The End of an Era

Just in case you missed it, yesterday saw the close of a huge chapter of the Summit’s history.  After feeding thousands of people, setting up hundreds of tables, and repeating the process dozens of months, the Starting Point Luncheon is no more.

SPL began back in the mid-90’s under the cool hand of Rick Langston.  Back then it was known as “Discovering Homestead Heights” (the church was known as that too…not the “Discovering” part, just the…never mind).  Then when we went all Summit on folks, it changed to “Discovering the Summit.”  A couple of years ago, it morphed into the currently-known “Starting Point.”  But through it all, two constants have remained: we’ve gathered new friends over a plate of food, and we’ve shared the gospel in an attempt to introduce one more person to Jesus.

So the big question is, what’s next?  Is that it for Starting Point Luncheon?  No more lasagna, no more pot roast, no more filet mignon (you mean you missed that Sunday?)?  Here are a few ins and outs to help you know what’s coming next:

• Beginning in September, the Starting Point Luncheon will morph into a Starting Point Reception. It will take place after each of our three services (on the first Sunday of each month), rather than one time at the end of the morning.  This option will give new guests the chance to get some immediate gratification and not wait upwards of 2-3 hours, as they are doing now.
• Our pastors, staff, and table hosts will continue to drive the Reception. Part of the magic formula of Starting Point is the people behind it.  We’ll continue to have a rotation of people available after each service to meet, greet, answer questions, and get people connected.
• Starting Points Part 2 & 3 will continue as normal. Both of these classes will now have a new home in the soon-to-be-refurbished Suite 111, but they’ll continue to happen on the two Sundays following the Reception.
• Starting Point Marathons will continue to happen at Cole Mill, West Club, and Brier Creek Evening Campuses. Although you’ll see some changes coming in the next few months with the SP ministries at these campuses, for now it’s business as usual.

Yesterday was a bittersweet day, but I’m very excited about the future of this ministry.  Please join me in praying for these changes, and the myriad of details that have to happen between now and the launch in September.  And if you’d like to be a part of Starting Point, you can!  Contact Adam Moore for more details.

 

…And Then There Were Four

Perhaps the most unsung heroes of the Summit are the Starting Point Table Hosts.  This is a group of men and women who sit through the same process month after month, answer the same questions month after month, and eat the same food month after month in order to make sure that every guest at the Summit has the opportunity to get connected to life around this place.

I love every single one of my Starting Point team, from the Table Hosts to the Registration Team to the Food Team, but there are four people that need to be spotlighted today.  Last weekend we had our Starting Point Marathon at Danny’s BBQ, and through a series of unfortunate events the vast majority of our team had conflicts or last minute sunburn emergencies that forced them to miss.  That left Will & Janice Giles and Anthony & Stephanie Fontaine to set up, tear down, serve food, clean up food, register people, take pictures, do the Q&A time, mop up mystery substances on the floor, take out the trash, and on and on and on.

I told them afterward, and I really believe, that if I ever wanted to start a nefarious plot to take over the world, they’d be the first people I recruited.  Those jokers don’t play.  They get in there, get the job done, and just make it happen.  Like I said, I love all of my team (and by the way, homeboy & Associate Connections Pastor Adam was there for a while too, but he gets paid big bucks to do it), but these four rocked my world on Sunday.  Thanks guys, for taking one for the team.

 

Professional Christians

Audience Participation Week rolls on. Today’s submissions came from First Impressions wonder-girl Kiani Arkus. You can see her three words as well as a primer on A.P.W. here.

º º º º º

To the good people at Discovery Channel: if you ever need a host for a documentary on Professional Christians, I’d humbly ask that you consider me. I’ve had quite a bit of experience with them, and I think that I could accurately describe the habitat, habits, and natural predators of the P.C. Besides, I would get a real kick out of making fun of ‘em.

The Professional Christian is a species of church-goer that can be found in just about every house of worship in the United States. Typically, these are people who have just landed from another church, and they immediately begin the process of telling you why you need them, why you can’t live without them, and how the Holy Spirit was simply known as “Spirit” before they got involved. In other words, they’re pretty much awesome.

I’ve encountered roughly 6,412 Professional Christians in my career, not that I’m keeping count. Early on, I was quick to jump on the PC bandwagon:

“Well, Billy Joe Bob said that he single-handedly led Billy Graham to Christ and went on to ghostwrite all of his sermons and Cliff Barrows lip-synced to his actual voice while he secretly performed backstage, all while translating the New International Version of the Bible, so maybe we should put that guy in charge of something around here.”

“Have you met LuLu? She used to direct the WMU in four states all at once while also crocheting diaper cozies for every missionary kid in the world. She beat Beth Moore in the annual Women in Ministry Arm Wrestling Extravaganza, so obviously we should let her head up any estrogen-related ministry in our church.”

Editor’s note: You are sooooo fired for that remark.

The Professional Christian will usually roll up in the church parking lot and strip off all of our I [Heart] Durham bumper magnets, deftly replacing them with I [Heart] My Professional Christian [Ampersand] His Phat Ministry Skillz.

As I’ve gotten to know each and every 6,412 P.C., I’ve learned that each encounter is cause for me to reach for my sphygmomanometer, because my blood pressure is going to rocket. Or rock it, depending on your need for fun vocabulary today.

Here’s my issue with P.C.s: typically their mouths write checks their bodies can’t cash. They demand recognition while failing to seek humility. They insist on authority without first earning trust. They promote their agenda without thinking to align with God’s agenda. And in the end, I’ve met very, very few P.C.s who actually deliver on their grand promises. Usually they flame out, fizzle out, or just slip out while no one is looking. It’s akin to ecclesiastical apoptosis, where they huff and they puff and then…they’re just gone. Gone to the next church, the next big thing, the next opportunity to shine.

Please understand, I’m grateful for every person who steps up to serve. And I also realize that there are some people whom God has uniquely gifted to serve big from the beginning. However, it’s the attitude and the posture of the P.C. that gives me pause. Any time we assume that we are God’s gift to the church, we put ourselves in a very tenuous, tumultuous position.

The best antidote for a P.C. is this: seek to serve in humility, and let your leadership recognize your gifts and calling. Talk to a ministry leader about your passion and experience, and let them help you build a framework for how your passion lines up with the church’s vision.

Hey Discovery Channel peeps: on second thought, don’t call me, because now I feel pretty bad about promoting my phat hosting skillz.

 

50 Word Week Begins

Today kicks off a new experiment on Connective Tissue – can a normally Wordy McWordington keep his thoughts to fifty words: no more, no less?  Five days.  Fifty words.  And no, the title and this paragraph don’t count.  Fifty words begin…now.

It was a big weekend at the Summit:  Twelve services.  Just over 4000 in worship (that doesn’t count the kids).  One message: the resurrection of Jesus.  Today we begin the task of going through cards and following up with guests.  Pray that we’ll connect and they’ll take the next step!

 

Playing the Field

I had a great conversation with a friend and fellow staff member earlier this week.  She reminded me that part of the job of a pastor is to reject the idea of promoting one ministry over another.  You’ve seen that happen, haven’t you?  This is what it looks like in a typical church…

“Hey, you really should consider working in the nursery.  I hear that the college ministry is rolling in volunteers, and they’re having to beat them off with a stick.  God will love you more if you work with the least of these…the little babies.  All that stuff you hear about smelly diapers is overrated.”

“Psst!  Did you know that singing in the choir has been proven to reduce your life span by 12.5 years?  It’s true!  That’s why I’m pretty sure you need to work with teenagers.  They’re much easier than practicing for a cantata.”

“If you join the parking team, the leader will taze you on a regular basis, and you’ll be flopping like a beached carp out there in the parking lot.  We want you at the coffee bar.”

“Rick Langston kicks puppies for sport.”  (Usually said by Charlie Dunn, rival Campus Pastor.)

I’ve been a part of plenty of churches where staff members would steal people from someone else’s ministry.  I’m ashamed to say that I’ve done it myself a time or two (or 168…not that I’m keeping track).  However, in a healthy church, pastors promote ministries that aren’t necessarily their own.  They understand that people should serve from passion, not from pushing.  They know that servants serve best when their wiring and their hiring are in alignment.  They get the fact that people would rather serve because they get to, not because they’re guilted to.

I digress.

In our church, that might mean that we don’t steal from other campuses, we send to other campuses.  We want to view each of our ministries as a training ground to eventually give someone else a really good volunteer.  For example, if someone is incredibly effective at working the First Impressions team, why not tap them to replicate the First Impressions DNA within the student ministry?  Or why not take a gifted musician from the main worship service and bless the children’s worship with them?

The point: the body of Christ is much too important to build fences and hoard volunteers.  We’ve got to be about the business of helping all ministries grow, all the time.  We need to constantly play the field and get people plugged in all over the place.

(And just in case you’re wondering about the conversation that sparked this post…no, I hadn’t stolen anybody from this person’s ministry.  But there’s still two days left in the work week…)

 

1Another :: Be Devoted

At the Summit, we’re currently going through the book of Acts of Sunday morning.  Our Cannonball series is walking us through the “why” of church life.  Because of that, I’m teaming up with the Small Groups Guy over the next few days as we take a team approach to the “one another” passages in scripture.  Make sure and check out Spence’s post for the day here.  

Romans 12:10: Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. (NASB)

My wife and I have an unhealthy addiction to the TV show 24.  (Sometime I’ll tell you the story of how we had seen only one episode prior to October 2008 – and as of last weekend we’re fully caught up and ready for season seven – but today’s not the day for that confession.)

One of my favorite Bauerisms is when he calls CTU and says, “I’m gonna need backup.”  Oh sure, most of the time that backup turns out to be a psychotic communist kleptomaniac mole, but still…there’s something really cool about knowing somebody has your back, as long as they’re not about to inject your back with a syringe full of death juice.  But I digress.

The Bible gives us nearly 60 “one another” commands.  I would argue that Romans 12:10 contains one of the foundational ones.  As believers, we are called to be devoted to each other, period.  We’re not told to go Lone Ranger-style.  We’re not told to do the best we can on our own.  We’re told to be devoted to one another.

Devotion to our fellow believers lays the groundwork for all of the other “one anothers.”  We can’t encourage one another if we’re not devoted to one another, nor can we encourage one another.  Devotion is the stuff of commitment.  It’s where we cross the line from casual acquaintance to “I’ve got your back” friendship.  

Devotion is not something that just happens.  It brings with it an intentional forward motion to go deeper in a relationship with another person.  As a believer, we will find ourselves in different levels of devotion.  As a pastor, I have different levels of involvement with people that serve with me in ministry, people in my SummitLIFE group, random people in the church, and other believers I know outside our church.  Not every believer gets the same amount of my devotion, but as a believer I’m called to pursue devotion with those God places in my path.

So here’s the question: do you have people that you’re devoted to?  Are there people who are devoted to you?  If not, perhaps your first step is to attend Starting Point, which is our event for people who need to be connected.  Or maybe you need to get involved in a SummitLIFE group.  Regardless, devotion is not an option…it’s a mandate.  Make sure somebody has your back today.

Unless they’re carrying a syringe, in which case you need to go Bauer on ‘em.

 

 

When a Good Deal…Isn’t

Earlier this week I dropped by Blockbuster to pick up a couple of gift cards.  Here’s how the conversation went down…

Employee #1: What can I get for you, sir?

Me: I just need to get two $5 gift cards, please.

Employee #1: Not a problem, I’ll get those ready for you.

Employee #2 (interrupting the transaction with his own customer to interject in our conversation): You know, sir, we’re running a deal right now where if you buy $50 worth of gift cards, we give you a $5 gift card free.

Me: Ummm…yeah, but I actually just needed the two $5 ones.

Employee #2: Well, it’s a really good deal…I just thought I’d let you know.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that ninth grade math was the best three years of my life.  But even a basic understanding of economics will tell you that spending five times as much as you planned in order to get a good deal…really isn’t.  Besides that, making the jump from ten bucks to fifty bucks just doesn’t make sense, no matter how you slice it.

I think many times, we try to get people to make the same way-too-far jumps in our churches.  True, we’re not hawking gift cards, but rather than giving people a small, measurable, easy next step, we try to shove the whole ball o’wax down their throats…

Church: We’d like you to fill out this guest card so we can have a record of your visit.

Guest: Okay, that sounds good.

Church: And we’re going to need your Social Security number, you need to quote five consecutive scripture verses from Leviticus, employment history, a letter of recommendation from your former church, blood samples, your personal stance on Calvinism, your shoe size, and you have to promise never ever ever to leave this church no matter how psychotic we get or how many splits we have or how many fights break out in business meeting, but we still reserve the right to talk bad about you if you ever wear a Santa sweater with 3-D beard fur.

Guest: Ummmm…why the shoe size?

Church: It’s a secret.

Please understand: giving guests a next step is vitally important.  It’s good for them.  It’s good for you.  It’s good for your organization.  But the key is that your next step must be easy.  Anything that smacks of huge commitment or discomfort or embarrassment or harassment…and your guests will go screaming in the opposite direction.  Or to put it in Blockbuster language: anything that takes them from a ten dollar commitment to a fifty dollar commitment, and you’re going to have problems.

We have a series of next steps that we set up as a goal for all of our guests.  Step one: fill out a guest card.  We put a huge emphasis on that, because your next step is impossible if we don’t know you took the first step.  Step two is a follow up phone call from a pastor or staff member.  This is much lower-key, lower-pressure than it sounds, but it gives an innumerable number of guests in the info they need to move forward.  After that, it’s Starting Point, SummitLIFE, serving on a ministry team, etc.  

One more thought on this: we attempt to give just one step at a time, not a full buffet-style menu.  It’s easier on our guests if they’re not overwhelmed with more info than they need at the moment.  The next step – whatever it might be – is clean cut and neat.  There’s no real room for embarrassment or mistakes, because the opportunity and expectation is perfectly clear.

If you’re new to your church, what’s your next step?

And if you’re a pastor or ministry leader, how easy is it for your guests to take the next step?

 

…Chicken or the Egg?

I always hated the “which came first?” question.  As a card-carrying elementary school legalist, I suspected that question was an underhanded attempt by liberal left-leaning communist God-haters to take our eyes off the biblical account of creation.  Of COURSE God created the chicken and not the egg.  Had he created the egg, that would have given credence to the Easter Bunny, and we all know the downward spiral that would create.

But I digress.

Yesterday Spence Shelton and I had a version of the chicken or the egg discussion.  It was a great reminder to me that even in a church our size, our pastors are still working out of the same playbook and operating under the same DNA.  Spence and I had an opportunity to have lunch with a guy who is building the small group ministry at a church plant in Mebane.  His question: at the Summit, do you encourage people to get involved in the church or in a small group first?

The answer?  Well, it’s a chicken or the egg.

We decided a while back that we couldn’t be too choosy in how people get connected to the Summit.  People tend to connect in areas that offer (a) the path of least resistance, (b) the faces or relationships that are already familiar or established, or (c) the best snacks.  For example, if you are new to the Summit but your co-worker is a SummitLIFE group leader, you’re probably more likely to connect via the group and then…someday down the road when it’s convenient…connect to the church via Starting Point.  On the flip side, if you’re new and don’t know anybody but smell pot roast after the 10:45 service…you can kiss your small group connection goodbye because doggone it, you’re going to the Starting Point Luncheon.

However, Spence and I are in agreement that in a perfect world, people connect to the Summit first, a SummitLIFE group second.  There are some good reasons for this:

• Starting Point (our avenue for connecting to the church) describes the DNA of the Summit.  SummitLIFE groups live out that DNA.  If you don’t like the former, there’s no sense in you wasting your time in the latter.
• SummitLIFE leaders are trained in and passionate about building disciples and fostering community.  If someone uses their group as the litmus test to see if they like the church, turnover rate becomes very high and frustrates the leader, the existing group members, and the guy who’s just scoping out the group.
• Starting Point gives context to the why of church.  SummitLIFE gives tools to the how.
• And perhaps the most important, Starting Point has beautiful up-front people whose sheer attractiveness can never be replicated by the leaders of most groups.

If you’re a pastor or even an opinionated church member, you could probably argue from the opposing perspective and it wouldn’t make me mad.  As I said, it’s a chicken and egg argument, but the preference of the two guys most responsible for connecting people at the Summit is that it’s Starting Point first, SummitLIFE / GroupLink second.

That said, if you’ve been through Starting Point and have yet to connect to a group, your next opportunity comes this Sunday morning.  GroupLink happens all morning long in the Brier Creek lobby.  

Still need to do Starting Point?  We kick off a new year on January 4th.

 

Story Behind the Stories: Fun Stuff

If you’re just tuning in, Sunday was a day for the history books at the Summit Church.  We saw 140 people get baptized among our seven services.  You can read more about that incredible event here, but the rest of this week’s posts are dedicated to the story behind the stories.

It was fun.

It was exhausting, stressful, nail-biting, heart attack-inducing, stomach acid-churning, immune system-destroying, but doggone it, it was fun.

A big baptism brings big challenges.  You have two choices: laugh about ‘em or throw yourself in front of a moving train.  Unfortunately, we’re nowhere near a train track.  So I chose to laugh.

Laughing is all you can do when your three baptisteries pose three challenges.  At our Cole Mill campus, the heater went haywire to the point that when Campus Pastor Rick showed up on Sunday morning, the water temperature was a cool 115 degrees.  I think you call that a cannibaptism.

At our West Club campus, the baptistery has sat dormant for a while (we meet in an older church building).  Campus Pastor Brad needed to be updated on his tetanus shots due to the fine layer of rust in the bottom of the tub.

Brier Creek saw 123 of the 140 baptisms.  Because we provided black t-shirts and shorts for everyone, and because those shirts were new, and because black dye apparently starts to bleed after a while, the baptistery looked like something out of a horror flick titled Baptistery of Darkness.  (The guys who wrote Facing the Giants have already sought exclusive movie rights.)

Let’s see…other fun stuff…

•  Watching pastors walk around after the PM service with towels wrapped around their waists.  Odd.
• Getting the report that my 11 year old son was asking ladies if he could have their wet clothes when they were done so we could reuse them.  Bold.
• Picking up bath mats out of the floors of bathrooms where dozens of people have just drip-dried.  Gross.
• Seeing a couple of hundred people stick around after the 10:45 Brier Creek service for what would turn out to be a nearly two hour baptism service.  Energizing.

 

Story Behind the Stories: Heroes

If you’re just tuning in, Sunday was a day for the history books at the Summit Church.  We saw 140 people get baptized among our seven services.  You can read more about that incredible event here, but the rest of this week’s posts are dedicated to the story behind the stories.

I work with some great people.

When attempting to pull off an event of Sunday’s magnitude, I definitely do not recommend being a control freak.  Sure, you have to have systems and processes and safeguards in place to make sure you’re being responsible, but something like this doesn’t happen as a one-man show.

I’d be a fool if I attempted to individually thank every single person who stepped up to help on Sunday, either as a counselor or a registration person or a runner or a water-logged pastor.  There was no one that was unnecessary, and no one who didn’t see a need and then do whatever it took to fill that need.

Through the daze that I call full-scale head cold mixed with busy Sunday hangover, I can remember a few stories of heroes that I want to pass along…

• My Connections Team: Walter, Adam, Justin, Eric, and Leanne pulled off a thousand little details in the days leading up to Sunday.  The Connections Ministry is what it is due to these five, and the baptisms on Sunday were no exception.
• Lori, the administrative assistant extraordinaire, braved life, limb, and a severe phobia of germs to gather used towels, t-shirts, and shorts after the morning service.  And I can’t remember for sure, but I’m pretty sure she skipped out of the service to come to the rescue when she sensed the bat signal going off.
• Ainsley gave up an afternoon to accompany my wife and I to the laundromat, where we washed, dried, and folded what felt like a million towels and shorts to get ‘em ready for the evening service.
• Matt, Jennifer, and Carrie ended up spending the entire morning helping out with random stuff - replenishing copies, running sound, troubleshooting and resetting between services.
• I won’t even try naming the dozens of counselors who performed the most important job there was…making sure that those being baptized knew what they were doing.  Although many of them were scheduled to be there, there were quite a few who sprinted to serve when they saw the overwhelming number of people respond to the message.  (Some of you, I never even knew you were there.  You just jumped in to help.)
• Amber handed out Pepto when it was needed the most.
• Jonathan and Austin had the very awkward job of posting themselves at the exit of the baptistery and asking for people’s wet clothes after they had changed into dry ones.  They then had the very gross job of squeezing out the water so we could “recycle” them for others.  (Although I was not “Ye of little faith” on Sunday, I did end up being “Ye of little supplies.”)
• Spence and Courtney treated my kids to an afternoon with the Wii when it became apparent a trip to the laundromat was going to be necessary.
• And finally, Merriem and the kids proved once again that we’re in this thing together.  They each logged about twelve hours of ministry on Sunday and did everything from emergency towel runs to handing out t-shirts to providing me with my much-needed Frappuccino.

For all of you who said, “What can I do to help?” and for all of you who didn’t ask, you just did…thank you.  You’re all a part of the story behind the stories.