I am

I am not great at counseling

I am not the best at leading meetings

Sometimes I am late

I am not sure exactly what I want to be doing in 10 years

I am slowly getting out of shape

I am a bit of a procrastinator

I cannot stand to sit in my office for more than ten minutes

But....

"I am not defined by what I am not." Rob Bell Velvet Elvis

Thank God for that!

Labels

Greg, our senior pastor, just put out an excellent post about Seacoast and it's identity. I'm not just saying that because he's my dad either. I have been thinking about this very thing for quite some time...especially since the whole emergent vs. evangelical debate has been escalating. It bugs me because I don't even know what category we would fall in if we wanted to fall in to one.

The question I deal with is why??? Why do we love labels so much?

My theory is that we label ourselves when we want to disassociate from another group. If we don't like what the "insert label here" are up to, maybe we should come up with another label so nobody thinks we're like them.

Thinking Out Loud

A few Random Thoughts...

• Some of my blogging heroes are currently dealing with some doubt...either out loud or by their uncanny silence. It's alright guys...we all go through dry times.
• I love Thursday nights! Survivor Guatemala had it's season premier last night. I had promised myself that I wouldn't get hooked this semester...uh oh...this is my last season...really
• We start 40 Days of Community at Seacoast next week. This is going to be one of the most exciting seasons we have had at Seacoast. You can read about our kickoff party here.
• I will be at Saddleback next week for some meetings about Rick Warren's PEACE plan. We don't have anything going on Friday night. For those that have been to LA...do you know of any great places to eat? I'm always looking for some good food!

That's all for now.

guess what I got...

yep...this is my first official post from my nifty treo 650. families and birthdays are great. right now i'm riding down the highway and posting at the same time. scary... thanks mom and dad

Phrases That Stick

It happens to me all the time. I'll be in a conversation with somebody and they will say something that will stick in my brain. Usually I'll start thinking about it and zone out for the rest of the conversation. This is bad, especially when I'm doing marriage counseling or something like that. I think I am going to start posting about some of those phrases.

The one that I've been thinking about lately happened when I was talking to a young guy about some of his frustrations with the way he was being managed at work. He said, "I don't mind being told the 'what' but please don't tell me the 'how'" In other words, if you hired me to do a specific job please let me figure out the best way to do it. The reason that it has stuck with me is that I'm trying to figure out if it is a principle that works or not. When applied to ministry I think it does...if we are hiring somebody to make it happen in singles ministry, should we be telling them how to do it or should we let them use their skill and leadership to figure it out? It sounds like a no brainer to me. The "what" is a certain % of singles attending, serving, connecting, growing in their faith, etc. When we start telling them how to do it, we risk stifling their creativity and leadership and we essentially create robots - really frustrated robots.

Have we created environments that encourage people to use their brain or are we just looking for people who will do what we tell them to do? Something I am wrestling with. I am thankful that I work in an environment that encourages me to be creative and make it happen.

Leadership Line Drive #3 - Cynicism

At first glance this doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but I think that cynicism has the potential to destroy a great leader. I am a pretty optimistic leader, but cynicism tends to creep up on me in two areas:

• With the people I lead - I have the greatest privilege in the world. I get to see life-change happen on a daily basis. Seacoast is an awesome church where God is constantly changing people's hearts. But there are also many times when you invest so much time and energy in people, and they still screw up their lives. I often find myself tempted to become cynical when dealing with people who are messing up their lives. The problem with that is that God has placed us hear to give people hope. Hope that there is a future that is better than the present. If I don't actually believe that than I am going to have a hard time communicating that.
• With the staff- I'm not talking about the people as much as the day to day organizational structure of the church. Sometimes the drive to do better can cause me to focus too much on the negative aspects about our church. This crept up on me this summer when I had a chance to get away for a week with my dad (our senior pastor) and my brother (director of campus development). We spent the first couple of days in evaluation mode - what's working, what needs to change, how can we do things better. After a while I found myself getting depressed about a few minor glitches in the organization. While the over-riding motive is to be more effective in reaching people for Christ, it is very easy for me to become so focused on the negative things that it drags me down.

I don't know many cynics who are innovative, fun leaders who are making a significant impact on the Kingdom of Heaven.

Here are a few simple things I try to do daily to avoid cynicism:

• Start every day\meeting with some good news
• Spend time every day praising God for the great things in your life
• Speak positive words into your co-workers, friends and family

Hurricane Katrina

As I watch the coverage of the situation in the Gulf Coast I am left speechless. I have seen the best and worst of human nature in action. My thoughts and prayers are with the people in New Orleans. Seacoast is taking action in several ways. For more info on that check out the relief site that has been set up.

Also, here is a video from New Orleans that Pastor Dino Rizzo from Healing Place Church did yesterday. We are working closely with Healing Place Church in the relief project.