Many times I feel like the father in Mark 9:24 who says, ““I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” A lack of faith is usually directly related to a high need for control. For me, I like having a plan, and I struggle when the plan doesn’t work out as I have anticipated.  But God continually amazes me as He stretches my faith in every area of my life. And I’m learning that God’s plan is always better than my own.

On Christmas day at Cornerstone, we took up a love offering for our local Free Medical Clinic. As a church, we wanted to match the gift, so we encouraged everyone for several weeks that we would be collecting this on Christmas day. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be very much. There were lots of reasons why I was anxious about the gift. We didn’t know how many people would come to church on Christmas morning, our love offerings have historically been low, and our area has been hit hard by job loss over the past few years. What happened next simply amazed me.

After we counted everything that was collected and mailed in, we ended up with a $10,000 gift, far beyond my wildest expectations. On top of that, as a church, we found a way to match the gift from our Missions Fund so that the Free Clinic received a total amount of $20,000! They have been struggling financially, so this was a huge gift for them. I am beyond excited about the generosity of our church, and I am happy that we are able to help support such a great local ministry.

The embarrassing part is that I really had no expectations that we would receive an offering this large, or even that we could match it. But God worked everything out perfectly. And here’s the really amazing part, our regular offering at church on Christmas was the highest one day offering in our history. My faith is being stretched and I am learning to trust God completely. I stand amazed!

I had the great opportunity to spend a few days at a church conference called The Sticks with a few of our leaders from Cornerstone. This conference is different in that it is geared towards churches in small towns. I’ve been to a lot of different conferences and seminars over the years, but this one had to be one of the best for us.

So much of what is taught at the big conferences are geared toward larger urban and suburban areas. Small towns and rural areas are forgotten and written off. But over the last few days, I was able to learn from and meet many other pastors who are facing similar challenges.Ministry in rural areas can be tough at times, and we face unique problems that only small town pastors understand. I want to give a big thanks to Cornerstone Community Church of Orangeburg, South Carolina for hosting this event. I’m definitely planning on attending again. I’ll try to share some of my thoughts about what I learned over the next few weeks.

A friend asked me last week about how we have structured Cornerstone for ministry. He was curious about how we do meetings and committees, and I realized that I haven’t really blogged about our structure much. So here’s a quick overview of our leadership structure.

Teams Not Committees

We don’t believe in committees. When you mention the word committee, most people picture a boring round-table discussion. Committees tend to review decisions and they are typically structured to prevent bad things from happening. Just like in sports, a good defense is important, but you can’t advance the ball down the field if you are always playing defense. That’s why we like meeting as teams instead of committees.

In a team, everyone plays a part and the goal is to do ministry. Instead of control, the focus is on action, so our teams are structured around ministry instead of decisions. This involves a high level of trust, because you have to trust ministry leaders to make daily decisions, but it empowers people to make a difference. Instead of having to clear every decision through numerous boards and committees, they can focus on ministering to others. In order to do this, we have created a system that allows for strong leadership with accountability, a system designed around trust and around action. Here’s how.

3 Tiered Leadership Structure

A new church has the advantage of creating a structure. While the Bible has much to say about the roles and functions we have in a church, the Bible does give us freedom in structure and methodology. At Cornerstone, we studied the Bible and other churches and came up with a system that we hope is both Biblical and effective. It’s based on 3 main leadership groups: our Elder Team, our Administrative Team, and our Ministry Leadership Team. Keep reading to find out more.

Continue Reading…

I’m officially a student again! I started taking classes this week through Liberty University Online. About 8 years ago I started taking classes for my Master’s degree through Liberty’s online seminary. At the time I was working a full-time engineering job, doing part-time youth ministry, and raising a young family. I took a few classes, but I found I had too much to do and not enough time to get it done. So I put my plans aside and waited for the right time to jump back in.

It took me a while to get to the place where I was ready to think about classes again, but I finally started the process. A few things have definitely changed. They don’t mail out VCR tapes now and the internet has really changed how you communicate with professors and other students. Liberty does a great job providing opportunities for people everywhere to take classes. I was able to find a scholarship and work out the financing, and I signed back up. I’m currently working on a Master of Arts in Christian Leadership Studies. I believe that all leaders should be learners, and this is an exciting time for me as I stretch my leadership by learning more about how to lead like Christ.

It’s still going to be a challenge to find the time to fit in studying and writing papers, but I’m confident that I can get through this with God’s help. This semester I’m taking Biblical Foundations of Christian Leadership, Church Growth, and Systematic Theology. I appreciate your prayers. As a wise man once told me, “I need the prayers, and you need the practice”

I’m excited about this leadership event that will be hosted in our community. Over the last few months, I have been involved in the planning stages of bringing this event to Galax.  It has been a collaboration between local business leaders, local church leaders, and the Crossroads Institute. The Chick-Fil-A Leadercast is a one-day leadership simulcast that features great leadership experts like John Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, Seth Godin, Sir Ken Robinson, and more.  Already, tickets have been selling fast, and only a few are left. If you want to attend, I encourage you to call and reserve your spot today. This is a great opportunity to develop your leadership skills.

Check out the info and the video below for more information.

Date: Friday, May 6, 2011
Time: 8AM – 4:30PM
Location: Crossroads Institute
Tickets: $49.00 – to reserve tickets, e-mail info@crossroadsva.org or call (276) 236-0391
Limited seats available – tickets are almost sold out

I want to talk about something that is incredibly frustrating to me. There are far too many Christians who think their job is to be on the sidelines as a referee instead of on the playing field. I deleted a comment on my blog by someone who thought it was their job to tell the world how all the pastors at the Newspring Leadership Conference were false teachers. Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated incidence. If you read many blogs or look at the facebook comments of popular pastors you will see Christians who constantly complain and disrespect them. Even in our church, I have had to deal with people who like to remind me of everything I am doing wrong.

The sad thing is that most of these “self-proclaimed” experts have a high degree of Biblical knowledge. But knowledge doesn’t equal obedience. Jesus had very little tolerance for the religious experts of his day. The Pharisees knew Scripture inside and out, but yet their hearts were hardened and cold. They put extra burdens on the people they were supposed to be serving. That sounds like many of the religious referees of our day.  They are arrogant and they presume to know the motives of others, even when they have never talked with them privately.

I’ve got to admit, it is easy to fall into the trap of judging others based on second hand information. I’ll give you a personal example from my life. In the past I didn’t have a very high opinion of Willow Creek based on what I had heard about their church from other pastors. I kept hearing how liberal they were and how they watered down the message of the Gospel. It was easy to assume that everything I heard was true. But then I did something that completely changed my mind about Bill Hybels and Willow Creek. I read several of his books and I realized how much of a burden and heart that Hybels had for reaching people who were far from God. Even though I might not agree with him on every single detail, I gained an incredible amount of respect for a man who has devoted his life to God. It is not my job to tell him how to do his. In fact, I want to learn all I can from someone who is so passionate about evangelism.

Let me challenge you and ask you a question.  Are you becoming arrogant in your attitude toward others who use different methods than you do? If so, please repent of your arrogance and seek to listen for God’s will for your life. Your job is not to stand on the sidelines and referee, your job is to be involved in the action. Quit complaining and start serving. The world needs to see Jesus through you.

It seems like there are more Christian conferences every year. Leadership conferences, conferences for small churches, conferences for creatives, conferences for staff, and conferences for every topic you can think of.  I have decided to skip some of the big ones this year, but there is one conference that I just couldn’t pass up. The Newspring Leadership Conference is this week down in South Carolina and it will be awesome. Anytime you can bring together great preachers to share about our responsibility to preach the Gospel, good things will happen. I especially can’t wait to hear from Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll, but I have listened to and been challenged by every single speaker. Jennifer is driving down with me so she can shop, but I’m going to the conference by myself.  If any of my pastor buddies want to meet up, look me up.

Sweet Tea is my weakness. I could easily lose 10 pounds in a month if I just quit drinking the sugar filled stuff. So when I’m dining out, I usually have to warn the  server that I’ll be consuming huge amounts.

But I have noticed something in most restaurants that drives me crazy.  In restaurants where the servers don’t share tips, it is almost impossible to get a refill. While my glass is empty and I’m thirsty, I watch as server after server walks by with a full pitcher and tries to act like I don’t exist. Finally, 30 minutes later, my server will appear and tell me that they’ll be right back. Which means I have to wait even longer.

Has this ever happened to you? The real problem is that they have been trained not to help each other, but only to fulfill their own responsibilities. Unfortunately, I see this same attitude in churches as well.

While Spiritual Gift tests and assessments are a good thing to help you discover what God has designed you to do, they should not keep you from helping others when there is a need. Let me explain. When I’ve asked people to help in emergency situations, I have heard them reply that they can’t help because their gifting is in another area.  If churches aren’t careful we create a system where members willingly walk by people in need because it’s not their job. We end up with a group full of specialists who are unwilling to get their hands dirty.

The truth is that many aspects of ministry are messy, and most people will never feel “called or gifted” to serve in those areas. I’ve never seen a check box on a spiritual gifts test for cleaning toilets, but if there is a problem, someone has to clean it up.  I fully believe that people are most satisfied and joyful when using their gifts, but we can’t overlook immediate needs around us. From time to time, we will need to have the heart of Christ, and put a towel around our waist, and simply serve others. In John 13, we see that no job or task was below Christ, so why should we be any different? Don’t let your gifting cause you to miss your calling.