Fine-tuning YOUR SYSTEMS / breakout ORANGE 09

Diane Runge led a breakout here at the Orange Conference called "Fine-Tuning your Systems" We all hope our ministries can work better / flow better! Diane did a great job helping us think through the process of doing ministry in our churches and MAKING it work WELL...here is just one section from the breakout on dealing with BUDGET since we are all in hard financial times..

Ohhh...by the way, here is what a system is...
Systems = anything you need to do repetitively in order to accomplish the END GOAL and maximize your resources

How do we spend our BUDGETS…we can use these 5 principles to guide our spending. BECAUSE...SPENDING reflects of priorities! These are IN ORDER...

Nurturing Leadership // leadership development has to be a priority, we have to make sure the leadership is healthy and growing, STAFF and VOLUNTEERS…to give away ministry you have to train and grow leaders!

Value the team // build the team = build community, equip with tools, and celebrate! THIS BUILD MOMENTUM (ideas…ideas are training events, t-shirts, gifts, notes to say THANKS)

WHY DO THESE 2 FIRST…because this is what the church is made of, buildings and budgets come and go but PEOPLE make ministry happen! If you have passionate leaders and a trained team you can do anything.

Refine the environment // put your money into creating engaging presentation and an appealing environment. INVEST for the LONG HAUL! You can have the best message but a boring room and boring presentation can KILL IT. Build environments and create presentations that HIT YOUR TARGET not the adults!!!! THE LOOK OF OUR ROOMS FOR KIDS SEND A MESSAGE TO ADULTS AND KIDS THAT THEY MATTER!

Informing the crowd // communicate news - VISION - and ask who needs to know what ad spend money getting that message across! WEBSITE, social networking, printing, etc. Do what you can to help parents know what is going on with the kids…be creative!

Perfecting the systems // administrate, details…etc…

Small Group Leaders Can Partner with PARENTS / from ORANGE 09

First BREAKOUT session from Orange was "How to help small group leaders partner with parents!" Gina and Kevin Ragsdale from North Point Community Church did a great job leading. Here are a few of the thoughts from the session...

Parents need to know what to do to be a spiritual influence in the life of their kids. Where do we want parents to move toward in their relationship with their teens…
Imagine the End
@ focus your priorities on what matters most

Fight for the heart
@ communicate in a style that gives the relationship value //

Make it personal
@ put yourself fist when it comes to personal growth // live authentically

Create a Rhythm
@ increase quantity and quality time as a family // encourage your kids to have their own faith and place a high priority on vacation time with kids!

Widen the circle
@ place your kids in line to hear other voices saying the same thing
As small group leaders we can help parents widen the circle! We can connect with the parents of the kids in our groups. We can pray for the parents of the kids in our group. Small group leaders can say the same things parents say and many time teens will HEAR IT!

Small group leaders can support parents when…
Small group leaders can make themselves available when PARENTS need answers, support, and guidance! // trust can be formed!

Small Group leaders can help their teens parents connect with other parents relationally!

Small group leaders can help parents by NOT TAKING SIDES and helping their teens see the value in their mom and dad. Small group leaders can help teens to take the first step toward their parents and not always answer all the questions.

Small group leaders can inspire parents by LIVING AUTHENTICALLY and caring for the kids in their group in and out of church.

Small group leaders can help families create a rhythm by SHOWING UP and being regular at church and connecting with kids outside of church in community activities.

Small group leaders are the most natural connection to the heart of the family because their whole job is to connect relationally!

Francis Chan @ the Orange Conference

Session 2 brought Francis Chan to the stage, if you have ever heard Francis speak there is no easy summary to be made, this was a huge talk with so many implications! Here are some of the thoughts...

People entrust us with their kids…They allow us to invest in their most precious gifts.

When we see things that shock us, hurt us, hurt others we have to leverage the influence of others to join the cause of redemption.

When others see passion of an issue we try to normalize them, slow down, tell them to not go TOO far. WHY ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN?

So many times with our students we calm them down, slow their passion and try to make them look like us.

We have over educated believers today…undereducated believers in Jesus day were so bold…over educated believer today are so scared.

We know SO MUCH but we live Christ so little.

When we look back how many spiritual regrets do we have…we finish our education and cannot even talk to our neighbors about our faith anymore.

Peter and John gathered people to pray that they would have BOLDNESS…they were sharing a message that was LIFE CHANGING.

What keeps us from praying for boldness? What are we trying to do that we need to pray for boldness from God?

We take BOLD PEOPLE and ask them to calm down and “learn some stuff” / the first followers of Christ prayed the bold would become MORE BOLD.

Social Justice is not PART of Christian life we add on, it is life, it should consume, Jesus is OK with us being consumed with showing God’s love to others. It is OK.

Every time God speaks to us so many PEOPLE tell us to be responsible and take it all SLOW.

What is happening around the world to REAL PEOPLE GOD MADE is an emergency, lets go global and do some crazy crap to take the hope of Jesus to them.

We never look more like God the Father than when we are rescuing!

Every breath I breath could be my last, lets live like that, no regret…bold living!

NO PERFECT FAMILIES EXSIST / night one from ORANGE 09

Night one from the Orange conference was incredible for our entire team. On facebook some folks are asking me what this orange thing is, for that go to http://www.theorangeconference.org and check out where I am at. Thursday and Friday are going to be 2 incredible days BUT wanted to recap a few things said by Reggie Joiner tonight. This is random but here were some thoughts about how we can REACTIVATE the FAMILY in our ministries...

• Many of our churches lead people to CONFORM to a picture of what we think the family should look like instead of HELPING each unique family step into the story God wants to paint in and through their family.
• Most of the ideas we have about what the family should be are just impossible to achieve. Our goals for the family are not God's goals for the family. We are just spending our parenting lives comparing our family to other families and never measuring up.
• There is NO IDEAL FAMILY (the family you think is ideal is just as broken as your family!)
• Very hard to find the model family in the Bible. (Abraham, Noah, Jacob, David...all had families who had real problems) God knows when we invite Him to join us in our parenting effort He is stepping into a broken mess. He is more OK with that than we are.
• At church many of the PICTURES we present of what family should be just make REAL FAMILIES run from God and the church.
• God is not interested making our families PERFECT he is all about bringing RESTORATION and revealing His plan through our imperfect families.
• At church we have to help families drop their IDEAL FAMILY ideas and embrace the unique story God is writing with their family. Messy is OK. We have to help families find the next step.
• Parents cannot wait to be the PERFECT mom or dad to be a faith mentor to their kids. If parents wait for that moment it will never come.
• When parents are honest about who they are with their kids and they pursue God in their imperfection kids will find a God worth following.
• Family ministry happens when the church and parents combine influence and work together to help kids embrace and follow Christ with their life!

More from ORANGE on Thursday...

Headed to the ORANGE CONFERENCE 09...

Our family ministry team is headed to Atlanta to our favorite conference of the year. I have been to tons of conferences in my time in ministry but none that fires me up more than Orange. This is the one conference that brings together youth, children, preschool, and family ministers into one environment to dream about how we are going to capture the heart of the next generation for Jesus Christ. Did you get that...all age group leaders working together. If you go to GCC you know this is the idea we are trying to live out. Imagine the CHURCH working with PARENTS to combine our influence into a child's life. Yellow and Red make ORANGE...2 influences working together...get it, ORANGE! Our team is getting away to learn, dream, evaluate, and plan. We are excited and hope to bring back new inspiration for our effort to partner with parents in Clarksville. The rest of the week I will be blogging from the conference and of course hitting my thoughts up on TWITTER (www.twitter.com/michael_bayne )

Go check out the Orange Conference at >>>> http://www.theorangeconference.org

Ideas from Tim Irwins's book...

First time to read anything from Tim Irwin. I think I picked the book up from the Catalyst pack that we get every quarter. Finished as I was traveling last week and loved Tim's insight into leadership, the people he has connected with in his career, and his investment into his family. I am a family pastor here at Grace Community so I am sucker for any successful leader that cares for his family. I want to be THAT GUY and I am working hard to make sure at the end of my time here people see that as a trait in my life. This would be a great book for any leaders looking for insight on how to live a life of significance in a world that beats us down with greed, power and mediocre dreams. Just a few quotes from the book that stood out to me.

David Levin said " We don't go to bed at night wondering why we are on the planet" - 46

In dealing with conflict... Deal with conflict promptly. Own your own STUFF. Join forces against the problem. and FORGIVE. - 140

To launch Chapter 11 Tim Quoted Max Depree..."It is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."

Quoting Donald Miller, GREAT REMINDER..."All great characters in stories are the ones who give their lives to something bigger than ourselves."

Whatever amount of time I have been given TO WORK cries out to be used well...to be significant. - 187

Next up for my reading plan is Tony Morgan's book Killing Cockroaches and then on to Reggie McNeal's book Missional Renaissance

quick hit MONDAY

• Had a great 2 days last week in New Orleans prepping for SERVE new orleans in July with a group of GCC high school students. God opened some great doors for our team to partner with a local church and serve in the 7th ward.
• Saturday we got to go to Elliot Watts 60th birthday party. Love the Watts family and really it was a reminder that success in life is measured in relationships. Elliot has given so much to others and it was great to be able to hang out and love on him and connect with old friends! Katrina and Cassandra...you there a great party for your dad!
  
• The close of the EPIC series was strong. We saw tons of people choose to follow Christ Sunday morning. As we talked about the end times it was wild to see the response of the people to heaven and hell. In most churches people clap and shout when you talk about Judgement of this world. It hit our folks hard because God has allowed so many of us to have real friendships with people who are not Christ followers. GREAT JOB TODAY CHAD!
• This was the last week for Daniel Doss to lead at GCC. Daniel, you are a great friend and I will miss ya. GREAT job to DDB today. On a good note, NOW I GET TO BRING DDB back for student events. HOORAY for relevant! Love Daniel and Emily!
• We are headed to the ORANGE CONFERENCE this week...SO excited for our family ministry team. Go check out the Orange Conference at www.theorangeconference.com
  
• Loved the Titans 2009 draft. I am a addicted to the NFL draft. I did well this year with not allowing it to take over the weekend. Just used my cell to stay in touch. GO TITANS!
• On another sports quick hit...GO CHICAGO BULLS! Young team, looking good!
  
• Really excited about camps and mission trip for the Relevant Student Ministry...It is going to be fun to see what God does in the lives of teens this year.
• Excited that we are starting a new series at GCC Sunday called road trip and I get to lead off the series and speak this first week. Thanks Ron and Chad for the chance to go for it. LOVE the plan for the service. Higdon and the creative team have some cool surprises coming this week.
  

Happy Birthday Kelyn! You are three!

My little girl turned three today! Kelyn I love you and maybe down the road you will look back on dad's blog and see what I said about you today. You are the joy of our house! You are a beautiful little girl,you cal three "free", you are super smart, you love to laugh, you hate bugs, and you love your Dad (that is for when you are 14!) I am so glad God have you to our family. Happy Birthday baby girl...you will always be our baby girl. Bu the way, your older sis rocks too but this is you day! I Love you Kelyn!

volunteers...need balance

It is so amazing to watch God work in the lives of our volunteers. One of the secrets to having great volunteer team is to support them, serve them, and live life with them. I love our volunteers at GCC and there is nothing better than watching them grow spiritually. Serving should always be a joy and should lead to growth in the lives of our volunteers. We have to help our volunteers find community and serve at the same time. The goal is balance. Our job is to help them serve and grow not to USE them to make our programs work better. These are PEOPLE that God loves more than we do. An overworked volunteer will not thrive if they cannot BELONG in community because they are always busy with church work. (done ranting)

Got this from a volunteer's blog in our church (she and her husband are amazing). This is a couple that is active in our community and in our church and they have done well maintaining balance. Listen to them talk about the GCC experience...this is what it is about!

Grateful for a church that I can grow in marriage and friendship, etc. From day 1, I felt that Scott and I were people…not just numbers. We have been embraced with kindness and love…and cherish all that God has provided to us through being active members at Grace. Although I am a traditionalist at heart, I truly appreciate the non-traditional setting. Yes! You can worship in flip-flops! Yes! It is possible to not necessarily be caught up in the ‘law’ of church…and just be. Come as you are and worship the God who adores you. Such freedom to love God…without being so caught up in ‘tradition.’ Being members of such a strong community has changed my heart and my life.

I am most thrilled to be raising Chandler in the Grace setting. I’m excited to teach her that God loves her no matter what and that she can find true community within our church.

Acts 4: 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

volunteers...need to hear this

Our volunteers directly reflect our leadership. I really believe this idea is true. I also believe that everyone can improve in their leadership ability with volunteers. You have to live and learn but you can improve. So how do we get better at leading our volunteer teams? One way is to practice saying some things OVER AND OVER AND OVER...

• THANK YOU...say it, write it, email it, text it publicly and privately with your volunteers. I know I should not have to say this to anyone but I DO because I amazed at how many people do not say THANKS enough. Say it! Your volunteers need and want to hear it.
• WHAT DO YOU THINK...yes your volunteers want to have a voice and they have things to say you need to hear. When you can, get feedback and input about ministry direction.
• HERE IS THE PLAN...your team needs to have info! Work hard to keep your team up to date with info. Your volunteers need to be the first to know important ministry news, let them always have the inside scoop when you can.
• THIS IS WHY WHAT YOU DO IS IMPORTANT...your volunteers must be told the vision of your ministry over and over and over because as our Andy Stanley says, VISION LEAKS. Share the big why of your ministry as much as possible with your team.
• GOOD JOB...let your volunteers know what they are doing well! It will open the door for an open heart when you have bring instruction and there will plenty of instruction times.
• I AM SORRY...this is huge, so huge! This goes a long way with any volunteer and helps them say the same thing when mistakes are made. When you are wrong say SORRY!
  

volunteers...they reflect our leadership

I have been thinking about volunteers the past few weeks. The next few days I am going to talk a little about what I have learned about leading volunteers. We serve in this thing called the CHURCH and since its beginning people have volunteered to make a difference in the Kingdom of God. It has always been and will always be. One question I have been asking myself as I evaluate my leadership is...HOW AND I DOING LEADING MY VOLUNTEER TEAM! This is a hard truth but the health of our volunteers reflect the health of our leadership. So many times we blame problems in our church and ministries on volunteers. That makes no sense when we have been placed in a leadership role with them (WITH THEM, NOT OVER THEM that is big but that is another post). Our job is to set them up to lead well and make progress. We all have to realize that our leadership ability is reflected in our volunteers. I know some of you are ready to punch me because you have some volunteer problems. RELAX...this is one area of leadership that is learned. You can get better at leading your volunteer team and you can start making changes today. Before you go off the deep end and try to fix things today just take some time and process...HOW AM I DOING IN MY LEADERSHIP OF VOLUNTEERS?

quick hit MONDAY

• Cross Street Live was great last night! It never gets old seeing kids and parents worship together. Our entire CSL team did an amazing job. We have have one more CSL this spring. May 17 will be our last one until September 2009.
• The Rivers and Spires Festival was really fun. Good job to the festival leadership in putting on a great weekend for our city. BIG props to our volunteers from GCC who helped pull off the teen area. My 2 little girls had a blast playing in the kid zone, good job to FBC Clarksville for helping put on a fun area for kids.
• Great Sunday at GCC this Sunday morning. I know I say this very week but I am so proud of our team and the great job they do. God is at work. Go check out the podcast at www.gcomchurch.com
• Chelsea and I finished season 2 of HEROES! That is one amazing show. Great TV and a DVR has ruined me on movies, I am in love with Lost, Heroes, and 24. I hardly ever watch movies anymore.
• I hate dandelions. AM I ALONE!
• I love the NBA playoffs. Praying my Bulls can pull off a big upset and get the Celtics out of this thing. The playoffs make the NBA worth watching.
• Now to the BOOK update...finished the BLUE PARAKEET this week, it was a good read. Now on to Seth Godin's PERMISSION MARKETING.
  
• 55,000 at UT Orange and White game this weekend. GO VOLS!
• This week I am headed to New Orleans to connect with the church we will be serving on our student ministry mission trip. CANNOT WAIT to serve again in that city.
• My KELYN is turning three this week! I am so blessed with 2 beautiful girls. I love them so much.
• Chad Rowland just showed me a Jesus Bobble head we will be using for a prop in an upcoming series. He paid 3 bucks on eBay for it...he got what he paid for!
• Start a new series at REMIX this week on temptation...do teens really need to hear about how to deal with temptation...did I need that? YESSSSSS!

why Cross Street LIVE?

Why build this set? Why put it up once a month and use all that volunteer time? Why fill the stage with actors, singers, dancers, and teachers? Why go to all this effort to create a service for families? BECAUSE...families are the greatest influence in a kids spiritual journey and we want to help them have a STARTING POINT each month for spiritual conversations they will have with their kids. Every Dad I know who is a Christ follower wants to see their kids follow Christ. The problem is that Dads have a hard time talking about spiritual stuff! Maybe it is because our Dads struggled to speak clearly into our lives and left that job to Sunday School teachers. At Cross Street Live we lay out an easy way for Dads and Moms to talk to their kids about faith. This is about families and we do this monthly event because families matter. We hope if you live in Clarksville you will load your kids up, come eat dinner at 5, and experience Cross Street Live at 5:30 @ Rossview High School. It is going to be an amazing night! (www.gcomkids.com)

this made me laugh...

Big fan of The Office. Found this website this week and it made me laugh. If you know me I love to laugh and make other people laugh. I think I am kind of addicted to laughing. So glad God made it and thankful for the Comedy channel fueling it. Anyway click on the MICHAEL SCOTT PAPER COMPANY scree shot above and enjoy! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Oh, if you missed The Office last night, I think it was one of their best episodes! Go to NBC.com and check it out.

this does not get old...

Youth ministry just does not get old to me! Again tonight I am thinking though what just happened here at our weekly gathering for teens and I am overwhelmed that relevant student ministry (www.relevantstudents.com) has the chance to inspire the next generation to follow Christ. It just does not get old...

• seeing teens connect each week with their friends here at REMIX, I know it is simple but it is powerful to see teens belong and connect!
• seeing leaders become mentors to kids, every teen needs an older mentor cheering them on as they follow Christ!
• watching students in our band lead their friends in worship of GOD, this never gets old. I love how our band serves each week.
• seeing teens have a safe place to question faith, life, love, and their future in small group each week.
• seeing teens let us share truth from the Bible each week...yes they get it and they work through it! They actually want to encounter truth!
• hearing the stories of kids living out their faith and making wise decisions in their everyday life.
• helping teens through hard choices they have made and standing with those who have gotten a raw deal from life!
• getting to see teens serve at GCC each week as greeters, in Cross Street, Grace Acres and on our worship team, YES THEY SERVE NOW!

This is amazing and it does not get old. When it does I need to find another job! This generation of Christ followers are going to do amazing things. We get to empower them and send them out! Thanks to every teen that lets us at Relevant invest in them, you are all amazing and we believe in you!

Are people talking about your church?

It is so incredible to hear people talk about Grace Community with their friends. I have been able to hear folks that are a part of GCC spread the word about our church. There is nothing better than hearing people be EXCITED about church. (not a movie, not a restaurant, CHURCH!) Every week I think through why people keep inviting others to GCC. This week one of my favorite bloggers (Ben Arment -- http://www.benarment.com/ -- former church planter and now working on the Catalyst Team) posted a great thought on his blog...check this out...this is big for those of us shaping what church looks like in 2009...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You can't take a mediocre idea and make it viral. There's not enough marketing savvy in the world to help a bad idea work.

Stretch with me on this... think of your new church as an idea for the community. Don't think about the mission and theology for a minute, yadda, yadda, yadda. Just focus on ~ the idea ~ of your church.

Is it a good idea for the community... or a bad idea?

How do you know? Ask yourself... is the idea spreading?

And if it's not, you may not have a marketing problem. You may have an idea problem. Maybe your church's purpose is not distinguishable enough. Maybe you're not meeting a need in the community. Maybe you're answering questions nobody's asking.
BEN ARMENT - http://www.benarment.com/

SERVE with GCC @ Rivers and Spires 09

Here at Grace Community we are always on the lookout for ways we can serve our city. Rivers and Spires is a local city festival that really tries to bring our community together to celebrate everything that is "Clarksville" once a year. This is our second year to work with the festival organizers and they are just GREAT to work with and really have a heart for making Clarksville the best city it can be. GCC is a festival sponsor and we are looking for volunteers to serve with us on Friday and Saturday of the festival as we run the TEEN area. An OUTDOOR arcade, Rock Wall, tons of Blow up games, Army simulation area (YES! dive a tank or something!!) are a just a few things we will be making happen. We get the chance to serve families at the festival and be a part of this city event. If you are connected with GCC we want you to join us in serving this weekend. You can let us know you want to serve by clicking on the logo below and sing up at www.gcomchurch.com!!! Join us as we serve at Rivers and Spires, then go enjoy your city!

Easter...WOW...still blown away!

Three Easter services...a cookout with our community group...watching three of my favorite golfers choke at the Masters = BAYNE IS READY TO CRASH but I want to get out some Easter thoughts! I am just amazed. We serve a risen Savior, His name is Jesus, He is King of Kings and TODAY we got to celebrate that reality at Grace Community. We had over 2100 at church today and in every environment (the gathering and all the kids environments) we were able to share the message of Christ. We had tons of adults ask Christ into their life for the first time. We saw tons of first time guests check out GCC. Ron, Chad, and the worship team did a GREAT JOB! Parking was great...GREAT JOB PARKING TEAM! The new system worked! Three services worked so well, can not to see it in action every week. To all our volunteers and staff who gave 100% I have to say THANKS for making it happen. I am so proud to be a part of a group of people who will give 100% to serve our city!

Easter @ GCC

Our team here at Grace Community is so excited about Easter this Sunday. For the first time we are planning three services (8:30-10-11:30) and after last year we are hoping we need the extra room. We hope we need the room because people are going to come visit GCC for the first time. We hope we need the room because people have invited their friends to worship with them. We hope we need the room because many people questioning faith will be there. We are making room for people. Easter is one day when many people closed to Christ open up for a few hours and gather with people of faith. For every person who shows up Sunday who is not sure about this following Christ thing, have a seat, ask lots of questions...we are glad you are going to be with us. Three services also means we have kids ministry ready for three services. Our kids are going to have an amazing day. They should have a great day...it is the GREATEST day for any follower of Christ! Thanks to our volunteers for stepping out to make three services happen Sunday. I cannot wait celebrate the victory Jesus brought. He brought a second life to humanity...a new way to be human. Without Jesus I am nothing...Thanks Jesus for what you did and what you are doing in Clarksville and all over the world.

I admit it...I AM A NASCAR FAN

This is a big moment here on michaelbayne.net...I am admitting that I now call myself a Nascar FAN. I have joined the millions of people who like to sit at home or at tracks and watch cars go really fast in a circle. I grew up wondering why my grandfather liked the sport. I tried to watch it on TV and fell asleep most of the time. I am a terrible mechanic so that did not help either. Then something happened, FRIENDS HAPPENED. These 2 guys named Dave and Jeff started to explain the sport to me. THEY LOVED IT. Then the one thing that can suck any casual watcher into the Nascar world went down...THEY TOOK ME TO RICHMOND to WATCH A RACE. I was hooked. I finally understood the pace of a race just like the pace of football (my true sport addiction). I moved back to Clarksville got my first HDTV and have been watching races (Bush and Sprint cup) ever since. Because it is a once a week sport it is easy for follow. I love sports and follow baseball and basketball from a distance, but Nascar has grabbed my weekly attention and I am hooked. My girls even sit down and watch it with me on Sunday, IT IS NUTS!

This weekend I get to go with a friend to Nashville Motor Speedway and actually go into the pit and driver area for the first time. I am fired up. We are getting the the track around 1 and will be there for the entire race. I am getting myself prepped for a new level of loud! Look for me on TV because if a driver goes down I may pull a Ricky Bobby and make my driving debut. I will have tons of picture up on facebook and a few here on the blog. I needed to come clean and share with the blog world the truth. I feel better now. By the way my 3 favorite drivers are Gordon, Earnhardt Jr. and Edwards.

reality or possiblity

Most people choose to live in the REAL WORLD...they live with reality in their face. They are constantly aware of what they can't do. They know exactly what is holding them back. They take pride is knowing why things are the way they are. They get in line and support the status quo with pride because THIS IS THE REAL WORLD. This is just the way things are!

I want to be one of the few who will not settle what IS but strive for what could be. The Easter week always reminds me that Jesus did not settle for what WAS, He came to shape what would be. I am thrilled Jesus did not settle for the REAL WORLD of the Pharisees. Jesus saw what could be and made it possible for all of humanity. Instead of settling for reality, what about living for the possible? Why settle? Live in POSSIBILITY.

attack the challenge

We have a big challenge coming for Relevant for fall 2009...A NEW BAND! We are launching a brand new band after having the same team in action for three years. I know it sounds crazy but we are releasing our current team to serve in our gathering environment for Sunday mornings because they are that talented. We need to release them so they can step forward in ministry and at the same time train up our next batch of young worship leaders. The challenge is starting over but in the end we get to see God work once again to raise up some incredible leaders.

So how will we handle the challenge? We are attacking it. We cannot wait to get ready, we have to face the hardest task for our fall launch now in the middle of our current ministry season. In years past I let my busy spring and summer keep me from fall prep and that did not pay off. We are praying for this new team, looking for the new team, and practicing the new team NOW and it is really cool to see God at work. The new band is really gong to be good, we have some great leaders stepping up. It also feels better to attack the challenge than worry about FALL COMING!

So what is you next challenge? Why not get a plan together and ATTACK IT! Sounds better then waiting and worrying!

MIKESCHAIR EP out today on Itunes!

Mike Grayson is our worship leader at our weekly gathering for teens called REMIX. Mike is an amazing worship leader and has been a part of the band MIKESCHAIR since he was at Belmont University. Wanted to get the word out that they just released the bands new EP today and I hope you will go check it out. Mike is the real deal and I am so excited for him and guys in the band (all great guys!) GO DOWNLOAD IT TODAY...the best 2 bucks you will spend this year!

the CO-PASTOR setup...HOW DOES THAT WORK?

I am so blessed to serve 2 incredible pastors here at Grace Community...they are both incredible friends to me and I am stoked to go to work every day and serve with Ron Edmondson and Chad Rowland. One of the big questions we get at GCC is HOW DOES THAT WORK? Our answer is...it works for us here and now! God had a plan for GCC and it involved a copastor setup and it has really worked well for over three years. I serve side by side with these 2 guys and this is how it has worked here and Grace Community...HERE ARE MY RON AND CHAD STATEMENTS!

• Ron and Chad support each other and believe God has placed the other in leadership. It is called respect. If respect is not present the copastor setup will never work.
• Ron and Chad compliment each other. Their differences bring strength to the GCC family and they are not clones.
• Ron and Chad are OK with conflict. Copasors have to be OK with differing points of view and for health on our team these guys have to disagree at times.
  
• Ron and Chad are both EXCELLENT leaders. Either guy could lead this team on their own but God has united two strong leaders to support each other and lead this church.
  
• Ron and Chad support each others decisions. Both guys support the other when a hard decision is made. THIS IS A HUGE RESPECT FACTOR, every leader needs to know they can make the hard call and be supported. The guys support us as staff in the same way when we have made a tough call!
• Ron and Chad take time to dream, plan, and communicate apart from the rest of the team. This has been huge in making GCC all that is can be. To copastor you have to communicate clearly and often. This has really helped these guys stay on the same page!
• Ron and Chad lead from their strengths. Both guys take responsibility for different areas of the church that match their strengths! They also directly oversee different staff so that we all know who are our supervisors.
• Ron and Chad are both willing to LEARN! They learn from other churches, each other, their staff, books, conferences...they are learners and they listen to each other and folks on the outside.

Is this perfect? No! Will this work for your church? Probably not! Is this the most effective way to lead the church? Not sure but this was God's plan here! Does it get messy sometimes? Yes...BUT I would have it no other way. It has been an incredible adventure with these guys and I hope we are still rolling together ten years from now.

welcome back baseball...GO BRAVES!

Opening day started early for Brave's fans tonight! Go BRAVES, great way to start off the season. Derek Lowe was amazing. Everyone who knows me knows I am a football addict (go vols, go titans) but I really dig pulling for my Braves in the summer. All of you baseball fans out there enjoy opening day MONDAY! It does not get much better than baseball all day then the NCAA championship Monday night! By the way, look for pics of my girls first Brave game coming in May!

Hope everyone has a great MONDAY!

Great FAMILY event!

Great event for the family today here in Clarksville! Just wanted to get up a few pictures and thank a few people for such a great event. Thank you to the GCC staff (especially Christy Crosby and Katrina Watts, home run today!), our volunteer team, the River Mounds Farm staff, Way FM, and all the folks who brought out their families. It was a great afternoon and I am thrilled we got to serve families here in our city! There are more pictures up on my facebook page, go check them out.

FREE Clarksville Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by GCC!

This weekend Grace Community is partnering with WayFM to host a free community wide Easter Egg Hunt here in Clarksville. Why would we host the event...FOR FAMILIES! We just feel like anything we can do to give parents a cool experience with their kids on a Saturday afternoon is a win for Clarksville. If you are in town this weekend I hope you will bring your kids out and hunt some EGGS. I am proud of the work our team has put in and they have really put together a fun afternoon. All of our family ministry staff have kids so we do our best to make sure it something kids will really love. Riverview Mounds Farm is a great location and we think you will dig the experience. Hope to see you Saturday! Koz and Kelyn are ready to GO!

how much will would you pay to see your favorite band LIVE?

I got the chance to see Coldplay a few years ago in Virgina Beach...AMAZING SHOW, just amazing. Coldplay without doubt is one of my top five favorite bands of all times. I was hooked the fist time I heard Yellow. Got my ticket for the show in Va Beach for a little over 30. The band added some shows to this tour and is coming to Nashville! I was stoked until I found out it would cost over 75 to sit behind the stage and over 100 to sit upper deck...WHAT TO DO?

I passed this time! I hate to but I just got tickets to see Death Cab for the first time at the Ryman Auditorium. I passed on my favorite band, the 100 bucks was too much. If I had never seen them I would have bought tickets! How much would you pay to see your favorite band LIVE?

Jack Bauer may work at GCC!

Got new phones at the GCC office yesterday! Yes, take a look...these are the same phones on Bayne's favorite show 24 . As soon as our tech guy pulled them out of the box I was STOKED that now our team at GCC can join the effort to stop terrorism with Jack Bauer! Jack may even work at GCC now, that is top secret and we have to protect his role on our staff. We even have the CTU ring. Today I am going to go buy some stock in Cisco and make some calls on my official CTU issued office phone.

Ok Ok, really this new setup is called Voice IP and it is basically a computer based phone system. It is going to save us a TON of money each year and it is the way office phone technology is going. We just learned we could even pull this off a few months ago...people in our area just have not embraced the technology. Thanks to Thor Systems for hooking us up and helping GCC break the mold even with our flipping phone system! Save money and get a better product for the team. Works for me!