Last Message

This weekend it was awesome to hear a portion of the story of Ed Dobson, a great man with a terrible disease. He has been a good friend to my sister and her husband–ever since December when Patrick was diagnosed with ALS. We had Ed, Lorna, Patrick and Dena over for dinner on Saturday evening. I felt a bit like an outsider watching two men of God, both counting each new day as a blessing, talk about life and God’s sovereignty. I delighted in hearing them laugh together–which is a bit odd in a funny kind of way since they both struggle somewhat with laughing.

I don’t know how often you have been in the presence of someone who is dying. But each time it seems like I am in the presence of greatness–of someone who understands better than I what is really important. The truth is, I may die before either Ed or Patrick, but when you have your health it is difficult to live in the reality of your mortality.

A few years ago, a YouTube video went viral and millions of people watched the Last Lecture of Randy Pausch, a professor from Carnegie Mellon. People tuned in to hear what a man with a death sentence would say with his final words.

Another such opportunity is coming this weekend. Here is a portion of an email my brother-in-law sent out recently…

By now you are aware that I have ALS.  At this point it appears to be moving at a moderate to fast speed. Bob Johnson, our senior pastor, has expressed his desire to have me preach on a Sunday morning, for one last time.  My voice is rapidly deteriorating in strength, and my words are very slow and slurred.  After prayer, I agreed to this as I believe I have a message I want to communicate regarding trusting God because He is sovereign.

April 22nd, 10:45am

Cornerstone Baptist Church

17017 Twelve Mile Road

Roseville, MI

We Are Looking for a Student Ministries Director

You may have heard we are looking around the world for the right person to fill the role of Student Ministries Director at Granger.

You may have also heard we’ve engaged the services of the Vanderbloemen Search Group to help us in this search.

But did you read the description of who we are looking for?

Many youth pastors measure their success on what they can do. The person in this role will measure success by what they equip others to do.

 

He or she will be a visible catalytic leader for Student Ministries – providing energizing teaching and leadership for the students and leaders, and maintaining a strong connection to the parents of the students.

 

The successful candidate will have a proven record of developing systems and processes for effective communication and growth of all aspects of the ministry.

 

They will lead and reproduce disciples authentically with passion and will also have a strong work ethic and team-oriented mindset.

Know someone like this? Make sure to have them apply soon.

A Leader in Waiting

One of the greatest privileges of my life has been to work with some amazing leaders—and one of those leaders is Jeff Bell. Jeff was on staff at Granger from 2008 to 2011. Even before that, I knew Jeff & Leslee when they moved into a home around the corner from us.

Four things you need to know about Jeff…

1. He loves his wife and family. He has his priorities exactly right: Before being a pastor, he is a husband and daddy.  As a neighbor and a co-worker, I watched him serve his family, sacrifice for their needs, and engage them in ministry. His wife, Leslee, has always served right alongside Jeff in his church roles—she is an amazing woman of God and all-around fun person.
2. He is a dynamic leader. Jeff is the guy who walks in the room and lights it up. His personality is catalytic and attractive. He effortlessly motivates people toward Jesus and the cause. At Granger, Jeff led the way in launching our first multisite ministry—it got started off with tremendous strength due in large part to his influence.
3. He loves the Church. Jeff is a pastor. He truly cares for the people he leads and does everything he can to help them take their next step. He’s a great teacher, and spoke on the main stage at Granger several times.
4. He is available. Jeff left Granger (on great terms!) in 2011 to re-engage at a church in Portland he helped plant many years ago. That didn’t turn out to be a good fit for he and his family—so he’s looking for a church where he can use his gifts with a high-capacity team.

Jeff has my high endorsement. If you are looking for someone like Jeff, I encourage you to email him or stalk him on Facebook or his blog.

Being Present

Have you ever met someone who knows the exact right things to say at the right time? I have a friend like that. I’ve been with him in hundreds of situations and he is brilliant and caring with his words. I’ve watched him walk into a funeral and say exactly the right thing to the grieving family; I’ve seen him talk to a waitress who pours her heart out about some family crisis and he comforts her with genuine love and care; I’ve watched him speak words of joy to a brand new mother and she leaves feeling valued.

Whatever gift that is–I don’t have it. I rarely know the right thing to say. The comforting verse or loving words don’t come to my mind until I’m walking away. Few people leave my presence feeling all warm and cozy inside. If they do, it’s has more to do with the fireplace we are standing by than anything I said.

About the only thing I know how to do is to be there. To be present. To help where I can and communicate love by my presence.

At least 1000 times each day I think about my sister, Dena, and her husband Patrick. They are adjusting to a new reality of having less time together than they thought. Patrick was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) three months ago. In the prime of his life, already it is wreaking havoc on his muscles, speech, balance and more. There is no treatment and no cure.

Many times I want to call or write a text with some profound words of wisdom that will help Patrick or Dena make it through the day. I just don’t have the right words. Sometimes I want to call Paige or Parker (their teen children, my niece and nephew) and say something that will help them through the sucky reality that no child should have to think about–but I don’t know what I’d say.

All I know how to do is be present. So every few weeks I drive four hours to be with them for a day or two. We don’t sit around and talk about death or disease–we just hang out, eat meals, and do life together. I try to jump in and help where I can, but mostly it’s just being there.

Many years ago when I was in my first year as a pastor, I was trying to decide whether to go to a funeral viewing or not. I had something important to do, I’m sure, and wasn’t sure the family even knew me. Mark Beeson looked at me and said, “You can never go wrong by being there for someone.”

It’s a principle I’ve long remembered.

Granger’s New Tiny Little Division

Recently I told the story of our earliest thoughts about launching a preschool. Today I want to tell you some of the values that have guided us as we have researched and made plans to launch the Early Learning Center for our community this fall:

Leadership – We were absolutely convinced the success of the Early Learning Center would be dependent on a great leader. Last June, a full 13-months before the opening day, we hired Chris Whitmire to run point on launching and leading our preschool program. Not just a gifted leader, Chris has a Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education. She is a life-long learner, and is currently pursuing licensing to be a school principal. She has more than two decades of experience in education, has a huge heart for children, and desires to help them take steps in their faith journey.

Quality - In our early planning, we received a report from called “Early Childhood Education and Care” (ECEC) which was a needs assessment for kids 0 to 5 years in our county (St. Joseph). The report said, “Several long-term studies show that, when children attend higher quality child care centers, they perform better on measures of cognitive and social skills in child care and on into their school years.” And yet the ECEC report found few such centers in our county.

In our research, we found some centers offering great education and care in our area–and we have spent much time studying them, asking questions, and making decisions about our program based on their success. We found the directors of those centers very welcoming. They were excited about the potential of another quality outlet for children. In fact, one of them wrote in response to a news article about Granger’s ELC: “We work together to make sure that ALL children are taken care of in the best way possible. We are no longer competitors. There are plenty of children that need quality care…”

Because of our commitment to quality education, we have chosen the HighScope Approach to early childhood education. This is a proven curriculum with a long track record used by high quality centers all around the country.

Faculty – The ECEC report also stated: “More than half of the child care centers who responded to the survey have no teachers with BA degrees.” They also discovered that ”early childhood teachers work for poverty wages.” It just goes to show the heart of the teachers who work with our young children. They don’t do it for money! Quality staff has always been a priority at GCC, and it will continue to be so as we hire the faculty to lead our children. They will not get rich, but it is our intention to attract highly qualified teachers in our region, and pay them appropriately well for their service.

Credibility – The State of Indiana makes it real easy to start a preschool. A church can be a “registered ministry” and not have to adhere to all the regulations that a “licensed center” is required to follow. But the difference is clear. From the ECEC report: “The upsurge in unlicensed programs is a concern since, according to a recent Purdue study, children in licensed child care settings in St. Joseph County received higher quality care than children in unlicensed settings.” So we are raising the bar for our program, spending thousands of dollars on building renovations, and establishing our safety and health guidelines according to the State’s requirements.

Beyond licensing, there is accreditation. A small percentage of centers in St. Joseph County have received accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). It will take a couple years to obtain this and a significant amount of money and focus, but we have already started taking steps towards receiving NAEYC accreditation.

Faith – From the beginning, it’s been our intention that the Early Learning Center is strongly faith-based. It will not operate as a business inside the walls of the church–it will actually be a part of the church, an extension of our outreach to the families of Michiana. We will utilize the HighScope curriculum, and infuse it with a Biblical narrative taught by teachers who have been trained in the discipleship and nurturing of children.

Cost – We knew that the values I’ve mentioned would have an impact on the cost of tuition. Even though our facility costs are lower than some–we knew the price of having great leadership, teachers, and curriculum, along with the costs associated with licensing and accreditation–wouldn’t come cheap. Even so, we were so grateful to have been able to set our prices at (or just below) the cost of other Centers that we are hoping to emulate. Additionally, we created a scholarship fund that we hope will receive enough donations to make it easier for families to enroll their little ones.

This list isn’t exhaustive. You’ll learn much more about the values of the Early Learning Center on the website. But it hopefully gives you a bit of the background of what is driving the philosophy of this new Center that is going to have an impact on our region for decades to come.

Brian Bloye: “Is Jesus Enough?”

Brian Bloye, pastor of  Westridge Church, spoke to hundreds of church planters at the Velocity12 Conference several weeks ago, and his talk is still bouncing around the inside of my heart and head. Here are some notes I jotted down:

• Is Jesus enough?
• If you never build a large church, is Jesus enough? If your church fails, is Jesus enough? If you never get to speak at a conference like this, is Jesus enough?
• If Jesus isn’t enough, you will always feel unsettled in your soul.
• When Jesus isn’t enough, it’s not that you try to replace Jesus. You just try to add on to Jesus. And then you become performance-driven.
• Martin Luther said “whatever your heart clings to is your idol.”
• Brian quoted a number of passages from the book Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Tchividjian.
• Jesus plus anything or anyone leads to emptiness.
• We all have to settle this in our hearts, not just once, but over and over again.

Where have you seen the consequences in your own life of adding something to Jesus?

A Walk Down a Dark Hallway Turns into a Dream

In the middle of 2009 I had an epiphany. For three days in a row, I had to walk to the other side of our building through our lower level. The lights were off. The classrooms in our Children’s Center were dark. The hallway was quiet. Now understand–this is a multi-million dollar, creatively-themed, educational space that is filled with more than 800 kids every weekend. But as I asked around, I realized that it was rarely in use during week days.

At the same time, we were in deep discussions about how to more effectively help parents disciple their kids–yet we were in a difficult recession with decreasing financial resources. That’s when it hit me on my third trip down the darkened hallway: Why not use what God has already given us?

I suppose this could be real obvious to others, but for me the idea of using our Children’s Center as the location of a high quality, faith-based preschool was a new thought. I shared it with Mark Beeson and he said “absolutely yes!” before I could even get my words out. He’d been thinking the same thing. And then, when we asked our congregation to tell us what dream they had for our church over the next 5- to 10-years…we were amazed by how many mentioned a desire to start a preschool on our campus.

That desire turned into action, and is almost a reality. Registration for the fall 2012 classes opens in just a few days. More details on GCC’s Early Learning Center in the days to come.

Scott Williams: “Real Leaders Develop People, Then Release Them”

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of listening to Scott Williams talk about leadership at Velocity 2012. I scribbled some notes that i thought might encourage you.

• The highest form of leadership is leadership development.
• Good leaders create an environment where other leaders can win.
• In Mark 14, Barnabas truly believed in John Mark even though he had some problems.
• To develop leaders, you need to acknowledge their misses and their wins.
• Real leaders will release their developed leaders to other ministries or locations.
• People who do not develop leaders will reject leaders who need help rather than mentoring them to take their next steps.

Do Statistics Have to be Boring?

I love numbers, spreadsheets, statistics and trend lines. But I’m totally aware that most people don’t. Their eyes gloss over with that near-death look of paleness where you can tell they’d rather poke their eyes out with a fork than have to think about numbers.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to occasionally let people know how things are going “by the numbers.”

Our team recently produced a statistics brochure that was filled with stories, vision, and purpose. I think you’ll agree that it was anything but boring.

Download your own copy of the entire brochure here.

13 Leaders. 13 States.

Today I have the opportunity, once again, to lead the Executive Pastors’ Coaching Network. This is my 6th group, but what is unique about this one is that all 13 leaders are from a different state. They are also from churches of all sizes, styles and denominations. It always proves to be a mutual learning experience that doesn’t end after our six days together conclude.

If you are interested in our next group (beginning in September), leave me a comment and we’ll make sure to put you on the short list for an early invite.