Is This Your Idea Of Church?

The post card that we sent out was not a hit on the traditional church! We created a mailer to be funny, not to offend people! The response that we are getting from so-called "Christians" is just plain out hateful. If you stumble across this blog and you're one of those that don't like our post card, lighten up! It was meant to be funny, not to be an attack. It is not a hit on the traditional church. Suits and ties, from what I am told, are not required to attend the traditional church. Our goal for sending out the post cards is to reach people who don't have dress clothes. When we did a survey of this community's demographics we discovered that the community was 90% unchurched, and as we talked to families at the ball fields, and at many other events we discovered that one of the top five reasons people didn't go to church right here in this community was because they didn't have dress clothes. If the mailer offended you, coming to our church would do the same because even I wear blue jeans and my shirt untucked and I am the pastor. I wear the same thing that 99% of the world wears, not to be like the world, but because that's how I dress everyday. I don't have a Sunday wardrobe. GOD is my GOD everyday. I dress up for Him everyday by getting on my knees and making him the King of my life. Why not think about the positives: 86% of our people were previously unchurched before we launched. We have had around twenty people that have given their lives to Christ and we will baptise about 10 this Sunday. When was the last time you led anyone to the Lord? So please remove the plank out of your eye before looking at my speck. We as followers of Christ need to get off our Holy High Horse, pick up the plow and start planting.
So the question becomes: What are you doing to make an eternal difference? Read your Bible! What did Jesus wear? Did he dress like the people at the Temple? What did Jesus do? If we are to follow Him then quit trying to take the high road because Jesus knelt down and washed feet! If you are a Christian already and you are attending a church where everybody dresses up,then great! We are not trying to reach you! Throw the post card away or give it to someone that has felt too uncomfortable to come to your church.

Round Two!

You need to plaster your name on everything and everywhere.
If you are reaching the unchurched, they have plenty of friends to invite.
If you are reaching the churched, they only have friends that go to church.
We are not interested in people that go to church. Our concentration is reaching out to the unchurched.
You have to get your people excited about what is going on.
Promotion is so important! Equip your people to invite.
Funny will get people's attention!
Email invites to your friends! This can be big if it looks good!
Make sure you have a brand!

Things done different;
* Assimilation, Making people feel at home.
* Small Groups, people connecting is important
* Ask for Commitment, Financially and Serving

Things done Different?
Staff different
Take more time off.
Every church planter needs a counselor outside of the church.
Visit great church's to see what is going on there.
Knowing your community and knowing what your area unchurched looks like.
Make sure the area fits you!

Connect people right away.
Information table is a MUST.
have your people talk to new people.
Send email to everyone. on Monday
Fill out that card and tell them that we will take it up later.
Message based Journey group material from the message helps people stay in tune to the direction of the church.
Don't over think or over do Assimulation.

People get bored with the same' ol stuff constant change is good.
Voluneteers will make your church ROCK!

Roundtable! Round ONE

I am sitting right now at a church planter's roundtable that is being held at Ridge Stone Church.
Gary Lamb is always a great resource for encouragement for churches that are reaching the unchurched.
Shared thoughts from Lamb:
*Embrace the fact of that you are a church plant and you are not a grown up church.
*Embrace that church planting, no matter where you area, is hard. Don't plant a church unless you have been called!
*You can do anything that you want to while being portable. The problem is we may be just to lazy to do it.
*Don't compromise the vision of the church. It's God's Vision. Its your job to carry the vision.
*Your vision has to be worth owning.
*God will provide the money, He owns it all! We serve a GOD that owns a cattle on a thousand hills and we ask for a cheese burger. You need an Assimilation Pastor!
*Equip your volunteers. The greatest churches assimilate around 20%.

When you show your HEART, Do people see JESUS?

I really believe when the going gets tough that we will show our heart.Maybe it's time to get a heart check EKG. When you get in a argument with your family, What does does your heart look like? When you caught up in adverse situations, What does your heart look like? When you just don't know where to turn, What does your heart look like? When it comes to compassion for others, What does your heart look like? When your down and out What does your heart look like?See I believe that God wants to conform us to HIS image and that's including our hearts.When people see you live life and you are showing your heart do people see JESUS?

A Disciple Breaks Bread

This past Sunday we talked about how A Disciple of Christ Breaks Bread
We talked about breaking bread requires EXTREAME COMMITMENT, because theres the whole pain in the butt factor.
The whining, the bickering, the arguing, and then theirs forgiveness, and reconsilation, and moving past hurts, But I talked about How God wants us all on the same team and sometimes that is tough expecially when we are dealing with people that we don't like. I also talked about when we have biblical community something special happens and that is IT PRODUCES EXTREAME RESULTS. The Bible said that God added to the number those that were being saved.

Lifting Up the Cross

I am so excited about the direction of Cross View and what God is doing in and through the ministry.
It is certain that we are following the heart of God. This past week was amazing as many people came down to pray as the service ended. I can only imagine what is going to happen in the coming season of Cross View Community Church.
Satan's attacks have came on strong. but we refuse as the Army of God to just roll over or give up, we have a God that has overcame death and the power that raised him from the dead empowers us to move forward and follow Him. If Satan wasn't attacking we could be assured that we are not actively following Christ. Why would Satan ever attack something that is not making an eternal difference. So we have to stay focused, keeping our eyes on Jesus and lifting up the Cross and making His name famous in Rockmart.

Over Coming Challenges

I really believe that part of accomplishing anything good is about overcoming challenges, and adversity. To answer the call that God has placed on your life is a challenge! To risk to stepping out in ministry is a challenge! To keep your eyes on God is a challenge when we are living in a sinful world BUT to ever experience a true mircle of God you MUST answer the call you MUST step out on the wave sand you must keep your eyes on God!

Perry Hit it Home!

The Conference this past Thursday was awesome and that it an understatement. I got alot out of it but the one thing that continues to stick out to me is

The pastor must own the vision.

So the first question that you have to ask is; Is the vision worth owning?

If you can’t answer that clearly and specifically without even having to stop and think, you don’t have a vision worth owning.

Maybe the reason a lot people don't “get the vision” or “support the vision” of their pastor is because it’s not worth getting or supporting.

Perry said Get alone with God often. Get a vision. A terrifying vision. An impossible vision. A ludicrous vision. A “have you lost your freaking mind ” vision. A vision that there is no way at all for it to be acomplished outside of an act of God!
Then clarify the vision. MAKE SURE IT LINES UP WITH GODS WORD the vision.
Then OWN THE VISION AND DON'T ALLOW ANYONE TO HIGHJACK IT!

Check This Out!

THE RIGHT FIT
Excellent post by my friend Gary Lamb on his blog today - http://www.garylamb.org


I think one of the greatest lessons I learned while planting a church in Iowa was that you do NOT want everyone who comes through the doors. That might not be popular for a pastor to say but it is a valuable lesson.

When I planted our church in Iowa I wanted everyone who came through the doors to stay. As a result I tried to make our church a church that offered whatever you wanted. If you were a homeschooler, we had stuff for you. If you wanted Sunday school, we had that for you. If you wanted something we didn’t have, I was willing to start what you wanted to keep you. I ended up miserable and the church never grew beyond 150 people because we didn’t have laser focus.

BEFORE starting The Stone I determined through many hours of prayer and studying other churches the type of church Ridge Stone would be. Not that we are the only way to do church but I decided before we ever added ONE family what our vision would be and I decided before starting that I would close her down if we lost focus of that vision.

That has proven very valuable since starting. There have been many times I have been faced with changing the vision in order to keep people and to be honest I never even had to pray about it because before we started I knew we weren’t the church for everyone.

I honestly think this is one of the BIGGEST differences between a church that grows and one that doesn’t.

If you try and keep everyone you will stop your church from growing and lead yourself to an early grave.

Case in point: We recently had a family visit our church. I am convinced 99% of the church planters I know would have killed each other to have this family. They were very nice people, came from a large mega-church, brought a lot of ministry skill (just ask them ), gave financially, and had all their teeth.

We met with them as a staff and I knew literally within 2 minutes that we were the wrong church for them. They shared how long they had lived in the area and the number of churches they had “tried out,” they shared how they thought we should be doing church, they begin to ask more questions about policies then the vision, and then they informed me that in order to grow our vision would have to change from reaching unchurched people. I checked out about 5 minutes into the meeting but I kept quiet to see how our staff would respond. Needless to say our team got that while on paper this couple looked good, they were NOT a fit for us.

I loved that while our entire staff is consumed with reaching our community and growing that they all understood that as much as we want people, we didn’t want this family.

I honestly feel that their understanding of that is one of the reasons we have grown. Jim Collins talks in Good to Great about getting the right people on the bus. In growing a church this is also a huge key. You have to get the right people on the bus because if you fill the bus with the wrong people no matter how good they are, no matter their experience, no matter how much they give, you will never build a church.

Don’t be afraid to let people go.

I have learned who you let go is just as important as who you reach.

Unleashed

We are jacked up about going to Anderson South Carolina to The fastest growing church in America and learn from one of my favorite pastors Perry Noble. He is one of those "Just tell it like it is" Pastors that is "bringing it" in South Carolina the only thing that I know is They are doing something right 250 people just this past weekend prayed to recieve Christ. The are 9,500 in attendance. WOW! God is really blessing. Pray that we have safe travel and learn tons.

We've got Mail

Hey if you've got time, we've got mail! Or goal before Easter is to send out 45,000 pieces of mail to the community to promote our Easter services. We are right now looking for people to help put address labels on these post cards. You can call the office at 770-684-4070, and this is also something that you can do at home.

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday, April 7th, we will be having a great Easter Egg Hunt at the park downtown where they have the Homespun Festival. I believe it is Seaborne Park or something like that. We will have tons of eggs, lots of goodies, some great prize eggs, an inflatable to jump around in, and popcorn and slushies. "We are excited!!!!!!!" This will be fun for the entire family. We plan to have a three-legged race and a sack race. We are still in need for volunteers and for donations of candy, so pray how you can participate. This is a great event to invite your unchurched family and friends to. Mark it on your calender, you don't want to miss it.

Monday Morning Insight

We are so pumped up about the positive changes that we are making and we are really looking forward to the future as a church. One of the changes we are making is instead of just asking people to sign up to serve we have started a Volunteer Orientation, which will be a bridge meeting that will help people feel more comfortable about serving. Volunteer Orientation will give everyone who attends a backstage pass to see how everything is done, from the set-up process to teaching in our Children's Ministry. Our hope is that through this experience we can get people plugged in to serve God. We are so excited that we have people that are jumping on board to serve. Without people like you, we would not be able to do what we do. Thank you so much!

TIME GOES FORWARD THIS SUNDAY!

Don't forget that you lose an hour this Sunday. So make sure you set your clocks FORWARD.

Connect, Grow, and Serve

Our goal as a church is to keep it simple! So many times people get involved in everything and they get overloaded. Or everything seems to get thrown into one person's lap to do. You know, that person that just doesn't know how to say no. Over a period of time people experience burn out. Our goal as a church is to help our people know that we want to take them on a spiritual journey that will give their lives meaning and purpose instead of burning them out. A life that they will look forward to jumping out of the bed for everyday. The direction that we would like to see our people go is very simple... Connect, Grow, And Serve.

*Connect-Each week in corporate worship to God.
*Grow- Joining a journey group to grow friendships and relationships with God and others.
*Serve- Participating with a serving team ex: Guest services, Set-up, Children's Ministry and many more.......

I really believe that doing these three things will fulfill you more than anything you could imagine.
I am encouraged each week as I see new people serving, knowing that their lives are gaining purpose!
Volunteer Orientation is this Sunday at 9:30am, and On March 25th at 9:30am. Make sure you RSVP!

We,ve Got Mail!

I am just so glad that everyday I wake up on mission for God. I just want to thank God for giving my life meaning and purpose.
He spells it out in his Word for us all to "Go and Make Disciples", and "to be fishers of men" (people)! So like Simon we are casting the net "BECAUSE HE SAID SO."(Luke 5;5) and we are calling out to you to help us out. We have at our office right now 45,000 post card that need to be labeled. There is no way that this will get done if we try to do it by ourselves. With that said, we need some of you to help us make that happen. This will be an amazing opportunity to see who is willing to go fishing with us. I really truly believe that we are going to reach many people through this. Wouldn't it be great to have a part in that? I challenge you to put on your fishing gear and get in the boat! Call the Office @ 770-684-4070

Coming Soon!

Yesterday, I had a great opportunity to meet the Youth Pastor Jud Hensley from Summit Church.
Their youth group is coming to serve us by doing missions the week after Easter. They are going to do some roofing for the city. We have planned several block parties that will present the gospel and they are going to serve free breakfast the Sunday morning after Easter. We are excited about them coming to help advance God's Kingdom. On that Sunday morning, April 15th, our Children's Ministry will be very, very exciting as we will have puppet shows, live worship, and great Christ-centered activities for the children. We are very excited about Summit Church coming. Invite your friends to come see what is going on at Cross View.
We would love for you to jump on board with this mission!

No Fake Christians Allowed

I am excited about what God is doing in and through Cross View Community Church. We are getting pumped up about Easter as we get ready to start an awakening in Rockmart. This past week we started our Disciple series. The first message was
"No Fake Christians Allowed" and It had three main points that I want to remind you of today!
1st A Disciple touches lepers - Who in your life is unlovely that their lives need to be touched by you today?
2nd A Disciple befriends sinners - How can you spark up a conversation with someone that you know is not a Christ Follower?
Maybe you just start off with something you have in common with them.
3rd A Disciple Offends The Pharisees. Though it is not our heart to offend them, if following Christ offends the Pharisees,
so be it!

Lets quit whining about it being the way we want it, and pick up our cross and follow Christ.

Disciple Series

I am so exicted as we just started a new series "Disciple". This past Sunday was the first message of the series and we had 4 people pray to recieve Christ and about 60 people rededicate their lives to Christ it was amazing God really made himself known
I am pumped up as we continue this Series because I already know that God is gone to "Bring It" this coming Sunday. I really believe that if we just take the principles that will be taught in this series and put it into action we will actually see revival not only in our church, but in our community. I Love to see life change and people laying it all down for the cause of Christ. I can't wait to see what God is going to do!