms and R-rated movies.  It’s not easy…it’s not pleasant…it’s not always rewarding.  However, reaching people far from God with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what the Father called us to do.

I know that quite a few potential church planters read my blog so let me say this to you.  If you don’t want to do ministry that is messy…don’t plant a church.  If you just want to “feed the saints”…don’t plant a church.  If you just want to stop having to take orders from your current pastor…don’t plant a church.  If you just got fired, let go or laid off from a ministry position…don’t plant a church.  If you are still trying to impress seminary professors with your preaching skills…don’t plant a church.  In fact, if you think planting a church is cool…don’t plant a church.  If you think those things, It’s probably going to be best for you to get a job in your state denominational office…where it’s safe, there’s a steady paycheck and you only have to interact with other Christians.

On the other hand if you love the smell of vomit and beer….if you love to hear about people’s addictions…if you love hearing the f-bomb dropped by every member of a family (including kids)…if you love people wearing halter tops and Budweiser t-shirts in the Sunday service…if you love people putting three dollars cash in the offering plate and crossing their arms during worship…if you love getting 3 a.m. marriage counseling calls…then by all means…plant a church.  I’m not talking about you liking that stuff…I’m talking about…you gotta love that sh*t!!!

Church planting done right is messy…and attracts messy people.  If you don’t have a passion for the mess…if you don’t hear someone cussing and think, “That person is a potential guest for my church”…if you don’t wake up every day with an unquenchable thirst to see people far from God come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior…church planting is going to be a miserable experience for you!!!

One my favorite business books is Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow”.  If you’ve never read the book, check out Mark Batterson’s recent blog post about it….it’s really good.  Over the past four years I have really wrestled with the color of Compass Point’s cow.  What makes us different?  What make us unique in the community?  What makes people want to come to Compass Point on Sundays instead of the dozens upon dozens of other churches in the Lakeland area?  What makes people far from God even want to come to Compass Point in the first place?

I personally think it’s takes time…several years…to really discover the color of your church’s cow.  In all honesty the pastor and the leadership doesn’t define it…it’s the people that attend your church that define the color of your cow.  In Lakeland there are a BUNCH of brown cow churches (traditional) and even more black cow churches (hyper-charismatic, prosperity movement).  There are also quite a few white cow churches that look a lot like the NorthPoint or Willow Creek model.  I’m not so sure Compass Point is all that much of a purple cow in the community…but the people far from God that show up each Sunday think we are.  In the end…that’s all that matters.

What they see as our purple cow appeal is not the size of our church (we’re small), how awesome our staging is (we suck at that stuff) or the cool postcards we’ve mailed out (we’ve never done that).  No…the purple cow appeal they see in Compass Point…what we do well…is that we reach people in the margins…people in Lakeland REALLY far from God.  We are really good at it…because we work hard at it.  It’s not easy…people with drug problems, broken marriages, sex problems, alcohol addiction, living in homeless camps, just paroled from prison…or just the garden variety freak…are really messy.  But that’s our calling…that’s our vision…that’s what God created Compass Point for.  We don’t run from it…we don’t try to fight it…we don’t chase after other church’s vision…we just embrace it…and therefore our community embraces us.  More importantly people really far from God embrace us…and come to know Jesus.

The point of this post?  For God’s sake…literally…stop planting churches that look like every other church in your freakin’ town!!!  Be different…reach a different demographic…find your purple cow appeal.  What makes your church different from every other church in town.  If the words “real”, “relational” or “relevant” are the best you can come up with…please do the world a favor…quit and go flip pizzas…you will probably suck at leading a church.  Every church in the 21st Cetury should be real, relational and relevant!  What makes your church different over and above those things?  What is your church’s purple cow?  If you don’t have one…spend some times on your knees getting broken before God!!!  After that go hang out in a bar in your community and ask the drunk people what color your cow should be.  Once that is all done…go be the purple cow church that reaches the people far from God that no other church in town wants to reach!!!

I dread going to conferences.  It’s not that I don’t like learning new things, discovering new ideas or meeting new people.  No…it’s that one really stupid question that always gets asked…over and over again…that makes me dread conferences.  The question is…”how many are you running in your service now?”  It’s usually asked by some young bonehead that hasn’t planted yet…or is less than two years into the church plant.  It’s takes all my strength not to respond back with, “Gee…I don’t know…how big is YOUR penis?”  The “how many are you running in your service” thing is such a shallow, insecure and inexperienced question!!!

How can I make such a statement when I pastor a small church?  Because I hang out with mega-church pastors…and I know how they define success.  You wanna know what it is?  They measure success…one person at a time!!! No joke…they still get totally jacked up about one soul coming to know Jesus Christ for the first time!!!  That’s what it’s about….reaching one for the Kingdom…then reaching another…then reaching another…and so on and so on.

I remember the very first conversation I had with Perry Noble.  He told me, “Chris, I never set out for NewSpring to be a mega-church…I just set out to reach one person for Christ”.  That floored me!!!  Since then I’ve heard everyone from Rick Warren to Tim Keller to Andy Stanley say that exact same phrase in private conversations.  Those guys are great leaders…and God’s hand is on them and their churches…because they are Kingdom-minded.  They still get as excited about one person coming to Christ…whether it’s in their church or someone else’s…as they did when they first started pastoring.  They understand that…in the 21st Century…a person going from being far from God to accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior…is a miracle unto itself.  It’s difficult…it’s something we have no control over…but it is something to be celebrated…not used to puff ourselves up or bash some other pastor in the head with at a conference!!!

At the ripe old age of 42-years-old I’ve learned the hard way that success for a Christian leader HAS to be measured one person at a time.  Trust me when I say…if we don’t get excited when one person comes to Christ for the first time…God will never give us the dozens…hundreds…or even thousands that our hearts long for.  Church growth is not something to be used to boost our ego or get us past the fact we weren’t breast-fed as children.  It is something supernatural…it’s is something special…it is something that God…and God alone…gives us…and can take away if we become arrogant in it.

Discovered or developed…those are the two words that have been haunting me for several months.  They were mentioned in the form of a question…as in…do I want to be discovered by man or developed by God?  That question slapped me across the face…shook me to my core…and left me with a uneasy feeling.  For most of my natural born life I’ve been working hard to be discovered.  Whether I was the new kid in school, the struggling Christian comedian, the church planter or the blogger…it’s mainly been about getting people to notice me.  I’m an approval whore.

Until last May blogging was fun for me.  But I think a life experience like losing a baby shows you that there are more important things than blogging…more important things than growing a church.  Since June I have watched God begin to work on me…in me…showing me that other people’s calling are not my calling.  In some sense He’s been shrinking my vision…showing me the importance of reaching just one…instead of always trying to be reaching the thousands.  He’ been showing me that being a good husband is way more important that being a good leader…or a good blogger.  He’s been showing me hat churches come and go…but our personal walk with Him must be our constant main priority.

Maybe I’m having a mid-life crisis.  Maybe my ADD has just diminished the fun I had with blogging.  Maybe I just don’t buy into the hype of the books, conferences or the podcasts anymore.  Whatever it is…I spend much of each day wrestling with the two words…discovered or developed.  At 42 years old I have come to realize that I’ve been discovered…now I’m just ready to get off the merry-go-round and go be developed. At the moment my only desire…my only vision…is to just be a local pastor doing the best I can to love my Savior, my wife, my community and my church.

Over the last month I have put together a series of final thoughts about church planting and leadership that I will post next week.  Today is the final “live” blog post in which I wrote it and published it on the same day…after next Friday there will be no more.  Blogging has been a great four-year experience that has allowed me to meet some really amazing people.  However, the time has come to say goodbye…and to go be developed.

Here’s a little Thanksgiving video from the folks over at Igniter that is sure to put a smile on your face.

He lives in some woods about a mile from Compass Point and every night he sleeps in a tent.  His “camp” has a fire ring, an old lawn chair, a large blue PVC pipe marking his territory and a nylon clothesline stung up between two trees.  He uses old newspapers and the Starbucks cups he gets at church to start his fire.  Someone just gave him a cheap mp3 player…though he doesn’t have electricity to charge it or a computer to load music into it…it is his most prized possession.  He’s known around our church as Homeless Jason.

Every Sunday morning Homeless Jason waits by the bus stop for someone from Compass Point to pick him up.  He grabs a cup of coffee, says “hello” to everyone and then goes to take a shower.  He likes to use the handicap showers at the YMCA…because they are private.  He takes really long showers…but that’s because hot water is a luxury.  This past Sunday he wore a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses.  I told him he looked like the Unabomber…which made him crack up.  He loves our band and rocks out to the praise music.  While I was preaching Sunday I looked back to find him making shadow puppets on the wall with the reflection of the colored stage lighting.

Homeless Jason never misses a Sunday.  He’s become a fixture at Compass Point…a member of the congregation…part of our personality.  This past Sunday as I was talking to him he said, “I love this church…they don’t treat me different…they treat me like family…I’ve never been a part of a family before”.  I love Compass Point also…because they love people like Homeless Jason.

The Monday night before the election you made your views known.  I am going to hold you accountable to following them.  If you will indeed throw the entire weight of the White House behind it…and truly do away with the BCS…

• The economy will make an immeidate turn around.
• Al-Qaeda will lay down their weapons.
• Democrats and Republicans will unite in all decisions.
• Gas prices will drop to under $1.00 per gallon.
• There will be immediate peace around the world.
• You will immediately guarantee a second term!!! 

I love pastoring a church!  I love the fact that every day is different and every week presents it’s own set of opportunities.  When it comes to serving God I don’t really think you have bad weeks….just difficult weeks sometimes.  It seems like those difficult weeks are always because of the constant struggle to guard the vision that God has given the church.  I’ve heard time and again church leaders talk about “being mean about the vision” at conferences…and never fully understood what that meant…until this week.  The leadership and I have had to be “mean” about guarding the vision of Compass Point this week…and it has been difficult…but rewarding!!!

In the past five days we have had to…

• make some very tough financial decisions in order to prioritize spending.
• completely break fellowship with one of our former elders and his family.
• pass on co-sponsoring an event with the YMCA we meet in.
• tell people “no” to some great ideas that just didn’t fit into where God was taking us.
• decline a request from a local homeless shelter.
• hold some of our staff accountable for the lack of excellence.
• move some wonderful volunteers into other roles more suited for them.
• decline a $100,000 donation (no joke).
• shut our small groups down for six weeks.

Every decision we made this week was a difficult one.  Every decision we made this week was bathed in prayer.  Every decision we made this week was weighed against Scripture.  Every decision made this week brought us more in line with God’s vision for Compass Point.  Every decision this week…brought us closer to God…and closer as a church that wants to reach people far from God with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.