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Marching Orders and Mission Statements

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It seems that everyone had a mission statement these days! I have even heard of families sitting down and writing one just for their family. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with having a mission statement but I do have a problem when a person or an organization writes a mission statement and either forgets it or does not live up to it.

A couple of years ago, I began thinking about a mission statement for myself and a set of values which would go with me as I reached out in an attempt to find a new ministry. What I came up with,”to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” was part of my bible reading time this morning. My mission is not original (I borrowed it from the Apostle Paul) but it is clear what I have been called to do as a pastor. The question now shifts to one of how and I measuring up? It seems that I am always asking this question but I think that it is important that we ask it ourselves as leaders.

In looking at what Paul says here in Eph 4, I see that he talks about our responsibilities in coaching (prepare), evangelism (body of Christ may be built up), teaching (knowledge), and discipleship (mature) but one aspect I missed until reading this morning (unity in the faith). Is Paul saying that we are charged as leaders with promoting unity in the local church and the church globally? I believe that he is suggesting this and it is a shame as leaders we often forget how important this is.

How often we forget our mission and why we have given our lives in service. I am thankful for the reminder this morning and I pray that my mission will always be in the back of my mind.

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Questions for follow-up:

what is your mission statement?

what was Paul’s saying in Eph 4 about our role as leaders?

how do we keep our mission in front of us? how do we measure ourselves against our mission?

A Trip to the ER

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This morning at 4am I was awakened to the reality that my wife was in unbearable pain and I needed to get in the car and drive her to the emergency room. We arrived at Wellstar Douglasville Hospital and the staff there did a wonderful job of taking care of my wife. The diagonsis came back that she had gall stones and would need to have her gall blatter removed ASAP! We are back at home now and she is upstairs asleep. I will keep everyone abreast of dates and times of surgery once she sees the doctor later this week. Please keep us in our prayers.

The Difference Between What Hip Looks Like and What Hip Is

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I saw this article today and thought the writer makes some great points. In the church we have also fallen into the “hip” trap and this writer nails the difference. When I arrived here in Georgia to join the staff of Velocity, one of the arenas that i was thrust into was the website design. I kept coming back to the question of,”does it just look cool or does it work for us?” In the end it was both but I was brave enough to poise the question. I also liked this comment,

“Your call is important to us”: unless it isn’t, in which case we’ll continue to ignore you for (pause) five more minutes. We can all agree, I hope, that showing people they’re important to us, right here, right now, than it is to play them a recording of someone who just says it.”

Let’s face it…ministry is all about people and we need to not just talk about how we are here to meet them where they are but also show them that we care.

We have lift off!

Published on by bbrunke1 Comment
lift off

Velocity Church officially launched yesterday with 96 in attendance. It was a very exciting day for everyone inloved. A large majority of the faces that we saw yesterday were first time attenders who either heard about Velocity through our marketing or were invited to attend by someone involved in Velocity. I pray that God will bless our efforts as we move forward and that he begins to build a movement of people in our area who will catch our vision and put in action our desire to reach this community with the love of Jesus Christ. Amen

First Turbo Group

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First Velocity Turbo Group
First Velocity Turbo Group

Last night Melissa and I hosted our first Turbo Group at the house. For the next six weeks we will exploring together what it means to be a Connection Group Leader and at the end of that time, it is my hope that we can launch our Connection Group ministry with some leaders already in place. I am encouraged and excited from our meeting last night! I believe that God has placed some gifted people in Velocity who have a heart to see people connect in relationships that produce life change. I invite you to be praying for our group over the next six weeks and to consider joining a connection group when they launch later this fall.

How are you measuring up?

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We live in a time when everything has to be measured, studied, calculated, and analyzed. There is a great deal of advantages to this but it also begs the question, “what is the measure being used?” The other question that is being asked is, “How do I measure up to the standard?”In ministry it is often difficult to ask these questions and get an answer.

In my reading this morning, the prophet Isaiah writes, “I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line…” The of God, Isaiah says were to be measured by their sense of justice and their righteousness. In Isiah’s time, most people did not excel in either of those areas. I wonder what he would say about us? Are we showing justice by meeting the needs of people who can not often help themselves (i.e. the widows, orphans, poor, crippled)? Is our righteousness being conformed into the image of Christ? Are we taking the steps necessary to become more Godly?

Many people look to the pastors of the church to help them to become more righteous by increasing their knowledge of scripture and offering them programs to demonstrate justice. Is this really what we are called to do as pastors? I would offer the suggestion that we are not called to this, but what we are called to is a life of service and of leadership. So how are we to become righteous and practice justice? Simple, we must look to our relationship with Jesus and begin to allow him to work in our lives to become more Godly. It is then we will see through his eyes injustice and be broken and moved to fight it!

As we prepare to launch Velocity, I find myself drawn to this very fact: God is going to build his church and all that I can do is to pray and to serve and lead the people that he sends to us. It is my hope and prayer that these people will become more Godly not because of what I have done on my own but because they have fallen in love with Jesus Christ and he is leading and teaching them to be righteous and practice justice. How do we measure up? Let’s ask that question again in six months and yet again in another six months and again until we are put to the ultimate test on the other side of the world. Amen

Don’t Assume you are the Good Soil

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As I wrote about previously, I am reading a great book right now called “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. He retells the story of the parable of the sower from Luke 8. He then makes this statement that for me cut to my heart:

“I think that most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes  the seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.”

Chan makes a great observation here! We need to be living a life that shows the world that there is something different about us.

Love Reading

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I have recently began to read two books that share a similar theme, “love.” Now before you think I am reading one of “those” books, let me tell you that the love that these books are talking about is love for Jesus and how it should compel us to live.

The first book is “Compelled by Love” by Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation. The subtitle of the book is “the most excellent way of missional living.” This book is very christo-centered and reads like one of my textbooks from seminary. It is very well written but extremely scholarly.

The second book that I am reading is “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. Chan’s book is not as scholarly written as Stetzer’s but nevertheless the theme of the book is very similar.

I think it is not a coincidence that both of these authors are writting on a similar subject that the church needs to hear. We need to fall deeper in love in Jesus and allow him to change our lives so that the lives we live better reflect him living through us. Our world is sick and tired of the church telling people that Jesus loves them and that he can make a difference in their life and then not living our lives like he has made a difference for us! The statistics bear this out: Christians are just as likely to get a divorce, cheat on their wives, look and become addicted to porn! Church we need to start living like their is something different about us or we lose our message to preach to the world.

I am excited to be challenged by these books and also to be convicted by them as well.

God, I pray that I will fall deeper and deeper in love with you and that my life will reflect a change that you have made and continue to make in me as I live for you. Amen

Becoming Multi-cultural

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A few years ago, I heard Erwin McManus speak at Catalyst about how the church can become more multi-cultural. He said that it starts with people reaching out and making friends with people who are not of the same culture and race as themselves. At the time, I agreed with his statement and vowed to put it into practice when given the chance. That time has now come!

I am a homeowner now which means that I live in a neighborhood with other people. As I am discovering my new neighbors do not all look like me. This is a tremendous blessing and an opportunity. For most of my life, I have lived with and around people who look like me. Now for the first time, I live in a city and an area where many of the people around me do not look just like me. Yesterday, I met two of my neighbors: Erica is a nurse and her husband Brandon is a cop and they are African American. Sydney is my other neighbor and he is African American. Looking across our street I see another neighbor who is also African American. I find myself for the first time as a minority and I am happy to be so. I must force myself to make relationships with my neighbors because my Lord Jesus ask me to! The church can only truly be a reflection of Jesus when it is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. If the church is going to be the hope of the world, and look past race and nationality to bring all people together under the lordship of Jesus Christ, then we who are apart of it must not be afraid of what it could look like. Amen.

Question for my readers: how is your church seeking to become more multi-cultural? How are you becoming more multi-cultural?

Unpacking

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After the “big push” over the weekend to get all of our stuff into the house, we are now left with the reality of opening what seems like an endless amount of boxes. Forcing yourself to open one more box and then you will quit has become our mantra. To add to the stuff that we have already brought into the house, last night we made our first trip to the grocery store. Having been a regular shoppers at Aldies and Meyer in Cincinnati, we are now having to become Kroger shoppers because it is the closest store to the house. We proceeded to walk up and down every isle in the store because we did not know where anything was! Perhaps the coolest part of the evening was pulling into our own garage and unloading our food without having to clime two or more flights of stairs. After making a couple of adjustments, we were able to pull both cars in the garage last night and I took a picture.

It is still very surreal that we own our own home but I am amazed at the little things that I am finding delight in. Renting and not owning for a long time makes you feel all the more blessed when you finally do buy a home. So its back to unpacking boxes tonight after work….”honey have you seen that one box?” lol!