Inner Revolution

Even my blog is moving!

 

While changing jobs, houses and states twice in a year I thought it would be fun to move the blog as well. I have purchased a new home on WordPress, so this Typepad powered site will be winding down soon. You can find the new site here: www.geoffsurratt.com

 

See you there!

Confessions from a waiting room (Pt 1: How to be miserable while you wait)

 

I hate to wait. I hate to wait at the DMV, I hate to wait in the line at WalMart, I hate to wait in a traffic jam. But what I really hate is waiting on God; waiting for my church to grow, waiting for an answer to a prayer, waiting for my next Kingdom assignment. I knew three years ago that God was leading me into a new ministry role. While I loved what I did at Seacoast Church I felt strongly that the Charleston chapter was coming to a close. Once I came to that conclusion I assumed that I’d do a little prayer, read a little scripture, ask a little advice and BAM, I’d be on to my next assignment. Two years later I was still waiting, and waiting, and waiting. This week I want to share some of the lessons I learned while waiting for God to open a door.

Lesson One: How to be miserable while you wait

I am expert at making myself, and everyone around me, miserable while I wait. Let me share three quick tips if you too would like to become join the misery loves company club.

Worry

Worry is a great way to fill the hours, day, weeks or months you have to wait. Some questions to stoke the worry fire:

Why is this taking so long?

Why won’t God answer my prayers?

Why are other people moving forward while I’m not? (This opens the comparison closet which is a great dead end to explore while you are waiting)

Unfortunately worry doesn’t really move the ball forward, but it does fill the time and accomplishes the goal of making everyone miserable

Luke 12:25-26 ( NLT ) Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?  And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?

Stress

When I am waiting I feel like I have to make something happen. It is up to me to get the ball rolling. I just need to push harder, get others motivated, use my super powers to change my circumstances.

I was at the airport recently waiting on a delayed flight. There was a lady next to me yelling on her phone at an airline employee that this delay was absolutely unacceptable. She was so mad she looked like she was going to pop a vein. In the end we both got on the same plane at the same time. The only difference was I didn’t need a vodka martini to calm my nerves.

That’s the problem with stress, its fun while you’re fuming but it seldom changes things. But, again, it accomplishes the goal of making you and those you love miserable while you wait.

Complain

Complaining takes the pleasure of worry and combines it with the satisfaction of stress. Complaining takes many forms; a deep sigh, a prayer request, a testimony at small group. Complaining says, “If I have to wait, then those closest to me should suffer too.” And there is nothing that makes time fly in the waiting room like the airing of grievances.

The problem with complaining is that it is like scratching poison ivy; it brings immediate relief, but it makes the situation worse in the end. 

In the past few years I have been learning that worry, stress and complaining just make waiting more difficult for me and those around me. I have also gained some perspective about waiting rooms. I’ll share what I’ve learned tomorrow. 

 

 

The Problem with Church Buildings (Part 3: Eight ways to make portable sustainable)

Let’s be honest, doing church in a portable environment is a pain. Whether you have three volunteers and one trailer or several 18-wheelers and a cast of hundreds it is hard to face setting up and tearing down, setting up and tearing down, setting up and tearing down weekend after weekend after weekend. Then there’s the added challenge of not having space during the week for counseling, training and connection. No wonder your own building becomes the Holy Grail.

Let’s look at some ways you can make portable sustainable.

1. Realize you have meeting space now
   While you may don’t have Sunday School rooms or a fellowship hall, you do have living rooms, clubhouses, Starbucks, hotel meeting rooms, as well as other churches who are often willing to loan (or rent) space during the week. There are plenty of rooms available, they just belong to someone else.
   
   
2. Lease an office space with a small to medium size meeting room
   This will give you a “permanent” home that is much cheaper than a full blown church building. Now you have an office to work out of and you have space for leadership development and small connection events. With the economic downturn you may be able to lease space for a very reasonable amount, and in many situations you can tap into their existing phone and wireless networks.
3. Make sure have multiple teams for set up and tear down
   Ideally you will have several set up and tear down teams. Each team should not serve more than twice a month, and your children’s ministry team should not set up or tear down. (Or you will be on never ending hunt for new children's workers) Multiple teams is a non-negotiable.
   
   
4. Select the right team leaders
   Often pastors will select an engineer/administrator/laborer as leader of the setup/tear down teams. While this type of leader will get the job done and get it done efficiently, they will struggle keeping the teams engaged and motivated. You want a coach, a people person, a team builder. Let the engineer draw the plan and arrange the trailer, but make sure the team leader is the guy everyone wants to be around. This is huge if you want to make portable sustainable. Finding the right setup/tear down leader is as important as finding the right worship leader if you're in this for the long haul.
   
   
5. Honor the setup and tear down teams
   As a pastor make sure the teams know they are appreciated. Take care of the team leaders. Make sure there is budget money for team parties. At a church I visited in Hawaii (where they will never have their own building) they have a volunteer who arrives at 5:00 a.m. every Sunday morning to cook breakfast for the setup crew. He brings his own grill and cooks an amazing breakfast. That is his ministry and he loves it. How can you let the teams know how important they are to the core mission of the church?
   
   
6. Build community into the teams
   A setup or tear down team is makes a great men’s small group. Guys are more comfortable doing a task together than sitting in a living room sharing their feelings.  An effective way to build community is for the guys to go to breakfast together after they finish setting up. They then have time to run home and pick up the family to attend church. Community is the destination; setting up equipment is the vehicle. Your set up and tear down teams could become your biggest evangelistic outreach to men.
   
   
7. Create a path for advancement
   One church that was portable for many years created an entire hierarchy for the setup team. When you first volunteered you would be put on a chair setup team for section three. Eventually you could work your way up to chair section leader, chair setup leader, auditorium setup leader, first weekend setup leader, first weekend setup and tear down leader, and eventually Director of Setup and Tear Down. Men like to have a chance to advance and a clear path to run on.
   
   
8. Hire the setup/tear down crew
   If your teams are exhausted and you’re running out of ideas, start hiring part of the crew. Pay high school or college students a few dollars a week to do the heavy lifting. It might seem expensive, but it will be way cheaper than buying a building. Trust me.

These are just eight ideas I have come across in working with portable congregations over the past ten years. What ideas have you tried that has made portable sustainable for your church?

 

The Problem with Church Buildings (Part 2 The hidden cost)

 

Let’s be honest, Mr. Church Planter, what you really want, what you really NEED, is a permanent building. You have gone about as far as you can in the gymatorium; it is time to get a big boy home. If you had a building you could have an office where no one ever changes a diaper, your church nursery could look more like Disney and less like Alcatraz, you could stop choosing drummers based on their ability to lift speakers on to stands. You are ready to call the real estate agent and find your holy nirvana. Before you pick up the phone let me throw out a couple of hidden costs you may not have considered.

 

When I was at Seacoast Church we transitioned six campuses from portable to permanent, so I’ve been down this road a few times. Buildings have a lot of upside, but there are some major hidden costs. Before you pull the trigger let me share some things I’ve learned about permanent locations.

Buildings attract Christians

 How many unchurched people (who aren’t attending any of the other churches who already have buildings) are sitting at home thinking, “Now when that really cool new church meeting in the middle school gets a building THEN I’ll give my heart to Jesus”? They aren’t going to 1^st Baptist or 1^st Presbyterian or 1^st Unitarian, all who already have way better buildings then you will ever have, why are the going to show up at your newly renovated warehouse?

Christians on the other hand LOVE buildings. They can smell a new church building from miles away. That’s why you see big attendance jumps in some churches (especially churches in the Bible Belt) when they open a new building. If your target audience is now sitting in someone else’s pew, then a new building is just the bait to lure them in. If you really are after the unchurched a buidling might not have the impact you think it will have.

Think about it. Who is putting the biggest pressure on you to get a permanent facility? Is it the guy whose life was a complete disaster until he found Jesus at your church, or is it the family who moved over from 1^st Church because “they just weren’t being fed”?

Buildings eat 24/7

When you get a permanent facility you won’t have to set up and tear down any more, but you will have to pour endless amounts of cash into the care and feeding of your new money pit. You will now have utility bills, common area maintenance bills, roof repair bills. You will have the joy of adding a janitor and/or facilities manager to your staff. When the air conditioners break you get to fix them. You also get to install burglar alarms and fire alarms and sprinkler systems.

When you rent a facility for the weekend you write one or two checks a month (depending on how you pay the janitor). When you rent or own a permanent facility you get to write check after check after check. Hopefully enough new already tithing Christians will show up so you can keep the lights on.

By the way, the upfit (tenant improvements) of the new facility are going to cost more (a lot more) and take longer (a lot longer) than you have planned for. Trust me on this one.

Buildings modify vision

Once you have a permanent location the vision of your church will be greatly impacted by your building. A lot of what you do will be guided by paying for your box, filling up your box and expanding your box. You can no longer move to a bigger box down the street, you are now locked in. 

Church buildings are not evil, obviously most churches have had them for the past 1700 years. But if we are going to really make a dent in reaching lost people I think we are going to have to literally think outside the box. 

Tomorrow I’ll share some tips on how to stave off the building monster and stay portable as long as possible. What tips do you have for other church planters on succeeding at portable?