Waiting for it...

I feel it coming. 

Change, a speeding up of pace, an increase in productivity and busy-ness.  I couldn't tell you exactly *why* I feel it but I'm quite sure I do.

The signs are all around me.

One of the most reliable signs is the number of pages I use each day in my working notebook. More pages means more on the go, more opportunities, more possibilities.

My notebook's been ripping it lately.

Another sign is the number of appointments I have to schedule each week and the number of phone calls I have to make to my wife to make sure our schedules are in-sync.

Lots of that happening.

Another is the amount of people-related stress I'm dealing with. When nothing's really happening in your life you don't have a lot of people-related stress 'cause 'doing things' means doing them *with* people which means if you're not doing anything you don't have to interact with people much.  The more *things* that start happening for you the more people you've got to dance with and, Lord knows, people (including this one) are strange creatures.

Definitely more of that kind of stress these days.

My fingers hurt.

Too much typing.

My head hurts.

Too many things to imagine, plan, write and do.

But I'm happy.

I often say, "Better busy than dead..."  It could be spring, or it could be spring and the fact that a windstorm of work is headed my way.

We'll see.

(plus, I got a sailboat to get ready...)

T

Hope(ful)...

I have reason to be hopeful.

Do you?

(not hating there, seriously asking/wondering)

Some of my reasons this week:

1) We had a great Easter weekend at that wee church I planted just over six months ago. Nearly 140 people came through the door. Now, I realize, with peers of mine having hosted 4,000/6,000/20,000 that same weekend, that 140 is a drop in the bucket.  But, said churches are 8/9/13 years old.  140 in six months is much faster than the last time I did this. 140 is HUGE on the 'typical' scale for church plant growth.  *Most importantly* 140 is ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY actual people who--I hope--were encouraged by what was going on at THE WELL this past weekend.

2) Hollywood is showing signs of love for the new pitch we've been working on for what feels like forever, but which--in fact--has only been a year and a half (only?). We had a conference call on Friday that got us up to speed on some of the things that have been done to start 'shopping' the concept and--I'm very grateful to hear--our work is being preliminarily well-received. The next two to three months should be interesting.

(on the 'perseverance' side of things--in case you're wondering--I'm writing VERSION SEVEN of the pitch today...)

3) After a very disappointing March 28th session in the pulpit (where I felt like I totally dropped the ball) my Easter sermon was (IMHO) worth the price of admission.  Nice to know I haven't totally 'lost' it.

4) My meeting last week with the Hamilton 'film commission' went REALLY well.  They'd really like us to set up shop in their downtown core and are willing to do some pretty cool things to help us make that decision. I'm excited to be welcomed. Excited to maybe be part of helping an emerging arts scene take fuller shape. Excited to maybe get a cool space next to a cool deli where I can shoot some cool stuff and help others do the same.

5) The 'stern lines' for my new sailboat are being installed this Saturday at our local yacht club, where I was officially accepted into 'membership' on Tuesday.  I feel so chique! (not really)

6) We've got so many 'pastoral counseling' sessions booking up, we can hardly keep up and THAT means the stuff we're talking about on Sundays is starting to take root and *that* is a big part of what it's all about in the first place.  AND a couple has asked if they can start helping us, so we're going to start officially training them. How awesome is that?

7) We've got a second worship leader starting up which means (i) more people are stepping up (ii) my first dude has so much other 'Pastoral' work to do we need someone to step up and help which means (iii) we're growing (but I already told you that).

8) I'm toying (just 'toying' mind you...) with starting a Sunday night service (maybe in time for our one-year anniversary this September).  Just toying, mind you.

Anyway, thought I'd share.  Hoping my 'thinking thankfully out loud' might encourage you to do some out-loud thankful thinking for yourself.

To help you find hope in your week...

T

80's and Easter...

A bit grainy (iPhone from sixty feet) but that's how things looked at THE WELL on Good Friday.  We had a nice intimate service in the Anglican tradition. Live Harp provided by our good friend Kat Gray.  Thanks girl.  Overall Easter weekend was our biggest yet (in just over six months in existence). THE WELL is growing rapidly. Faster than I've experienced before. Something to be thankful for...

Then Sunday, we blew the roof off the place.  I lost my mind preaching, and we had an all round wonderful time.

That's what Nik and I looked like Friday night at our crazy friend's birthday. She insisted we all dress up 80's style, and we did. You should have heard the people snickering at us as we walked to dinner downtown.  I took comfort in fun friends and a fun (and foxy) wife. Something to be thankful for...

We did our best to kick it old school.

Saturday we spent the day cleaning our sailboat--a lifelong dream. Seriously, every spring since I can remember I've WISHED with everything in me that I could be at a boatyard working on MY boat.

Dream came true this year.

Something to be thankful for.

I feel very grateful, even moved.  How 'bout you?

T

when to pick a fight...

People fight over the strangest things.

But everybody fights.

You think that what I want to fight about is weird, strange or wrong because it's not what you want to fight about. I think what you want to fight about is weird, strange or wrong because I've decided what I'll fight about and what I won't fight about and your 'thing' isn't even on my radar.

"So who gets to decide what to fight about and what not to fight about?"

The people in charge.

Right?  And that's the bottom line.  That's the toughness.  That's the thing that'll make some stay and some go.  If they feel persistently 'strongly concerned' in an area that's not on your radar that's a recipe for dissatisfaction, dissent and--ultimately--disaster.

You need (I need) to continually work to be very direct, honest, open and even blunt about what you believe, what you hold dear and what you don't give a fig about.

The last thing you want is people wasting their time, talent, treasure, and love in a place that's not going to be a 'fit' because you have different fighting rules than they do.

I feel I've got a few fights brewing.  I feel kind of tired on the one hand but resolved on the other. My hope is to stay humble and very (very) honest throughout this process.  Plus, I'm going to do my best to remember the advice of my friend the 'shaman'...

(don't worry, I just interviewed him, discarded the silliness, kept to that which was good...)

"Don't take anything personally..."

Sounds Biblical.

'Cause it kinda' is.

Sharpening my fists and softening my heart over here kids...

T

gagged...

Blogs are a funny thing.  

One the one hand they're--to some degree--a 'marketing' tool.  A way for you to get your ideas out there, a tool to built awareness of the things you do.

On the other, they're supposed to be a glimpse inside your process, or the genesis of your perspective. Ideally that's supposed to help you (and your audience) learn, think, process and be inspired.

Hard to be honest.

Anyway, wanted to just drop a quick update ('cause I said I would--and I'm regretting it a bit) re: my 'new' notes for preaching.

Sucked.

Terrible.

Totally blew it.

That's how I felt about today's sermon.  I actually felt a little embarrassed.  I realize that 'embarrassment' (in a preacher) can be idolatry in disguise so I've worked really hard to not give in to it or wallow in it but that's the simple truth as to how I felt after getting done today at THE WELL.

I forgot this part about church planting.

The ups and downs.

Last week was awesome.  Near record attendance, record offering, great worship and strong preaching.  This week half our core was away, worship was lackluster and the preaching stunk.

It'll be like this for two to three years.

It just takes time for a church plant to stabilize.  

My 'take aways' from today:

1) If it 'aint broke don't fix it.  Just because I've been writing and preaching sermons the same way for fifteen years doesn't mean I'm in a rut, lazy or complacent.  I need to just keep doing what I've been called/given to do without apology or pretense.

2) It's good to listen to the 'creative urge' to try something new.  If it succeeds, great, you've made tangible progress.  If (like today) it fails, you've learned something that will help grow you (towards tangible progress) and you've had a humbling experience.

3) Make sure I do the work necessary (knowing it's not all up to me...) to do better next week because, I mean, dang...

At lunch after (a veggie burger and chocolate shake to help cheer me up) my wife reminded me to repent of my desire to 'do well' and my tendency to assume that my analysis of an event is the 'objectively true' take on what happened.  She also told me to ask Jesus why things went the way they did today so (as I always do) feeling a little silly about it I asked Him right then and there, while she was still suggesting it, and (as always happens to me when I do this silly thing) the answer formed in my mind immediately.

"So that you will remember to love Me..."

For whatever that's worth.

(whatever that's worth)

Love. Him.

Keep at it.

Remember that neither Rome, nor you average humble suburban church was built in a day.

I'll try to do better next week.

(Easter Sunday: on the one hand, I think I should do better 'cause what preacher worth his salt wouldn't. On the other, that just upped the ante right there didn't it?)

Oh well.

I'll take my own advice from my worst sermon of the year so far...

"Sometimes good enough is GOOD enough..."

T

taking a leap...

So, I'm about to try something new.

For those of you who preach this'll be interesting.  For those of you who don't this'll seem pretty geeky.

Okay...

So, the laptop is running my Bible program.  I use it to study, dig, confirm, check. Basically it helps me make sure I don't have to fire myself for being a heretic.  I'd like a better one but we need to save up the $'s to get it.

To the right is my Bible and first notes (the black binder).

Beneath the laptop, dead center, is a new sketch book.  I'm going to try and mix things up a bit. See, I've always written my entire sermon out in great detail.  The reasoning behind this (when I started) was I wanted to be able to write them out in book form some day, so figured I'd need exhaustive notes to do so properly.

Duhh...transcription service, or voice recognition software?

To be fair, when I started out, VRS didn't exist.

Anyway, I've realized I don't need to write exhaustive notes anymore.  But, when you've been doing a 'thing' as long as I have when it comes to preaching (17 years at this point) you get pretty set in your ways.

So, this week (I've been feeling a little restless) I decided to try something new.

Yesterday when I spoke at the Bible College I did so from only POINT FORM notes, trusting my background, my preparation, and the GHOST to effectively fill in the gaps.

I think it went alright.

Alright enough that I'm going to try it at THE WELL this Sunday.

So instead of my typical 14-18 pages of 'transcript' I've ended up with TWO pages of point form notes in a sketch book, which is like four pages in a notebook.  Notice that--because it's a sketch book--I'll be able to see the entire thing all at once.  Gonna' need a bigger pulpit though. For now I'll use two music stands side by side.

I feel a little nervous, but because I like new experiences, the nervousness isn't enough to get me to chicken out and go back to what I 'know'.

I'll let you know sometime next week how it went...

SUNDAY.

T

back to school...

Okay, so the place I was speaking at yesterday day didn't look quite as nice as Trinity College (pictured above).

But I had fun nonetheless.

I was there to talk about my two areas of expertise, Church Ministry (especially preaching and church planting) and Show Business (especially film and TV).

It's rare that I get to focus on both disciplines at once.  I'd like to do more of that.  Think I'll get a new site up soon to promote that side of my life and work.

Some reflections on yesterday:

-College kids are KIDS.  I don't remember feeling that young when I was that young.  This means I'm getting older.  But I don't mind it.  I sure wouldn't want to trade my life experience for their youth.  No way.

-College (secular or not) is an insular place.  I was reminded how important it is to keep yourself immersed in the 'real world' you hope to inhabit someday in a working capacity even (especially) while studying in preparation for invading that world.

-Christian culture is still very separatist in inclination.  I made a reference in my 'talk' to hitting a shot of Patrone (the high end tequila--dunno' if I spelled it right) while at one of L.A's hottest clubs on open mic night (featuring Macy Gray and one of Kanye's collaborators on 808's) after shooting wrapped with my crew a few months back.  There was palpable SHOCK in the room. Then, after I was done, they made an announcement gleefully reminding the room of their big 'group twister' game scheduled for later that night.

Excuse me?

You're SHOCKED that I'm hitting the Patrone and dancing with my friends after working with them (by way of respecting my friend the pop star who was in L.A, wanted to see me [his former pastor] and got us into the club in the first place...) yet you're 'cool' with encouraging 140 hormonal 19 years olds to twist themselves into various sexually provocative (don't tell me it's not that way, I used to PLAY twister too...) poses in the name of 'good clean fun'?

Is it just me who sees the GLARING inconsistency there?

I almost felt deflated by that (having tried to convince them that 'sanitizing culture' is neither the mandate of the Christian nor the slightest of possibilities to begin with...) but reminded myself that Rome wasn't built in a day and I'm certainly not going to change Christian culture's silly hypocrisy (I'm variously guilty as charged by times, make no mistake) all at once, or ever.

The best I can hope for is to have participated (in whatever small way) in the mighty GHOST impacting a few of the people in the room.

THAT reminds me that we shape culture (in grace) one person at a time.

That helps.

What else?

-(this is a little too honest here) I noticed that most of the kids looked pronouncedly different than the kids I see and rub shoulders with in 'the biz'.  That's to be expected but what troubled me about it was that, I think, many of those college kids would claim that their 'heart' is to find a way to 'minister to' or at the very least 'connect to' the kids in actual culture who look and act (from what I could see) NOTHING like the college kids do.

This might be a problem.

How will you find a way to connect to a culture in which you've spent no time, for which you have no genuine affection or affinity?

Seriously, how?

After I was done speaking, the Dean of students had me come up to his first year seminar class and take questions for forty minutes.  I enjoyed the kids.  Some of then had some good questions.  I was humbled to have the chance to chat with them.  

I wish a guy like me had come by my U of T first year philosophy class and unloaded on me.

It would have helped.

Hope I did.

Yesterday...

T