Exponential Conference Resources

We sent some our East Campus launch staff to the Exponential Conference last week.  I could feel the buzz from Orlando all the way up here in Chicago.

Doug Gamble gave us an update in staff meeting yesterday and I’m trying to figure out how we can send a leadership group next year.  It was inspiring to hear Doug describe the energy from a movement that is growing (and growing exponentially!) to launch new churches and new campuses of existing churches.

Suncrest actually hosted this conference 4 years ago and had a few hundred people here.  This year…2800!

One of the things I’m most proud of from guys/leaders in my generation is that it seems there is a real spirit of sharing as many resources as possible with one another for as cheaply as possible.  Much of it is even open-sourced for free.  People could get rich off selling this stuff if they wanted to, but they don’t.  They want to share what they are learning and developing with as many people as possible so all churches and leaders will benefit.

In addition to being free, these leaders teach both formally in leading conference sessions, but are also willing to be informal and candid behind the scenes.  The authenticity is powerful.  Below is a link from Dave Ferguson’s blog with some of that FREE video.

Click here for links to some really candid interviews with leaders in the church planting world.

 

People who make Suncrest go

We had an awesome all-staff lunch yesterday.  Like everyone else, we have an “office pool” with the NCAA tourney.  For us, we celebrate by going out together and buying the winner’s lunch.  Truth is…it’s just a good excuse to get the whole staff team together and enjoy an hour or 2.

I couldn’t get everyone in the picture.  You may know some of the familiar faces around Suncrest, but it’s this whole team that makes us go!  Most of these 22 people are employed “part-time” — but that has a lot more to do with their paycheck than their commitment!!

Office Support Staff– Melissa Gut, Laurie Olson, Clara Clark, Robin McHugh, Denise Tribble, Cindy Barker (quite possibly the greatest admin assistant to ever live!).

Custodial Staff– Diane Budzowski, Leslie Doan

Ministry Interns– Chris Hall, Scott Cumberledge

Ministry Staff– Doug Gamble, Mary Beth Stockdale, Bobby Jackson, Jared Mehrle, Mike Moseng, Scott Coons, Patti Richardson, Sue Hertzfeldt, Julie Coons, David Vineyard, Kevin Richardson (and me).

By the way, once again this year I did not win the pool.  Scott Coons actually won, but since he wins everything we awarded the free lunch to Denise Tribble who almost beat him!

 

 

Quick Trip

Thanks to a full 64 ounces of iced coffee, I stayed awake long enough to drive to my home town after preaching 3 times Sunday.  Dad’s been struggling health-wise a bit since his first chemo treatment last week and this was my one chance to get away until June. 

I got to spend about an hour with him Sunday night and a little more time this morning before driving back.  Also got to see my niece and nephews, brother, sis-in-law, mom and grandmother so the trip was totally worth it, even if I was there for less than 18 hours.  Just wish gas was $1.49/gallon.

One cool thing…Jack had a ton of stuff going on today so he couldn’t come, but I did bring Abby.  She and I had a great time and Jack and Jenny got some good time togehter.  When I called back Sunday night, they were playing Connect 4.  I love it.

Suncrest Note

 

 

Hey Suncrest – Do you still remember the verse we memorized on Sunday?  “God did not give us a spirit of…”  Can you finish it?  If not, look it up in 2 Timothy 1:7.

 

We decided to announce the Exponential special offering with that interactive element about our story at Suncrest.  In a couple of the services there was even an expressive response. 

·         When I asked everyone standing who has already been generous in our history, “Was it worth it?”  I wasn’t expecting the audible “yes” I heard.

·         And when I asked everyone sitting if they were grateful for those standing, there was this spontaneous applause.

 

For me, it was one of those moments I treasure thinking… “We get it.  Our church really gets it.”  Following Jesus is about giving of ourselves so more people can connect to Him!!  Or, said another way, being used by God to change lives.

 

I was early getting my taxes done this year – April 13!  Right before I printed them, the program reminded me that later this spring, Jenny and I are going to get a nice check from the government…money we weren’t counting on.  For us (and maybe for you?) we couldn’t imagine a better place to use it than to this Exponential offering.  We haven’t totally decided the final amount of our gift, but starting with that amount will let us be even more generous than we hoped.

 

I need your help as we plan our teaching themes for the next year.  I’m hoping to finalize it in the next week, but I don’t want to do it without hearing from you.  If you have anything…ANYTHING…you would be curious to hear us teach on, I’m collecting the comments on my blog.  Scroll Down to leave your comments onthe post below.

 

 

This Sunday, we keep unpacking “Fearless.”  Have you ever heard, “God will not give you more than you can bear”?  I think this week will shed some insight on that concept.

What should we teach about?

OK, I need your help.

We are in the process of planning out what themes will be taught on the weekends at Suncrest in the next 8-12 months.  At the same, I’ve been asked by a the NewThing Network to help brainstorm “Big Ideas” for our network over the next year.

If you are a pastor that reads this, give me the best 2 or 3 series ideas you have used or seen lately.

If you are a Suncrest attender…I would love to hear Life Issues and/or Biblical Issues that you would love to have us tackle on a Sunday morning.  What are you curious about?  What do you struggle with?  What would resonate with your friend who doesn’t go to church?

If you can make it work, leave your ideas below by clicking below next to “Comments” and putting them there.  If you can’t figure that out, you can email them to my assistant:  cindy.barker@suncrest.org

Give me your best ideas…

Subscribe?

This should be among the most useless messages I’ve posted for those who already subscribe.

I used to check guys blogs I like to read every day or so, wasting lots of time and missing half their stuff in the process.  I have a link to subscribe to this blog by email in the upper right corner of the page, but for some reason people still tell me they can’t find it.

If you would like the subscribe and get this in your inbox whenever I post, here is the actual link to click:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=1093954&loc=en_US

 

Blog Stats

I think my motives were pure in starting this blog…I want to get word out about some things I am experiencing or I am learning.  I know a variety of people read it…family members, staff members, Suncrest people, major sports figures, a few people who are critical of me or Suncrest (but want to keep tabs), and old college friends.  OK, maybe not the sports figures.

Anyway, I think every blogging interface has a chance for you to view your stats.  Seems kind of narcissistic, doesn’t it?  WordPress (my interface) is free and pretty basic, so i used to just see how many people visited the page each day or week or whatever. 

A few weeks ago, WordPress expanded that and it shows more stuff now.  Most of it would be boring to you, but it was interesting to see which of my posts historically have been viewed a lot…and which ones have been duds.

Everything pretty much made sense to me.  When I got linked from Dave Ferguson’s blog…my stats go up.  When I haven’t posted for a while, my stats go down.  There was only one wildly crazy exception to my expectations…and here it is:

I posted something on God answering prayers for miracles in June of last year after our elders had prayed for such.  And that specific posting has now been viewed over 1300 times.  Trust me, my blog doesn’t get outreagous traffic and the 2nd highest posting number was way…way…way less than that. 

So for what it’s worth…if it could be helpful to you and you missed it the first time, here’s the posting:  http://greglee.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/praying-for-a-miraclepart-2/

By the way, the lady we prayed for has had great success in her cancer battle.

Suncrest Update

Whenever we invite people to follow Jesus, we know there is potential for an eternity-changing day.  Leading up to Sunday, many of us prayed and fasted for people to respond to the decision…and they did.  We had people come in all three services and in student life worship down the hall, though most actually came down front right after the service.  In all 8 people stepped forward and 3 of those were clearly a first-ever decision to embrace Jesus as Savior and Leader.  Like I said…eternity-changing.

 

You’ve probably noticed the fullness of our 9:30 and 11:00 services…and of our children’s ministry.  Someone mentioned in our staff meeting this week that though it isn’t unusual for our attendance to be over 1000, we’ve had a consistent run there recently where it has been for 5 of the last 6 weeks and the only exception was 995 on a spring break weekend. 

 

Some might think numbers don’t mean much, but I think they are wrong.  Every number is a life.  It is someone’s husband, neighbor, co-worker, friend, or daughter who is being exposed to Jesus.  Since our mission is to be used by God to change lives, we pay close attention to how many lives God is reaching through Suncrest.

 

This Sunday we will have an important announcement about “Exponential”.  That is the name of our special offering this spring.  We’ve promised no more than one special offering like this a year to keep us expanding our ministry without tackling another long-term capital campaign…and the response to this always blows me away.  This year’s offering is even more exciting than the last 2 years…I can’t wait to tell you about it.

 

Pray for our middle school students this weekend.  Jared is taking a huge number of them to a conference called “Believe” and these experiences always help large numbers of students take defining steps in their faith.  If you have a middle school student, I hope yours is on the trip.  I’ve committed to pray for them regularly from now through the weekend.  Would you join me?

 

Love ya, Suncrest.

 

Greg

 

PS…I’ll launch a new three week series this Sunday called “Fearless”.  I’m super-excited to talk about how God meets us at our points of fear.

Decisions

Sunday wrapped up our series called “Jesus in High Def” and we specifically asked for people to make a commitment to follow Jesus.  Doug laid out the decision for people and eternity changed for some.

Over the course of the morning we had 8 people respond and 3 of those were very clear decisions to do this for the first time.  …and I get paid to do this??  God is really good to me.

 

God @ Work

Two huge things to consider/pray about for this weekend at Suncrest…

 1.        You have to at least explore going on a mission trip that we announced last week.  God always uses them to shape our lives.  For more info you can email david.vineyard@suncrest.org or denise.tribble@suncrest.org. 

2.       We are praying ahead for a response to our time of decision this weekend.  We’ve talked for a few weeks about who Jesus is and been clear that we hope people will respond to following him.  If you have chosen to follow Christ already, please pray for people to respond to God’s grace this Sunday.  If you have not made that specific decision to follow Jesus, I am hoping and praying that you will on Sunday.