Planting By The Brook

A few weeks back pastor Rob asked me to blog about how I was able to build a worship team to 6 very talented leaders, over 30 unbelievable musicians and singers, and a great sound team.  While other churches are paying quite well for their worship experience, our worship leaders give that up, to serve at Southbrook…for no compensation. 

There’s only one problem….I didn’t do it.  I drew a blank when I was asked.  Any credit for my success, goes to my creator.  The One who gives me breath, talent, and a reason to sing.  Without God I have nothing worthwhile to sing about.  He only uses me to build a worship experience that is pleasing to Him.  I’m only a vessel.  God could use a rock or a tree if He wanted to… but as long as we are willing individuals, God will use us.

God’s formula for success is simple, however, due to our own pride and selfishness we fight it.  It took years for this to sink in to my thick head! Here’s some “essentials” I had to learn.

1.  I am not as cool as I thought I was.  (Shocking huh? Ha!)

2.  Pride gets you nowhere. 

3.  Nothing, outside of God’s goodness, satisfies

Those revelations led me to humility and humbleness is where ministry begins. 

The world does not revolve around me.  It revolves around God.  It was real easy for me to feel grace… because I was lost in sin.  Regardless, we all have sinned and need the grace of Jesus.

God said to us:

“I love you so much, I gave My Son, so you may have life”

I answer;   “God, I love You so much, I give my life back to you”

Worship

Our God Reigns

Next, we must acknowledge that there is a Kingdom and a God that is far greater than we can ever imagine.  Some of us are so busy investing in our “little kingdoms”, we miss out on the reason we were born… to serve God.  We are to worship with our lives the only One worth worshiping. 

We serve a huge God.  We can’t even get our head around it.  Our greatest scientists have tried, and never even come close. 

Want to feel small?  Check out Job: 38… God is huge and we really have no idea!  The good news is we don’t need to figure it out.  We just need to embrace our meager selves and lift high our great God.  Despite the fact that God is downright scary with His awesome glory, He loves us.  As if that weren’t enough, we can call Him father… and that’s worth singing about.

Once we reach this point, we can get a bit crazy.  We start lifting our hands, falling to our knees, smiling like never before and shedding tears of joy.  Our God reigns.  All we have is our lives to honor him with.  =Worship.

It’s really quite amazing that anyone plays at Southbrook.  They are usually humbled quite quickly.  But for some strange reason, most of us enjoy feeling small.  It’s not our human nature although it is God’s desire for us.  Not because he is conceded, because He is God.  The glory is not ours for the taking, the glory His.  He deserves it.  He is God. 

When worship is happening out of a humble place it’s amazing… it keeps us all coming back for more and draws others in.    

The trend toward video campuses is growing and seems to be part of church strategy for years to come. We took our first crack at a video campus when Southbrook opened it’s first “video venue” over two years ago. We had one thing going for us…the new video venue was going to be right here on our existing campus. Our main problem…we didn’t have any money. After much trial and error and too many hours spent in technical manuals and on support.lines, we figured out a couple things.

Contrary to what you might hear, I think anything less than running high
definition (HD) isn’t really worth it–especially as high definition video
becomes more and more affordable. What is gained by HD is worth the
price–clearer picture, wider field, and ultimately a more engaging venue
(IMHO).

So, the nuts and bolts. We started off VERY simply with one basic HD video mixer (Edirol V440), some brighter spot lights for the stage, and a Sony HVR-Z1U camera. Although this wasn’t ideal, it still gave us a decent picture to send over fiber (donated to us by a local company) to our video venue. No fancy multiple camera shoots…just one camera set to a wide shot of the pastor (head to toe). We set our projector to have the bottom edge of the picture flush with the stage so that our pastor looked as close to “real” as what people were seeing live.

Then along came our video campus several miles away. We had the live feed down–the question now was, “How can we send live to one venue, and capture HD video for the other venue?” Easy question when you have cash…in our case, we still were a bit strapped. For our pastor to translate a bit better on video we knew we needed a better camera, so we upgraded to a JVC GY-HD250U…still only one camera. Since our Edirol V440 allowed us to input 3-BNC component video (which was one of the outputs on our new camera) we simply connected the camera to a Laird 1 X 6 component DA (which basically means we can take one camera signal and turn it into 6 identical
camera signals). We then could send one of the identical signals to our video mixer (for a live feed to our video venue on campus), and another of the identical signals to a Mac computer (to record video for our “not live” video venue). That didn’t give us the option to do fancy graphic stuff on the video itself, but it did allow us to capture a very nice picture for playback. We purchased a Kona Lhe card from AJA (it’s a card that can be installed into a Mac computer for video recording) that allowed us to capture live video via Final Cut Pro to an external hard-drive (G|Drive).

On the playback end, we purchased an additional Mac Pro computer with an additional internal hard-drive. We simply take the Quicktime movie generated from the Final Cut video capture and copy it over to the additional internal hard-drive of the playback Mac. We cue it up in
Quicktime and hit play when we’re ready for the message. The nice thing is, when the Mac’s aren’t being used for capture and playback, they can be used for various projects during the week.

Recently we’ve added the Panasonic AV-HS400 (and some additional input/output cards) that are really going to give us the opportunity to send out multiple formats, increase graphic use in live video, and expand to additional cameras, etc. That will just have to be another post for another day.

-Mike Cruser (Creative Arts)

The first reactions are usually positive: “Wow!  That is simply amazing!”  “That’s more than most churches see in 100 years!”  “God is really moving over there!”  Then the skeptics and the cynics show up: “You’re making it too easy.”  “Who’s going to disciple all those people?”  “There’s no way that many people really meant it.”

When it comes to seeing people give their lives to Christ, everyone seems to have an opinion.  This past year, Southbrook Church had the humbling privilege of being used by God to help 1100 people enter into a new life through Christ Jesus.  That number is scary.  That number carries with it a lot of responsibility.  We want to do everything we can at Southbrook to help these new converts take the next step in this new journey.

Was it real?  Did every person who raised their hand or filled out a commitment card really mean business?  Were they sincere, or just caught up in the emotions?  We don’t claim to know the hearts of all 1100 of these people.  We do know that God brought each of them to Southbrook for a specific reason.  1 Corinthians 2:11 says that “no one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.”  Only God knows what each of these people was thinking.  Only God knows if they were sincere.  It’s not our job to decide whether or not someone meant it.  Our job is to “make disciples.”  This begins with preaching the gospel, and continues with discipleship.

Here at Southbrook, my goal is to help each individual move forward in their journey with Christ, to develop a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.  The big question is: what do we do with all these new believers?

When a person makes a commitment to Christ, they are contacted several times, in several different ways.  First they are personally handed a New Believer Packet which contains a Bible, a worship CD, and information about our church and baptism.  At that time they are encouraged to fill out a commitment card so we can follow up with them later that week.  Next they are contacted sometime that week by a team of volunteers whose goal is to help move this person to the next step in their journey.  This can be as simple as helping them plug into a LifeGroup.  LifeGroups are groups of people with similar interests who meet together on a regular basis to pray, study and care for each other.  The main purpose of a LifeGroup is to “live life together.”  Others may begin meeting for some period of time for more intense discipleship.  We want to be very careful that no one slips through the cracks unnoticed.  We want to do everything we can to move them forward on their journey with Christ.

This is an enormous task that requires an enormous amount of volunteer help.  I realize the typical reaction for many is to analyze and try to figure things out logically.  The fact is that there are a bunch of brand new believers at Southbrook who are not really sure what they are supposed to do next.  This is what discipleship is all about.  Instead of waiting for a class or seminar to hopefully attract these people, we need to be proactively seeking opportunities to begin teaching these individuals how to live the Christian life. 

If you are one of these new believers, I would encourage you to let us know who you are.  We want to get you connected to the rest of the church and help you along on this amazing journey. 

If you have been a believer for a while, I would encourage you to step up and help us disciple some of these new believers.  You have something valuable to offer.  Don’t waste what God has given you.  Step up.

God is moving and will continue to move at Southbrook as long as we are faithful and obedient to Him.  He will not continue to bless us with souls if we neglect to care for the ones He was given us so far.  We have a duty, a responsibility, to care for those He brings our way.  May we boldly step up and take the enormous task He has called us to.  “But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest” (John 4:35, NLT).

Part II,   Visioncasting and growing.

I mentioned in Part I (read it here) that we already had about 35 Greeters and Ushers.  What I didn’t  mention was that we actually had about 70 Greeters and Ushers in a 2-3 month rotating schedule, but… only about 35 of them would actually show up  for their assigned serve time… well, they would show up 20 to 45 minutes late, the doors were already flowing with people coming to services.  I had leaders say “At least they showed up Jay… they ARE volunteers ya know.”  I knew most of them. Wonderful people, great hearts for God, they loved Southbrook and believed they were doing the right thing.

Remember the real problem in Jerusalem? It was the broken, burnt, destroyed spirit WITHIN the walls.  They were used to seeing the conditions they lived in and no longer could see the problem.  They couldn’t see that they were a reproach (disgrace) to God.

It was time for a First Impressions Team gathering and visioncasting.  I used Andy Stanley’s “Visioneering” and the story of Nehemiah to cast a vision of what could and should be here at Southbrook Church,  “One of the best places in the Charlotte area to come and know Jesus.” 

Next, we started a campaign of “INVITING” new volunteers.  We completely changed the schedule from a 2-3month rotation to a serve once a month system (to eliminate burn out) and within the next 3 months we had 140 First Impressions Team members.  We changed and added several new weekly team leaders,  and now have maybe a handful of people who are late or no-shows.  We unified all the Team members with bright “Safety Green” volunteer t-shirts (check this out). Yea we hear a lot of talk about those bright green shirts.  But now there is pride in the hearts of our team members.  Every 101 (new members) class we have, Pastor Rob asks the folks why they came back and what the glue was, and undoubtedly several of them will say it was the smile and “Welcome to Southbrook” coming from those green shirted volunteers. Not to mention the awesome music from Return… yep, a cheap plug…

About 2 years ago, myself and another First Impressions leader went out to Granger Community Church, in the South Bend, Indiana area.  They have “The best” First Impressions program going.  Several times a year they teach how they serve.  The payoff has been many fold.

We came home from that seminar and put on a required “First Impressions Matters” training weekend at Southbrook.  Helping the team members to understand that “People matter to God” so what you do as a volunteer servant does too.  When you step onto the church property to serve, it’s no longer about you.  This has made a huge difference in how our volunteers have changed their servant’s attitudes, because we helped them change their spirit WITHIN their walls.

I pray that this is a help to you and your church.  It’s all about Jesus and His kingdom, not about us here at Southbrook.

In His service.

If any church wants more information or help with their volunteer training, feel free to contact me.

Jay Foreman

First Impressions Ministry Lead

Director of Home Groups

704-361-0213

jforeman@southbrookchurch.com

jayforeman.blogspot.com

By: Jay Foreman,

First Impressions Ministry Lead & Director of Home Groups.

Southbrook Church, Weddington, North Carolina

Way back in February of 2004, my wife Darlene and I visited Southbrook church for the first time. It was up at Providence High School in Charlotte , NC. We were in the “Church shopping” mode, and had been for about a year. Looking for a place to call home. A place where, not only could we connect with God…but a place where we could be a part of His family. Sadly, more often than not, we’d keep on searching because we just didn’t “Feel” noticed, welcomed, or connected.

Only by the grace of God did we see a sign (literally) being placed in the ground saying, “Future home of Southbrook Community Church – currently meeting at Providence H.S.” All the trees were in the process of coming down, making way for yet “Another” church in the Charlotte area. We have over 600 of them…lot’s of church shopping available.

When we arrived on that Sunday morning at the high school, we were greeted at the front door by the most beautiful, warm, welcoming smile, “Hi – I’m Ron Flowers, Welcome to Southbrook!” He and I have been great friends since. Southbrook was a growing church of 350 adults then. The shopping spree ended, the rest is part of Southbrook’s history as we surpass 2000 per week.

What made the difference? Why did we decide to keep coming back to Southbrook, become members, become volunteers, become First Impressions Ministry Lead, and now a staff member? How did we grow from 35 Greeters and Ushers to 140? What did we do to create glue, not only to our First Impressions teams… but to our church wide attendance?

In the 1986 Academy Award winning movie “Top Gun,” Maverick says to his “back seater” Goose, “I feel the need…for speed.” Up cranks the volume to the music of “Danger Zone,” and once again max speed at low altitude. But… that always creates havoc and disorganization.

As I said, it was Ron’s heart and servant’s attitude that came across to me right away. Mark Waltz, Pastor of Connections at Granger Community Church, says in his book “First Impressions, Creating Wow Experiences in Your Church,” “We want to define our guests experience in the first 10-15 minutes of their arrival. Somewhere between the parking lot and the children’s area, the front doors and the restroom, we want them to say “WOW, I’m Impressed.” That’s the real deal. People WILL decide whether or not they are returning to your church within 10-15 minutes after arriving in your parking lot. The music hasn’t started, the Pastor hasn’t spoken yet and the decision to come again is implanted. If you don’t believe that’s true then you’re in for more of what you already have… Question, how’s that going for your church?

Andy Stanley, Founding Pastor of North Point Community Church, near Atlanta, writes in his book “Visioneering,” “Vision demands change…Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be.” He used the Old Testament story of Nehemiah. Without recalling the whole story, Nehemiah was basically a nobody with a servant’s heart. He was given a vision by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Why did they need rebuilding? What is it about your church that folks visit every weekend, but they don’t come back? They don’t want to see what’s really being offered to them inside your walls? Is there some magic glue you need to get? More prayer? Absolutely! You need both. Most of all…you need a compelling vision that rocks your inner soul and wants to make you throw up because you’re not sure how it’s gonna get done. Andy Stanley says “A vision is always a solution to a problem.”

No big deal for Nehemiah. After all, he did have direct daily access to King Artaxerses (pronounced Art ak zerk sees). Grab your contractors license, a few thousand men, some supplies and a building permit…right?… NOT. You see, the broken, burnt, destroyed walls of the city wasn’t the real problem in Jerusalem, it was the broken, burnt, destroyed spirit WITHIN the walls. (Read about it here) The people were so used to seeing their walls in disrepair (for 4-5 generations by then) that they didn’t see that their representation of God’s holy land was a reproach. A disgrace. (Read about it here) .

Fade back to Southbrook, by the time we moved into our new permanent location in Weddington, Dar and I were already committed 101 members and we were both now greeters and ushers. We didn’t have a parking lot team then and I felt a compelling burden in my own heart that we should. I prayed, asked permission from the church staff and within 2 months we had a 20 member parking team that was on fire to make a difference. It was definitely a “God thing.” We became the talk of the church, we were having fun, waving at all the people I and saying “Hi, welcome to Southbrook” to every car that came on the lot. Some folks laughed at us, made fun of the “guys with the flags out in the rain.” Even (only some) Godly Christian members made fun of us. I remembered Nehemiah’s words “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” This became our Parking Team battle cry. And God protected and guided us. We eventually became the “envy” of servant hood.

About a year later, Pastor Rob asked me if I would consider applying my same vision to the rest of Southbrook’s greeters and ushers. Is it throw up time again?

Stay tuned for Part II.

Hopefully by now you already know that I do not believe vision is overrated in church planting. In fact, vision plays an important role in any worthwhile endeavor.

That is, true vision.

and strong vision,

inspiring vision,

passionate,

godly,

and vision (as Andy Stanley puts it) that sticks.

Andy Stanley correctly points out that “vision doesn’t have much adhesive.”

So what do you do? Well, and here comes the somewhat mystical part in 5…4…3…2…1…

If it’s from God it will happen. If not, well…

Actually, it’s not quite that simple, but close. God still chooses to partner with us (how awesome is that?) but He will see His will accomplished with or without us.

So, you got vision?

Be faithful and listen closely to God for your marching orders.

Part 3 up next.

In the meantime, check out these other great blogs!

www.southbrookrevealed.com

www.robsingleton.net

No doubt about it, you even consider church planting today and you will be immediately assaulted by this word—VISION.

Some act as though it is the panacea for all things having to do with church planting. Others will tell you that it is somewhat important but by no means the most important thing.

I land somewhere in between. Perhaps more toward the side that holds it up like the holy grail.

One thing is for sure. Out of the thousands of church plants now taking place every year across this nation, a big difference between those that succeed for the Lord and those that inevitable fail has to do with this thing called vision. But what an overused term! Today there are almost as many books written about vision as there are about church planting. But you know what’s scary? Ask the typical pastor to define the vision God has given him for his church and you get a vacant stare. Backing up a pace or two, you might try asking something a bit simpler, like, how’ bout simply defining vision. At that point I have watched pastors transform into deer staring straight into the headlights of an oncoming Ford Bronco. With Bubba at the wheel, their time is short–and they don’t even know it! The best we can hope for is that it will be swift and painless, but it seldom is.

Neither is planting a church with absolutely no vision.

Planting a church is a whole lot more like giving birth to a child or passing a kidney stone the size of a child, then dropping a small seed into the ground, sprinkling a bit of water on it and returning every so often just to check the progress—at least as far as the pain is concerned. I know, I have a purple plum tree in the front yard that I accidentally sprayed with weed killer. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. The color purple was the first to go. Needless to say, there will never be any plumbs. But do I care? My wife thinks I do because it’s still out there in the front yard dead as can be. She thinks I’m having trouble letting go. Truth is, I just keep forgetting it’s out there. When I do remember, I often recall how much more there is to growing healthy plants and trees than simply sticking them in the ground. Think she’ll let me keep it for an object lesson?

This blog is a little bit about planting, a little bit about growing and a lot about health—but not just the planting, growing and over all health of a church (that’s just one small piece of the puzzle), but rather, the birthing of a baby Christian, the growing of a young believer, and the health of a mature Christ follower. You see, I know about what I write because God has had to shoot the wad on me. If you’re not familiar with that term, just imagine a father who feels like he’s already using discipline techniques usually reserved for college years on his 7 year old!

I’ve heard it said that today’s A.D.D., inquisitive, trouble-making, stubborn child will be tomorrows leader, genius, or success story. The good news is, if that theory pans out than I will be Winston Churchill, Peter Drucker and Albert Einstein all rolled into one! The bad news is…its just another theory.

I also know what I write about because of my own journey as a church planter. I am one of the thousands out there who has ventured forth on an honored, privileged mission from God to plant a church in postmodern America. And I concur that it more often resembles a meat grinder experience than garden tending therapy.

Now, I would describe myself as visionary (albeit hard-headed), hard worker, passionate type individual, who has learned almost every lesson to this point via the 2X4 method. It’s a straightforward procedure involving a three foot long board, an individual with a target x’d out on their forehead (right between the eyes) and a patient God Who’s tried everything else first. The bad news is that it’s a very arduous educational approach, but the good news is that it usually takes just one hard whack and you’re on to the next lesson—previous lesson logged and learned! I used to get mad at God when I saw the board coming (even madder when I felt the impact) but now I just wait patiently for it and savor the wisdom I know will follow.

One of the lessons I learned was the importance of getting the dream, passion, vision, mission (whatever we’re currently calling it) from God—and returning to Him daily for the newest set of marching orders. If you don’t follow this part than you will end up being just another church planter who thought being a pastor would be ‘kinda cool.’ Perhaps you looked at Bill Hybels (albeit 30 plus years into the thing) and thought to yourself, “Shoot, if he can do it, I can do it better! Church planting here I come!”

Now you know there’s more to it.

A lot more.

And vision’s a big part of it.

That’s why I’m going to talk about that first—in three parts. One down.

Two to go.

For more on this, go here.

I’ve been muling this over for quite some time now. You see, over the years a lot of church planters and their teams have come to us at Southbrook Church and asked for time, insights, advice, support, etc. I have a heart for everyone of them, but at times I feel overwhelmed. We all do. Short of starting a conference (something that’s in the works for Fall of this year!), what else can we do—really do, to help men and women about to embark on this incredible journey?

Hopefully, this blog is at least a partial answer to this age old dilemma. We don’t claim to have all of the answers, but what we’ve learned we would love to pass on. God has certainly blessed Southbrook Church—sometimes more inspite of ourselves than anything else. But even lessons learned the hard way are lessons learned.

So I hope you all will check back her often for updates and articles from me as well as all the pastors and directors at Southbrook Church!