What if I then told you that church averages around 150 people each weekend? A bit more impressive for them to have baptized 10 people over 3 weeks?

What if you also learned that the town this church is in has a population of 1,042? Actually, true story, there was a murder two weeks ago, so it’s now 1,041. Still, that means that in 3 weeks, they have baptized about 1% of their population. Just to give that some context, that would be like Parkcrest, baptizing 4,000 people in Long Beach in 3 weeks. To even begin to comprehend that is crazy and ridiculous.

But here’s the thing that blows me away, and is one of the problems amongst Christian leaders today – no one knows about it or will hear much about it. He won’t be asked to speak at a conference, get interviewed for a major magazine or to write a book about it. But what other church are you aware of that has baptized 1% of their population over a 3 week period?

As people, and especially pastors, talk about results they’re experiencing, I’m learning to ask context questions. For churches that are rapidly growing – are they in a suburban area, a place where there is a large amount of new growth, are people coming to faith or are they changing churches? A church where all of that is true may be growing at a faster rate and percentage than one that is in an urban area with a highly post-Christian population, but the growth of the church in the second context would be a much harder to achieve growth. Context matters.

In the movement of churches that we’re a part of, they publish a list of the largest churches each year. Parkcrest has been on that list for several years…until last year and this year when I chose not to submit any information. The thing is, I couldn’t figure out why it was helpful. What does it benefit someone to see us on that list? It felt good to see my name and Parkcrest’s name there, but stroking my ego hardly seemed like reason enough to make sure we were on there. Now, most pastors and churches don’t make that same decision, and this really isn’t about whether thats right or wrong – but that to say those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

As I was asked to submit our info this year, something more than years past began to bother me – my friend’s church wouldn’t ever be on that list. Which is unfortunate, because he probably has something more significant to teach people than many of us who are on that list, if people would listen.

I’m all for tracking success and making sure that what we’re doing is moving in the right direction, but at the same time, we can’t forget that as we talk about results, context matters. Our results don’t occur in a vacuum. I wonder if some of the most significant stories have remained untold because we ignore the context and look purely at the results.

This year, I decided to lead a different kind of mission trip at Parkcrest. One where we would still have to take off work, go through the faith exercise of raising funds, and would partner with a great organization to do something significant…but that we wouldn’t go anywhere. We’re calling it a Staycation Mission Trip, and we’re going to be partnering with Habitat for Humanity to help build some homes in Long Beach.

If you go to Parkcrest, or are in the Long Beach area, and want more information, I’d love to have you join us this Sunday for an information meeting at 1pm at the Heartwell Campus.

You can also sign up for email updates here

And you can download the information sheet here

Also, there’s plenty of other great mission trips that you can check out here

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I was trying to remember when this clicked for me. I used to hate reading. The first book I remember enjoying, or really even reading the entirety of without using Cliff Notes was during my senior year of High School, reading The Grapes of Wrath, but it was quite a while before I read another book after that. My sister used to walk down the street reading books. We would go on vacation, and while we would be in these incredible places, she would have her nose buried in a book. I wasn’t even close to that…that’s probably why she has her PhD and I’ve still got my fingers crossed that someone will give me an honorary doctorate someday.

Somewhere along the way, things changed for me. I never became the person walking down the street while reading a book, but I did actually start to enjoy it and began to read more and more. At one point before we had kids, I was reading close to 100 books a year, but kids change things, and I’d rather be hanging out with them anyways, so now I read around half that.

Honestly, here’s what I think happened…I heard enough people who I respected say those exact same words – that all leaders are readers. And while I didn’t have much interest in being a reader, I did care a lot about being a leader, so I figured, maybe if I start acting like one and doing the things that they do, I’ll eventually become a leader. So, I began forcing myself to read. I read books about leadership, ministry, theology…just about anything that anyone would recommend to me. The more and more I began to read, the more and more I found myself liking it. It’s kind of the same way Allison got me to like Grey’s Anatomy, but that’s a different story.

There is no magic formula or secret trick to get yourself to read more. I actually sat down with every intention of writing a list of things to do in order to read more books this year, but somehow this came out instead. The trick to reading more is to just simply read. You don’t like reading? Read more, and eventually, like the vegetables that you learned to like as you ate more and more of them, you’ll find yourself strangely starting to enjoy it. And don’t just read anything – read things that will push you and stretch you. Try the broccoli, because it’s good for you.

What will happen is that as you find yourself thinking more, as you have pre-conceived notions challenged, and as your mind is literally expanded, you’ll want to make more space and time for reading. You won’t have to force it to happen, you’ll want to make it happen.

Maybe that’s a part of the reason that all leaders are readers. Not necessarily because they’re the people who are born with a natural love of reading, and not just because of the insights they gain in their reading, but because they’re the kinds of people who would be willing to discipline themselves to read when they didn’t want to and when they didn’t love it and when they would rather zone out watching celebrities try to learn to dance. Maybe they’re leaders not just because of what they’ve read, but because they force themselves to read.

And by the way, not all readers are leaders, but that’s a whole other thing…

so as i’ve been thinking about my sermon here today, i found

myself returning again and again to the power of a good letter. someone may text you or ping you or email you or direct message you or contact you on facebook-but none of those particular mediums of communication can begin to compare to a letter in which the person has labored over every word, going back over it again and again and again, crafting the phrases and searching for just the right word and turn of phrase to capture exactly what you want to say. technology has given us a wide array of methods to communicate and because of this variety,

it’s important we remember that this is a distinction to be made

between diversity of form

and depth, significance, and soul.

so, i’ve written you a letter…

remember, the movement is word to flesh.

beware of those who will take the flesh and want to turn it

back into words…

when people

ask ‘what about mars hill?’ or ‘what’s mars hill going to do?’

it’s as if mars hill is a disembodied reality with a life of its own.

here’s the twist: the church is not an inanimate, impersonal

product. there is no ‘mars hill’ in theory. there is no abstract, disembodied entity mars hill apart from the people in this room

who ARE mars hill…

if you want this church to be some other church,

then please leave this church and go to that church.

this church has it’s own unique path,

it’s own particular DNA

and you must be true to it,

or you will lose something vital to who you are,

and why God brought you together…

people whisper sweet nothings to their lover

but they yell ‘fire.’

reflect on this with me.

love, whispered.

danger, yelled.

fear, it turns out, is often louder than love.

sometimes fear is good, and yelling even better,

especially when there actually is a fire.

but other times fear is toxic, destructive,

the opposite of love.

remember that.

look for it.

and call it out, confront it when you come across it…

Read the entirety of it here

All this was crazy, and honestly a bit overwhelming, but I had a hard time with it. When I think about generosity, I tend to like to be the one who’s generous. I like to be the one who anonymously gives a gift, or who gives up something that I have to help someone. I like to be the one who gives, but it’s hard for me to be the one who receives. When I get something, I want to have done something for it…I want to earn it, or deserve it. To simply receive something makes me feel a bit off kilter.

But really, a part of generosity is learning to receive. There can be no generosity without a recipient.

I’m learning that generosity isn’t always about what you give, but it’s about living with a certain posture. A posture that says everything belongs to the Lord. That sort of posture should make it easy to give, but really, that sort of posture should also make it easy to receive. Because just as I am generous with what I have because I believe that it really belongs to the Lord anyways, I should be able to receive it well also because it wasn’t theirs either…it was the Lords.

So, maybe in a culture where we are conditioned to feel good about ourselves by what we do for others and where we see generosity as an action that we do for someone else, maybe we need to learn instead to see generosity as a fundamental posture of how we live. A posture that lives with open hands that says everything is the Lords, and so all that I have is the Lords and all that I receive is the Lords.

Maybe for some of us, a part of learning to live generously will happen as we learn to receive well.

You’re Welcome…

It kicks off at our 7th Street Campus with their Urban Angels event on Friday night for women.

On Sunday we begin the first 3 of 7 Christmas Services at our Heartwell Campus, where we’ll have the final 4 services on the 24th.

At the Lakewood Campus on the 24th, there will be a Christmas Open House with a petting zoo and Christmas pictures.

And then all of our campuses will be having a special service on Christmas morning.

If you’re in the Long Beach area, we’d love to see you there!

Today, I packed up and headed to the coffee shop to work through some of my Christmas message and a few things that need to get written in the next couple of weeks for early next year. Sometimes that simple change can spark something that sitting in my office all day can’t.

For me,  sometimes I’ll leave and take a 20 minute drive without the radio on, or I’ll write in my moleskine with a nice pen instead of writing on the computer, take a walk around the office, or I’ll simply change the music that I’m listening to to something completely different. For me, I’ve found that those little things can help get me going when I’ve hit a wall.

What are some of the ways that have been helpful for you to change your pace or place?

Yesterday, Crystal Cathedral Ministries died. The music stopped playing. In its place, in three years time, will reside the Catholic Church. The namesake of the ministry will be no more. Just like Esau, their birthright was sold.

I’d like to tell you this brings me comfort knowing that orthodox Christians will continue to worship in this building. But I can’t say that. It’s like telling a grieving a widow there are many fishes in the sea.

In one respect, this human metaphor falls short. The Crystal Cathedral isn’t a person, it is an institution. As such, its problems were not terminal. They could have been solved. My father attempted to fix these problems during his short tenure as senior pastor. He saw the Crystal Cathedral was headed toward bankruptcy. He attempted to restructure the board, cut his sibling’s salaries and establish fiscal responsibility. For these actions, he was fired by the board, which consisted of . . . you guessed it, his siblings.

Read the rest of Robert Schuller’s granddaughter’s thoughts here

“All I ask of you, especially young people…is one thing. Please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.”

~ Conan O’Brien from his final Tonight Show

It seems amongst my generation, especially when it comes to church, people move to one of two extremes. They either get cynical or overly idealistic. Really, in a lot of ways, they are two sides of the same coin. Cynicism happens when you stay focused on the present reality and can’t see beyond it, while idealism happens when you’re focused on what your preferred future is and you can’t see the present.

The problem with both of them is that they leave you paralyzed. I’ve talked with person after person who has left the church because they’re cynical – the church has hurt them in some way, it hasn’t done what they think it should do, or they can’t see past specific people or behaviors in a certain church, and so they give up on church. And at the same time I’ve talked with a large number of overly idealistic people who aren’t a part of any church, because they can’t find one that lives up to their standards and what they think church should be.

Several months ago, a friend, Nick Boring, introduced me to a concept called Parallel Pathing. It essentially looks like this

The concept is this – that you have to work within your present reality, with an eye towards the preferred future. As you do that, slowly your present reality will begin to fade out as your preferred future begins to take over. The reason a cynical person gets stuck is because they can’t see past the present reality and they stay in that place, and the reason an overly idealistic person gets stuck is because all they can see is the preferred future and they can’t deal with the present reality.

The person who will really gain traction and make a difference is the person who can learn to parallel path. They learn to operate in the midst of the present reality, while at the same time working towards a preferred future.

In the church world, in the next decade or so, we will see more and more baby boomers who grew their churches and had long tenures end up retiring out of their churches. There’s going to be numerous problems facing those churches as they try to figure out how to take steps forward, but one of them will be learning to parallel path.

I think a part of the reason that so many people in my generation aren’t able to take on an established church and be able to lead it into the future is because we struggle with this concept. There are great, established churches that will need to be lead into the future, but it will take leaders who can work with patience in the present reality and at the same time have a keen eye for the future, who will know when not to stay stuck in one or the other and who can navigate the convergence of the present reality with the preferred future.

I’m currently reading Eric Metaxas’ Biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from his book, Life Together.

“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial”

If my generation is going to lead the church in a significant way into the future, it will take a rejection of cynicism and a rejection of over idealism, and an embracing of the church right where it’s at while being able to live in the tension of also having a vision for the future.