Christmas Eve Reading

Vs. 1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."

From the beginning.

When it all started.

Before it all started.

He was there.

At the creation of it all.

Not as a babe in a feeding trough.

Not as a created soul,

But as God.

With God.

"Very God of very God."

From the beginning.

In the beginning, God.

Vs. 3 "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

The Creator of all creation.

A universe spoken into existence.

Creativity in motion,

Wisdom arranging,

Beauty embodied,

Power made manifest.

Fabrication out of nothing.

And yet, without him, nothing.

Vs. 4 "In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world"

Life and light

Come emanating from their source.

Chasing death and darkness

Light pierces the darkness

The increase of light is the decrease of darkness

The light shone

The darkness was overwhelmed

Unable to contest or protest

The true light was coming

And now has come

To illuminate the way

For all to see

For all to see by

He has revealed the Almighty

Shown us himself

Enlightened the masses with his coming

Coming into our world

To bring radiance to our shadows

And hope to our despair

Vs. 16 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

The Word became flesh

Flesh and blood

Hair and skin

Breath and bone

The immortal took on mortality

The invisible became visible

Creator became creation

The Word became human

He became what he was not

For those he loved

The perfect human

The Creator stepped into his creation

Lived among us

Moved into our neighborhoods

Exposed his splendor

His uniqueness

His singularity

The only Son of the Father

A gift undeserved

But given freely

Personifying that which is true, right and good.

Vs. 18 "Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

Out of love

Out of generosity

Out of his lavish riches

Out of his very being

We have been given a gift

We have received

Freely

More than we could ask for

More than we can know and understand

That which is undeserved

Not a payment

Nor a reward

But compassion

Kindness

The old is gone

The new has come

The dos and don'ts fulfilled

While the come and be beckons

Grace and truth have come

In the one long ago foretold

The messiah of old

The Ancient of Days

The lion of Judah

The ruler of all

Wonderful Counselor

The mighty God

Everlasting Father

Prince of Peace

The anointed and chosen one

His is Jesus the Christ

(John 1:1,3,4,16,18)

Free Books!!!

Here is a link to the giver!

Over the last year, I’ve attained about 250 books from publishers, aspiring authors, friends, enemies, and/or have been given duplicate books at conferences, churches I’ve visited, or found in the trunk of my car.

To give you a little perspective on why this is a dilemma, Chris and I live in an 800 square foot, three room cottage. There’s the living room/office/bike room, the bedroom, and the kitchen/dining room/utility room. (Oh, and the bathroom too, I suppose).

Any space we could have possibly mounted bookshelves is consumed and overflowing with books and it’s getting to the point where they are stacked on our desks and on our floor and in our ottoman and under our coffee table.

You get the point.

So, I’d like to giveaway 25 books. Maybe more. But at least 25. I’m not sure which books yet, but more than likely there will be some ministry books, some general leadership books, and a few fiction books in the mix. There will be some well known authors and some hidden gems as well.

You do not have to pay for shipping (although a prayer for a miracle on me finding the money to ship them will be nice!), all you have to do is enter to win.

How to win:

1) Tweet a link to this giveaway (http://bit.ly/7L382T)

2) Leave me a comment telling me you’ve tweeted and your twitter name

3) If you’re not on Twitter, post it somewhere…your blog, or your Facebook, or email a friend, and just leave me a comment letting me know you’ve spread the word!

And you’ll be entered to win!

You can tweet as many times as you’d like, as many times a day, but make sure you leave a comment for each tweet so your chances to win are increased since we’ll be choosing the winner from the comments.

The contest will close on 12/30/09 at 8 am CST.

Ready, steady, go!

Amish Thinking

• You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lip.

• Children need models more than they need critics

• It is better to suffer wrong than to do it. And happier to be sometimes cheated than to never trust

• No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for someone else

• One lie brings the next one with it

• The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.

The Cost of Tuesday Church

Unique items usually cost more. It does not mean they are good quality or any better then common things. They just have a higher cost associated with their anomalous nature.

Take, for example, a church that forsakes the standard Sunday morning worship time for a mid-week evening gathering time. The Next Level Church has never had its main gathering on Sunday morning. As a matter of fact, TNL is the only known church that has its main gathering on a Tuesday night.

At its genesis TNL had to meet on Tuesday nights (Tuesday Night Live) because that was the only time when space at its mother church was available. Over the years meeting on Tuesday has become a missional value. However, holding to that value has it price. Here are a few:

• TNL has about 700 unique first time visitors a year walk through its doors, yet we are a community of 400. Many people come, check things our, like what they see but in the end move on because Tuesday night church is just weird.

• TNL has many people who hang out on Tuesday nights, but who are "members" at other churches in town. About 43% of a typical gathering "attends another church," our last annual survey told us. Its easy to "mistress" with TNL because people resonate with the communities vision and mission, they enjoy the vibe and it is different than their church. But ultimately their hearts, energies and offerings belong to another.
  

• TNL loses people regularly because we keep them up too late. Young families with little kids need to get them to bed so they get a good nights sleep. Students have class in the morning. Working professional need to get up early. For some people it is just plain hard to be out one more night a week.

• TNL has to fight the fatigue of the daily grind. Its difficult to get people to come to a church that starts at 7pm after putting in a long day at the office or in the class room.

• TNL is perceived by some not to be a "real" church because it does not meet on Sundays. Meeting on Tuesday somehow relegates us to being just a young adult ministry, a fake church or some odd quasi church-thingy.

So why do we continue meeting on Tuesday nights...? It a missional value.

My next post will be on the benefits of Tuesday church.

Thoughts on Shared Leadership #2

Being the new guy to a team that uses a shared approached to leadership, I have had to learn a few things.

Before coming to TNL I worked as a retail manager for 50 billion (with a “B”) dollar a year company that was all about leadership. It was common to hear, “We can hire a monkey to do this job, but a monkey can’t lead, so we hired you.”

Leadership was a big deal at this company. Leaders always were working to maximize strength and minimize weaknesses. Leaders at all levels were to have mentors and be mentors while plotting individual development plans for growth and advancement. We had several key leadership characteristics we tried to cultivate in ourselves and our staffs. It was clear that the answerer to almost every success or problem was “leadership.” Those leaders who distinguished themselves got rewarded and promoted. And on and on it went.

Coming into a shared leadership environment, I had to figure out how I would lead at TNL. How was I going to lead without taking over or telling the other Core Pastors what they needed to do? How was I going to give up power and allow others to lead in areas I think are crucial? How are we going to work together as a four headed monster to provide direction to this church community?

It took some time and thinking, but here is what I came up with:

Shared leadership does not create a leadership vacuum. A team model of leadership does not mean no one leads, but that we all lead. I don't have to stop leading. The team collaborates, opinionates and prognosticates together in order to set our directions and vision.

Shared Leadership requires the eviction of ego. There can be no power struggles. There can be no jockeying for position. We are a team and we work together, regardless if it concerns the creation of new ventures or cleaning the offices. We are four people who make up one role. There is no room for selfish expenditures, childish tantrums or egotistical delusions of grandeur.

Share Leadership expects leaders to lead as they were designed. A team model does not mean I stop being who God created me to be. It does not mean I have to change how I lead or reinvent myself. I am uniquely gifted and I have to bring all my skills, gifts and talents to the common table holding nothing back. The expectation is the other will do the same.

Shared Leadership obligates leaders to do their jobs. People get hired for jobs because they are well suited for them. If they weren’t they would not get hired. Neither would they get hired if there was not a need for them to fill. Joint leadership does not mean people have to acquiesce to everyone else’s ideas, plans or motives nor does it means I make coworkers shoulder my load of responsibilities either. Leaders are hired to do a job and the expectation, on both fronts, is they will to do that job.

Shared Leadership is being open to new possibilities. In order to not grow stale or stagnate, a team leadership model must challenge each other with new innovations, perspective and ideas. Since we tend towards complacency, because it’s comfortable, we need others to push or pull us into areas we would have not gone on our own. With multiple people released to speak into our areas of responsibility new plans, improvements and advances can be made.

I'm am still learning.