It Multiplied

As the campus pastor of a fairly new campus, one of the things I am constantly watching is the growth of our congregation. Some may say that it's not about the numbers, that we shouldn't be so concerned with numbers. The way I see it, numbers is one way we can measure what's going on. If we hold steady, then are we really making any progress? But if numbers are increasing, then something is happening. It just can't stop there. Are the individuals joining our church growing spiritually? Are they developing into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ?

As I was reading in the book of Acts the other day, I came across this verse

“So the church...had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it multiplied.” - Acts 9:31

I started to think about what was going on here. I began to realize a couple of things about growing a church. Church growth is not something that happens because of me or you. We can plan, we can put systems in place, we can put guest parking signs in the parking lot and flags by the road. These things in and of themselves will not cause a church to grow.

According to Acts 9:31, (and I realize that the Bible has more to say about church growth than just this one verse) there are two things that we can learn about church growth:

1) Walk in the fear of the Lord -

What is the fear of the Lord? Simply put, it means that you have a holy reverence for God. All respect and honor and glory to goes God, in everything you do. Philippians 4:8 says “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” 1 Peter 1:14-15 says “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”

We must learn to walk in the fear of the Lord - in other words, live like a follower of Jesus Christ...don’t be a wimpy Christian.

Here's a practical example. What do you do when an inappropriate scene comes on during a movie or a TV show? Do you "grin and bear it"? Or do you grab the remote and skip it? Have you ever had the nerve to stand up and walk out of a movie? Wimpy Christians try to pretend nothing happened. Those who walk in the fear of the Lord will take radical steps to eliminate any appearance of evil.

I'm not talking about being legalistic. I'm talking about honoring and glorifying my Creator in everything that I do and say. Walk in the fear of the Lord - live like a follower of Jesus Christ...don’t be a wimpy Christian.

Acts 9:31 goes on to say

2) Walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit -

What comes to your mind when you read that word "comfort"? Sit back, relax? Enjoy your stay? A nice day at the beach with an ice cold pina colada? We seem to have this idea that God has called us to a life of comfort. The comfort of the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with you feeling comfortable about your life or your circumstance. Acts 1:8 says “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The comfort of the Holy Spirit means that while we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, we can move forward boldly, with strength and courage, leaning on, dependant on, the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us. Phil. 4:13 says “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Jesus promised in Luke 12:11-12 “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

We must learn to walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he left this earth were “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

We want our church to grow. We want to see people’s lives transformed. We want to see people who are living far from God come into a life changing and eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That is why we exist as a church!
If we want to see that happen, then it starts with each one of us. It starts with you. It starts with me. Walk in the fear of the Lord. Walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Then - and only then - will the flags, the signs, the music, the preaching make any difference.

Chad Manus - Behold Story

Here is the third interview from church on Sunday. Chad started coming to the Monroe Campus when we were still meeting in the school. He's been faithfully attending, and it has been so great to watch him grow in his relationship with Jesus. Enjoy!

Chad Manus - Behold Story from Geoffrey Janes on Vimeo.

Behold Stories - Karen Jahn

As promised, here is the second interview from this past Sunday. Karen Jahn has been a faithful part of the Monroe campus for about 6 or 8 months. She is a joy and a blessing to have. Here's her story:

Karen Jahn - Behold Story from Geoffrey Janes on Vimeo.

Behold Stories - Mike Harvey

This past weekend, while the staff was away doing community service, we had three people from our own congregation share their story of life change. We video taped it, and although the sound isn't the greatest, you can still hear pretty well. Today's video is Mike Harvey. Mike is the principal at Benton Heights Elementary School, and we are blessed to have him as a part of our campus.

Check it out - leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Mike Harvey - Behold Story from Geoffrey Janes on Vimeo.

Progress!

I knew this would happen...eventually. And now it finally has!
















Work on the children's wing has finally begun! We've been talking about it all summer - we had 30 elementary kids stuffed in their current room this past Sunday. This is a much needed and anticipated improvement.

One more thing - we still need to collect about $10,000 to complete this project. So be praying about how you can help us out!

God & Money

We serve a great God! He does things in special ways, unexpected things, and I love being a part of that! Yesterday at Southbrook:Monroe we took a special offering. We've been talking about it and praying about it for several weeks. We meet in a converted store front. Two doors down from our main worship center, we have leased another smaller space. This will become our elementary children's wing. In order to upfit the space we need about $20,000.

So we've been praying and yesterday we took up an offering. We each had the opportunity to make a 3 month commitment to help fund the new children's wing (they had 19 elementary kids in a small room yesterday...they are packin' them in!). I explained our goal, I explained our need, we prayed, and we passed the baskets. Now check it out. We had about 70 adults in the service. We had 32 cards turned in, 32 family units who have pledged to fund the children's elementary wing. Here are the results:

The total amount given yesterday was $2597.

The total amount pledged for the next 3 months was $24,522!

This is above people's regular commitments to give to the church. I love our church. I love the generosity of those in our church. I love that God takes people, puts them together, and unites them under His cause. Praise God! I can't wait to get started on this new project!

God Supplies

This morning I was at the City of Monroe Building Permit Office getting paperwork squared away for the new pre-school room we are building. In the process, we decided to add some plumbing for a sink, and I had to alter the permit to include plumbing. The nice lady behind the desk was a great help! She had me sign some things, she printed out some things, she smiled at me and said "That'll be $75..."

I panicked - (mostly on the inside, though I'm sure she could see it in my face). I asked - "Credit card?" "No, cash or check...there is an ATM in the lobby." I normally don't carry cash. Who needs it? Everybody who has caught up with the times can take a credit card. But not the City of Monroe. They haven't caught up with the times yet. Anyway - I remembered that I had some cash in my wallet - cash that I was supposed to deposit, some to turn in to various places for various things - I just happened to have some cash. So I pulled out my wallet - I counted, and I was dumbfounded. I had exactly $75 in cash. No more - no less!

God takes care of us in the smallest ways. How cool is that?

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 5.17.09

Yesterday was simply amazing! Nancy called it a "day of blessings." We had so many cool things happen, I'm not real sure where to start!

With VBS coming up, we have several needs. People really stepped up! We had someone offer to pay for all of the VBS t-shirts, someone is donating gift cards for the purchase of food items, someone donated a video camera, several people signed up to help with VBS! And who knows what else, I still haven't heard all of the things that went on!

We celebrated the Lord's Supper as a part of our Sunday service. That is always a special time. As I looked out across the people sitting in the chairs, I was blown away. We had brand new baby believers taking communion for the first time as Christ followers. So cool!

Sunday afternoon we offered two connection classes: 101 (church membership) and 301 (spiritual gifts and personality). Again, I was blown away! We had 22 people take 101 and sign the covenant to join Southbrook Church! 4 of those I had just baptized 3 weeks earlier! Most have only been attending Southbrook for less than 2 months!

God is moving. People are getting on board. Amazing things are going to continue to happen. And I am overjoyed to be a part of it!

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 5.03.09

Yesterday was our last 11am Sunday morning service. Next week we move back to 10am service time. 10 seems to be a more popular time. This move enables us to add a second service later this year at 11:30.

We've been using the time before our services for volunteer training. Yesterday we had all volunteers come together and watch Seth Godin's talk on "This is Broken." If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching.

Then I asked people to consider areas in our church that are "broken." It was great to hear some folks talk about things that could be done just a little bit differently, that might really make a big difference. Some were worried that they were complaining. It's not complaining when we're working toward a solution.

The rest of the day was great. The worship team did an awesome job. It was great to hear the congregation singing along! The message was great. And then after church we had our Newcomer lunch. 13 people stayed, and several signed up to serve in ministries.

God is continuing to do great things at the Monroe campus. I am humbled and blessed to be a part of it!

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 4.26.09

God continues to bless His work at Southbrook Monroe. Yesterday we celebrated baptism for the first time as a campus. As the service time approached, my anticipation and excitement continued to build! Here are a few of the highlights:

• Danielle Hewitt let worship for the first time ever. She came to Christ no much more than a year ago. She did an amazing job! I look forward to seeing her continue to grow and develop in the area. Thanks Danielle!
• For some reason, we seem to have a video glitch every week (at least it seems like every week). The announcement video for Maximum Impact showed...but the audio didn't work. So I just jumped up on stage and took over.
• I had the privilege of teaching again this week. Hebrews 6:1-12...some tough stuff to deal with in there! But God is faithful. I think it went pretty well.
• The highlight was our baptism. We opened up the time for anyone who was ready. We had 6 people come forward to be baptized! So cool!

It is so awesome to see people moving from non-believer to believer to growing believer. I love watching people grow spiritually. And it is happening now at Southbrook Monroe.

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 4.19.09

Some thoughts from yesterday:

• Sunday was loooong for me. Long but good! I got to preach on Hebrews 5:11-14 - talked about the need for people who have been baby Christians for too long to grow up! I'm thinking about putting together a couple of blogs this week comparing the characteristics of babies with baby Christians.

• We had some great worship, the sound was great. We put up a drum shield last Sunday. That has allowed us to bring down the overall volume of the music. I think it sounds a lot better now.

• Numbers were down...the Sunday after Easter is the lowest attended Sunday of the year...isn't that strange?

• I taught Class 201. We had 7 people take the class. Very awesome to see people taking the next steps in their involvement at Southbrook.

• Pastor Rob visited with us. He did the announcements. How weird is that? He did the announcements and I taught?
  

• We went out to dinner to celebrate Kara's 14th birthday. Happy birthday Kara!

For all of you that missed this weekend, I hope to see you back this Sunday! I will be continuing our study in the book of Hebrews. We're going to take a look at the foundational truths of Christianity found in chapter 6:1-12, and then we're going to celebrate baptism together! It's gonna be another great weekend at Southbrook Monroe!

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 4.05.09

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the week before Easter.
Here are some highlights from yesterday

• I had a blast yesterday. For some reason I felt an extra sense of stress...not sure why.
• We did some training with our First Impressions team in preparation for Easter Sunday.
  
• We had a new worship leader. Steve and the band did a great job. Thanks guys!
• I met and saw quite a few guests again yesterday. I love seeing so many smiling faces.
• I preached on the triumphant entry - Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem the week before Hi crucifixion. We ended with a brief look at the temple cleansing, when Jesus went in and overturned tables, yelled at people, and reclaimed His Father's house.
• Children's attendance is busting at the seams. We desperately need to expand our space, as well as our volunteer base in that ministry.

I hope you are ready for this weekend. It is Easter Sunday. Who are you going to bring? What are you doing this week to make sure you bring someone with you to church on Easter?

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 3.29.09

As the pre-service music started I looked around. Things were gearing up. The service was about to start. People were streaming in the doors. New faces everywhere. I love seeing new smiling faces. I love seeing those faces still smiling when they are leaving. God continues to bless us with new faces each week. Lord, help us to be faithful in welcoming and following up with those new faces!

Pastor Rob joined us live this weekend. He continued our walk through the book of Hebrews - "Christ our High Priest." Here is a quick recap.

• We can boldly approach the throne of grace. We do not need to go through any man to get to the Father. Jesus is our great high priest. He is the only way.
• The OT high priest's job was to go to God with our sin, like a defense attorney.
• Jesus has bridged that gap. He did the work of the high priest once and for all.
• We cannot hide our sin from God. Your junk will eventually catch up with you.
• For more background information on the high priest, read Leviticus 6-10 & 21
• Jesus, our high priest, is the source of salvation for everyone.
• There were 4 requirements to be a high priest:

1) You had to be a man
2) You had to be called by God
3) You had to understand the guilt of humanity
4) You had to be beset with weakness yourself

• Jesus met each of these requirements. Even though He was God, he became a man. He was called (sent) by God. He understood our guilt. And yes, He was beset with weakness Himself.
• Jesus suffered, Jesus cried, Jesus felt pain. Jesus was forsaken by God the Father. Jesus had to become obedient to death, even death on the cross.

I am thankful for a church that is not afraid of the truth. If we have to water down or sugar coat the truth, then it's not worth believing.

Have a great week!

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 03.22.09

Here are a few thoughts from yesterday:

• We had a week off from ministry training this week.
• In our pre-service devotional I challenged our people - we are all ministers, are you ministering where God has placed you?
• Zach was back leading worship, with yet another great set. It sounded good. It was great to see our people responding and following in worship.
• I met at least 15 first time guests, and I didn't even meet them all!
• The message was great. Are you resting in God?
• Still running into a few programming glitches. Working on getting those cleaned up.
• I used my GM Motor Club membership for the first time - someone had locked their keys in the car.
• We had our first Fireproof group study after the service. Great turn out - a great study!

Have a great week!

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe - 03.15.09

Today we tried something new.  I like trying something new.  I love it when we change things up and do things differently.  Today Pastor Rob came and spoke live in Monroe.  It was different seeing him in 3D.  As a video campus we are pretty used to seeing the message on a screen.  So it was a refreshing change to see the teaching live and in person.

We also enjoyed some amazing worship led my Gal Friday.  They did a great job as well. 

Pastor Rob finished up a two week series on generosity.  The challenge today was to stand by Southbrook church in our giving.  We had the opportunity to fill out a commitment card - to make a tangible commitment to what we are going to give this year.

This afternoon I taught our first membership class for the Monroe Campus.  It was great.  We had 10 take the class, and 7 commit to join Southbrook church.  Praise God.  

It was a great day - and now I am worn out.  A huge thank you to all those who made this day happen!

Sunday @ Southbrook Monroe 03.08.09

Today was full of surprises.
We had our First Impressions training. The crew showed up around 9:30 and we got started. We covered our purpose and mission. We talked about "clarifying the win" and spent some time sharing some wins and losses in First Impressions from the last couple of weeks. The Alan took the group around and walked through each position. We talked about things we can and need to improve on.

The service got started at 11am. Everything was right on schedule. Everything was moving along as planned. Until the worship ended...and the video message began. We could see Pastor Rob, but there was no sound. I jumped back up on stage, pulled out Pastor Rob's transcript and began working my way through it. Whoa - that was crazy. About 20 minutes into it, I got the thumbs up from the back. They apparently had figured things out. So I transitioned and Pastor Rob took over (via video). Everyone started clapping, I'm assuming because they were glad we had gotten the video working.

The message today was great. We are working through a 2 week series on generosity. We were challenged to make God the priority in our finances. It all belongs to Him anyway. We seem to forget this all too easily. Is God a priority in your finances? I would challenge you to put Him first, and allow Him to use you and bless you in amazing ways.

The Way it Should Be

We moved out of the school and into our storefront facility just over a month ago.  The excitement has been building and growing ever since.  On the first or second Sunday in our new building, I noticed a couple of greeters having a conversation with a man just outside.  Next thing I knew, they had brought him in and helped him find a seat in the auditorium.  After the service I was introduced to Joel.  Joel is a homeless man who was walking by our church that morning.  The greeters had stopped him and started talking to him.  They had invited him to stay for church.

The next week, Joel was back.  And then the next.  I've seen Joel around.  He's got it pretty tough (he doesn't have a home).  He lives meal to meal.  In this time of recession, many of us are complaining because we can't eat out as often.  Joel is happy just to eat.

Yesterday we celebrated the Grand Opening of our new campus.  We talked for several weeks about inviting a friend.  If everyone brings one friend, we could double our attendance.  So we prayed for people to invite, we invited, and we prayed.  Over 300 people came.  It was awesome!  But one of the most awesome stories was Joel.  Joel invited friends too.  And one of his friends came!  Daryl is also homeless, but he was happy to be at church with us. 

Joel is the perfect example of what every Christian should be.  He took the challenge to bring a friend to church.  And he did.  And that's the way it should be.

An Evening of Thanks

Last night we hosted a thank you dinner for the guys and girls who put in a lot of volunteer time this past year, those who worked to make the Monroe Campus a reality. Several of these gave every Saturday and Wednesday evening for an entire year to work on getting the campus ready: demolition, framing, painting, cleaning, and much, much more.

I Corinthians 12 deals with a few of the spiritual gifts. One of the gifts is the gift of helping others. Those who possess this gift are the ones who come up and say "What can I do? I'll do whatever needs to be done." I love people with this gift. Not only do they ask, they actually do it! Without complaining! And they do it above and beyond what could have been expected.

Last night we fed a room full of people with the gift of helping others a nice steak dinner as a thank you for their thankless service to the Lord. Our staff came out and did the serving - we thought it appropriate that the staff serve the volunteers for a change. It was great to see everyone so excited and enjoying a nice evening together.

Thank you again to all of you who worked so hard to get our beautiful campus to where it is today.

Sunday @ Southbrook:Monroe 02/15/2009

Today was our big day before our Big Day. Next Sunday we celebrate our Grand Opening. We spent some time today in prayer, we took invite cards, we were all challenged to go out and invite people to join us next week.

We're going to have all kinds of fun going on. Our service will start at 11am. Afterward we will have BBQ and jumpy houses in the parking lot. The police and fire departments will be there. Several local ministries and local organizations will be there. It's going to be a lot of fun.

We're praying for God to double our size next week. We've had just over 100 the last two weeks. Our prayer is for 200+. I can't wait!

Have a great week...

Sunday @ Southbrook:Monroe 02/08/2009

God continues to do amazing things and blow me away week after week.

This Sunday we had 10 more than we had last week. Every week more people, every week new people checkin' us out. Our First Impressions team has done a great job helping everyone feel at home. This past Sunday a couple of our greeters stopped a homeless man who was going to pass on by. They talked to him and invited him in. Welcome to Southbrook Joel!

Our Children's ministry rooms are getting very full. What are we going to do? We just moved in and now we're out of space?

After the service we had a volunteer lunch and training time. We had 70 volunteers stick around for that. Awesome! It was so great to see the eagerness, to hear the hearts of our out of this world volunteers. I'll share more about the results of our training later this week.

Thanks Southbrook volunteers for making our church such an awesome experience!