Ministry

Check out a new post I just got up on over at the Digital Leadership Network blog. It is talking about who your church website is most likely for, and what they are looking for when they get there. I’d love to have a conversation about it over at Digital - see you there!

Most church websites look like they are for the elders or deacon board of the church. The site is mainly the “who we are / what we believe” static statements and pages. Can I be honest and let you know that neither first timers or your members really care too much about that information. Of course it needs to be there, and of course it is good to have up on the site.

But most church websites I’ve come across not only have that information up front, but they have organized the site the way that elders / deacon boards / staff are used to looking at the information. It is setup like a budget spreadsheet / ministry index - instead of a site for who your real audience is and what they are needing when they come to your site.

[From Digital @ Leadership Network]

We are getting ready to start day two here at the Celebrate Recovery Summit, being hosted here at Saddleback Church. And after getting a chance to hear so many incredible stories, and teaching about the process of recovery I heard a consistent terminology that really had an impression on me.

“Don’t be a pharisee”

What this means is don’t be a person that says, “I don’t need recovery.” At first I didn’t understand because there are obviously millions of Christians who aren’t in a recovery program and their life and faith continues. But this phrase comes from the fact that during Jesus day it was the Pharisees who didn’t think they needed saving. It was the purely religious that were hiding their “hurts, habits and hangups” behind a plastic faith - and Jesus saw right through them.

I think the “light bulb” moment was when I realized that Celebrate Recovery’s method of recovery is directly tied into the process of sanctification. Every christian is in a process of sanctification, the real issue is that for most of us we are extremely passive in it. We don’t really take time to sort through the rough spots in our character, in our relationships and in the source of our behaviors - that is were Celebrate Recovery comes in.

It isn’t just a recovery process for people dealing with substance and other forms of abuse and addiction. It is also a process that helps people to find their identity in Christ, and find the sources of their sin and destructive behaviors. And we all have those things we consistently fall into; whether it is anger with our kids, wondering eyes, computer sites, truthfulness, bitterness, or a controlling personality.

Jesus calls all of us to a lifestyle of recovery; meaning a life spent seeking to become more like Christ and to be constantly saved from ourselves - to be in recovery from our “former self.”

So, what is a point of action? Check out Celebrate Recovery they have small group materials, they have excellent resources to help being a CR ministry at your church, or check out John Baker’s new book “Life’s Healing Choices” - it is an excellent book to sort through these areas of recovery we all need.

“Life’s Healing Choices: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-ups, and Habits” (John Baker)

John Townsend is doing a session right now at the Celebrate Recovery Summit right before lunch and is knocking it out of the park.

The point of his talk that hit me the most was his teaching for this group of Celebrate Recovery leaders being “people of the ask”. That most of us at some point in a group will let go and state our problems such as:

• “my marriage is terrible”
• “my kids are out of control”
• “I can’t find a job”
• “my drinking is bad”

But it isn’t as intuitive for us to ask for what we need to help. Whether this is because we don’t feel worthy of someone’s help, because you have a hard time receiving love, or you don’t know what to do. John’s point is that we must be people of the ask who will not only be comfortable (in the right setting) sharing your issues and problems, but that you need to ask for what you need help with. If you need encouragement, advice, prayer, or a friend - you know what you need to at least get started.

This is such a simple point, but revolutionary for relationship and getting the help you need in your life.

[Here are a couple of John Townsends Books:]

“Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life” (Henry Cloud, John Townsend)

“Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren’t” (Henry Cloud, John Townsend)

This second session is all about leadership; and it is very practical and helpful.

Pastor John Baker started off by asking “What kind of leader are you going to be?” There are two type of leaders:

Shepherds that minister one on one with people and Ranchers that lead and train the shepherds. As a Celebrate Recovery ministry grows, as the leader of the ministry if you continue to be a shepherd you will only get in the way of what God is doing, and your will burn out.

Celebrate Recovery has found that organizing there groups into a T.E.A.M. structure.

Trainer - in charge of training and development of leaders from within the Church and Celebrate Recovery.

Encourager - in charge of shepherding and pastoring people. Creates fellowship events and helps to identify new small group leaders.

Assimilation - in charge of promoting the ministry to the church and community. A connector and networker, you help get the right information in front of the right people.

Ministry Leader - in charge of everything else ;). They are responsible for the teaching, training, events and are the main point of contact from the ministry to the Church.

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There was more definition into each of these positions by the national T.E.A.M members, but Celebrate Recovery has an incredible leadership structure and team environment that anyone can learn from. Here are some pictures of the Celebrate Recovery Regional Directors and State Representatives: (huge group)

Wow, they are coming towards the close of the first session of the Celebrate Recovery Summit.  It started with Pastor John Baker talking about the W.A.V.E.. Then we heard about some of the God wave’s in the Celebrate Recovery ministry across the country; from a news station in Dallas doing a 4 minute promotion to Saddleback being selected church of the week because of the ministry.

The rest of this session was spent hearing Pastor John Bakers testimony, his own honest and open testimony. And how that journey, and God’s grace, helped prepare the vision for this ministry has has touched 10,000 people’s lives at Saddleback Church and is in 10,000 churhces across America.

If you want to know more you can check out their site:

Main Site

Their Story and the Steps of Recovery

Their Podcast

Celebrate Recovery Summit, 1st Session Worship Clip from Tony Steward on Vimeo.

W. aited on Gods Timing

CR is now in its 17th year, and we have learned to wait on God’s perfect timing. When we get a head of gods timing we have problems, when we lag behind we have struggles and difficulties.

A. gressively train leaders.

Some have been given special ability, to lead ministry. And we have established a national network of support, resources to help groups remain strong and health.

V. alues and purpose remain consistent.

Our 7 key model have remained consistent, we have kept the program closely to God’s truth. This is God’s program.

E. xpect overwhelming growth.

Eccl. 3:1-2 We are experiencing this now. This is the time to harvest the growth in Celebrate Recovery.

Eph 3:20 God has built an army to help people find hope and healing.

Our hope is that you will be recharged in a new way. The wave of growth in Celebrate Recovery is just starting - it isn’t a wimpy Florida wave, it is a wave like this:

Our Wave hasn’t even broke yet! There are exciting times ahead!

Today starts the 10th annual Celebrate Recovery Summit, and man there are a lot of people here. Worship just started and I’ve never seen a conference so alive and worshiping, especially at 8am in the morning! There is a different air in this community, I am looking forward to blogging, learning and having my own heart ministered to over the next couple of days. Here are some pics from the start of the summit!

I got a chance to hang out with one of my new great friends Cynthia Ware this last Friday. Since we both are very excited about all that God is doing with his church online we got to talking about the movement of churches taking their worship experiences online - and the interesting situation of how and where they need to look for the pastors to lead the campus as well as the online community it will create.

Here are my thoughts in a bullet list so it looks organized but doesn’t have to be in my head

• Worship Leaders will make the best transition to Internet Campus Pastors. They are used to facilitating a group of people and pointing to God. They are great at creating the experience a community needs to unite, and act. They are not trying to be “the man”, but are charismatic enough to be a part of why people are coming back! Basically they know, better than any other pastoral position, on how to create value, direct people and get out of the way.
• Women will make some of the best Internet Campus Pastors. They are the better sex  in regards to social skills hands down, especially when it comes to community, conversation and caring. Just look at the mommy blog networks and social networks focused on women and this becomes a no brain-er.
• Pastor first, Tech second. An internet campus is more about translating your ministry processes online than about what technology you use to get it there. The ability for them to get online and use what is there is essential, but not more important than knowing how to pastor people from unbeliever to disciple (however your church has chosen to do that!)
• Good on Video (Communicator). Writing, Commenting, Audio and Video are all the ways that people build relationship on the internet. This person needs to be able to defuse an angry commenter, post a video update through Facebook, record a volunteer news podcast and do the video intro for each weekend. It is more about communicating than running the camera (tech), but knowing something about the tech doesn’t hurt.

Those are my thoughts - what do you think? What people are will be more natural in transitioning to a ministry postion like internet campus pastor?