Living In A Broken World Hurts

This is the first post I've written in over a year.  Sometimes we just need to take sabbaticals from things. I've wondered when I'd feel like posting again. I don't post for the sake of posting but because I feel like I really have something to share.

So today, as I was reading an email from a friend who is serving as a missionary in Kenya this summer, I knew it was time to post.  Beth is serving outside of Nairobi at a school and home for special needs children.  She teaching music and English and building relationships. She's there because God has called her there. And because she's worked hard all year to make it a reality. And because she's moved past her fears and has taken huge leaps of faith.

As I read her recent update, sitting in a crowded Starbucks, I couldn't help but cry. Fortunately I was sitting in a corner and didn't draw much attention to myself.  She wrote about the struggles and difficulties that the children she's met have dealt with for most of their lives.  But my tears were not for the kids as much as they were for Beth.  God is breaking her heart for what breaks His.  And God is creating a compassion in her that is beyond herself.  And that makes me proud to know her and proud to be her pastor.

Below is Beth's email.  Please pray for her while she serves and follow her blog as she shares her experiences.

Hey all, 

It's hard to believe I've been here a week already, but at the same time, it's hard to believe I've ONLY been here a week! Time is passing strangely. I need a debrief after today. 

Today I was given a reminder that these children, despite their great affection for others and their enthusiasm for learning, have not all had an easy life. I was giving a recorder lesson after school to one of the teachers, and one of the special needs students followed me into the classroom and was hanging out during the lesson. 

This student is probably about 10 years old. He is hearing, but non-verbal, sometimes making sounds, but never words. He alternates between giving me a huge grin while running up to grab me in the most violent of hugs, and zoning out into another world entirely. He has a tendency to eat anything and everything, and in the middle of my lesson with the teacher, he decided to eat an entire piece of chalk, and proceeded to choke on it. We got him outside because he looked like he was going to throw up, but he ended up coughing for a minute, then he was fine. 

The teacher explained to me that this particular student came from an area in Kenya that was pretty hard-hit by the post-election violence in 2007-2008, and a lot of his behaviors are probably a result of that. He didn’t get enough food to eat during the violence, so now he eats everything. He most likely has PTSD, and she said sometimes he will scream and have fits like he’s seeing something that no one else can, probably flashbacks to the violence. It is hard knowing that this sweet, loving boy is suffering so much.  

There is another girl here with lots of anxiety issues who often chews on her fingers, and the teacher told me that she was in the area affected by the post-election violence, too. She had been left in the forest by her mother, because her mother believed it was safer for her there.

It’s easy for me to take special needs in stride, being a teacher. A student can’t hear? She can still follow directions, feel the vibrations of the music, and participate. A student can’t use his right hand? He can still play the notes from G on up on the recorder. But, having gotten to know how wonderful and loving these children are, it’s hard to take in stride what some of them have been through to get them here. 

Living in a broken world hurts.

The People That Make Our Church Great - Part 4

I've been talking about the people that make our church great.  So far all of the groups and teams that I've mentioned serve in volunteer roles.  No church can be great without passionate, committed, hard working and competent volunteers and FCBC is full of them.  And I'm so thankful to pastor a church with such amazing volunteer leaders.

But a great church also has to have a great staff and at FCBC that's what we have.  Besides myself we have six paid staff members and everyone of them has tremendous gifts and strengths.  While I don't have the space to mention all that each person brings to the table I do want to share a couple of strengths of each of our staff.  Feel free to add to the list in the comment section.

Brian is our Student Pastor.  He's also a stay home dad which I think is amazing in and of itself.  Brian not only loves students and wants to see them commit their total lives to Christ, he also has a unique ability to understand their culture and help them translate their faith into that culture.  Brian has a unique way of communicating with students that not only helps them understand biblical truth and how it relates to their lives but also challenges them to be different people because of their faith and relationship with Christ.

Another strength of Brian's, that I've come to appreciate, is his ability to reframe a discussion in a way that creates unity.  Many times our staff and other teams need to have discussions about how to move forward, make a change or do something new.  Sometimes those discussions, because they are so important to everyone, can get serious and passionate and occasonally heated (it's actually a healthy process.)  Because he has the ability to understand different cultures (including generations) and their languages Brian has the ability to re-frame the conversation in a way that give clarity and brings people to the same page.

Cathy's title is Ministry Assistant but that title does not do her justice because of the many ways she serves and the many hats she wears.  Cathy manages the office, directs much of our communication, produces most of our publications, provides support for special projects and events, gives administrative support to staff and teams and the list goes on.  It's a position that requires a lot of flexibility and Cathy is one of the most flexible people I know.  Because we have a church that embraces change and is constantly in a state of movment there's always an element of chaos around.  Cathy also has the ability to do great work in the middle of that chaos.

She's also always willing to jump in where ever she is needed and has the ability to push through and do whatever it takes to make a ministry, event or project a success.  Her role on our team is very much behind the scenes and she deserves a lot of credit for our church's successes.  In writing this one of the things I've come to realize is that Cathy's work, in one way or another, touches every ministry, every event, every project - literally every aspect of our church.

Carolyn I. is our Pastor of Fellowship.  She wears several hats and leads two important areas in our church - small groups and hospitality.  Carolyn has the spiritual gift of hospitality and that gift is evident in the warm, friendly and inviting atmosphere she has helped us create on Sunday mornings.  In fact the number one positive feedback we get from first-time guests has to do with our hospitality ministry.  Carolyn also coordinates our small groups and since each of our small groups are unique with their own personalities this requires her to have a lot of flexibility, patience, and organization.

Another strength that Carolyn brings to our church is her experience in the corporate world.  Before joining our staff she was a nurse and adminstrator for Sunrise Assisted Living.  Time and time again she has used that experience as a pastor to support the senior adults in our church as well as our younger generations who have parents moving in to senior adulthood.  This can be a challenging time for entire families and Carolyn's willingness to use her previous experience has helped to support and encourage many of our families.

Carolyn R. is our accountant and all around financial expert.  Before she joined our staff our church's accounting had always been done by volunteers.  Those volunteers did a wonderful job with our finances but having a dedicated staff person in the position has made a huge difference and has helped us have even greater financial health.

Over the last few years Carolyn has made systematic improvements to the way we manage and report our finances.  She's worked along side of our Administrative Council to help us create financial policies that will protect our church and protect those who work with our budget and finances.  She makes sure that our church has transparency and integrity in all areas of our finances.  Carolyn is also a key part of our staff as she helps each staff member understand their area of our budget and helps them track their spending and plan for the future.

Elise is our Children and Missions Pastor and like most of our staff she wears lots of hats.  Elise was the first Children's Pastor in our church's history.  She also came to know Christ as a teenager at FCBC.  Children have always been a priority at FCBC and Elise, through her creativity and willingness to think outside the box, has brought a level of professionalism and a quality to that area of ministry that we didn't have before.  She has a heart to see children come to know God, grow in their love for him and allow that love to spill over into the people in their lives and around the world.

Elise is also passionate about "the least of these" in our community and in our world.  Over the last several years our church's heart has grow tremendously for the hurting people in our community and in our world and much of that is due to Elise's influence and leadership.  When she joined our staff Elise was one of just a couple of people in our church who had ever traveled on an international mission trip.  Today everyone of our staff have participated in a least one international mission trip and the number of people who have served internationally through FCBC is well over 50 people.

Elise' also has what I call a pastor's heart - she genuinely cares about people and is great in situations where people are going through a difficulty and need pastoral care, support, guidance and wisdom.

Susan is our worship leader and she's a gifted musician and songwriter.  Leading worship is more than just creating great music, it's about creating an environment that helps individuals shift their focus and attention to God.  Through Susan's leadership that happens every Sunday morning.  One of the things I love about how Susan does this is the amount of prayer she puts into the process.  Not only does she spend personal time in prayer as she prepares, she also leads our team to be prayerful about what they do.

Susan has also created a great team.  I'm so impressed with her ability to take a group of passionate and creative people with many different personalities and shape them into a unified team.  That's no easy task and requires a lot of patience, humility, organization and love.  Another strength that I appreciate about Susan is her ability to spot talent and incorporate that talent into our worship team.  Our team is made up of a lot of voices and a lot of different instruments and Susan has found a way to blend them all into some truly great music.

As I said behind every great church is a great staff.  I'm so thankful that our church has a staff that loves what they do, has the gifts and talents to do it well and works together as a team to ensure the church's best interested are our focus.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about what makes our church great.  Whether it's our staff or our volunteer leaders and teams, what qualities do you appreciate most?

10 Things You May Not Know About Senior Pastors

I have several people that I consider mentors in my life.  Some of them I know very well and in person, others I only know through their books, speaking and blog posts.  Ron Edmondson is one of those people.  I've never met him in person but have corresponded through Email with him a few times.  His blog is one of the few that I follow daily and his wisdom has helped me tremendously.

Today he wrote about "10 Things You May Not Know About Senior Pastors."  As someone who has been both an associate and senior pastor I have either witnessed or experienced most of the things on his list.   I've known and even worked with senior pastors who have dealt with all ten of the things Ron describes.

Looking at Ron's list I realize how blessed I am to serve and lead such a healthy church.  Our church is also blessed with a great staff that is mature and healthy and supports, encourages, and prays for each other.  And I'm so fortunate to have a wife who understands the dynamics of leading a church and supports and encourages me every step of the way.

Here's a link to Ron's post.  May it remind you to pray for and encourage your senior pastor.

The People That Make Our Church Great - Part 3

This is part three of a four part series.  

I love the church I serve in.  And I love it not because of the programs or the buildings or the great office that I have, but because of the people that I have the joy and honor of serving together with in making a difference in our community and our world in the name of Christ.

There are so many people and groups that make our church great and make the work that we do as a church possible.  Most of those people and most of those groups work quietly behind the scenes.  I want to mention three groups today that do that and do it with excellence.

Our Missions Team is made up of people who are not only passionate about doing missions outside the walls of our church but are passionate about bringing other people along in that journey.  For a church our size we do an extraordinary amount of mission work, local and international.  

Our Missions Team works to make sure we continue moving forward without taking on more than we can do with excellence.  They also have the responsibility of making sure that the way we do missions is such that it strengthens rather than harms the communities we are serving.  Many churches never give thought to how they are serving and if their methods are truly good for the community.  Our Missions Team is constantly asking questions and making sure that when we serve in another community we do no harm.  The team also tries to ensure that in all we do, the local church in the community is the hero rather than our teams.

The Missions Team has spent the last year working very hard to develop a mission team manual to guide our teams and to ensure things are done well, within the values of our church and that everyone is as safe as possible when serving.

The Vulnerable Children's Team works to lead our church to understand the needs of vulnerable children in our community and internationally and to work with our strategic partners to help meet those needs.  Our church serves vulnerable children locally through our partnership with FACETS and internationally through our partnerships with Nairobi Gospel Centre, The Royal Diadem for Excellence and Samaritan's Purse.

Much like the Missions Team this team is made up of people that are passionate about the vulnerable children in our world but also passionate about bringing other people into the conversation to be apart of the solution.  

Many times we don't even realize we are serving vulnerable children when in fact we are.  For example when we collect supplies for the FACETS Backpack Program we are supporting vulnerable children in the Fairfax area.  The children and families that receive the supplies would not be able to afford them on their own.  By helping to meet this need we help these children get a better start to the school year by having the supplies they need.  Providing quality education plays a major role in breaking the cycle of poverty.  That's also one of the things we are doing in Kenya.  Right now our efforts as a church support a program operated by Nairobi Gospel Centre.  We are currently making it possible for a young boy named Ancent to attend a private school which is far better than his community school.  Our goal is to be supporting ten children by the end of this year.

We also support vulnerable children through our work with Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child.  I love that OCC is more about relationships than anything else.  The shoe boxes that we pack and send give local pastors in developing countries a tool for building relationships with children and families in their communities.  The relationships allow the pastor and church to not only share the gospel of Christ with these families but it puts them in a position of being the hands and feet of Jesus as they meet real, physical and emotional needs.

There's no way to possibly list every group that makes our church great and the problem with doing a series like this is the risk of leaving a group out.  There are many individuals, teams and groups that lead annual events, events that only happen once and who serve in so many different ways throughout the year to make our church great.  There are volunteers who show up and fix equipment and make repairs to our building.  There are people who minister one on one to others in our church who are in need.  And there are people who quietly serve and without everyone doing what they do we simply could not do what we do.

That's why I love our church and that's why it's great. because of the people that I have the joy and honor of serving together with in making a difference in our community and our world in the name of Christ.

The People That Make Our Church Great - Part 2

This is Part 2 of a series of posts I'm writing about the people that make our church great.  In Part 1 I talked about the folks that make Sunday mornings possible.  In this post I want to talk about some of the people and teams that work behind the scenes to lead our church strategically and administratively.

• The Administrative Council oversees much of the administrative side of the church.  This team oversees and reports on our church's finances, prepares our annual budget, ensures the property and buildings are maintained and keeps our personnel policies up-to-date.  Over the last few years this team has worked very hard to up date our policies and create procedures designed to protect the church and allow for transparency.  I have the pleasure of working closely with this team and they make things that are difficult for me (crunching numbers) look easy.

• Our Alignment Team has an unusual name for a church team but the name fits its role.  The AT's responsibility is to make sure the church stays aligned with its mission, core values, doctrines and strategic objectives.  The Alignment Team has the wonderful and sometimes difficult job of keeping the "big picture" of the church in view.  By big picture I mean they seek to know where the church is and where it needs to be at any given time.  Forward motion is a key part of a healthy church and the AT makes sure that FCBC is steadily moving forward.

• The Family Ministry Team is a new team and has only been working together for a few months.  While we're still figuring out all the the roles and responsibilities of the FMT we do anticipate this being a "big picture" team as well.  In the past we had a children's ministry team and a youth ministry team.  Both teams led their areas of ministry in silos.  When we created the FMT we brought together leadership from our Kid and Student Ministries to work together strategically with the same goal in mind:  to partner with parents to help them build faith in their children.

• The Pastor Advisory Team is a team of four people who I meet with every three months.  They serve as a sounding board for me as I seek to lead the church and staff.  They ask great questions about my ideas or potential decisions and always provide good, candid feedback and wisdom. The team is made up of people who will tell me what I need to hear not what I want to hear.  In many ways I view them as my supervisor.  The team also helps me gauge the pace of change in the church and helps me keep check on my personal physical, relational and spiritual health.

• Our church Trustees are the legal arm of the church.  In Virginia they are appointed by the church and approved by the circuit court.  They deal with any legal matters including purchasing or selling property, long-term contracts or leases and insurance and liability issues.  Typically the Trustees are not called on very often but when they are their work is very important.

I so thankful for each of these teams and for every person that serves on them.  These folks work very hard all year to make sure our church is protected, that our staff has what they need, and that our church and ministries are moving forward in a positive direction.  Without them leading us from behind the scenes most of what we do as a church would grind to a halt.

The People That Make Our Church Great - Part 1

I love our church.  I think it's an amazing place to serve, grow, connect and be in community.  But the fact is we couldn't do church with out the dedication of so many leaders and volunteers.  Over the next few weeks I want to point out the many groups and people that make the ministries of FCBC, not only possible, but actually great.  Each group is an important part of our mission to develop devoted followers of Christ.

This week I'll start with the folks that make Sunday mornings possible.

Hospitality Team – This team consist of several smaller teams.

• The Refreshment Team are the folks that set up the coffee and snacks and then clean it all up after worship. They are an important part of our Sunday morning hospitality and are behind the scenes folks that do what they do with amazing hearts.  I love how they pay attention to details, try new things and really seem to enjoy what they do.  And whoever came up with the idea to serve OJ and milk is a genius.  We get an enormous amount of positive feedback about this aspect of our Sunday morning experience. 

• Our greeters also play a big part in our hospitality.  They are some of the first people that guests and regulars attenders meet on Sundays and their smiles, handshakes and assistance set the stage for many people’s worship experience.  They also are great at remembering people’s names and have helped me with that on many occasions.  I don’t plan to mention individual names here but one person has to be mentioned - Ray Pettus has been serving as a greeter for at least 15 years; in fact there were times when she was the only greeter we had.  Thanks Ray!

• Ushers are more than just the folks that take up the offering and hand out bulletins - although those are important roles and they do them well.  But they also assist people in finding where they need to go.  They help parents find our Kid's Ministry and nurseries.  And they help folks find a seat when things get crowded.  Ushers also provide a level of security for our building.  Once the service is underway they lock doors and check on the Kid's Ministry areas.

Kid's Ministry Leaders - Our Kid's Ministry is vital to our church and to our Sunday mornings.  The leaders there provide our kids with love, encouragement, Biblical teaching, and a ton of fun.  They also make it possible for parents to attend worship, fellowship with others and experience Biblical teaching themselves without distractions.  As a Pastor and as a parent I'm so thankful for the folks who serve in this ministry week after week.  I'm also thankful for the middle and high school students who faithfully serve in this ministry and that we have adult leaders who recognize the opportunity for our students to grow through serving.

Worship Techs - Our worship techs are another group that faithfully serve behind the scenes.  They make it possible for our worship team to lead us through music and for others and myself to teach scripture.  It's a difficult thing to not get drawn into the songs, music and teaching during the worship service but each person in this ministry is great at staying focused on what they are doing.  Even when we have problems with our mics, sound system and video system the team remains calm and focused and solve the problems. 

Vocals and Instrumentalists - Worship would not be worship with our music and the music at FCBC is great!  The folks who sing and play instruments meet every week for a couple of hours to practice and prepare for Sunday morning and to learn new songs to teach us.  The amount of musical talent that we have a FCBC is rare for a church our size.  I also appreciate the fact that this is an area where we have students serving and adults who are helping them grow.  It's also important to know that this team prays together each Wednesday as a part of their preparation to lead.

Thanks to everyone who serves on Sunday mornings.  Without your dedication we could not do what we do and could not reach our mission.

Thirteenth Birthday

My son Andrew turned 13 yesterday.  His mom and sister and I were singing "Happy Birthday" to him when we looked at the clock and realized it was 7:59PM - the exact time of his birth.  Very cool!

I've heard a lot of parents talk about how they don't want their kids to grow up and all of that.  I've actually loved every stage of my kids' lives and have always looked forward to the next one.  I love seeing them grow, take on responsibility, learn how to solve their own problems and increase their character.  I even love that they are becoming more and more independent from me because I see them becoming more dependent on God.

We got this Email from Andrew's math teacher this morning.  It was the icing on the cake (bad pun I know) to what has been a great few days of celebrating our son's life.

I just wanted to let you know how polite Andrew has been to me all year.  As he leaves the classroom each day, he is always sure to say “Good-bye, Mrs. Hawkins.  I hope you have a good evening” – or something similar.  He is a pleasure to teach.