Greg Atkinson

The other day I wrote about what magazines I had read lately. I mentioned that I wanted to come back and talk about Outreach Magazine. This issue was their 100 Largest and Fastest-Growing Churches in America edition.

There is a great interview in the magazine with pastors Rick Bezet and Chris Hodges – pastors of the fastest growing church in America (’09 & ’08). It’s a great interview and knowing how humble and sincere both pastors are, I thought it gave glory where glory is due – to God.

An interesting thing though that many may not realize is that not only are Rick and Chris (and their churches) ARC churches, they both serve on the board of ARC (Association of Related Churches). Not only that, Rick and Chris’ churches were the first 2 churches that ARC planted 8 years ago when ARC was birthed.

So ARC launched 8 years ago with Church of the Highlands (Chris Hodges) and New Life Church (Rick Bezet) and then fast-forward: Church of the Highlands is the fastest growing church in the US in 2008 and New Life Church is the fastest growing church in 2009.

I point this out because I believe in ARC and think they do a good job planting churches. It’s worth noting that this year’s and last year’s fastest growing churches are both ARC churches. I wrote THIS blog post a while back and mentioned all the great churches that you may not realize are ARC churches. If you didn’t read it, it’s worth checking out. You’d be amazed at how many great churches and pastors you’ve heard of are ARC churches.

Why do I do a blog post on “ARC and Church Growth”? Because as an ARC coach of church planters, I can personally tell you how much I talk about the importance of prayer in leading and growing/strengthening your church. I’ve met with church planters and pastors and begged them to make prayer a priority. I’ve begged them to gather on Saturday to pray for Sunday (like Chris Hodges has always done). I’ve begged pastors to begin an intercessory prayer ministry that prays throughout their morning worship services.

Fortunately, I’ve had the privilege of hearing both Rick and Chris teach on the importance and power of prayer. The very first thing ARC teaches at their CPR’s (Church Planters Roundtable) is that you must “win the war in the spiritual”. As Billy Hornsby says, “Prayer is a non-negotiable”. I heard Chris Hodges once say, “You can’t delegate prayer.”

I write this blog post because every “fastest-growing” list that comes out has a story behind the names on the list. There are some amazing churches listed on this year’s list. I know most of the churches. My word to you is that knowing these leaders, I know they wouldn’t point to a cool technology or church growth fad, but to the power and presence of our Almighty God.

God is using ARC in a mighty way and I’m thrilled to be a small part of it and not only contribute and consult, but I grow and learn all the time by hanging out and talking with the ARC team. Billy Hornsby is a new mentor in my life and I appreciate the investment he’s making in my life.

My encouragement to you is for YOU to get to know the ARC as well. If you’re a future church planter, look into planting through ARC. Contact me and I’ll get you started down the path. If you’re an already existing church, you can join ARC (like Craig Groeschel and LifeChurch.tv and Mark Batterson and National Community Church) and begin to see your missions budget go straight to planting churches here in the United States. I’d be glad to talk with you about how your church can join the ARC and begin actively supporting church planting.

All Glory to God!

Today  I’m a stop on the Whole Church Blog Tour. I asked author Mel Lawrenz 3 questions and he answered them below. I read this book on two flights a week ago. It’s worth your time to check it out.

1) In chapter 10, you talk about the struggles we all face when it comes to change. In your experience, what’s the first hurdle leaders need to overcome to change their culture from fragmentation to engagement?

MEL: Our biggest hurdle to overcome is our obsession with ourselves. All churches (and especially their leaders) tend to be focussed on themselves. We do that because we’re human; and we have fragmentation in our churches because we human beings are fragmented. We should come back to the question: what really constitutes success in a church? What are we really aiming at accomplishing? Whole Church contains 350 practical ideas on promoting cohesion in a church.

2) Is there a linear path from fragmentation to engagement? Or does each church’s individual context influence the steps leaders need to take?

MEL: Churches, like families, grow and improve in an organic way, not in a linear path, in my opinion (at least, with regard to the spiritual dynamics of a church). Engagement (as God’s resources being brought into contact with human need) happens when, in dozens of different ways, we close the God-gap. For instance, re-tooling worship so that it is a true encounter with God in every element of worship, or shaping small groups so that they produce true koinonia (not just gatherings), or getting a congregation really engaged with global needs by connecting with a school in southern Sudan. These are not a few steps along a linear path, but a pattern of a multitude of cohesive experiences.

3) You end the book with a chapter called “Choosing Wise Leaders” – why did you choose to finish with this?

MEL:Wisdom is a neglected theme of church leadership. Get leaders who are wise (in the James 3 sense), and they will know that engagement with God is where the real power of ministry comes from and they will raise the church above small-mindedness.

Mel Lawrenz 
http://www.wholechurch.org/

As you know, I’m in the air (traveling) a lot. Lately I’ve been bringing some magazines with me to read during the flight. Magazines that I’m reading currently are:

• Outreach (I’ll talk more about articles from this tomorrow)
• Worship Leader (I was interviewed for a series called Worship 2.0)
• Church Production
• Wired
• Fast Company

What magazines are you reading?

This past weekend I did a secret shopper visit at an amazing church in Orangeburg, SC. I arrived in town Saturday evening and headed straight to the church as it was nice out and I thought it might rain on Sunday. I wanted to see the grounds and parking lot, building exterior, etc.

As I was looking around, I came across a door in the back of the church that was left open. I didn’t know if someone was inside or if it had been overlooked and left open/unlocked, but I opened it and went inside…

NOTE: It never occurred to me that there might be an alarm.

I went inside the church and began looking around, making notes and taking pictures. I went straight to the restrooms and since I wouldn’t get to see the Women’s Restrooms on Sunday, I decided to go inside them, take pictures and make notes. I must add: they have a very nice women’s restroom. Below is their sitting room when you walk inside the women’s restroom:

I noted that the women’s restroom had 11 regular stalls and 2 large/handicap stalls (as seen in the top picture). Their sink area appeared neat and clean, etc. Regular stuff. I left there and went across the hall to the men’s restroom. I made notes in there and took pictures.

I walked out to be greeted by 3 police officers with tazors drawn. I’m not kidding. They asked who I was and you should have been a fly on the wall as I tried to explain to them what a church secret shopper was. They told me to turn around and padded me down. They took my ID and called it in.

Please understand and believe me – I planned on calling the senior pastor after I finished looking at the restrooms to let him know about the unlocked door.

So the interrogation went on. IF I was not able to get the pastor on the phone (which – thank God I was) they were going to take me downtown and arrest me. I didn’t “break and enter” as one officer said. I simply saw a door cracked open and walked inside it.

Lesson learned – I won’t be doing that again. So there! That’s my new unforgettable secret shopper story and my welcome to South Carolina.

As you know, I spend a lot of time coaching church planters. Some launched earlier this year, some are launching this Fall and some will launch in 2010.

One thing I love telling my church planters about is Casey Graham and the services of The Change Group. Now whether you’re a brand new church or an established, older church, Casey’s team can be a huge blessing to you. As he always says, “What you stay awake worrying about, we wake up thinking about!”

Casey and his team can do: quarterly CFO consulting, build monthly financial dashboards, and provide weekly bookkeeping for less than it cost to hire a part time staff member! I’d encourage you to get to know them. I’ve invited Casey to do a guest post on here.

Guest Post by Casey Graham:

Life Giving Finances

My name is Casey Graham and I am one of the Co-Founders of The Change Group.  Over the past year we have worked with so many churches to help them increase their operational revenue and manage their finances.  I believe everything we do should be LIFE GIVING (John 10:10) and that goes with our finances as well.  I just wanted to take a minute and talk about three things every church can do today that will make a big difference tomorrow.

1.  Personal Generosity

Nothing will increase your passion for helping people find life through generosity more than you modeling it.  Developing a culture is not rocket science!  Who you are is who your people will become.

2.  Life Giving Offerings

When you stand up to talk about the offering, don’t “beg” for dollars.  Help people understand that every dollar they give goes to change lives!  Help people connect their money to the different ministries.  People will want to give to that.

3.   Appreciate People

One of the most life giving things you can do financially is say thank you.  When it comes to the area of money in church we can’t show favoritism but we can appreciate what people do.  Have dinner night at your home and invite your top twenty donors to your home.  Give to them, cook for them, love on them and really believe in them.  Also, you can thank you first time givers with a hand written thank you card.  Appreciate anything and everything that people give!  You can’t do what you do without them!

*** Be sure to check out their free offer: http://thechangegroup.tv/freeoffer.html

I had to say it at least once. I received some pretty mean email from gay Christians. Just as I have called out Steven Anderson several times for being mean, off-base and just plain wrong, I simply called out the billboards that were posted around Dallas for misrepresenting Scripture.

I thought I made it pretty clear that I’m not anti-homosexual and I’m not a person without unconditional love and grace and mercy. Is it not humanly and spiritually possible for me to love and welcome a gay person to my church without agreeing that their lifestyle is not a sin?

Do I really have to compromise my view and understanding of God and Scripture in order to not be called anti-homosexual or homophobic? I’m not anti-liar, anti-thief, anti-adulturer, anti-gossipper, anti-glutton, anti-pride – or any sin you want to pick. BUT, though I love, accept and see them with eyes and a heart of grace, I lovingly encourage them to, as Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” He didn’t preach, shame, ridicule or punish. He simply said “Go and sin no more” (to a woman caught in adultery).

Can I not look a gay man or woman in the eyes and say I love you even though I don’t agree with your lifestyle? Do I really have to condone what one is doing to be seen as loving? I have friends that struggle with pornography (most men, if not all, have looked at porn at some time in their life – women, too). Can I not hang out with, love, accept and be a good friend to my friends that struggle with porn and still encourage them to keep pure eyes and day by day give it over to God?

As to those that emailed me about the 2 billboards referencing the Roman Centurion and the Eunuch. Let’s make a HUGE leap of logic and historical understanding of those passages and say that both the Roman Centurion’s servant and the eunuch were gay – that’s a a big “IF”. But let’s say they were, all that implies is that Jesus healed a gay servant (I don’t think anyone Jesus healed was sinless or perfect) and that Philip baptized a gay man. We don’t have to clean ourselves up to come to Jesus, as we all know.

So, if we go along with their interpretation of Scripture, a gay servant got healed and a gay man got baptized. Neither case affirms their lifestyle. You can be gay and get healed and you can be gay and accept Christ and get baptized. That doesn’t mean that “Jesus affirmed” them as the billboard says.

However, when the Bible does speak up on the issue of homosexuality (not leaps of logic or guessing or assuming – really speaks) – it’s crystal clear on it’s view of homosexuality as a sin (in both the Old and New Testaments).

Hear me: if a gay person said “Let’s go hang out… watch a movie… go bowling… catch a Texas Rangers’ baseball game… watch the Cowboys” — you name it. If a gay person wanted to be my friend, they could with no problem whatsoever. They would know my view of Scripture and that I didn’t approve of this one area of their life and would love to see them live a pure and holy life before God – but, it wouldn’t keep me from hanging out with them and being their friend.

I am a person FULL of grace. I have been forgiven much in my life. I do NOT have it all together. I sin all the time. I screw up. I blow it. I need grace and mercy in my own life, therefore, I freely give it to others.

Ask me to be your friend, love you, pray for you, be there for you – whatever – just don’t draw a line in the sand and say if I don’t cast aside Scripture and believe that your lifestyle is okay before God, we can’t be friends or I’m anti-homosexual – that’s being intolerent and not respectful of my personal beliefs.

I want to hear from all of you, but especially the gay Christians that don’t agree with me. I  don’t delete comments on here unless they’re spam or vulgar. If you have something to say, say it. If you want to email me, email me. If you want to meet me in person (leaders from the 5 DFW churches), then meet me. Do you think of me as antiquated or mean because I hold to one understanding of Scripture? Have I not made myself very clear that I would love you and treat you with respect? Is that enough?

I go to a lot of Texas Rangers games. I also went to watch the Cowboys practice at their new stadium (which is across the street from Rangers Ballpark). On the interstate drive to the 2 major stadiums there have been put up highly controversial billboards by 5 churches in the DFW area. Below are the 2 billboards that I saw on my drive to the stadium.

These billboards caught my eye and I immediately pulled out my iPhone and looked up the Scripture references. Talk about twisting Scripture! Please hear my heart – I love ALL people. I know gay people. I treat them kindly and with respect. I know every week that I’m at my church that there are gay people in the congregation. They are welcome at our church and we believe in unconditional love and grace and mercy.

BUT to twist Scripture like these billboards do and take advantage of clueless people driving down the road that think their references are true and don’t have the ability or desire to actually look the verses up and read them for themselves is wrong.

Several times in the past I’ve started to blog about the issue of homosexuality and the Church. I’ve written drafts of blogs, but never posted them. You see, I usually err on the side of grace and think there are a lot of cruel and mean people in “the Church” that need to see gay people as Christ sees them.

However, I still believe that homosexuality is a sin (just as I sin all too often myself and have my own struggles). Where I disagree with my homosexual brothers and sisters is when they twist, remove or lie about Scripture. The Bible is very clear on this issue and that’s not going to change – even if it’s the 21st Century.

I would love to meet with these 5 DFW churches and their leadership (this is the website for the campaign). I would like to hear their reasoning and explain how they can take two very well known stories in Scripture and use them for their basis of their campaign. I’m extremely disappointed in their misuse of Scripture and what I believe is a type of deception.

Hear me people of DFW: the characters in the stories listed on the billboards were not gay – it’s simply not true. What are your thoughts?

Sorry for not blogging yesterday. I had a full Sunday and didn’t have time to blog Sunday night. I had an unfortgettable secret shopper/mystery worshipper visit this past Sunday. The church I went to had a lot of storms and rain in the area and had their power knocked out.

It’s amazing all that you can learn about a church when they are under pressure. I have never been so proud of a church as I was this past Sunday. I was blown away and thrilled to see a staff and volunteers rally together to pull off their services with generators and a lot of heart.

I’m actually going to return in 2 weeks for a “normal” service, but I saw a lot of good in this first, unique visit and I’m glad to see that God still moves – even when the power is out. Can I get an Amen?

Mind mapping is something that I learned and began to truly appreciate through my friend, Tony Steward (Online Community Pastor at LifeChurch.tv). Up until recently it was always done on paper (Moleskin). Yesterday he sent me an email introduction to MindMeister. I was instantly interested! I signed up and watched their helpful tutorial video (it’s brief).

There are a number of ways that you as a Church leader could use this new tool. Whether it be as a Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor, Worship Pastor (leading a creative team), Small Groups – you name it – there’s a way that this can be a great tool and resource for your ministry.

You can share your mind map with friends. Share instantly any mind map with friends and colleagues. Invitees will receive an email with a link and – depending on what access you give them – will be able to contribute or just read.

Real-time collaboration. When two or more users open the same mind map at the same time you are in brainstorming mode. Every change you make will be replicated instantly to your fellow editors’ screens via our server. Through colour-coded effects they will see what you did and vice versa, no reload necessary.

Summary: MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world (or just in different rooms) can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other’s changes as they happen.

There’s a free version and a premium version that only costs $4 a month. $4 bucks a month! Check it out and let me know if you have something you’d like to share. I may have something I’ll share soon with you.

PERSONAL:
Today is 9/11. We pause to remember what happen on that tragic day. 9/11 is also my mom’s birthday. Mom: Happy Birthday!

My friend, Blain Hogan, at Willow Creek sent me this video for a new series they’re doing. I like the simplicity and class of the video. I like the use of the white and black in the text. I like the abstract shots in the background. I like the chair at the end. What are your thoughts on the video? What are you working on at your church?

***(I apologize – the video was too wide to embed here)***