Today was a big day at Oak Leaf Church in many respects. We had a big crowd this morning. We celebrated our fifth birthday as a church. We celebrated baptism at the river. It was a great day all around.

As promised, I also wanted to let you know about the big news I shared in this morning’s services. Oak Leaf Church and West Ridge Church merged back in January. A couple of months ago at the request of the Oak Leaf staff team, we began considering a name change for the campus. We’ve been praying through the change, talking with staff and volunteer leaders and considering all the pros and cons. Today, I shared with the church that we have decided to drop “Oak Leaf Church” and will take the “West Ridge Church” name.

There were a number of reasons for making this move. They include…

• Eliminating confusion for guests. For the past seven months, we’ve been trying to explain that we’re the Oak Leaf campus of West Ridge Church. We’ve been sending people to both the Oak Leaf and West Ridge websites for various resources. This name change will simplify next steps for people who are new to the church.
• Improving communications flow for our teams. As you might imagine, trying to maintain two separate brands was creating a lot of duplicated effort both in Cartersville and with our central support teams.
• Helping one of our church plants. Oak Leaf Church Canton originally was launched as a campus of Oak Leaf Church, but it eventually became a church plant that West Ridge Church has supported. With this name change, we will be able to give the Canton church our web domain. This will also make communications easier for them. (more…)

While I was on vacation, I read The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons and Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordeiro. Both books are good books, but Wayne’s writing really resonated with me.

I actually read the book because Wayne pastors New Hope Christian Fellowship in Hawaii. (They now have campuses all over the world.) Though I wasn’t feeling “empty”, it felt like the appropriate book to read since Emily and I were vacationing in Hawaii. I’m glad I did.

There was a season in my life when I experienced some of the same patterns of anxiety and burnout that Wayne describes. Though it’s been several years since I walked through that, the path Wayne offers to help leaders experience renewal is healthy in any season of their ministry.

This, though, is the quote that grabbed my attention in my reading:

“‘Well,’ some say, ‘God won’t grade us on results, He will only grade on faithfulness.’ Really? And is it faithful to squander our precious stores of God-given energy in a go-nowhere circumstance that neither challenges our hearts nor quickens our hunger for life?”

That challenge should light a fire under each of us to pursue God and his call for our lives. What I love about Wayne’s book is that it provides an intentional process for responding to that challenge.

I encourage you to read Leading on Empty before your life is on empty.

If you are a part of our community at the Oak Leaf campus of West Ridge Church, I want to give you a few updates about what’s happening on Sunday. (It’s going to be a big day.) Though every Sunday is a “can’t miss Sunday” at Oak Leaf, this particular week is going to be very unique.

• We will be celebrating our fifth anniversary. We have some fun elements to look back at what’s happened at Oak Leaf over the past five years.
• I’m going to be teaching about our “identity” as a church and as Christ-followers. I think this is going to be a challenging message for all of us. We’ll consider how we look at ourselves and how that impacts who we are and how we live out our life mission.
• I have a BIG announcement to share about our future in Cartersville. This is something our team has been praying about for months. We want to let you know about it before we make it public.
• I have an update to share about the NEW CHAIRS for our auditorium. They’re on their way! Won’t it be amazing to have chairs that don’t collapse when you sit in them?
• We will be having our annual “Baptism at the River” on Sunday afternoon. Even if you are not being baptized, plan to bring your picnic basket and join us at the river. We’ll give you all the details at the services on Sunday.

If you attend one of the other West Ridge campuses, please go to your regular campus on Sunday. We need the space for our Oak Leaf family and their friends. If you are a part of another church and you’re reading this, we want you to stay engaged at your church. I’ll share the news next week.

But, if you are a part of our Oak Leaf family, please be with us at one of our two services on Sunday. Don’t come alone! Bring friends and family. It’s going to be a great day to celebrate together! And, if I were you, I’d plan to arrive early. Space, especially parking, is going to be at a premium.

See you on Sunday!

As you know, I partner with Vanderbloemen Search Group to help growing churches find great staff leaders. Sometimes those searches are very public. Sometimes, we need to fly a little bit under the radar. This is one of those searches.

Here’s what I can tell you. We have an opening for a worship leader at a great church in a major U.S. city. It’s a large, multi-site church. If I named it, many of you would know it. I’ve talked with the pastor personally. You would really like this guy. He’s sharp.

If you are a worship leader and you’re really, really gifted and called to lead worship, we’d like to hear from you. You may submit your resume on our site. Don’t worry. As we get further down the road with finalists for this role, we’ll clue you in on the church we’re working with. Part of what we do very well is making sure there’s a great fit between you and the church. In the mean time, we’ll also keep your resume confidential.

Don’t call or email me for more details. I won’t give them. Your first step, if you are interested and qualified, is to submit your resume.

(By the way, I like having secret information. That probably says something about my personality.)

The Launch Network

This time last year, I had the opportunity to join a handful of great leaders from across the country to start a church planting network. It’s hard to believe Launch is already a year old. Today, I received an update from Mac Lake, the Chief Launch Officer, about what’s happening across the country. Here’s a snapshot.

• The network has already trained leaders and planted seven churches in Missouri, Mississippi and Georgia.
• There are 22 leaders who will complete their training by the end of 2011. These guys are from all over including planters from Ohio, California, Wyoming, North Carolina and Canada.
• Launch has established training and networking hubs in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Birmingham, Winston-Salem and Jackson, Mississippi. There’s also a virtual hub to train and equip planters in remote locations.

What I’m most excited about, though, is the partnership that is being developed to plant healthy leaders with healthy churches. There are already 24 churches that have joined Launch to give both their involvement and their investment in training church planters. We don’t just want a church’s money (though that obviously helps with funding new plants); we also want their involvement in identifying and equipping future church planters. Here are the churches who have already partnered with Launch:

• Discovery Church, Tennessee
• Fondren Church, Mississippi
• Foothills Community Church, South Carolina
• Forefront Church, Colorado
• Freedom Church, Georgia
• Hope Baptist Church, Nevada
• Journey Church International, Missouri
• Lakepointe Church, Michigan
• Lifecoast Church, Florida
• LifePoint Church, Alabama
• Lifepoint Church, Virginia
• MyChurch, Georgia
• Origins Church, Ohio
• Pinelake Church, Mississippi
• Relevant Church, Georgia
• Revolution Church, Georgia
• River Church, South Carolina
• Rock Bridge Community Church, Georgia
• Spout Springs Church, North Carolina
• The Summit Church, North Carolina
• The Venue Church, Mississippi
• Vinings Church, Georgia
• West Ridge Church, Georgia
• Westwood Baptist Church, Alabama

These are the pioneers; however, there’s room for your church to join this mission. Launch is unique in its commitment to promoting leadership development both before and after the churches are planted. That’s accomplished through a distinctive model that engages the involvement of partner churches across the country. The more churches that partner with Launch, the more healthy, kingdom-minded churches we will be able to plant.

If you lead a church that wants to invest and be involved in planting churches, read more about becoming a Launch Partner.

If you are a leader who thinks God may be calling you to plant a church, read more about becoming a Launch Planter.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Nate LaClaire! You won the small group curriculum bundle!

My friends at www.only144.com have an awesome small group curriculum deal that kicks off on Friday, July 29 and only lasts 144 hours. It’s kind of like GROUPON for ministry, and it’s super what they are doing. If you haven’t seen the site, be sure to check it out and save your church money. They’ve partnered up with Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, and Tommy Nelson for a small group curriculum deal that you don’t want to miss.

I’ve got one set to give away to one of my readers. To see what’s included, visit www.only144.com. For a chance to win it, simply answer this question: What is the best part about being part of a small group? Leave a comment, and on Thursday, July 28 at noon, exactly one day before the sale goes live, I will select one commenter at random who will win all the sets for free (Philippians, Love Life, and Song of Solomon).

This is a sponsored post from www.only144.com, one of my ministry partners on TonyMorganLive.com.

My grandpa, mom’s dad, passed away earlier this week. I’m heading to Ohio for his funeral. He was a great man. Among other things, he served in the Army in World War II and received a Purple Heart after being wounded in action. He was also a very accomplished musician. He played french horn in Ray Anthony’s orchestra back in the big band days.

A lot of who I am comes from both my mom’s and dad’s upbringing, but there’s no question that my demeanor and the way I’m wired are very similar to my grandpa. I’m going to miss him, but he certainly lived a life worth celebrating.

I don’t know what he was writing on this day, but it’s a good reminder to me that I have to be very intentional about how I live my life. Whether we recognize it or not, we are writing our legacy every moment of every day.

For the past ten days or so, you’ve seen articles on my website that were written and scheduled to post before I left for vacation with my wife, Emily. In May, we had our 20th anniversary. These past ten days, we’ve been on a beach in Hawaii celebrating our marriage. I’m writing this pre-trip, but I’m pretty confident that I can tell you we had a good time.

In case you’re curious, the picture to the right was from our first anniversary back in 1992. We both had a lot more hair back then. Emily and I met when we were in seventh grade. We started dating when we were in high school. We dated for a long, long time before we got married. We’re still dating each other. (I highly recommend that.)

I’ve shared with people for many years that I don’t believe in soul mates. Before I got married, I wasn’t on the hunt for the one woman who God divinely designed for me to spend my life with. This may not sound appropriate, but I really do believe I could have experienced a great marriage with someone other than Emily. I’m tired of people using the “soul mate” pursuit as an excuse to break a commitment made before God. If you are married, you are with the person God designed for you.

Emily is the one woman for me. Though I loved her on my wedding day, I’m still learning how to love her 20 years later. Emily and I know, just like any relationship, marriage takes work. It’s never perfect. We’ve learned a healthy marriage has to be focused on fulfilling our spouse’s needs rather than focusing on what we can get out of the relationship. Jesus encouraged us to “Love God and love others” and that focus works really well in marriage too.

I may never get back to Hawaii, but I certainly am grateful to be on this journey with Emily. She’s incredible. She’s beautiful. She’s my best friend. And, she’s my wife…till death do us part.

I’m seeing a lot more churches moving forward with communications director positions once they start bumping over that 2,000 barrier. It’s really at that point that churches need someone to help them streamline communications strategy. That’s important for what’s being communicated both within the church and in the community you are trying to reach.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my Twitter friends if they could recommend good job descriptions to model what this role might look like in a church setting. Here’s the communications director job description we use at West Ridge Church. Based on Twitter feedback, you may also want to check out these articles written by a couple of people who have served in that capacity:

• “What is a Director of Communications?” by Tim Schraeder
• “Communications Director Job Description” by Kem Meyer

By the way, Kem has also written a book on church communications called Less Clutter. Less Noise. I highly recommend you pick that up and read through it together as a team. It’s good for all church leaders even if you are not serving in a communications director role.

If you happen to be a communications director, what other resources would you recommend to churches who are considering adding this position? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.

To wrap up this mini-series on series planning, I went back in to the archives and dug up this list. It contains some simple strategies to help you improve how you plan for teaching series. Here are…

10 Ways to Improve Series Planning

1. Leverage the seasons when folks are most likely to attend church. I like to launch new series that have a more outreach focus when people are more likely to attend services and invite their friends. Those seasons are cyclical. They depend on where you are located. Obviously, Christmas and Easter are two common times when people are likely to attend church.
2. Find the right balance between “reach people” series and “grow people” series. There will always be tension here, but the objective is to try to balance out using services to attract a crowd and help people take their next steps in their spiritual journey. At West Ridge, we’ve actually color-coded our teaching calendar to make sure we maintain a healthy balance.
3. Use a variety of approaches to begin your series development. Teach on a topic one series. Teach through a book of the Bible in another series. Teach a series of messages on a specific biblical character. Use a series to teach through a specific doctrine. Mix up your approach.
4. Address questions that people are asking. Our tendency is to only deliver the information we want people to hear. People will not engage our teaching unless we are addressing the issues they are facing in their daily life. A friend of mine routinely reviews the headlines of women’s magazines to get a sense of the topics that people are discussing in today’s culture.
5. Deliver biblical truth and life application. Your teaching will not produce life change unless you also provide life application. Without application people may experience conviction or inspiration, but they won’t know what to do with that. Make it a goal in every message to clearly identify one next step for people to take to apply what they’ve learned.
6. Shoot for 8 to 10 series throughout the year. Your average series should be 4 to 6 weeks. If you’re teaching through a book and it needs to go longer than that, try to break it up into multiple series. Every time you start a series, it creates an opportunity for people to invite their friends. You want more opportunities for people to invite their friends.
7. Plan ahead. You can wait until Saturday to finish your message, but try to at least outline your topics a couple of months in advance. When you do that, you free up creative people to plan series packaging, service elements and creative communications to enhance your teaching. You also provide time for appropriate promotions to occur.
8. Plan with a team. One team may drive the topics that are addressed throughout the year. Another team may drive the series packaging including identifying titles and visual images. Another team may develop the services elements and execution. Whatever the case, the end result will always be better when you have the right people engaged in a team approach.
9. Remember the people who already attend your church are your best promotions vehicle. You can spend a lot of money on advertising or direct mail, but the number one way new people will attend your services is through an invitation from someone who already attends your church. Want more people to show up? Make it easier for people to invite their friends.
10. Pastors should teach, and artists should be creative. The series I’ve experienced with the biggest impact both numerically and in life change have occurred when artists let the pastor drive the teaching and pastors let the artists drive the creative elements. The pastors control this. If they’re willing to empower artists, God can use this creativity to prepare people’s hearts for the message.

By the way, this is one of the key areas of ministry where I provide consulting for churches. I can facilitate your planning for your annual teaching calendar, help you create systems for series and service planning and walk you through a process to improve your series promotions. That may be something you’d like to consider as you gear up for the new ministry year. If so, here’s a contact form to start the conversation.