Entries from December 2007 ↓

I was reading the news the other day, and was surprised to see that a former policeman who I happen to know is on his way to jail. I conducted his wedding service several years ago, and I always figured he was a naughty boy. Feel sorry for poor wife and kids, but I have a feeling that she probably knew what she was marrying into.

Weird day. Got a few home things done, spent waaaaay too much time trying to figure out how to free a DVD from the stupid region restriction (that drives me nuts! I OWN this thing, but just because it was bought in the US I got problems playing it?! Give me a break!! Damn evil DRM…), and then a bunch of trips playing taxi for kids, etc.That kind of day.But, got a nice night out with my honey tonight in celebration of my birthday yesterday (prime number), so that should unwierd the day a bit.

i’ve always been a firm believer in communicating directly with people, and being straight with them.  in some ways, it’s probably not won me friends in some circles which thrive on politics and playing games, but i just believe that true community and christian relationships are about speaking the truth in love.

that means that if you’ve got a problem with someone, then you go talk to them.  you don’t talk to other people about them or the problem without dealing directly with them.  i believe in this so strongly that we’ve had people leave our church over it.  i’ve had a couple of situations where people came to me to complain about a ministry leader, and i insisted that they should talk to that leader first before bringing the issue to me.  they refused to do that and ended up leaving, but i was rock solid on this – don’t come complaining to me if you’re not prepared to deal with issues biblically.

and, in a leadership team, this kind of behaviour is a cancer.  when there are little conversations happening without the key players facing off directly to deal with stuff, it’s a disease that will cripple and suffocate your community.  it can’t be tolerated – it has to be addressed and challenged.  whispers and gossip are never the godly way to go.  but, unfortunately, in our sin, it’s the default way we deal with stuff.  we’re afraid to be real and authentic, so we hide, undermine, subvert, criticize, gossip, and basically do everything but talk face to face with folks we need to do business with.  drives me nuts, but it’s the messy way we go about relationships.  but it’s a cancer.  just can’t say it more strongly.

we’ve struggled with this in cycles at warnbro over the years, and i guess it’s just one of those things you keep coming back to deal with, given that it is a bit of a default mode of operating for us as sinful humans.  but, it’s not the way of christ, and you just have to keep coming back to it over and over again.

if you’re leading a team, i’d encourage you to step up and get stuck into this when you see it.  it’s one of the classic dysfunctions of a team and community, and you just can’t afford to let it go.

A lot of prayer and planning has been going into 2008, and I am very excited at what God is doing in us. I really like we are going to enter a great season as a church, with some real clarity developing for us about what we need to do to accomplish our mission.

There’s some big changes in the midst of all that, but nothing that I don’t see as better for us in the days ahead, so I’m trusting the Lord for his provision.

After a period earlier this year of extreme tiredness, it feels good to be beyond that and moving forward again. God is so amazing in his grace.

i currently have my wife stumped with a small sheet of paper i have pinned to my wall…  it contains a code… 2:15 / -6 / 83 :-) she can’t figure it out, and isn’t happy that i won’t tell her what it means.  what about you?  anyone?  :-) 

wow!  it’s been a very flat-out few weeks, so pardon the lack of traffic here.  here’s a quick download of a few things… 

• we ran our annual aquacarols event yesterday at the aqua jetty facility next door to us.  it was a different format to what we’ve done in the past (primarily due to some interesting developments with council permissions, etc.), but i think it went off really well.  we had great weather for the day, which is kind of helpful when you’re running a pool party!
• i’ve really been enjoying preaching the “heroes” series we’ve been doing for the past few weeks – just so much to learn from the heroes of old, and it’s been really challenging to me personally.
• i can’t express how grateful i am to the Lord for bringing mark jones onto our team as our ministry support team leader.  i came to a point earlier this year where i knew that i couldn’t keep going with the load i was carrying, and my awesome elders encouraged/pushed me to finally do what we’ve known we should have done a couple of years ago – get someone on board to share the admin load of the church, and allow me to get back to focusing on what i do best.  mj rocks!  God has blessed us over and over again with great people.  anyways, i feel somewhat sane again, which is always nice!
• got my grades back from my first doctoral class i took mid-year – yeah!  still got a little of the old magic running in the veins…  :-)  actually, i was a bit nervous, because academia is a bit of a game, and the trick is figuring out where the lines lie so you can meet the expectations.  anyways, i was pleased with what i got back, and even more pleased because i felt like God really used my case study to teach me some stuff, which is always a lot better than just jumping through hoops.
• God has been teaching me a lot about love lately, and really challenging me about my love for him and others.  it’s good, but in my face.  it seems like every page of scripture has been whacking me between the eyes with love – ok, so, in spite of my previous comment, i’m a very slow learner!
• we’ve been working through “simple church” as a leadership and staff, and God has been really using this simple text (no pun intended) to help us gain clarity and focus for next year.  i’m really serious about the next couple of years – i feel like the Lord has been giving me a pep talk about getting moving over the next 24 months and seeing some cool things happen in our neck of the woods.  i’m excited by that, because for all that we’ve achieved so far, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface yet of really connecting with our community, so i’m ready to roll.
• and, since it’s late and i need to go to bed, i’m very excited because the dallas cowboys finally have a team, and it’s been a long time coming.  just finished watching the scrappy 1-point win over detroit, and it felt good knowing that your team was going to win, in spite of it being a close thing – you just have a sense of confidence that it’s a do-able thing, and we haven’t had the feeling as dallas fans for a decade.  nice!  the perfect way to start a week!
• ok – off to bed.  i’m realising more and more how important sleep is to me…  too stupid to realise it before.  doh.

some of you may have heard by now along the grapevine, but warnbro church is looking for a new children’s pastor to lead our kids ministry team, which is definitely one of the coolest spaces in our ministry line-up.

 unfortunately, julie newcombe felt the need to step down from her role as our team leader in that area to focus on life closer to home, which i understand entirely, but it’s definitely left us with a big gap to fill because julie has done such an awesome job in shaping our ministry to kids over the past few years.  she’ll be a big loss to us in that capacity, but we know that God will provide just the right person to replace her – he’s always been so amazing in the way he works.

so, if you feel that maybe that right person is you or someone you know, this is a full-time leadership role in a ministry area that we take very seriously at warnbro church.  it’s a team leadership role, with 3 other staff working in schools and running our other programs.  we desire to run some of the coolest stuff happening for kids in our community, as we seek to connect with kids and families in relevant ways.

please email me directly for more info and an application pack.

i love reading, and i’m so thankful that all of my kids love reading too.  it’s such an amazing thing when you think about it, the ability to take symbols and squiggles on a page and translate them into ideas and images and meanings, all in the briefest instant.  it’s probably one of biggest things we take for granted in the western world, the ability to read.  there was a time in history where the privilege of learning to read and write was the domain of the elite.

i’ve said it before, and i’ll say it again…  the old aphorism that “leaders are readers” is absolutely true.  if you aspire to be a great leader (however you wish to define “great”), it ain’t gonna happen unless you are prepared to crack open some good books and go on a journey of growth and expand your mind with big ideas, learning from others, and being stimulated to think in directions you had never considered before.

i talk to a lot of leaders who are too busy too read – and i think that if they’re leaders, they can’t afford not to read.  build it into your schedule… make it part of your busyness, but don’t neglect it because every one of those books you digest makes you a bigger person and better leader.

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain   

Unbelievable! December already! Hard to believe.

Wall to wall week just gone, but a good one. Really feel like things are setting up nicely for a big year in 08.

In the process of working through some important decisions for the next couple of years – good to have some God-given sense of direction.