Archive for December, 2006
Today I mailed the final revision of the lease to the Premiere Theatre with our check covering the security deposit and January’s rent. Two week sago we were still $800.00 short of being able to make the payment but Kevin and I were able to scrape together the missing amount. Considering we don’t really have any money to spare it was a miracle in and of itself. Now we just need another $2,500.00 by the 12th of January to secure all the other things we need for our first sneak preview service on the 21st.
I have to say that after getting the money to mail off this rent check a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I wish I would learn to stop picking the weight back up.
I have taught, discussed and posted this in other ways before but due to this recent post on the MondayMorningInsight blog I thought I would post it here.
Have you ever seen the movie Darkness Falls? It’s about an evil tooth fairy of sorts who kills people. The catch is she can only do it when they are in the dark. In fact through out many scenes in the movie this tooth fairy with an attitude waits at the line where darkness and light meet waiting for just a moment for her victim to step foot into her domain. As long as they stay in the light they are safe.
This reminds me of the popular church phrase, “sin separates you from God”. While watching that movie God spoke something very simple and yet so profound to me that it changed the way I look at church. He said that He separates me from sin. Basically that the closer that I get to who God really is, the further I get into His light, the more sin is removed from me. It can’t really follow me there. It must draw back to that line where darkness and light meet. It’s still waiting but it can’t harm me if I stay in the light.
How does this pertain to the above mentioned blog post? As a communicator and a church we are to be a lighthouse to the world calling them out of the darkness. The power of the lighthouse is not because it reveals the darkness but that it dispels it. Nobody is led out of a dark room because someone pointed out how dark it is. “Hey, it’s so dark in here I can’t even see my hand in front of my face, is that the door?” It is the light that guides the way, not the darkness. Many times I think we use the darkness to do the lights job.
The saddest part is that many of those who agree with that letter are probably more upset that I used a horror movie to introduce my point than the fact that many of them have never led anyone to Christ. That’s just my two cents.
OK. Maybe not the whole world but I like them. In case you don’t know, I am talking about the LifePoint band. In the excitement of all that happened last night I forgot to talk about some of the other things that are happening concerning the LifePoint launch. As everybody knows, music is crucial in todays culture. Really music is crucial in every culture but I live in todays culture so thats the one I will focus on. In a new church launch it can be very difficult to find someone to handle the music much less deal with sound equipment and the like. LifePoint is rare in this arena.
From the beginning we have always had musicians around us. I’m not talking about the person who knows a few chords on the guitar and thinks they are a big rock star. I am talking about highly skilled and dedicated musicians. I am talking about write their own music and have a CD musicians. Sure the Cd’s are self-produced but they don’t sound like it. I’m not bragging. I am just sometimes shocked that with all the things we don’t have, we still have so much. With that in mind, I wanted to take some time to introduce the current band and say a big thank you for their commitment to the mission and vision of LifePoint Community Church.
The LifePoint Band
- Preston Parris - Band Leader, Guitar, Vocals
I have known Preston for a few years now and he still never ceases to amaze me. He plays every instrument, writes songs and is a great producer as well. His attention to details that no one else can hear makes every project sound amazing and take forever to get finished.
My three word description: Gifted - Precise - Anal
- Jason Carlone - Bass Guitar
I have only known Jason for a few months but he and his family have attached themselves to what God is doing in this small group of church launchers. Serving in any way possible and just a huge encouragement. He isn’t bad on the bass either. From the day he started he clicked.
My three word description: Willing - Able - Busy
What can I say about Dustin? Another man who can play any instrument and can write some amazing songs. In the several years I have know Dustin he has been an extremely passionate individual. His energy adds to everything he participates in. I can’t wait to see him play on the 21st. Dustin has a solo CD project coming out soon and I will be sure to tell you more when it comes out.
My three word description: Passionate - Wild - Skinny
Besides being one of the more amazing song writers I know she also plays guitar and is one of the most socially connected people I know. Her ability to sustain relationships is surpassed only by her ability to write songs about those relationships. Marisa is a loyal friend with a huge heart. She also has a CD coming out in January that I will talk more about soon.
My three word description: Emotional - Connected - Bard
So there you have it. The current LifePoint Band. Don’t read to much into those three word descriptions. They are the best and I’m not just saying that because they are what we have. They really are amazing. I listened to them practice on Wednesday night and it was very cool. Our first service is going to be loud.
In other exciting LifePoint band news. Preston talked to a person who shall remain nameless because I don’t know if he wants me telling the world about him. He actually owns and operates, skilfully I might add, a nice sound and lighting system. He has agreed to not only let us use the equipment but operate it for us at the first service. You know who you are and thank you.
Thats it for now.
Have you seen the new move ‘Night at the Museum’? At night everything in the museum come to life. Well I just experience the same thing tonight. I just got back from the Premiere Theatre with Kevin and Josh. No , we didn’t go to see a movie but it was very cool none the less. Let me explain a bit.
Kevin and Josh were supposed to go to the theatre this afternoon to get measurements and to test the projector and sound. When they got there the manager apologized because he forgot that the were running matinees so they could really do what they needed to do. He set it up where we could go this evening and test everything after the last movie let out. So Kevin, Josh and I set out to get the job done. It went fairly well and we stopped by to thank the night manager for letting us do all our stuff when Josh noticed that the manager was reading a book about movie making. He asked him about it and Kevin jumped in to recruitment mode. By the end of the long evening this particular manager/movie-maker had volunteered to help us with our multi-media from concept to production and found a church where he could explore what it truly means to be a follower of Christ. The fact that he is a manager at the place we are renting isn’t bad either.
On this night at the movie theatre God decided to put on a show and I didn’t even have to buy a ticket.
Should I be more scared that we now have people who are pushing narcotics onto innocent arachnids or the results that ensued. Earlier today Kem Meyer, the Communications Director at Granger Community Church, made a post with this picture. I thought it was interesting and worth sharing.
Notice that the caffeinated spider has the most screwed up
of all the webs. This explains so much.
Christmas break is over. And I am now entering the most intense 25 days of my life. Of course this is how long until our first sneak preview service at LifePoint. I am so excited but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t stressed. Any one who knows the pressures of a church planter would never ask why, but there are many who might not understand such struggles. In addition to that stress I am a bi-vocational church planter. So today I thought I would share an average work day in the life of James Laws the bi-vocational church planter.
6:30 am Wake up, get ready for the day (my morning prayer closet is in the shower), running late already so I skip breakfast (I hear you shouldn’t do that).
7:15 am The drive to work. I work 45 minutes away from home so I try to make good use of the time by listening to my
favorite communicators like Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel and Rob Bell. I also listen to one of my favorite podcasts, the Simply Strategic Show with Tony Morgan & Tim Stevens.
8:00 am Arrive at work. I work for an online fashion jewelry web store doing their website design and development, graphic design projects and online tech support. Due to the large quantity of merchandise and projects I have little time for much else although I do spend my breaks and lunch doing various tasks for the church and writing this blog.
4:30 pm The drive home. Please refer to the drive to work section above.
5:15 pm At this time I pick up my wife from work and head home to get changed for my work out at the Rush. Stress has
really been getting to me and I have been really tired a lot so I decided that I need to make my health I priority. Mainly because I plan on serving God far a long time.
5:30 pm It’s off to the Rush. This time slot can vary as to when and for how long depending on the day. Sometimes my
exercise partners need to meet later and it also depends on whether we are doing weight training or just cardio. Either wa I am always exhausted afterwards.
7:00 pm Family time. This varies as well depending on my wife’s schedule but it usually consists of dinner, chores, relaxing together or at least catching up on each others day.
9:00 pm Church time. This time slot can many times be swapped with the previous time slot depending on the type of stuff I need to get done concerning the church. But hear is a small list of things that I do during this time; phone calls, email, website updates, graphic design for signs and print materials, service planning, ministry team planning, church legal work, study and research, long fervent prayer for the church and launch team members, prayer for those who we have invited and who God will send to us, tying up loose ends and many other to do’s not covered in the items above.
12:00 am Sometimes later but always around this time I go to bed. I would like to say that when I go to sleep that I forget the above and just rest but that wouldn’t be honest. God has given me some strange curse to be able to think and actually problem solve while I sleep. This is when I tackle the most difficult decisions. ;-) Then I go back to the beginning and do it all again.
If after reading that you ask, “How do you get it all done?� The answer is, I don’t. The fact that I am bi-vocational means that I have to build a team. It can not all get done any other way. Am I tired? Yes. Am I stressed? Yes. Am I scared? Yes. Is it worth it? YES!
I figured since I have already explained why core values are so important that now I could share my list of values. As I posted earlier my list of values most closely resembled that of National Community Church so I have copied them for the time being. Of course what they mean and what I mean may be different. In fact I changed one of the items because it did not accurately say what I believed. So with out further banter, here is my list of core
values.
- Expect the unexpected
- Irrelevance is irreverence
- Love people when they least expect it and least deserve it
- Playing it safe is risky
- Pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you
- Everyone is accepted
- Everything is an experiment
- You cannot out give God
- Maturity does not equal conformity
- It’s never too late to be who you might have been
- Do it right and do it big
I changed “everyone is accepted” from the original from National Community Church which was, “everyone is invaluable and irreplaceable”. The reason I changed was simply a semantics issue. In its original form I felt that it gave the feeling that we can not afford to let anyone leave. After all they are “irreplaceable”. I agree that everyone should be welcomed but I also believe not everyone should be kept. I’ll explain that more in later posts along with posts on each of the above core values.
There are few things that concern me. I am speaking of the church launch of course. Our music team is amazing. All the other necessary ministry teams are in place or will be come opening day. I am also pretty certain that we should have a good turn out at our first sneak preview. Where my faith does waiver is in the area of finances. That’s right, I said that sometimes I lack faith. Any church planter who says they never worry that things might not all come together is not being honest with himself or at the very least not being honest with other people.
Launching a church is very exciting but it can also be very scary. We are currently needing $4000.00 before January 10th. Almost everyone on the launch team has already given as much as they can but we still need more. To make matters worse we need $1,600.00 in the next three days to send with our lease for our launching location. We currently have $1,300.00 of it so there’s only $300.00 to go. My faith dilemma is, where do we get $300.00 in 3 days? Sometimes I wish God would let me in on a few more of the specifics that He’s doing. At least the financial ones.