Your pastor(s)

Yesterday we had a great meeting with our pastoral team.  We meet regularly anyway, but yesterday was exceptional for me; first, because there was a lot of laughter in the room.  It’s important for you to enjoy your work and the people you work with!

Secondly, because as we discussed some very heavy issues later, the only appropriate response was for us to go into prayer…..and we did.  It was one of those ‘heavenly’ prayer times that probably most church members assume we have as pastors anytime we pray….but it was the first in a long while in a staff meeting where the unmistakeable touch of the Holy Spirit was on us….and we lingered there together even well past Tuesday’s ‘quitting time’.

If you’re a part of our CLC family, you can and should be thankful for our pastoral team: Jaime Flores, Dan & Pat Johnson, Doug & Shanna Neal, Chris & Amber Payne, and Steve & Shae Wasmundt – I know Chris & I are grateful that we get to serve you with them.

In fact, I think the average person has no idea of the pressure that pastor’s face daily.  I read two other posts this week that hit it out of the park as far as I’m concerned: thank you Clayton King and Jonathan Herron (I’ve never met either of you, but you said it better than I ever could, so on behalf of pastors everywhere, I thank you!)

Paint the Town Red finale

I’m really pumped about this weekend.  After being out of the pulpit for the last 2 weekends during our Week of Missions, I’m eager to preach again, and especially because of the subject….which has to do with the incredible power tools available to help us in reaching out to the lost.

We’ll be using the same theme at each campus this weekend, so whether you hear Pastor Dan in Shorewood, Pastor Chris in South Bend, or me in Tinley Park, you can expect us to pull out all the stops and use our most anointed creativity to communicate how you can more effectively reach people for Jesus!

I’m really excited about the next series, which we’re already planning & developing, too – trust me, it will hit/help everyone!

Weekend reflections

Our Missions Week is now over, and what a trip!  Having Dr. David Shibley here again after several years was a real treat, and his series of messages over the weekend was classic Great Commission stuff!  I had told David prior to his visit that I really believe God is calling CLC to be an “Antioch” church (you’ll just have to read the book of Acts to get the meaning of that), and that I sensed there were CLCers who would make life-changing decisions this weekend in response to God’s calling on their life for service in missions – but little did I know!  (I was expecting that God is calling a ‘few’ of us)  In Tinley Park, there must have been 75 or more people who responded publicly that they feel at some point in the future they will give one or more years in missionary service!

And get this: at our newest campus in South Bend, Pastor Chris Payne reported that 14 people responded to that same call in their service this morning, and that the largest-number since we launched committed their life to the Lord today, as 7 precious people made the decision to follow Christ – and that’s after viewing the message from Dr. Shibley via video!  (Who said people won’t receive from video teaching!)

Tonight at each campus we enjoyed an “International Dinner” and 11 different CLCers received awards totalling $6500 toward a 2008 missions trip!  It’s like a dream come true for me to see our DNA being reproduced in other campuses as CLC continues to grow in the area of ‘Reaching Nations’.

I’m also pumped about next weekend….more about that later because even though I didn’t preach today, it was still a long day and I’m ready for some zzzzz’s now.

Ask the Pastor

No questions were submitted in the last week.  What’s up with that?

C’mon….aren’t there any burning questions in your mind that you’ve been dying to ask your pastor?

Not only am I looking for this ‘Friday feature’ on my blog, but we also would like to address some real questions with real answers as part of our summer programming at CLC.  Like any pastor, we always want our teachings to be relevant and to the point, the kind of practical stuff that you can apply to your daily life. Of course, we try to do that every weekend, but our pastoral team has recently brainstormed over the fact that there are no doubt questions you have that we’ve overlooked.

So here’s your chance – whether it’s a question for the blog, or one that will take a whole sermon (or even a sermon series) to answer, we’re here for you.  What would you like to ask?

The Word about our words

Like many of you (I hope) I’m using the little Bible reading guide called “Necessary Food” this year for my quiet time with the Lord each day.  And today’s readings really spoke to me – so much so I have to share:

• Numbers 12:1-2 (and the rest of the chapter) lets us know that we must be careful what we say about others – God is listening!
• Jeremiah 23:33-36 lets us know that we must be careful about speaking on God’s behalf to others - people are listening!
• 2 Corinthians 2:17 give us the ‘right’ way, the way I always want it to be in my teaching & speaking as a pastor: speak with sincerety, like men sent from God!

Isn’t that a great thought to start the day?

Have you ever seen any of those instructions violated?  Ever been guilty?  Thank God for His grace, and for giving us His Word about our words!

Unity in church-planting

It was neat to stumble across some other south surburban pastors at the Exponential conference in Orlando today: Tim Harlow from Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park and Jul Medenblik from New Life Church in New Lenox.  Tim has been a friend for many years, and I’ve watched with admiration as Parkview has zoomed to almost 5,000 in weekend attendance in recent years.  I just met Jul here today, but I’ve heard great reports of how New Life has grown since their beginnings at Lincoln-Way Central High School.

What’s especially neat for me is to see all these leaders (over 2,500 in attendance here) from such a variety of denominations and backgrounds yet all unified on one focus: planting new churches to reach more people who are far from God, with the only Gospel that saves!  Isn’t it about time The Church got together to do what Jesus called us to do?

My brain hurts

The biggest problem with conferences like the one I’m attending this week is information overload.

It’s great being here with Kevin and Amos; the weather is absolutely spectacular (sorry, I know I shouldn’t have included that info) and each conference session has been right-on-the-mark, practical & useful stuff that will no doubt help CLC, but right now Andy Stanley gave me so much to think about that my brain hurts.

I think I’ll go get some dinner to raise my blood sugar and spend the evening in deep thought.

Exponential is right!

WOW!  I just got to my room from the opening preconference seminar at the Exponential Conference, and I’ve already gotten my money’s worth in just the first afternoon!

Rubbing shoulders with 3,000 like-minded pastors and church leaders from around the world as we wrestle with the need of reaching people with the Gospel is incredible, and I know I’ll be coming back to CLC with my fire stoked!

Having Kevin Carter here is also enabling us to be in two places at the same time to get better coverage of the many topics offered, and he’ll be able to help us implement strategy more effectively, too.

Even Amos is excited about the implications for his work at CAPRO, so today was already a huge win (in spite of a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call and no time for lunch before the opening session).

Stay tuned.

on the road again

I’m leaving early this morning for Midway airport and a quick trip with Kevin Carter and Amos Aderonmu to Orlando, where we’ll attend the Exponential Conference.  From everything I’ve heard, this is the premiere conference in America for reproducing churches, which is definitely what we want CLC to be.

I’m really looking forward to learning and being stretched by the workshops and speakers, not to mention the opportunity to spend quality time with Kevin and Amos, as we explore how to make CLC more effective in multiplying and doing missions, both here and abroad.

No time for Mickey on this trip!

Weekend reflections

What a joy to have Amos Aderonmu from CAPRO with us in Tinley Park this weekend.  His messages were right on the mark for our Paint the Town Red series, and the touch of the Holy Spirit was unmistakeable, especially in the last service today.  In fact, there were people praying for at least an hour after dismissal today, and I’ve got a feeling some commitments were made in prayer today that will result in some ‘missions sending’ in months to come.

Meanwhile, our South Bend campus pastors report good attendance and a real touch of the Spirit upon their service today as they focused on reaching our “oikos” (that’s the Greek word in Acts for our ‘household’, which includes our family, our relatives and our close friends).  Surely God is doing a work in us to reach others, whether around the corner or around the world!

And at Shorewood today we experienced great anointing and a strong word from Pastor Dan Johnson.

I just ‘kicked-off’ a New Member’s Class and I’m headed to dinner with Amos before calling it a day.  You know, I think I like feeling ‘spent’ on Sundays – mostly because I know in my ‘knower’ that God is up to something big at CLC, and I’m thankful to get to be a part of it!

Next Page »