*This weekend Great Lakes Church will be 6 months old!!!  Our first Sunday was January 4, 2009.

*On Monday I will blog about my favorite moments from Great Lakes... thus far!

*This Sunday we're continuing our series, "Confessions of a Pastor".  The talk will be, "I Get Bored Reading The Bible".

*I finished reading Tim Keller's book, "The Prodigal God".  One of my favorite quotes was, "It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her."

*If you wish you could read more books, but don't have the time... check out this site of FREE Christian book summaries.

*Since I'm talking about the Bible this Sunday, I decided that just for fun I'll add a quiz to the blog this week.  I'm hoping it will work?!   Even though it asks for your name, it is anonymous.  Most of the quiz is multiple choice. Go ahead and see if you can get 100%.  If you do, I suggest starting a television ministry or launching a Bible College 'cause you're really smart.  At the end, you will see a summary of how well you did compared to others.

*By the way, cheaters spend eternity in a very bad place.

*Last night I went camping w/ my kids at Big Foot Beach Park in Lake Geneva.  Good times!

*I'm 34 years old today.  I was going to post my favorite birthday gifts of all time, but I honestly can't remember that many. 

*Today I'm blogging about "10 Decisions I Don't Regret... from the Past 34 Years!":

1) Marrying Rindy.  I'm not just saying this.  If you met her, you would understand.  I have been faithful to her since day one.

2) Traveling w/ Sam Farina when I was 15 and 16 years old.  I asked Sam to let me travel with him to learn about ministry and preaching.  Although we have different ministry styles, he's had a profound impact on my life.

3) Moving to San Diego ('03) to join the EastLake Church staff.  I learned that following Jesus & doing church could be fun!

4) Buying a house in San Diego (2003) and selling it three years later (2006)!!!

5) Moving from San Diego to Seattle to work with Ryan Meeks at EastLake Church (Bothell, WA).  He is a genius leader.  Almost everything we do at Great Lakes has been influenced in some way by EastLake. 

6) Starting Great Lakes Church!  I've met so many great people & get to do church w/ my family.  God is changing lives!

7) Accepting my friend Roy Skog's invitation to try an H. Upmann back in 2004.

8) Buying a Honda Odyssey.  Nothing compares. 

9) Keeping the same friends for the past 10 years.  I still talk to J. Grogan, T. Elmore, J. Curran, J. Stalman, and J. Smith on a weekly basis.

10) Having kids.  I saved this one for last 'cause they are not teenagers yet.  You never know?!

Dave

PS - If I could add #11, it would be "Joining Facebook".  Facebook makes me feel like I've got more friends than I really do.

*Yes, it's true.  We ended Sunday by playing "Billie Jean" (first service) and "Thriller" (second service) as people left.

*Here are the cliff notes from yesterday's talk, "My Personal Life Is A Mess":

-The desire to transform into somebody else starts as a kid.  That's why they love Transformers, Underoos, etc.
-The desire to transform never goes away, but there always seems to be a gap between who I am and who I want to be.
-Transformation is only something God can do.  Our responsibility is to prepare our hearts and minds for God to work.
-Transformation is a messy process w/o a clear path to follow.
-We can prepare our hearts and minds for transformation by recognizing that...

    -Transformation begins with renewed thinking on how little power sin should have in our life (Romans 12:2).
    -Transformation is a process (Philippians 1:6).
    -Transformation requires us to be intentional about who we surround ourselves with, where we spend our time, etc.
    -Transformation is not a "one size fits all" process.  We're all different, so God changes our heart in various ways.
    -The goal of transformation is progress... not perfection (Philippians 3:12-14).

*On another note, I went to see Keith Urban at Summerfest on Friday night.  He plays the music of heaven.

*No, I will not be making any comments regarding the death of my friend and mentor... Michael Jackson.

*Today's post is in response to some questions I've been getting from church planters regarding our kid's program. 

*I'm not just saying this to sound nice, but I'm a huge fan of kids and I've seen the ideas I'm blogging about work! 

*Here are some things we're doing at Great Lakes to build a high impact kid's program (in a set-up/tear-down setting):

- We use age appropriate DVD curriculum for kids.  (Walkers- 2 Yrs: Boz,the Green Bear; 3-5 Yrs: Lil' K; K-5th Grade: Kidmo and Empowering Kids)

-For our elementary program, we use high quality DVD worship videos that are led upfront by energetic volunteers!  The entire Shout Praises Kids collection is done very well!

-Most of our programming is done "live", but we use DVDs for the areas that need constant action: teaching and music.

-We use The Beginner's Bible for preschool and the NIrV Kid's Bible or New Living Translation for elementary.

-Instead of wasting tons of paper for handout sheets to let parents know what their kids are learning... we blog about it.

- We try to purchase highly durable games that kids wouldn't typically have at home. Some of the popular games in our elementary room include: Giant Connect Four, Giant Checkers, Boccerball, Giant Chutes & Ladders; Giant Dominoes, Giant Scrabble, Bean Bag Toss Game, etc.   Check these out too... classic arcade looking systems!

-Some of our best buys for preschool are: A bounce house, multiple Superyard Gates, a paging system, and Mega Bloks.

-The video projectors we bought for our kid's areas are Optoma EP728.  They cost around $1K w/ the 3 year warranty.

-We're still working on what's the best system for checking kids in and out.  Wristbands have worked alright for us.

*We will NEVER allow limited space or resources to determine our effectiveness for kid's ministry. 

*Thanks to our volunteers who work w/ kids at Great Lakes.  I appreciate all you do!!!

Dave

PS: This video is VERY hard to see, but it was filmed at night (6.25.09).  It speaks for itself.

*It is freakin' hot today, but not as hot as yesterday.

*Last week I mentioned 5 pieces of technology that changed my life!  Since I was joking about the "Corona PC"... I figured I'd replace it with something serious.  It's been over a year since I bought this, but the ScanSnap S510 has allowed me to eliminate almost every piece of paper from my life!

*I met with some reps from National Cinemedia today.  They helped me in strategizing how we can best use the theater for the fall.  Here is what we're planning:

1) We'll be adding a video venue auditorium next to our live auditorium for both services.  This will be HD quality!

2) We're going to open more kids classrooms, so we can have a better age breakdown.  Our elementary, for example, will be split into K-2nd grade and 3rd-5th grade.

3) We will add an area for all our students in 6th-12th grade to hang out!  This will give teenagers the opportunity to connect.

4) We will add a part-time kid's director to keep up with the growing demands of our kid's ministry.

5) We are going to help launch another church!  More about this later.

Good times!

Dave

*Had a great Father's Day.  Ended it with Buca Di Beppo!

*Yesterday I talked about some of my hangups w/ prayer.  Here are a few:

    1) It seems like God's priorities are messed up.   He appears to answer irrelevant prayers, but not the important ones.
    2) It seems like prayer is often very random and makes very little difference.
    3) I don't have a personality that lends toward prayer (introverted, reflective, serious, etc.)
    4) There is a lot of confusing and incorrect teaching on prayer (ie - if you have enough faith, God will heal you!).

*BIG QUESTIONS: What if all of my hangups with prayer were not the point of prayer to begin with?  What if the purpose of prayer wasn't to get stuff from God?  What is the reason prayer is so random is 'cause it was never meant to be specific?

*The Lord's prayer (Matthew 6) teaches us that the purpose of prayer is to express submission to and dependence on God.

*God isn't concerned with the volume, length, or intensity of our prayers!  He is concerned with us trying to sync our will, desires, wishes, and dreams with His.

*The big challenge for all of us is to regularly find a time and a place where we can privately submit our will and desires to God.  This is going to require us to move forward from the "Bless me..."  "Help me..."  "Protect me..."  "Give to me..." type of prayers. 

-Dave


PS - Here is part 2 of the set up team from our series, "Great Lakes Church... in 60 Seconds or Less!"

*I'm a tech-junkie.  I only buy about 10% of the stuff I want, but I think Jesus wants me to have more!!! 

*Here are my top 5 purchases from the past 12 months:

1) Amazon Kindle DX - It took me one year to save enough money to buy this, but it was worth it.  I initially started saving for the original Kindle and they came out w/ two more editions while I was saving!  No more book clutter and now I can carry a ton of books w/ me!!! 

2) HP Color LaserJet CP2025 - Okay, so this really belongs to Great Lakes Church... but this is the first printer I've had that does two-sided printing w/o having to manually flip the pages!   And it's faster than a speeding bullet... 

3) Flip MinoHD - Fits in my pocket.  Plugs directly into my computer USB port.  Allows me to film "Great Lakes Church... in 60 Seconds or Less" videos w/ great quality, no planning, and almost no editing.

4) San Disk Sansa Clip MP3 Player (1 Gigabyte) - For $30 it does the job.

5) Corona PC - My computer can beat up your computer!

*Please leave a comment if you own a piece of technology that is CHANGING YOUR LIFE and tell me what it is!

*Last week I posted a poll asking how much you pray.  There were over 100 votes!  As for now, the big winner with 64% of the votes is, "I have an A.D.D. prayer life.  I try, but it's hard to be consistent."

*Here is this weeks poll.

*Tonight, my wife and I are leading our first Growth Group at Great Lakes Church (Christianity 101).   We're using Brian Tome's book, "Welcome to the Revolution".  I'm a little nervous.  New Christians ask really tough questions,

*Earlier this week, I had a conversation with Justin Haigler.  He pastors The Simple Church, which meets in a movie theater.  They started out two years ago and have a weekend attendance of almost 2,000 people!!!!!  Wow.

*I re-read "The Dip" this week.  My 6 favorite quotes were:

1) Quit the wrong stuff.  Stick with the right stuff.  Have the guts to do one or the other.
2) Just about everything you learned in school about life is wrong, but the wrongest thing might very well be this: Being well rounded is the secret to success.
3) In a competitive world, adversity is your ally.  Most people quit when they experience "the Dip" (challenges or difficulty).
4) Short-term pain has more impact on most people than long-term benefits do, which is why it's so important to understand the long-term benefits of not quitting.
5) Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can't deal with the stress of the moment.
6) It's okay to quit, sometimes.  In fact, it's okay to quit often.  You should quit if you're on a dead-end path... facing a Cliff... not going anywhere essential... etc.

*Can you guess which of the identical looking guys below is currently leading our set up team?


Jon Showerman                                      Adolf Hitler                                                           Bill Cowher

*I talked to 5 different people yesterday that drove over 45 minutes to attend.  Pretty cool.

*We kicked off our series, "Confessions of a Pastor", and I talked about why I'm terrified of failure.  I shared about how the denomination I was a part of in 2003 threatened to remove me from being a pastor and the hell that followed. 

*Here are the "cliff notes" from yesterday:

-Everybody wants to be SUCCESSFUL.
-Often, we allow other people to DEFINE success for us.
-The two most destructive questions we can ask are: 1) What will people SAY about me? 
                                                                                                 2) What will people THINK about me?
-Being OBSESSED with what people say or think about me is the quickest way to forget about what God says or thinks about me.
-What God says about me is found in Ephesians 1:  I am loved, chosen and adopted by God.  I'm also a part of His plan!
-If we don't already know we're important, ACHIEVEMENT becomes an ADDICTION.
-There will always be a GAP between who we are and who we want to be.

*Here is the talk from yesterday...

Download | Duration: 00:43:28

*Here is another "Great Lakes Church... in 60 seconds or less!" video.  It's the first of two or three videos highlighting our set up team.

Matt & Emily Cox

I'm a BIG FAN of people who risk a lot to start a church (not just the leader, but everyone on the launch team)!   My friend, Matt Cox, is leading a group of people from Seattle, WA to Lawrence, KS to start EastLake Church.  I'm hoping to send a team of volunteers from Great Lakes Church to help at one of their preview services this fall!

Q: So, who are you?

A: Matt Cox (married to Emily)... a lead designer on a video game called "Scribblenauts".   

Q: Is Lawrence, Kansas famous for anything?  Is this where Dorothy and Toto are from?

A: It's home to the Kansas Jayhawks (NCAA Basketball Champions in 2008) and is fairly well-known in the indie music scene!  

Q: What does your timeline look like?

A: We're 8 months into preparing for the launch (everybody still has their jobs).  We'll be moving to Kansas the first week of August.

Q; What are some smart decisions you've made so far?

A: We've been following in the footsteps of church plants that work, instead of trying to be original.

Also, I took time to fly back to Lawrence, in February, to meet w/ anyone and everyone who was interested in starting EastLake Church.  This created excitement and allowed me to personally communicate the vision of what a "church for the rest of us" would look like.  

Q: How are you getting the word out?

A: Through social networking sites (Facebook, YouTube, etc,), email, my blog, and word of mouth.  We've got people who are interested who heard from someone... who heard from someone!

Q: Any decisions you regret?

A: Not asking more people from Seattle to join earlier.

Q: How many people are on your launch team and how did you recruit them?

A: 25 total so far (7 are moving from Seattle, the rest are from Lawrence).

I don't necessarily have a successful formula for recruiting.  Last year, I told Heather she'd be good for the team and she quickly said, "no".  We never brought it up again.  Several months later she posts on my Facebook wall that she's coming!  Dave & Becky coming was more of a slow burn after the initial invitation.  They had some choices to wrestle with, but eventually they decided to come.  Ryan and Tiffany quickly decided to move back to Kansas with us after we told them about the church (Tiff is Emily's sister).

Q: When you're 12 months old, how will you evaluate whether the church is rockin' it or not?  How do you define "success"?

A: After a year, if more than 50% of the Christians who attend our church weren't following Jesus before coming... then we're hitting it out of the park!

(click here to read the rest of the interview)

- Dave

PS: If you have any question(s) you'd like asked in my next interview w/ a church planter, please post a comment w/ the question.

PPS: Am I the only one who thinks this video is hysterical?