Vision

Our church is attending the co::labs offered by Will Mancini. These co::labs walk a congregation through the Church Unique process. We have experienced clarity and have been affirmed that the vision we developed 1 1/2 yr ago is still clear, concise, catalytic, compelling and contextual.

The first step in the Church Unique process is to discover our Kingdom Concept. A Kingdom Concept helps a church to discover the unique actions that a church can do better than any other church around them.

The idea is not for our church to "copy and paste" Saddleback, Willow Creek or other growing churches. The assumption is that we should discover our uniqueness, focus on what makes us unique and do the best we can to live that uniqueness out in to our community.

Click here to discover our Kingdom Concept:

If you want a preview of the book, click here.

My leadership has been to 2 out of 6 sessions of the co::labs. We are very excited about this process and can't wait to dig into the other 4 sessions!

6 Thinking Hats: Intro

I am currently reading a book titled "Six Thinking Hats" by Edward De Bono and applying it to church, specifically to church meetings. In Six Thinking Hats, De Bono explains that while we are meeting, we try to do too much all at once: experience emotion, ingest information, create hope, inspire creativity and make decisions. Wouldn't it be great to separate all that out so that we have clarity and clearer communication?

De Bono asserts the following positives for this process:

* everyone in the group (regardless of intelligence, experience and knowledge) can provide input

* saves time (one company set aside 4 hours for a discussion on an important decision. Using this method cut their meeting down to 45 minutes with more buy-in from everyone)

* removes ego (Six Hats helps you to analyze and dissect ideas instead of people)

* provides clarity

What are the hats?

WHITE = facts and figures. Information here is neutral and objective.

RED = emotion. How one feels about a decision, idea or fact.

BLACK = weaknesses of an idea. This hat sees caution and carefulness in every idea. De Bono asserts that this hat comes naturally to many people.

YELLOW = hope and optimism. Seeing the positive aspects of an idea or thought.

GREEN = creativity and new ideas. Looking for growth and new direction.

BLUE = organizing the thinking process. Goals and step-by-step action items.

In future posts, I'll summarize each "hat" and how to use them.

It's The Simple Things

Went strawberry picking today here. The strawberry shortcake was awesome tonight!

(Forget those store-bought strawberries)

They just melt in your mouth...red, plump and sooo refreshing!

What are the simple things that refresh your spirit?

Town Hall for Hope

Here is the facebook page to watch Dave Ramsey's recent Town Hall for Hope. Enjoy!

The Spirit and the System of Worship

I am big into creating a system that helps to organize worship Sunday in and Sunday out.

But, I shouldn't forget about creating the spirit of worship.

I too easily overlook the envornment I'm creating for worship.

The system that is used to organize worship should create an environment, or spirit, for worship.

One question that a great friend of mine asked that helps me tackle the spirit of worship:

"What lie do we give up at worship?"

Last week in worship, we gave up the lie: we have to earn salvation. This week, the lie we'll give up is: tapping into God as a last resort.

What would the elements of worship look like if we organized them around the "spirit" or environment of worship?

and

What lie did you give up at worship recently?