Interesting email question.

 

I got an interesting email question today and thought I’d share it and my answer to it. 

 

Hey, Scott…hope all is well!

Do you mind if I pick your brain a bit today? Today, I was reading a blog and they referenced a blog post from someone I had never read before now. The post was intriguing because it proposed a new definition of “success” in the local church. Here’s the post…

http://www.backyardmissionary.com/2008/06/re-imagining-success.html

 

RE-IMAGINING SUCCESS

From W.David Phillips:

“At my last doctoral class with Len Sweet last week, he posed a question to us that went something like this: Provide for me the metaphors that will describe how we measure success in the church in the future. We are prone to measure success by how many and how much. And we determine who is a great leader by how many and how much.

So today, I want to share with you some of the metaphors we listed (and some I came up with afterwards), of things we can count as a measure of success. But I need to issue a warning. You will have to think about these and you may push back unless you realize the metaphor. So don’t react…Ponder…

1. The number of cigarette butts in the church parking lot.
2. The number of adoptions people in the church have made from local foster care.
3. The number of pictures on the church wall of unwed mothers holding their newborn babies in their arms for the first time.
4. The number of classes for special needs children and adults
5. The number of former convicted felons serving in the church
6. The number of phone calls from community leaders asking the church’s advice
7. The number of meetings that take place somewhere besides the church building
8. The number of organizations using the church building
9. The number of days the pastor doesn’t spend time in the church office but in the community
10. The number of emergency finance meetings that take place to reroute money to community ministry
11. The amount of dollars saved by the local schools because the church has painted the walls
12. The number of people serving in the community during the church’s normal worship hours
13. The number of non-religious-school professors worshiping with you
14. The number of people wearing good, free clothes that used to belong to members of the church
15. The number of times the church band has played family-friendly music in the local coffee shop
16. The number of people who have gotten better because of free health clinic you operate
17. The number of people in new jobs thanks to the free job training center you opened
18. The number of micro-loans given by members in your church
19. The number of churches your church planted in a 10 mile radius of your own church

Got any more?”

 

This might be a broad/big question but thanks for passing on your perspective!

…thanks!

My reply…….

Hey brother

Sorry it took so long to get back to ya…. busy day. 

I can certainly play that game…. add some to it….

1. By the number of tattoos attending.

2. By the number of biker helmets in the parking lot with stickers that have profanity on them.

3. By…..

I certainly get the point. Are we reaching those that are far from God? I know that there is an understanding now that people are …on a given spectrum, farther away from God than 50 years ago…and most traditional churches don’t get it.  For example….In 1950 you might say someone far from God was a -1 on a given scale with “0″  being the point of salvation. With that being the case, evangelism looked like: “if you died tonight do you know if you’d make it to heaven?” The “-1″ person would answer a few questions and ….pow…. they were at “0″ and were saved. Now they say …. folks are at “-9″ on the same spectrum and “old” ways of evangelism ” no longer work. We need to develop relationships with folks and meet them where they are…. thus, we have new “success” being determined by the beginning of of relationship (number of cigarets in the parking lot) with people far from God. When you determine success in this way it means that you get “it” among the postmoderns. 

The problems I have with either the “old” or “new” ways are this:

The sweeping assumptions that people who smoke are “far from God” ….. and…. that if you can snag a bunch of them to come to your church you “must be doing something right”. There are so many things wrong with this generalization I don’t even know where to start. First of all…. what if it’s true that “like attracts like” and people are coming because YOU are actually far from God. Next, what if your assumption about “what is far from God” is wrong. Take Mormons, they don’t DO many things like smoking, tattoos, or even drinking carbonated beverages… yet they are far from God. If you had a boat load of Mormons in the church wanting to know more about God… none of the new “success meters” would be lighting up. And… what if the clean cut, wealthy, white, married, hard working people really, really, really, needed God…. the “new” success meters don’t light up when the saving power of God enters their life. The “new measures of success” have good intentions I know, but without the presuppositions clearly stated they are naive and shallow at best and dangerous at worst. ON the surface they sound great but are just  like the measurements used by traditional churches…” How many baptisms?, How many on high attendance Sunday….?”  Both approaches are great. Both in their purest form are at the heart of God… But…

If the blogger means that, by having a large number of cigaret butts in the parking lot,  the holy spirit is bringing life change to broken lives …  then YES, I agree that is a success.

If the more traditional churches mean,  by having a goal to baptize 100 people this year, that discipleship follows and the holy spirit brings life change to broken lives… then YES, I agree that is a success. 

WellSpring’s success is determined by lives that move through a discipleship process….Love God, Encourage Family, Serve Other, and Seek the Lost. We gauge success by a movement of people from one step to the next. We celebrate each step of each person … regardless of their socioeconomic / behavioral  status. From the conversation in the coffee shop to their first visit. From their first time at family group to their baptism. From their baptism to their going on a community project. From inviting a trusted friend to church with them to  watching them watch their friend follow the same process. WE LOVE EVERY STEP! 

All that to say…

As long as the presupposition is that life change will happen, that people move closer to God through Jesus Christ, and that God gets all the glory…. then yes, I dig these “new” and “old” measurements of success!

In His Grip,

Scott McInis

Lead Pastor, WellSpring church. 

 

I Pray that we never put success indicators before people! 

 

 

• I want to start off by saying a BIG thank you to David Stroud. He did an amazing Job preaching while I was away with my family on vacation. I’ve heard nothing but great things about the sermon and can’t wait to see the video. This was the first time that I’ve been away.. it was strange, but everything went well…. we had a big crowd, no problems, and a great time of teaching. ( I should take more vacations.)
• Sunday was hot…. and when I say hot…. I mean hot. The Gym has no air conditioning. We are trying with fans to cool the place but it just doesn’t seem to cut it. BUT… worship was amazing! We had a great crowd of people there to worship God together. We were all there for are common purpose and we left satisfied. ISN’T GREAT WHEN CONVENTIONAL WISDOM FAILS AND GOD PREVAILS.  Most people would say that our attendance would go down in this type of heat… our hasn’t.

 

• This week we started our new series “www.oneprayer.com”

 

It was is the first weekend of the One Prayer series. We cannot wait to see what God will do as WellSpring stands together with over 1300 churches in this incredible showing of unity!

In order for the series to have the most impact in our church, it is important that we engage in the broader One Prayer community on the OnePrayer.com website.

Currently, there are over 760,000 people participating with us THIS MONTH!  We encourage you to engage in the conversation with hundreds of thousands of believers on the OnePrayer.com website during this series.

Each week we’ll hear what “one prayer” a pastor would pray for the church world wide.

My prayer was, “Make us HUNGRY!” If we truly understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Blessed are those who Hunger and Thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied”, then we would wake up hungry for Jesus every day. Our righteousness is only found in Him. If you would like more study on the idea of Melchizedek and how that righteousness (tzedek) connects to Jesus… look to Hebrews 6-8. 

The schedule for online discussion this coming week is:

Monday: What did God do in your Church? 

Tuesday: Go to the website to write the first name of someone you are praying will come to know Christ. 

Wednesday: What is your One Prayer?

Thursday: How can we pray for each other? 

Friday: Pray for your church this weekend.

On week three, (June 22), churches participating in One Prayer have the opportunity to collect a special offering (in addition to our normal offering). Together we will support four international organizations in planting 500 new churches in Cambodia, India, Sudan, and China! The local church is the hope of the world, and these churches will be able to make a sustainable, lasting, and eternal impact on these four strategic regions. 

 

• AND REMEMBER that we are all encouraged to fast (whatever God leads you to do) during this 28 days (June 1-28th).  Let me know how prayer and fasting is impacting your life over this time. 

 

 

 

• Some general praise:
• We have all of our sermon’s posted on our website.
• We had a beautiful baptism service where 10 were raised to walk in newness of life.
• We continue to grow (that’s what live things do)
• We are beginning to develop our leaders.
• We have our WellSpring 101 class going strong.
• Our youth are going to Panama City Beach for BIGSTUF camp. Keep them in our prayers as they leave tomorrow. We are having “youth” events throughout the summer. 
• We have been blessed in a big way with a needed soundboard. (Praise the Lord!)
• God is continuing to bring leaders into our fellowship.
• God is so Good!

 

 

Do continue to pray for a solution to the heat of the gym on Sunday mornings.

 

 

Oh me of little faith.

• When setting up Sunday morning I told the guys to put out fewer chairs than the last couple of weeks (you know… Easter, the week after) I mean this being the week of spring break for our school system and us coming off of the two highest weeks of our existence.  Well….We had to put out more chairs. This is how my journey has been with WellSpring! Every week I’m amazed at what God is doing in Senoia. 
• We finally got the message recorded and hope to get it online soon. We started our new series Under It All. It’s a look at Spiritual Warfare. I couldn’t think of a better direction: we’re turning 6 months old next Sunday, we’re starting our membership classes, we’ve got many “systems” in place… we’re starting to look like a church…….. so I thought, “yep, this is the right time to talk about spiritual warfare.” I pray that everyone stays encouraged. 
• As I look back over the last 6 months one of the most encouraging things to watch has been seeing someone come for the first time and then watching them the next week bring friends. It’s just so cool to see those networks of people expand. When folks come in and tell me, “yea…. We’re friends of the __________” (like you should know them… you’ve been friends with them for years) and I’m thinking, “didn’t they just come for the first time last week?” It’s awesome! Everybody is new. It’s so exciting. God is so good. 
• One of the most encouraging things about this past Sunday was after the service I had several folks come up to me and say what a blessing WellSpring has been to them. One gentleman came up to me and said that he hadn’t been to church in over twenty years and that WellSpring has really blessed him. He said that every week he feels God drawing him closer. I love seeing people that are far from God coming closer! That is why we exist.
• David did an AMAZING job putting together the children’s area. This ten week session of “power lab” is off to an excellent start. The lab coats for all of the workers were a really cool touch, the set was spectacular, Jeff did a great job putting together the “Children’s praise team” (you guys rocked!), Jerry’s welcome area looked like a cool science lab…bubbles and dry ice were nice… I know that all of the extra effort really speaks to how much we love children at WellSpring.  Thank David for a great Job.
• Jeremy and the band rocked my face off as usual. Even though several members were out sick and on spring break… and… several members were with the Children’s praise band,… we still had a remarkable worship experience. Thank Jeremy. 

24 Amazing Weeks.

Easter Sunday was amazing! I can’t believe it’s just been 24 weeks. In 24 weeks we’ve met every goal I had set for 26 weeks (I’ve got to start setting higher goals!). Check out the short video clip at the bottom of the page on our new website www.wellspringsenoia.com (Rob Lindsey is the MAN!) 

• We are in the Gym- This is an answered prayer. We don’t want to limit our growth because we don’t have enough space. Sunday was amazing!
• We have an established worship team- I don’t know if you understand the significance of this, but we have enough folks on our praise team to have 2 bands. One is going to start playing for our children’s “Love God” time before they break up into their “Family Groups”…. we’re 24 weeks old! It is so hard to find talent like this…and we’re not paying …it’s all because of volunteers! When you have someone as talented as Jeremy… people want to be a part of it. 
• Our children’s ministry is moving along smoothly- David has everything so well thought out that we’re able to get the supplies we need and the volunteers know way in advance when they have to work, what the theme will be, the band can know the music to play, we know what crafts they’ll be doing…. again the volunteers are amazing …
• Our Family Groups are hitting their stride- We started with 5 about 10 weeks now and already a couple of the are birthing new groups. All of them are “Serving Others” and “Seeking the Lost”. The community of Senoia knows about our church because our Family Groups are serving our community. And…. we have name tags on Sunday morning, a resource table, and coffee table … all because our Family Groups are serving our Church. 
• We will be having our first WellSpring 101 Class- this class will be the first step toward membership  WellSpring! I can’t even believe I’m saying that. We will actually have members after the week of April 13th. Some people wonder why we have waited so long and others can’t believe we are having the class so soon. We want to make sure that everyone knows what WellSpring is all about before they make the commitment to join with us on this amazing journey. 
• Our offering and attendance is exceeding expectations- Really. 
• Rob Lindsey has got an amazing website in the works for us- we’ll be able to store member data, track attendance, sign-in children, register for events, give online, listen and watch sermons, subscribe with RSS feeds and itunes… some of the changes are in effect now (but really, it’s just the tip of the iceberg). 
• All of these blessings have come because we serve an amazing God…He gets the credit, the glory, the fame, and the applause. We serve amazing God! 
• All of this is truly a blessing… that’s why our next series is  ”Step into the Ring” a look at Spiritual Warfare. Anytime you find yourself on a “spiritual high”… usually the enemy is lurking around the corner “seeking whom he may devour.” We need to more than ever be in prayer that we continue to grow (healthy things grow)… that we continue to take the momentum that God has given us and run with it, and continue to be walk-across-the-room-people. The series “You Had me at Hello” finishes this Sunday. For a new church this has been a great month as we looked at how scripture tells us to “do” evangelism. It’s not about a bullhorn… it’s not about memorizing a bunch of scripture, it’s not about handing out tracts….   it’s about friendship, acceptance, and living life to it’s fullest. We will complete the series this week as we study “Kingdom Goggles”…. how we see the world differently because we have such a great gift that we carry as we walk across the room.
• I can’t believe it’s just been 24 amazing weeks.

I love this church!!!

• If we closed our doors of WellSpring today would Senoia miss us?
• We have these great family groups that are meeting every week now… so… Each one of them are really getting involved IN the community… so… We have several community services calling and asking if we’d like to participate in their events now. David, our family pastor, has been working out an opportunity for us to help with the rec. department in the concession stand. He told them he just wanted to help (you know… not for a fundraiser). She was thrilled. Well, this week David said she invited us to be in their “opening day” parade. So, I said sure… that’d be great… you know, be in the little parade. Little did I know. David talked Jeremy into getting the praise band to ride on the float to sing some live tunes. Well… David got a call today and the director…said she wants Jeremy to sing the national anthem with our band and ask me to say the opening prayer for the season. She went on a radio station to talk about opening day and really talked up WellSpring (apparently she asked several churches in our area to help and we’re the only one helping). Great Job David!!! 
• This is what happens when you become apart of the community. There will be about 500 families represented there tomorrow. This is what I mean by looking outside of the walls of the church. This is what I mean by having “kingdom eyes”, by “being salt and light”. It just gets me so fired up to hear this kind of stuff. We have been working so hard to become a part of the community and I think it is beginning to happen. Its been my prayer from the beginning that WellSpring be a vital part of the community. The family groups are doing an amazing job of making this prayer become a reality.  I’ve heard of many great ideas  for the coming weeks ahead for groups to add to what we are already doing. 
•  Please continue to think outside of our church walls. You guys are amazing.  
• Remember we are in the middle of our “You Had Me At Hello.” series. Don’t be afraid to walk across the room and invite a new friend to come to WellSpring….  Easter is a great time for this, many folks that normally wouldn’t come to church are considering it on this day.

Honesty.

Here is a video that I’ve seen bouncing around a few blogs over the last week or so…it  illustrates  just how hungry people are for the truth. “Non-attendees want to ignore a generic God, but when/if they follow a faith, they want one that has robust beliefs and is worth following… Since growing churches tend to have more defined belief systems, when people start a journey to faith, they want something they see as worth believing and giving their life to. A generic god is hardly one worth committing to… As best I can tell, those who are not a regular part of a faith community still want to be “spiritual” people, but without a clear faith… Many fashion a tame God in their own image– a generic god for a generic spirituality, not a God who actually intervened in the world through the death of Christ and calls us to follow and live differently… For many, they want to get all the benefits of spirituality without any of the truth claims of a rigorous faith… I think the Oprah-ization of American spirituality has glorified “searching” for spiritual meaning but de-emphasized “finding.” In other words, it is good to be looking for spirituality, but it is intolerant to actually believe you have found a right faith and want to invite others to such. In “I’m O.K., You’re O.K. Spirituality,” the only sin is intolerance… and intolerance is defined to mean actually believing your faith is the correct one.” -Ed Stetzer

• Amen.As we continue the “you had me at hello” series let us not forget that we hold this truth in us.  

Sunday

• Sunday was a wonderful beginning to our “You had me at hello” series. Sorry my sermons seem to be getting longer (it’s amazing that we can break everything down and have it loaded into the trailer in 30 min……. you guys are amazing!). I pray that everyone will begin entering the zone of the unknown, listening to the Spirits promptings, and living daily with “Kingdom eyes” this week. This week as you go to work, school, the park, out to eat, visit relatives, see your neighbors…. as you live, consider looking through kingdom eyes. 
• You don’t have to “sell” Jesus to the new people you meet, just be yourself and start conversations. If we all become people that are willing to invest in trusted friendships for the sake of eternity it will change the world and will change the perceptions that people have about Christians.Everyone seemed to enjoy the Rob Bell video “Bullhorn”… I know some conversations were started about that. Evangelism doesn’t have to be an angry guy with a bullhorn. As we live, as we do life together, as we live out a public relationship with Jesus, the folks we ask to walk with us will undoubtably begin to see Christ in us. 
• If we can move from the mindset of an event based theology to a more sanctification process; if we could move from a paradigm of let’s convert them to let’s love them… wouldn’t the Christian label look more like the designer? We hold the most extraordinary and stunning message of hope ever given… yet Oprah’s Big Give and Extreme Home Makeover gets better ratings and looks more like the gospel than the current PERCEPTION held of Christians. Let us become bold and realize (as Rob Bell said in his video), “How we love others IS how we love God.”
• Who is currently in you circle of influence? Take a step into the unknown today. Live the adrenaline filled life of a Christ follower. 

Conversations

• Haven’t quite gotten the hang of “blogging” every day. I don’t want to bore someone that actually would read it every day with the events of my life. But there are a few conversations I’d like to have with you. 
• CONVERSATION #1 —Church planting is such an amazing rush. It’s like sky diving, running with the bulls, cliff hanging, and flying at top speeds. There is no net and your faith grows at an alarming rate. Something that happens quickly is that you let go of control. No one is able to accomplish everything that needs to happen on a Sunday morning by themselves… you have to learn to trust and give responsibilities away.  You do this, and it’s like leaving your week old, first born, little baby with a sitter. You have to learn to trust. I want to say thank you to the WellSpring staff and volunteers because you have made this easy for me. You are always dependable, always gifted, and always better than if I had tried to do it by my self. YOU ROCK! THANK YOU for making this adrenalin rush of a ministry seem joyfully invigorating.  
• CONVERSATION #2– We’re launching a bit of a advertising campaign (don’t like calling it that but what else would you call it?) before easter. This should be a great tool for you to start conversations with your friends about the church. The last 2 weeks of March, we’ll have: commercials on J93.3 (we bought the time back in Jan. on big time sale… Jeremy did a great job on the last one and I’m looking forward to see what this one will sound like), an ad in “Perspectives”  magazine (a magazine that is mailed to 35,000 homes in Senoia, Peachtree City, Sharpsburg, and Tyrone), and we have flyers for all of you to use as you talk with neighbors and friends. We want to make it easy for you to start conversation about our church. In conjunction, we are updating our website to be a bit more user friendly… something I never could do alone (thanks Rob). 
• Here’s what the ad and flyers look like… 
• Conversation #3—My rant about T.V. pop psychology  —-”The best revenge is success ” I heard someone say on a talk show yesterday. I pray that never comes out of my mouth. As Christians, we live for the kingdom of God. As Christians we die to ourselves. And most of the time…. the person your trying to get revenge on doesn’t know what your trying to do and frankly doesn’t care. Live for Christ, live for his Kingdom, and His success. That is a worthy goal. You are treasured by God. Don’t find your significance, your worth, your beauty …  in proving someone wrong about your giftedness. Your success is found only in your heavenly father saying, “Well done my good and faithful servant!” T.V. pop psychologist really get me going. 
• God, thank you for this journey we are on! Thank you for placing people around me that make it all quite enjoyable. Thank you for not having to find my worth in what others think. Thank you for letting me be a part of what you’re doing in Senoia, GA. 

The opportunity is real.

• It’s been a few days since my last post…. sorry (is this confession?). I’ve been trying to process all that’s gone on. Our little church plant started Oct.14th (about 20 weeks ago).  God is doing something big!  Please pray that I can stay out of the way. I’m trying to overreact in a good way. We will be meeting in the gym at EastSide Elementary in two weeks (this hasn’t be approved yet, I’m just being positive).  I know it’s not about numbers… but when you almost double in size in a week… very practical things have to start happening. You have to print more, you have to call more, you have to buy more children’s supplies, you have to …. you know… be ready. And thanks be to God, we have been. My prayer is that we are ready every week to double. Everyone should want to bring a friend. My heart is for people: to get to know them,for their lives to be transformed by the saving power of Jesus, for their lives to have purpose, direction and joy. If we run out of space, if we run out of supplies for our children’s ministry, if we’re not ready, we forsake the expectations God has for us as He directs families to our church. Will God’s purposes be served without us? absolutely. But don’t you want to be apart of what God is doing? absolutely! The Opportunity is real. Everything that I’ve been apart of over the last couple of day has screamed this to me.
•  Friday night a sweet family at WellSpring invited me to their daughters “Winter Guard”  exhibition. The girls do a flag corps routine that tells a story in a very creative way. Their theme this year is, “212 degrees”. The girls  represented water as they danced. At 211…just water, at 212 the water begins to boil, which produces steam, which can power a train. It was about the fine line between quitting and success. 1 degree. A powerful message. The opportunity is real.
• Saturday our family group served at “Our Father’s House” in Senoia. It’s an after school program in an impecunious area. They only operate 1 day a week and are hoping for 5. We went Saturday to build relationship with the children and to start a process of  introducing WellSpring to this opportunity. We played games, sang songs, and ate some snacks. Heather read an excellent book about creation and the children had an opportunity to make a nice craft to take home.It was an excellent beginning. However the need is great. After the event we went to the Grand Opening of several shops down town. I took the opportunity to pass out some brochures for the church… I ran out. There were quite a few people there. The need of the community is great. I keep reminding myself that more than 70% don’t go to church anywhere! The opportunity is real.
• Sunday what an amazing day! It was the Celebration Sunday of our “40 days of Community”. I didn’t preach. We listened to the testimonies of 5 of our family groups. All who shared did an amazing job. We have helped with: A better way ministries, the welcome house, habitat for humanity, our father’s house, and several others… all in the last few weeks. I’ve received phone calls saying what a blessing each are and how can we do more. This is the kind of stuff I pray for! Our church is on fire for being Christ in the community. We are realizing that the needs are great. We are realizing that the possibilities real. We are realizing that God is at work. We are realizing that WE really want to be a part of it. 
• The opportunity is real.

You had me at hello.

• Yesterday, like most weekdays, I spent the day in a little coffee shop in Senoia. It has become the place that I go to work on sermons, check email, write this blog… my office if you will. Early on I thought I couldn’t be effective in the community if WellSpring didn’t have an office. But as I sat there yesterday it became more and more apparent that we would be less effective if we did have an “office”. Most days I meet at least 10 new people just at the coffee shop. Some of the folks I meet come to our church. Some of them are pastors of other churches in the community. I met Pastor Sam of the Vineyard Church and the I met the pastor of the Methodist church here in town, both of them are amazing guys that really want to partner with us to see Senoia won for Christ. As I sat and worked… I not only spoke to new people, I also saw 5  come in that are regular attenders at WellSpring (I’m going to have to move to the Library if I actually want to get work done… just kiddin’). I have prayed with people, counseled them, and shared the gospel all in the coffee shop. I’ve met so many people in the community that I never would have met if I was sitting in an office. Do we need an office? Yes, but not one that becomes a place to hide from our community. Jesus calls us to be “Salt and Light” we can’t do that if we are not IN our community.
• And here’s another point, the people I meet don’t come to me… I have to take the initiative.  I have to get up and walk across the room to speak. Most people welcome the conversation. Most people are looking for a church they can call home, but they will never come if we don’t invite them. That’s why we say that we are about doing L.E.S.S. It reminds us that we do less at the church so we can do more in the community. That as we Love God, Encourage Family, Serve Others, and Seek the Lost, we don’t do it in a vacuum.  
• We’re starting a series March 9th called, “You had me at Hello”. It will be a series about how to start conversations that point people to the church and ultimately to Christ.  Let’s pray together that we have Kingdom hearts and Kingdom eyes that long for, “thy Kingdom come”.