Circles That I've Drawn

Our staff is reading Mark Batterson's book The Circle Maker together. I've gone on record before and said that Mark is an amazing writer and one of the most authentic and intentional people I've met. I highly recommend all of his books.

I was humbled this week when I saw a picture posted on FaceBook by one of the parents in our

church. Her daughter, who is in Kindergarten, wrote this in her prayer journal. Her brother has been sick for a while and has had to have a lot of tests. The family is still waiting for a diagnosis.

Prayer is about drawing circles around people and things that we're trusting God for. She's drawn a circle around her little brother and in doing so has taught us all a lot about prayer.

Here are three things I've recently circled in prayer:

• My son Andrew and I are going on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. We leave in less than two weeks. Andrew has been out of the county (Europe) but has never seen real poverty. For the last couple of months I've been praying that while we are there God will enlarge his heart for children who have so much less than he has. I'm praying that this trip is a life-changer for him.
  
  
• I'm praying for our church as we launch a 40-Day campaign. I'm praying that in the end we will not only want to KNOW more scripture but we will want to DO more scripture.
  
  
• And I'm praying for an event that's coming up this weekend in Northern Va. It's called Mission Possible and it's all about helping students learn about the social needs in our world and how they can be apart of changing that world.

What or whom are you circling in prayer?

Prayer Circles, Big Dreams and a Kid Named Ancent

This is a picture of a kid named Ancent.  He's 5 years old and lives in Nairobi, Kenya with his mom and his 13 year old brother.  At age 3 Ancent's father was brutally killed by thugs who robbed him on his way home from work.   Last week he came into our lives at Fairfax Circle Church.  Here's the backstory.

About three years ago a woman in our church, after reading Kay Warren's book Dangerous Surrender, had a God-sized dream.  Actually at the time the dream was pretty vague - "orphans in Africa."  So we began, what Mark Batterson would call, circling that dream in prayer.   It's been amazing to see God work and bring clarity to that original dream.

It's also been amazing to see God bring the right people to help us chase this dream.  People like Pastor Charles and our partner church Nairobi Gospel Centre.  A group of ladies from NGC who, before we ever met them, were having the same dream.  My friend Enock Matte, who has done an incredible amount of work at lightening speed in Nairobi to get this dream off the ground.  The folks who launched Side By Side Ministries to help generate funds.  And countless others.

Our dream is pretty basic - to help vulnerable children like Ancent.  We want to find ways to help parents who are at risk of not being able to keep their kids, keep their kids.  And for those kids who have been orphaned or abandoned, we want to find them a loving home with family who will care for them and show them God's love.

We abandoned our original idea of building an orphanage.  Why we do something in Kenya that we wouldn't do in America?  We also knew that the family was God's idea and He created everyone for family.  So we decided to find ways to help families foster those kids that have no families and to help struggling parents find a way to provide for their kids so that abandoning does not have to be an option.

My dream for this ministry is pretty simple and pretty big - 1,000 kids in the next 10 years.  That's going to involve a lot of resources, a lot of work and a lot of people.  But God is a big God and I don't think he's interested in small dreams.

In Kenya they have a saying that goes like this "kidogo kidogo hujaza kibaba."  It means "little by little the cup is filled."  That's what our church and Nairobi Gospel Centre, are doing.  We're working together, at a steady pace, "little by little" filling the cup.  Our goal for this year is 10 kids by the end of 2012.  And then our hope and prayer is to have a snowball effect.

But today we're celebrating and praising God that Ancent was just enrolled in a better school and that some of his family's basic needs are being met.   And that God has allowed us to be a part, in some small way, of his life.

What the Church Can Learn From Apple

I'm an Apple fan. I wasn't always, in fact I used to give Apple users a hard time about their devices. But a couple of years ago I bought my first Mac, a MacBook Pro laptop, and I've never looked back. Last year I bought my first iPhone and this year I intend to buy my first iPad. And I still have my original video iPod.

But this is not an advertisement for Apple products, it's an encouragement to those of us who lead in our churches to learn from anyone and anything we can - including Apple.

I'm reading Steve Job's biography. It's a fascinating read that even the anti-Apple folks would probably enjoy. When the company was in it's infancy stage a guy named Mike Markkula invested and became a one third partner and Apple's first marketing director. Mike wrote what became Apple's marketing philosophy which was made up of three principles. Three principles that I believe every church should adopt. Here they are:

1. Empathy - an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer: "We will truly understand their needs better than any other company."

I DON'T believe the church should operate from a consumer mentality. I believe too many churches do that and in doing so create overweight (spiritually speaking) Christians that are not engaging the world around them for the Kingdom. I DO believe the church should do all that it can to understand the needs of the people who would benefit from our message and then meet them where they are based on those needs.

2. Focus: "In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities."

Anyone who knows me as a Pastor knows that I believe a church should be focused. Focused on what matters most - not on good things but on BETTER things. In the eight years I've been the Lead Pastor at FCBC we've probably stopped doing more things than we've started. Churches don't need more programs, meetings and ministries they need more focus.

3. Impute: "People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities."

The church has the greatest story in the world. God came in person to offer everyone forgiveness and a fulfilled life. Everyone on the planet needs to hear, understand and accept that message. But too many times we present it, and ourselves for that matter, in slipshod ways.

We sing songs that are emotional for us but don't connect with the current generation. We use outdated technology when the rest of the world uses, well, Apple products. We communicate in a language that outsiders don't understand. And on top of that we serve the worst coffee in town and make people sit on uncomfortable pews.

What if churches adopted these three principles? We probably wouldn't hit Fortune 500 status but I bet we would reach more people for Christ.

Reading Plan

One of the things I struggle with is consistency in reading scripture through reading plans. I read scripture all the time but I've never had a lot of success with organized reading plans. So I'm always looking for new tools to help me read more intentionally.

I came across a great tool that I'm trying this year. You might want to check it out too. It's called YouVersion. The folks at YouVersion have created a lot of different reading plans and give you access to nearly every translation every written. They track your progress, send you reminders and help you catch up when you get behind.

This year I'm doing the Project 3:45 plan. It has you read one chapter, five days a week from the New Testament. I like the idea of reading less and being able to focus on the text more than trying to read the entire Bible in one year. I also like the idea of having the weekend to catch up when I get behind - I tend to have enough pressure without adding more.

I can access YouVersion online, on my iPhone and they will even Email me each day's reading. I can even take notes and share what I'm reading through social networks.

Awesome too! Check it out.

Top 25 Moments from 2011

It's New Year's Eve and time to take a look back at 2011. It's been an amazing year. I can't wait to see what God does in 2012.

Here's my Top 25 Moments of 2011:

25. Unexpected trip to NC to visit family.

24. Christmas Eve at FCBC.

23. Signing my son up for his first international mission trip.

22. Watching the Cowboys beat the Redskins (second time in season.)

21. Operation Christmas Child - ALL of it. It's an amazing thing to see!

20. Catalyst Conference.

19. Travelling to Nashville with Marsha for a friend's wedding.

18. Watching the Cowboys beat the Redskins.

17. Seeing all the amazing results of our Kenya Team's work.

16. Our family's visit with Mike, Alice, Daniel and Ben in England.

15. Visiting my brother and his family in Berlin.

14. Dinner with Marsha in downtown Berlin.

13. Visiting Cathy and Alex in France.

12. Having Alex give us a tour of his home town, Pavilly, France.

11. Taking a picture of the four of us crossing Abbey Road.

10. Seeing my kids faces on their very first airplane ride.

9. Pastor Charle's last minute visit from Nairobi.

8. All the weddings, baptisms and baby dedications. Those never get old!

7. Orange Conference - truly an amazing group of folks leading leaders!

6. Pappadeaux's in Atlanta. Now that's some good food!

5. Dinner and great conversation with long-lost friends in Atlanta.

4. Watching our church showing God's love to the homeless in our community.

3. Hanging out with the guys in my coaching network and learning from each other.

2. Celebrating another anniversary with Marsha - 18 years and each one gets better.

1. Baptizing Abbey!

Merry Christmas

As I'm writing this it's Wednesday, four days until Christmas. I had an interesting conversation this morning with a kid in our neighborhood. He's in the 6th grade and comes to our house each morning to have breakfast and walk to school with Abbey and me. His mom's a single parent and works long hours in order to provide for three kids. She leaves early and comes home late most days.

Last week he noticed some Christmas presents under our tree and jokingly asked which one was his. He was surprised, and thrilled, when Abbey went over and pointed to his Christmas present - it had his name on it. Everyday since he's asked "When can I open my present?"

But today, as we were walking out the door he asked a different question. He asked "Did you get me a present because I'm poor?" I have to say I was not expecting the question and something inside of me broke when I heard it. But somehow, God gave me a quick response. I said "You're one of the richest people I know."

On the walk to school he asked me what I meant when I said he was one of the richest people I knew. I told him that everyday when he comes to our house, regardless of what's going on, he always has a smile on his face and is always happy about something. I told him he was rich in joy and that everyday he makes my day better because of who he is. I'm not sure if he understood what I was saying but someday he will.

It's hard to have joy sometimes, especially when things are not going well for us but are going well for others. But if a 6th grade kid can find joy in the middle of a difficult life, surrounded by friends and peers who have so much more than him, then so can we.

I think that's a big part of the Christmas story. So many people, in difficult circumstances, finding joy because of a baby that changed the world. I hope no matter what the circumstances are in your life this Christmas that you will have an experience like mine this week to remind you of what a joyful time this is.

Merry Christmas!

What's Your Question?

We had an "all church" meeting today. The goal was to give some of our leaders a chance to share some of the things we're going to be trying or tweaking or doing differently in the next few months. The four areas we talked about were:

1. Family Ministry
2. Small Groups
3. Vulnerable Children Initiative
4. Strategic Objectives

We've uploaded the PowerPoint that we used. Click here to view it.

Our goal wasn't to answer every question that people might have about these four areas. Our goal was to paint in broad strokes and we probably generated more questions than we answered. So for those of you who were able to join us what's your question?

What questions do you have about any of these four areas or any other part of our church? If you are wondering about something chances are someone else is too.

Ask your question here, on FB or Twitter or send me an Email. We'll answer them in public forums so everyone benefits.