Well I am securing new office space for the church. We are to a place now where our home office just isn't cutting it any more.
It looks like we have found a space at 1 Corporate Place at 42nd and Westown PKWY. Soon they will begin revamping the office and in a month or so we can get moved in!
Hurray!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Why Church Planting?
I get asked sometimes why did you want to create something new in a city full of churches? Part of my answer is why answer when the question is so good?
The real reason is that in the United states today only some 30% of our population are actually attending any kind of service on the weekend. As a matter of fact I just read in Outreach magazine the other day only 24% of Iowans are in some kind of worship experience on the weekend. That scares me to death.
My fear is that we are quickly becoming a post-Christian nation. Jesus came to change the world, and often what has happened here in the west is that we have had some change, then settled into a religious tradition of "this is what church is" or it "has to be done this way" or "you cant do it like that because its not in the rule book that." Jesus faced that same problem with the Pharisees in his day. They knew about God and knew all the rules, but had nothing on the inside to go with their knowledge.
As far as the rules go they even created new ones that they thought were almost on an equal plane with the text. These oral and written traditions became rules for sin and righteousness. Actually there were 618 of them. Many of them were absolutely ridiculous. Like a woman wasn't allowed to look in the mirror on the Sabbath because she might see a grey hair and pluck it. If she plucked it, that was considered work and you weren't allowed to work on the Sabbath. The list goes on and on.
They only held to the letter of the law and missed the spirit of the law. Jesus called them white tombs, painted and pristine on the outside but hollow and empty on the inside.
So why church planting? Because many western Christians fit that catergory. They may not have all the rules down just like the old Pharisees, but they are just a form of something that isn't real. A very religious society, but not at all really knowing who God is. That is were I find myself meeting people in the western suburbs here often. They may attend a church on a regular or semi regular basis, yet they just are kind of "clocking in" for their weekly time duty with God.
They have missed the point.
So why church planting? Because 17 out of 20 churches are either plateaued or in decline in the United States. 2 of the 3 that are growing are only growing by what is known in church circles as transfer growth. People are moving to these "happening churches" because they are bigger, and cool lights etc. So while the church is growing its not growing by fulfilling the Great Commission Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:18-20 to take the Gospel, the Good News, to all the world. It is simply moving people around.
Now that 1 of 20 church that is growing is actually growing by evangelism. They are growing by people who haven't had constant church background, or no church background at all. It is people who haven't had a real experience with Jesus. People are accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior who have never done that before. Those churches are growing quickly and by leaps and bounds. The funny thing is that those 1 or 20 churches, that 5% the majority of them (upwards of 80%) are churches that are less than 10 years old.
They are new churhes. To me it seems like a no brainer. Why do we want to act like an established church of 50 plus years when many of them aren't doing what God commands us to do.
It is our goal, that every single person in the metro would become a fully devoted follower of Christ. No matter what their background. Whether they are "churched" "unchurched" or "dechurched" (had a church experience earlier in life but for whatever reason have left the church) I believe according to God's word, it is his plan for all of them to know Him.
So why church planting? There isn't a better thing to be doing. I know its hard to be in a catergory where real growth is only happening in 5% of the churches, but no matter how hard it may be isn't it worth it in the end...
The real reason is that in the United states today only some 30% of our population are actually attending any kind of service on the weekend. As a matter of fact I just read in Outreach magazine the other day only 24% of Iowans are in some kind of worship experience on the weekend. That scares me to death.
My fear is that we are quickly becoming a post-Christian nation. Jesus came to change the world, and often what has happened here in the west is that we have had some change, then settled into a religious tradition of "this is what church is" or it "has to be done this way" or "you cant do it like that because its not in the rule book that." Jesus faced that same problem with the Pharisees in his day. They knew about God and knew all the rules, but had nothing on the inside to go with their knowledge.
As far as the rules go they even created new ones that they thought were almost on an equal plane with the text. These oral and written traditions became rules for sin and righteousness. Actually there were 618 of them. Many of them were absolutely ridiculous. Like a woman wasn't allowed to look in the mirror on the Sabbath because she might see a grey hair and pluck it. If she plucked it, that was considered work and you weren't allowed to work on the Sabbath. The list goes on and on.
They only held to the letter of the law and missed the spirit of the law. Jesus called them white tombs, painted and pristine on the outside but hollow and empty on the inside.
So why church planting? Because many western Christians fit that catergory. They may not have all the rules down just like the old Pharisees, but they are just a form of something that isn't real. A very religious society, but not at all really knowing who God is. That is were I find myself meeting people in the western suburbs here often. They may attend a church on a regular or semi regular basis, yet they just are kind of "clocking in" for their weekly time duty with God.
They have missed the point.
So why church planting? Because 17 out of 20 churches are either plateaued or in decline in the United States. 2 of the 3 that are growing are only growing by what is known in church circles as transfer growth. People are moving to these "happening churches" because they are bigger, and cool lights etc. So while the church is growing its not growing by fulfilling the Great Commission Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:18-20 to take the Gospel, the Good News, to all the world. It is simply moving people around.
Now that 1 of 20 church that is growing is actually growing by evangelism. They are growing by people who haven't had constant church background, or no church background at all. It is people who haven't had a real experience with Jesus. People are accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior who have never done that before. Those churches are growing quickly and by leaps and bounds. The funny thing is that those 1 or 20 churches, that 5% the majority of them (upwards of 80%) are churches that are less than 10 years old.
They are new churhes. To me it seems like a no brainer. Why do we want to act like an established church of 50 plus years when many of them aren't doing what God commands us to do.
It is our goal, that every single person in the metro would become a fully devoted follower of Christ. No matter what their background. Whether they are "churched" "unchurched" or "dechurched" (had a church experience earlier in life but for whatever reason have left the church) I believe according to God's word, it is his plan for all of them to know Him.
So why church planting? There isn't a better thing to be doing. I know its hard to be in a catergory where real growth is only happening in 5% of the churches, but no matter how hard it may be isn't it worth it in the end...
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Itunes
In the upcoming weeks we will be officially podcasting on the itunes music store. You can now subscribe for the podcast via RSS, but we want to be even easier. (since I struggle with stuff like that I want it to be easy for a guy like me to make happen) In the near future there will be a link on our website that allows you to subscribe to the podcasts! Awesome.
Paul Hansen is our master techy and he is really helping advance us. I believe that we need to be redeeming technology for God's glory. We are going to be a local church with a global impact!
Amazing. In the words of Kip from Napolean Dynamite, "I love technolgy...."
Paul Hansen is our master techy and he is really helping advance us. I believe that we need to be redeeming technology for God's glory. We are going to be a local church with a global impact!
Amazing. In the words of Kip from Napolean Dynamite, "I love technolgy...."
Our Nursery Doesn't Stink!
Well we have made a few adjustments to our nursery environment. Starting in the next week or so we will have a beautiful motion background on the screen with our new projector. We have a lightboard and professional theater style lighting. Our service structure for the babies and toddlers is based around a toddler table. It is a unit designed to let the children sit inside the table so they can learn in one space. It is going to be awesome. It should be here the first of next week!
We also have just added a pager system that allows the parents to reciever a pager or beeper so that they can be called anytime if their child should need assitance. It is going to be great!
I am a firm beleiver in having a nursery that doesnt stink! Ours doesn't! It is a safe place for kids to learn about Jesus and have a great time doing it!
We also have just added a pager system that allows the parents to reciever a pager or beeper so that they can be called anytime if their child should need assitance. It is going to be great!
I am a firm beleiver in having a nursery that doesnt stink! Ours doesn't! It is a safe place for kids to learn about Jesus and have a great time doing it!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Weekend Update
This weekend was tremendous weekend.
First Andy and Chelsea Reed were with us this weekend to speak about there upcoming missionary assignment to Mexico. Soon they will be heading to the Gaudalajara area to help serve. They shared their story and their heart! Awesome. I am working on uploading their video to the blogosphere so all can see.
We also had 66 in attendance which puts us at and average for the month of 69. Our all time high. This is amazing since it shows summer growth. I am believing God to help us grow all summer.
This fall we will be celebrating our 1 year church anniversary a few weeks into September! We will be working hard to get as many people there as possible! We are starting a new sermon series called Catalyst. Finding the Catalyst to jumpstart your life in the direction in needs to be going.
I have this conviction that it is never too late to become what you might have been. Many of us have been simply existing. Its time to start living! In everyone's life there are times you want to quit and never go back in all parts of life, but once you make it you can look back and say "man I am glad I didn't quit!"
Sometimes we just need that jumpstart to get us there! The Catalyst that starts it all. Pray with us as we begin this new series in September!
First Andy and Chelsea Reed were with us this weekend to speak about there upcoming missionary assignment to Mexico. Soon they will be heading to the Gaudalajara area to help serve. They shared their story and their heart! Awesome. I am working on uploading their video to the blogosphere so all can see.
We also had 66 in attendance which puts us at and average for the month of 69. Our all time high. This is amazing since it shows summer growth. I am believing God to help us grow all summer.
This fall we will be celebrating our 1 year church anniversary a few weeks into September! We will be working hard to get as many people there as possible! We are starting a new sermon series called Catalyst. Finding the Catalyst to jumpstart your life in the direction in needs to be going.
I have this conviction that it is never too late to become what you might have been. Many of us have been simply existing. Its time to start living! In everyone's life there are times you want to quit and never go back in all parts of life, but once you make it you can look back and say "man I am glad I didn't quit!"
Sometimes we just need that jumpstart to get us there! The Catalyst that starts it all. Pray with us as we begin this new series in September!
Saturday, June 24, 2006
My Beautiful Wife
Just thought I'd make a quick post about my beautiful wife. Weddings always make me remember our wedding day 8 years ago. I have such an amazing wife! She loves me and encourages me all the time. She is amazing.She is considering trying out for American Idol. What do you think? Is the the total package or what? I know some of you havent really heard her sing like she really can, but trust me she can blow, really! She has some other kind of pipes. On top of that she is stunningly beautiful, huh?
Katy's Wedding
We went this evening to Katy Keese's wedding in Ames. It was beautiful. Katy was a girl in our youth group in Ames right when we got there. She marrried a wonderful man named Daniel. He has worked for me a few times on several different jobs. Pretty cool guy!
I also got my 6 foot fiberglass ladder back I loaned to the youth pastor there a year ago! Nice to have it back!
And scored a projector for the nursery. I will pick it up monday! Awesome!
I also got my 6 foot fiberglass ladder back I loaned to the youth pastor there a year ago! Nice to have it back!
And scored a projector for the nursery. I will pick it up monday! Awesome!
Super Saturday
Today went well. It was a bit cooler than last week which was great. We didnt get an official count today but we had close to 40 people there. I am really confident that next week's will be awesome since we are going to be back at the same location as last Saturday.
It is pretty easy with hindsight to see how we can do things better. Now we really feel like we should have have done all 3 in the same location. Live and learn. The park at Willow creek (i think) is awesome and worked out a lot better than Wild rose park.
We had some of the same families that came last week back today which was pretty cool!
It is pretty easy with hindsight to see how we can do things better. Now we really feel like we should have have done all 3 in the same location. Live and learn. The park at Willow creek (i think) is awesome and worked out a lot better than Wild rose park.
We had some of the same families that came last week back today which was pretty cool!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Sunday
Just thought I'd give a quick update on the weekend! We had 76 in attendance and had an awesome Father's Day Service.
76 is our highest attendance yet! It is great to be growing even in the summer! Typically people are out on vacation and church services are low. But we are not the typical church, so why should we expect anything less.
Remember it is God's plan that none should perish. So we are working hard to see every single person in the metro become fully devoted followers of Christ. It is happening!
76 is our highest attendance yet! It is great to be growing even in the summer! Typically people are out on vacation and church services are low. But we are not the typical church, so why should we expect anything less.
Remember it is God's plan that none should perish. So we are working hard to see every single person in the metro become fully devoted followers of Christ. It is happening!
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Leukemia, parks and failed transmissions
Well what a week, it started off great getting my new truck. It is a wonderful truck, and I really was blessed with a slammin' deal. So no complaints about that at all. It has been great. I actually got 21 mpg on the highway this week!
Friday evening we went to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fund raiser and it was a blast. The food was divine and Tom Arnold was funny. He is from Iowa ya know.
Well that event concluded with raising over $375,000 for leukemia and lymphoma research money! Awesome. My grandfather died just over 3 years ago from a rare form of leukemia. So the event was pretty close to my heart.
Today we had our first Super Saturday! It was awesome. I just want everyone to know we have an amazing children's pastor! The only drag today was the wind, but Pastor Lori seemed unfazed by it.
We had 71 people at the park today! WOW! More than we had in service last week! Crazy. People love their kids, and want them to learn about kindness, respect and honesty!
The one negative deal to day was that it appears the transmission went out on Dara's car today! Argggh. So we will wait and see what is really happening there.
Looking for a great Sunday Morning!
Friday evening we went to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fund raiser and it was a blast. The food was divine and Tom Arnold was funny. He is from Iowa ya know.
Well that event concluded with raising over $375,000 for leukemia and lymphoma research money! Awesome. My grandfather died just over 3 years ago from a rare form of leukemia. So the event was pretty close to my heart.
Today we had our first Super Saturday! It was awesome. I just want everyone to know we have an amazing children's pastor! The only drag today was the wind, but Pastor Lori seemed unfazed by it.
We had 71 people at the park today! WOW! More than we had in service last week! Crazy. People love their kids, and want them to learn about kindness, respect and honesty!
The one negative deal to day was that it appears the transmission went out on Dara's car today! Argggh. So we will wait and see what is really happening there.
Looking for a great Sunday Morning!
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Blog page down
Wow, I have tried several times this week to blog and either blogger was down, or my internet was acting up! Crazy.
Well, I am up and running right now. We have made huge progress this week with our Super Saturdays this summer. Lori has spent a lot of time this week making this a spectacular event.
We have secured a couple full rounds of golf, a cut, color, and facial for mom, and tons of gifts for the kids, as a grand prize for the last Super Saturday.
We are going to be addressing kindness, honesty and respect. Each Saturday you come and are a part of a SS you get registered for the grand prize!
We have are work and print media coming by mid week. It will be awesome!
Well, I am up and running right now. We have made huge progress this week with our Super Saturdays this summer. Lori has spent a lot of time this week making this a spectacular event.
We have secured a couple full rounds of golf, a cut, color, and facial for mom, and tons of gifts for the kids, as a grand prize for the last Super Saturday.
We are going to be addressing kindness, honesty and respect. Each Saturday you come and are a part of a SS you get registered for the grand prize!
We have are work and print media coming by mid week. It will be awesome!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Didn't win a car, but maybe...
I drove the kids to Perry Iowa last night. We got a flyer in the mail with a key taped to to stating this may be the key that wins you a new car. I know that I didn't have much chance to win, but I did have a 1 in 8000 shot at it. So we drove up and as you figured it didn't work. So we took some time had a little dinner together. (Dara was doing some Arbonne and church related things). After dinner we went to a local park in Perry. Who knows maybe the park in Perry.
After we were there for a while a family with 4 kids showed up. Colin and Awnna made friends fast. The Pirtles oldest girl, Mercedes, and Awnna were "best friends" before we were through. The funny thing is that, they are from Adel, and we are from Waukee, but what a "coincidence" that we met in that park 25 miles away from both our homes... No not a coincidence.
They seem like a great family and were interested in connecting with our Moms group on Tuesdays. Holly seemed interested in checking out the church as well.
It is amazing how God aligns things, huh?
After we were there for a while a family with 4 kids showed up. Colin and Awnna made friends fast. The Pirtles oldest girl, Mercedes, and Awnna were "best friends" before we were through. The funny thing is that, they are from Adel, and we are from Waukee, but what a "coincidence" that we met in that park 25 miles away from both our homes... No not a coincidence.
They seem like a great family and were interested in connecting with our Moms group on Tuesdays. Holly seemed interested in checking out the church as well.
It is amazing how God aligns things, huh?
New truck for Signature Granite
Here is the new truck for the granite counter top business. I think it will really be a nice truck, and will get better fuel mileage than what I am driving right now! I still am thinking about looking for a $800 deal like Cooper found on his accord. WOW, just to tool aorund town in when gas is 2.75 a gallon.
Just if your curious, it is a 2001 Dodge Diesel 2500, long box, and 4 door. 92,000 miles. ( low for a diesel) It should be THE truck for hauling granite.
I spoke with an older farmer in Perry yesterday and he has one similiar to mine with 398,000 miles on that he only replaced the oil pump on. Crazy.
Saturday Afternoon
No Rickets in the Singleton Family today. We are sitting outside in the sunny 84 degrees just enjoying the beautiful afternoon.
I am finishing up for tomorrow's sermon on Joy. This has really been an exciting series for me personally. I am still living in the closing point from Sundays sermon "Joyful No Matter What." We looked at Pauls life in his letter to the Philippians while he was in jail awaiting execution. He has such an amazing outlook on life. What we closed with is the thought that we need to separate joy and happiness. They are two different things. Our joy as a Christ follower is based on a relationship with a God who cares for us, not just our everyday happenings. Happenings is where we get the word happiness. Our everyday happiness can vary with the happenings around us, but our joy can never be squelched because it comes from God. He gives us joy unspeakable. Amazing.
As I sit in the sun and type at this computer, I again am in awe of how majestic He really is. Do you ever forget that God created everything for his Glory. Think about it.
I am finishing up for tomorrow's sermon on Joy. This has really been an exciting series for me personally. I am still living in the closing point from Sundays sermon "Joyful No Matter What." We looked at Pauls life in his letter to the Philippians while he was in jail awaiting execution. He has such an amazing outlook on life. What we closed with is the thought that we need to separate joy and happiness. They are two different things. Our joy as a Christ follower is based on a relationship with a God who cares for us, not just our everyday happenings. Happenings is where we get the word happiness. Our everyday happiness can vary with the happenings around us, but our joy can never be squelched because it comes from God. He gives us joy unspeakable. Amazing.
As I sit in the sun and type at this computer, I again am in awe of how majestic He really is. Do you ever forget that God created everything for his Glory. Think about it.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Mac book Mac book Pro
Well I am almost coveting a new mac... The dilemma lies between a 13 inch macbook and a 15 pro. I love the pro, but really want a smaller notebook. That is the whole reason I want a new computer....
crazy.
crazy.
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