TonyMorganLive.com

Photos courtesy of Jeff Petersen

We had an incredible afternoon today. About 2,000 people gathered on a lake about 30 minutes from the church up in Michigan. We had 14 different pastors and ministry leaders in the water. After submitting written testimonies, publicly declaring their faith on the beach, and affirming their commitment to follow Jesus out in the water, over 400 people were baptized. I’m pretty sure that’s the most people we’ve ever baptized in one day in the history of Granger Community Church.

There’s probably nothing that I enjoy more about ministry than the opportunity to baptize someone after they’ve committed their life to Christ. It’s a sacred moment. It’s a beautiful moment. And, I’ve been both honored and humbled to share that experience with many people through the years at Granger. What a privilege!

There’s something you probably need to know about me. I’m really attracted to "a little bit of attitude." That’s reflected in my marriage. I’m trying to promote that in my parenting. That’s what I tend to hire for my ministry team. We need to respect others. We need to encourage others. We need to remain loyal and support those in leadership positions around us. But I don’t think it’s right when people check their God-given passions and personalities at the door. People who are constantly bitter or negative or condemning are a drain. At the same time, though, people who always acquiesce and never challenge and always suppress their real emotions can be just as draining. Because of that, I love people with passion, confidence and the courage to live their lives loud.

That brings me to my good friend in ministry, Dave Foster. Dave is the senior pastor at Bellevue Community Church located in Nashville, TN. He and his wife, Paula, launched Bellevue about 15 years ago. They spent their early years holding services in a middle school. Now the church has over 3,000 guests each weekend on their 280-acre campus called "Hope Park."

Dave is one of those guys that has just a little bit of attitude… OK, sometimes a lot of attitude. That’s reflected in his ministry which you can read more about on his site, FosteringHope.com. That’s reflected in his writing including his most recent book, Accept No Mediocre Life. And, it’s reflected in the new series Bellevue is launching this weekend: "A Renegade’s Guide to God." Dave will be teaching what the Bible has to say about the non-religious journey to God. You’ll be able to follow the series as it unfolds on HopePark.com by downloading both the messages and the teaching outlines. I think you’ll be both challenged and encouraged by what Dave has to share.

If I wasn’t attending a service at Granger Community Church this weekend and celebrating the baptisms of hundreds of new believers, I’d go to Nashville, endure the country music and learn about what it means to be a renegade for God. That makes Bellevue Community Church my "Cool Church of the Week."

A couple of days ago I noticed that someone picked up the fact that Granger is actually a Methodist church (surprise!) and apparently that makes me a "Methodist Blogger." Now I’m listed along with my friends Corey and Mark on Methodist blogs throughout the Web. Check out the right column of this site as an example.

This led me to start thinking about the other categories of blogging I fit…

• male bloggers
• Italian-American bloggers
• people who used to live in Piqua, Ohio bloggers
• I’m a fan of Corey Mann bloggers
• my wife is a knock-out bloggers
• I live in a house bloggers
• my middle name is Paul bloggers
• people who eat lunch bloggers
• I have a mom bloggers
• double-jointed thumb bloggers
• I used to have a mullet bloggers
• people who will eventually die bloggers
• people that periodically have to trim their nose hairs bloggers
• cat-hating bloggers
• I think therefore I am bloggers
• bloggers that have never blogged while sitting in a hot tub bloggers
• Methodist bloggers that pray our denomination will regain its relevance in people’s lives and so that we can reach more people for Jesus and stop the three decades of decline that have resulted in the Methodist church losing almost 2 million members bloggers

Hey, it’s "Fun Friday"…especially for me. I’m going to chat with Terry a little later today about his book project on blogging churches. I think he’s going to record the conversation for an upcoming podcast. That really makes me a little nervous. I’ve never done a podcast before. What should I say? What should I ask? What should I wear? I did promise Terry I’d shower and comb my hair before the interview. Of course, the biggest question is whether or not I can convince Terry to use "Machine Gun" by the Commodores for the show music. We’ll see what kind of influence I have…

I’ve been sitting on this one for a couple of weeks thinking I might discover some insights to make it better. Instead, maybe you can help me figure out how to improve the list. One of the most frequent reasons cited for someone not attending church is because the services are boring. I think the only place there should be boring churches is in Boring, Oregon where I’ve identified, with the help of Google, that there are actually 25 Boring churches.

If I was intentionally setting out to create another boring church, though, this is how I might do it. Here are the:

10 Easy Ways to Make Your Church Services More Boring

1. Don’t worry about when you finish. I’m sure no one has plans after the service.
2. Straight Scriptures. No stories. Jesus didn’t teach that way, but you’re a better communicator than Jesus, right?
3. Television. Movies. It’s just a phase. People don’t really need visual stimulation. They prefer talking heads.
4. Use the same service order…every week…no exceptions…ever.
5. Make more announcements.
6. Encourage your elementary school kids to sit through your services. They love lively 45-minute sermons. It’s good for them. It builds character.
7. Talk more about the past and the less about the future.
8. Play the same Chris Tomlin song every week. And, try the chorus one more time.
9. Use lots of big words that no one uses in normal, everyday life.
10. Forget relevant topics and life application. People are really only interested in hearing what you think, not why it matters to them.

Ok, you probably get the point. The question is this: What are you doing to make your services memorable and impactful? Or, do you believe unchurched people, people who aren’t in a relationship with Jesus, should just be expected to show up and put up with something they perceive as boring?

My good friend, Mark Waltz, has just been interviewed by Josh over at The Leadership Blog. Now you can find out why Mark is such a swell guy. And, it’s true, he’s also the best-dressed pastor at Granger.

"The idea of me as CEO managing the company is a misperception. My goal is to provide the overall direction. I spend a lot of time making sure we have the right people in the right roles. You know the joke, ‘I’m from corporate, and I’m here to help.’ We don’t need unuseful, unvaluable corporate help. We empower divisions and push out responsibility. We’re so diversified that it’s impossible for a CEO to have that depth of knowledge–and not even practical."

Terri Kelly, CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates as quoted in Fast Company (September 2005)