Danny J Bixby

This video makes my head, heart, and soul hurt. Coming from that system, I’ve known plenty of people who have been treated like that guy (or much worse). Video obviously made by someone who knows what they’re talking about.

2 days ago, I posted this status:

I wonder if it’s ok for a guy who works at a church to say that he feels very hostile when people use scripture in conversation?

It got several retweets, a few likes, and a dozen comments or so on the Facebook. But it also got a few of my friends to ask me about what it meant, some public & some private.

I think they’re right, it deserves clarification and can easily be misinterpreted at first glance.

What I did NOT mean

In no way am I hostile TO scripture. I’m not offended by hearing the Bible recited. I think that reading the Bible, and wrestling with it (discussing it) with others, is one of the most important things you can do to grow in your faith. I think, if anything, more of us suffer from scripture ignorance as opposed to having an abundance of scripture knowledge.

Too many of us make dangerous errors when we read or interpret scripture, such as:

• Reading it outside of community. The reality is that most books of the Bible were written to groups of people…not individuals. So to think that the Bible is just between “us and God” can be a very dangerous practice.
• Ignoring the context of the passage. This is where clobber verses come from. The ones that are used to beat people over the head. No good, people!
• Ignoring how the original audience would have understood it. Everything in the Bible was written to (and by) specific people at a specific point in history to address specific things. If you don’t try to understand how the original audience would have received it, and instead focus on how we in the 21st century receive it, I believe you’re doing an injustice to the meaning.
• Ignoring the supporting documents. This goes a bit in hand with the last point. Especially when we talk of the New Testament, there is a world of literature that would have influenced the mindset of the people hearing the new information. For one…ya know…the Old Testament. I think the best way to understand much of the NT (especially the writings of Paul) the best thing you could do is have a firmer understanding of the OT.

What I DID mean

That thought was born out of a long line of conversations with people who seem to just throw scripture verses into a conversation for either: bad reasons, or no reason at all.

It seems to be incredibly easy to take a verse (or passage) from the Bible, and just leverage it to validate whatever position you’re already a fan of in the first place.

THAT is what I am hostile towards. Or maybe a better way to put it instead of hostility, is that is what I feel a discontent from.

Manipulating scripture to validate ourselves. As opposed to letting it ignite something in us that brings us to a new point in our lives. Instead of having it create some discontent with who we are vs who God is calling us to be, we have a tendency to use scripture like it’s some sort of tool (or for way too many of us, a weapon).

Does that hostility make a bit more sense? Do you ever experience something of the same?

Had a great conversation with a new group leader after the 6:30p service tonight. She has only been coming with her family for about 2 months to North Point. But as I asked the standard “So how did you end up at NPC?” question, the answer I got was pretty awesome, “Well…Facebook.”

Yep. Facebook.

She went on to tell me that she never heard of North Point before, but it seemed to keep popping up all the time on Facebook: friends’ statuses, videos they’d post, quotes, links, etc. Since I do our web & social media for North Point, hearing that from someone who went from 2 months ago not being in NPC to now being so into it that she was interviewing to be a group leader was pretty awesome.

Then she drops a big one on me: When her family came to North Point, it was the first time she (or her husband) had been to church in 13 years. And not only that, she has begun “dragging her friends” (as she puts it) to NPC as well. And they’re digging it. She even brought one of them along to her group leader interview, and invited her to be her co-leader (much to her friend’s surprise, hilariously).

Even though I know how important Facebook is to spreading the word about a church, how big social sharing is between friends, how people check out a church on Facebook before they even show up for the 1st time…it’s still good to meet someone that solidifies what I already know.

Facebook is kinda a big deal.

For some reason, the topic of “burnout” has really been coming up in conversations lately. By burnout, I mean when people get to a point of frustration, exhaustion, or some other issue where they just…well…burn out. They start falling away, dropping responsibilities, and no longer want to be a part of something. I think specifically of people who volunteer in a church.

Maybe you’ve been at that point sometime in the past. You were passionately involved, but the responsibilities/demands just kept increasing. Things at home got more complicated, your real job was still demanding, the rest of life didn’t want to slow down and allow your volunteering to take on a life of its own. Eventually you were looking at a few main aspects of your life; maybe just family, volunteering, and your job…and realizing that one of these 3 needed to go. That you just couldn’t handle it anymore. So you let one go, and we all know which of the 3 it was.

The other day as I was lounging around on a couch in the office working diligently reviewing some small group curriculum, I started to think about burnout. Causes, solutions, systems to help prevent it or alleviate it, etc. I then scribbled all these things on our giant white board…it looked a bit absurd. But I wanted to share with you a list I composed of the causes of burnout.

I think that you can never solve a problem until you properly understand it. And I’m trying desperately to understand it. I see what happens to people when they get burned out…and I am unwilling to be a cause. So I need to make sure I’m not doing things that lead to burnout.

Causes of burnout (a not-so-thorough list)

• People are not valued. If we’re honest, the rest of this list is just an exercise in expanding upon this one overarching theme
• People feel/are used
• They’re not appreciated
• They’re not communicated with
• Feel like they’re just a name to fill a slot
• Or a number to fill a roster
• They’re given too many tasks
• They’re pulled in too many different directions
• They’re given unclear expectations (if any at all)
• They’re given responsibility, and not authority
• Feel they have no ownership of their work
• And no control for that matter
• The environment they serve in is chaotic
• They’re not respected
• They are surrounded by negativity

*Edits: These next points were added from people on twitter/facebook/comments, thanks!*

• Felt that they were only valued because they were completing tasks
• Volunteers were matched with the wrong job, didn’t play to their strengths & passions
• Improper or insufficient training for the volunteer who was leading them
• Overcommitment. The feeling that you need/want to do everything at church
• Lack of help

For me, many of those issues hit close to home. I’ve felt in the past (in some ways still feel) many of them. I know where they lead. And I’m not ok with that happening.

Curious to hear your thoughts. Have you experienced burnout before…or seen someone who has? Do you have some things to add to this list? Let me know!

I stumbled across this quote from Rick Warren today:

If you want to build an equipping church, you have to tear down the idol of excellence. Why? Because most people are not excellent; most people are not extraordinary. Most people are ordinary. If you’re going to do ministry through ordinary people, you have to give up the notion of excellence.

If your highest value is excellence, then you aren’t going to entrust ministry to ordinary people. You are going to go out and find the very best people. You won’t risk putting a developing person into a significant role either, because you don’t want to compromise excellence.

(more…)

I was sitting up at the NPC front desk the other day, talking with Jody Glazner. Probably picking her brain over something (she’s wicked smart) when 2 people walked in.

One was a woman, looked mid 30′s to me. The other was a 15/16 year old looking boy, probably her son…or at least I assumed. He looked like the normal teenage boy; baggy clothes, hat, a few piercings, etc. Her look kinda mirrored his, as one of the “cool” moms…you know?

Anyway, they walked right up to the counter and as Jody started on her super-upbeat “Can I help you with something?” routine, the woman was swiftly unfolding a $100 bill she just removed from her front pocket.

She put it on the counter with some authority. Not angrily…and not quite “slammed” it…but with some serious intentionality; and at the same time, some nervousness.

Jody was reaching for an envelope and saying “Oh, you’re paying your tithe, ok, I’ll get that all set for you…” when she was interrupted. The woman very matter-of-factly said “I’m not putting my name on anything, God doesn’t want me to.”

There wasn’t any arrogance, anger, frustration, hostility or anything negative about what she said. But instead she delivered it with such a sense of certainty. You could just tell she was absolutely convinced of what she needed to do, and she was in here doing it.

So Jody responded with some kind of “Ok, cool, you’re all set then!” And the pair just kinda nodded their acknowledgement, turned around and walked out.

Once they went through both sets of doors and were back outside, they gave each other a big high-five as they were walking back to the car. Obviously excited about what they just did. And hey, God loves a cheerful giver…right?

NPC just started a 3 Month Tithe Challenge (www.northpointchurch.tv/challenge). It’s a way to help relieve some of the fear people have about giving by offering a money back guarantee for new tithers. Granted, people have to sign up, and make sure the money is easily trackable in case they want a refund…but that’s only if they think they’re going to want a refund. So far over 450 cards have been turned in.

Some people may take the opportunity to start giving with no thoughts about claiming a refund later. May even want to remove any temptation about it by making sure that their money isn’t trackable. Donating in cash. In the middle of the week. Without giving a name.

I’m sure that’s incredibly scary to do. But I can imagine the joy & excitement on that woman’s and that teenager’s faces as they were walking back to their car after doing it.

I had the chance to talk with two guys after North Point’s 6:30p Saturday service last night, they were both VERY excited to be here. I wanted to share it with you. Here’s the quick rundown:

• They were both recovering addicts
• One guy has been sober for 18 months…and fell off the wagon Friday night
• His friend dragged him kicking and screaming to North Point for the Saturday night 6:30p service…this is less than 24 hours later
• Neither one of them had been here before
• They don’t have a car, they walked 2 miles from the nearest bus station
• In 30 degree weather
• To a church they had never been to!!
• We started a series on finances…both of them were incredibly impacted by it. Even though neither has a job…or any money.
• They both signed up to get baptized at our Spring Splash event next month

I’m amazed at the opportunities I have to talk with people like this. To hear the stories of how God is using the things we do here to touch their lives. Let’s be honest here, guys like this walk into a church and hear a sermon about giving/tithing and money…and how do you expect them to receive it? Probably not too well.

But God used that message to show them his love. They heard it and were hit square in the mouth with God’s grace. Awesome.

These were posted yesterday on Tony Morgan’s blog at www.tonymorganlive.com. You should subscribe to his site. So I ripped them down and am posting them here. He said these are some questions he tries to help churches answer when he does church consulting & coaching. What do you think of them? Do any stick out more than others?

1. When was the last time I heard from God? Am I doing what he called me to do? This is the “Acts 6″ question. Acts 6 is a great reminder that it’s possible to be doing the ministry of God without doing the ministry God has called us to do.
2. What should our church be known for in this community? For a moment, ignore anyone who attends your church. What does the rest of the community know about your church?  That’s a better reflection of whether or not you’re really accomplishing your vision.
3. Are we really focusing our time, money, leadership, prayer behind the things that will produce life change and community impact? If not, there’s a good chance that “fairness” is driving these decisions. Fairness never produces revolution. (more…)

Maybe I’m wrong, but I personally think that if your faith in God is going to grow, you actually need to do something about it.

Yes, I believe our faith is from God. Yes, I believe he’s the one actually growing it. But we have to take action/respond to his prodding/be open to him, however you want to semantically put it.

I think it’s important to assess our spiritual growth from time to time and how we view our own path of development. To find ways to help ourselves along, you know?

A good way to do that is by asking yourself these three questions:

• What is one thing someone else (a church, a pastor, a mentor, etc) could do for you that would help you grow?
• What is one thing you could do for yourself that would help you grow?
• What is one thing you could do for someone else that would help them grow?

The experiment

Yesterday I started a small experiment. I manage North Point Church‘s social media outlets, and I asked a loaded question to our nearly 5,000 member community: (more…)

I have a love/hate relationship with advertising. Mostly, I think it’s crap. Rather, our expectations of what advertising can do are crap. Apparently the modern American is bombarded by something like 4,000-5,000 advertising messages a day, but how many effective ones? How many get deep into our soul and connect with us on some other level besides our recognition of the humor in a commercial or the basic emotions pulled from known design elements?

Do you really care about a product’s logo? I mean, really? Are you reading this post from a piece of machinery that you purchased solely because of the icon plastered onto it? Maybe, if you’re on a mac you may be a brand enthusiast…but I bet you if apple suddenly changed its logo to a humpback whale eating a can of spam you’d probably still like their products…so it isn’t the logo now is it? (more…)