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In life there are producers and consumers. These two groups of individuals can be seen in the work place, in the class room, and in the church. This nation was built by producers. What some have called, “The Greatest Generation”. While producers may not all have proper motives, they still create or generate something with their time. Those who continue to produce we call, “reproducers”.
Then there are the consumers. These are the people who are always taking and rarely producing. Unfortunately this has become the “American Way”. Those who continually consume, we could call “reconsumers”. Most all of us are consumers by nature. We need air, water, food, etc. just to live. However not all of us are producers by nature. One of the reasons I started bogging was an attempt to move from being only a consumer of information to a producer. There is satisfaction knowing that you produced something for others to consume.
However being a producer has its price. I’m reminded of the story about the goose that laid the golden eggs. The owners grew tired of waiting on the goose to produce, so they cut the goose open to get to the eggs. Once the had killed the goose they realized there were no eggs in the bird and that they had destroyed their source for getting more. With that I believe it is time for me to take off a few weeks from blogging to rest the goose. Maybe you should take off a few weeks from something you enjoy but you are growing weary with? A Sabatical.

Peace Out- TD

This is the 3rd and final installment of a series of posts I’ve called Death by Church.

• Death by Church – Part 2
• Death by Church – Part 1

In this post I hope to address the role church administration plays in helping to create a simple model for church so that church members can spend more time being the church and less time “simply” going to church throughout the week. Everyone is engaged in Lifestyle Design (formally known as prioritizing) and the church should partner with Christians to assist them in organizing their life so that it fits and flows in the rhythm of living in the 21^st century.

My “Ministry Philosophy” has been shaped by my walk with the LORD over the past 20 years. More recently it has been influenced by conversations and blogs from others church leaders who have made observations that struck a chord with me. Two of the primary books that have influenced my views about church structure are Simple Church and Seven Practices of Effective Ministry.

The best way that I know to communicate what this “simple” model looks like is to present the current model for The Turning Pointe Church. This model was developed in several think tank sessions with this “Cat” over the past few years. One of the things that helped orchestrate my move to TP was their need/desire for some form of organization to help pull all their ideas together. Here is the model

We have taken the 5 proposes of the church: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism and grouped them into the three environments that we host through the church.

On Sunday morning we have a worship environment which is nothing unusual for traditional church. This is where we invite our members to come and engage in a time of worship through music, scripture, and prayer. In a simple church model the style of worship could be liturgical, tradition, or contemporary. Since we are targeting younger unchurched people our music, videos, and illustrations are certainly geared toward a younger generation.

From our Worship environment we pull people toward our Small Groups (House Icon). These groups meet for the purpose of Fellowship and Discipleship. Groups are hosted throughout the week in homes located around the community. This is the place where more intimate relationships are developed and people can be ministered to in a more personal manner. These groups start out as open fellowship groups. Our hope moving forward is that these groups will close (temporarily stop adding people) for the purpose of intentional discipleship.

Our final environment is what our lead pastor has labeled “bridge projects.” We are currently in the planning stage for these projects. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the church and the community by serving the community in unique ways. Through these projects we will both minister to and evangelize the community.

No matter a person’s age; babies through adults, our goal is to help facilitate these three environments for them and it is through these 3 environments that we fulfill the passion of our church, which is “Turning People to Christ.”

OK here is the secret to what makes our church a simple church; THIS IS ALL WE DO! I’m not suggesting what we do is easy (it’s not, just ask the volunteers), but we are not asking our believers, new in their faith, to serve on numerous committees and ministries. We DO have a core group of members that make the system go. But it’s our hope that new believers can come in and only be expected to spend time in Worship, a Small Group, and Serving the community.

One of the reasons church planting has become popular in the US over the last 25 years is because many of the American protestant churches had become complex with numerous ministries and programs and frankly people simple had enough! “The simple revolution has begun.” In a world of complexity and uncertainly it’s time for the church to stand up and be simple and clear. Church planters/designers must continue to fight to keep church simple. Remember it’s not about organizing your complex church under three circles and calling it simple, it’s about cutting away the things that do not EFFECTIVELY help us fulfill the purpose of making disciples.

Church leaders remember, “Never organize what you can discard.” ~ Peter Walsh

The author of Psalm 119 loved the scriptures. They were the focus of his life. I’ve taken the liberty to pull out the verses where he speaks of his love for God’s; laws, statues, precepts, promises, commands, and decrees.

Psalm 119:
20 My soul is consumed with longing
for your laws at all times.
24 Your statutes are my delight;
they are my counselors.
40 How I long for your precepts!
Preserve my life in your righteousness.
41 May your unfailing love come to me, O LORD,
your salvation according to your promise;
47 for I delight in your commands
because I love them.
48 I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love,
and I meditate on your decrees.
64 The earth is filled with your love, O LORD;
teach me your decrees.
72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me
than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
76 May your unfailing love be my comfort,
according to your promise to your servant.
92 If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.
97 Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
124 Deal with your servant according to your love
and teach me your decrees.
140 Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
and your servant loves them.
159 See how I love your precepts;
preserve my life, O LORD, according to your love.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood
but I love your law.
167 I obey your statutes,
for I love them greatly.

Have you read your Bible today? Love the Scriptures!

We purchased a smaller digital camera in preparation for our vacation later this spring. We didn’t want to lug the old (big) one around. After doing the reviews we picked the Sony DSCW120 . If you want a compact camera that has a quick shutter, focus, and flash recharge time, this is the one for you.

The Vintage Education group is having a Valentine’s party today. Yesterday when I came home there were about 50 little sandwich bags with hearts all over them sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Our house has shown twice in the last 3 days. Still no offers, but, we are content to stay. Either we sale or we don’t. We learned the secret of being content on this one. (Philippians 4:12-13)

I did something risky last week: I opened and online stock account and purchased some shares of Motorola, Microsoft, Cisco, and Oracle. In the words of Dierks Bentley, “What was I thinkin”?

Our MasterLife group only has two more weeks until our prayer workshop, where they will spend half a day in prayer seeking God’s directions for bigger issues in their lives. This will be very profound for all of us (More later)!

I’ll be speaking this Sunday @ Turning Pointe. The message is entitled, “Love Letters.” I’m planning to talk about how the scriptures are God’s love letter(s) to us and how His Word should consume our attention. We are also having a Baptism Celebration at the Petal YMCA immediately following the morning worship. Come Join Us!

Listened to a sermon from Craig Groeschel from a series he is doing entitled True(ish).  Basically it is debunking myths about God .

The bottom line of this message is God doesn’t want you to be happy..(in the following)

1. In foolish and sinful decisions
2. When we are only concerned about our stuff, appearance, and image (things of this world).
3. We he has something more that happiness for us, namely blessings.

Watch the message here.  Groeschel has some hilarious moments in this sermon.

Don’t worship at the altar of happiness.

I’ve had 3 in past 3 weeks.

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Kenneth Thronson and his passion, The Lighthouse Rescue Mission. Kenneth’s Faith and Vision for this ministry is GOD sized. This ministry in Southeast Hattiesburg is destined to touch many with the message and love of Jesus Christ.

Last week I meet Sean Collier and earlier this week he and I had a great conversation about Discipleship over a cup of coffee (I always order a “short” cup from *bucks). Sean is a great guy with a heart for spreading the gospel in Japan. One of my take always from my time with Sean is this quote. “Jesus called us to make disciples, not plant churches.” WOW! I’m looking forward to hanging out with Sean over Skype, when they return to Japan later next week.

Today I had a 30 minute phone interview with Courtney Eibhelberger, from LifeWay Research. The Turning Pointe Church was selected, along with 16 other churches, to participate in research focusing on how churches are reaching young adults. It was refreshing to be able to say, “We aren’t a church simply trying to reach young adults; we are a church of young adults.” I hope to post my interview and the result of the final research in a few weeks.

The answer to “Death by Church” is to focus on life in Christ. The one word answer is “Simplicity”. We need individual Christians to return to the (little talked about) discipline of simplicity; while at the same time we need churches who also model simplicity in the way they plan and carry out ministries. In this post I will address the individual Christian’s responsibility to live simply.

To live simply does not mean a believer is to do what Earnest T. Bass calling “hermitizing” himself. Living simply is to look away from everything else in life and to have only one focus, one goal. It is the purity of heart that Soren Kierkegaard defined as to will (desire) only one thing.

This is what David taught us in the 23^rd Psalm when he prayed, “¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.” (NLT) This is also what The Master himself taught us when he said in Matthew 6:33, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness …”.(NIV)

As believers our FOCUS cannot be to read our bibles, or to pray, or to witness, or to be a good spouse, or to be a great parent, or to be a productive employee. All of those are a byproduct to what Jesus Called “abiding in the vine” in John 15:5. Jesus goes on to say that we will produce fruit if we remain (rest) in Him and that apart from Him we can do nothing!

All things done outside of focusing on Jesus as our ONLY DESIRE is wasted energy at beast and at worst could be considered idol worship! We are all “prone to wonder” , as the great hymn says, however we must continually look away from all this world offers and find our satisfaction in HIM alone. Quoting the phrase that John Piper has made famous, “God is most glorified in us when we are most SATISFIED in him.”

In Part 3, I will come back and address the role of church in helping to “create” simple lives.

For more on living a simple life read the chapter on simplicity from Richard J. Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline. Order the book here.