Steve Lavey | 20 Million Minutes

Burma Disaster Relief: Park To Send a 10,000 gallon/day Water Purifier May 9, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Volunteers, Church, Urban Church, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers, Entrepreneuring, Faith at Work , add a comment

As many of you are already aware, last weekend Tropical cyclone Nargis claimed thousands of lives in Myanmar early Saturday morning 2:30am. By daylight, the full effect of the storm was obvious. Homes were destroyed, giant trees crashed through buildings, and were lying uprooted, blocking roads. Blackouts, water shortages and rapidly rising prices were reported in Rangoon, a city of 5 million people. The cost of gasoline has tripled since Saturday.

International news organizations are not allowed to report from Myanmar, but the news that is trickling out is horrifying. The death toll is estimated to be at least 100,000 and another 41,000 are missing.

Jackson and the elders would like to invite you to pray right now for the people of Myanmar, especially those who have lost husbands, wives and children - and those whose loved ones are still missing. And as you sit down for your lunches and dinners this week, continue to pray for this country which is in terrific need.

We will be taking a special offering during our services the next two weeks which will go directly to relief efforts in this devastated country. Hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar are suffering in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. They need your help, and quickly.We will provide envelopes for you to put your donations in, so please come prepared to give.

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Here is a quick update to all our readers about where Park will be redirecting its special offerings this week for relief efforts in Myanmar. There have been many questions about how relief is going to get there with the military junta not allowing aid relief workers in and seizing aid shipments. We have been working to find a relief agency that is onsite and able to get our donations and use them in a way that will get aid to the people in Myanmar as quickly as possible.

We will be collecting donations for Water Missions International based in South Carolina. They are working with World Vision, which has had a national office in Myanmar for 40 years,and Samaritan’s Purse to provide water purification units.

Our goal is to raise $15,000 to buy a water purification unit which will provide at minimum 10,000 gallons of fresh water daily to help meet immediate needs in this devastated area. Also, this unit will be part of an ongoing community development program which will continue to help provide clean water for years to come.

Water Mission International has already deployed 12 units to Myanmar as of this morning (details here) that they knew would get through. They want to be good stewards of the donated resources and ensure that needs are being met, so units will not be sent until it is confirmed that the resources will reach the people in need. World Vision is aware of the situation and will let Water Missions know when shipments can begin.

Volunteer help will be needed upon assurance that the resources will be received, so Park will be sending a team to South Carolina to help assemble the unit we provide before it is shipped to Myanmar. Details will follow.

Continue to pray for this horrific situation, for those affected, and those working to provide aid. And please come prepared to give this weekend.

If you have additional questions about Park’s response, please email Scott Clifton.

Are you part of an Expeditionary Force? April 20, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Breaking News, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers, Culture and Faith, Faith at Work , add a comment

The Missional Challenge has an excellent article about the local church becoming a Expeditionary Force in the city — take a read…..

Dr. Ray Bakke describes the church as an expeditionary force in The Urban Christian (1987). He views Christians as ministers to their worlds of relationships. For example, a banker who is a Christian doesn’t simply serve at his church by teaching Sunday School or being on the Finance Committee. Instead, he would “identify a mission within the bank, perhaps running a Bible Study with his colleagues or even planning resources to help build up neglected neighborhoods.” (p 132)

Bakke sees several advantages to an urban church which sees itself as an Expeditionary Force, emphasizing its role to “go” on mission into the city:

It legitimizes the call to lay mission

It reaches more widely and follows the urban twenty-four-hour clock

It fulfills the need of specialized urban people to affirm their personal vocations as their ministry

“In this model the pastoral task is to help these members identify, plan for and equip themselves for their diverse ministry opportunities.” (p 132)

Where are you in your vocation as a missionary force?

Can you imagine the missionary force that could be released in every town and neighborhood in America if local churches would begin to see themselves as an expeditionary force? <MORE>

Willow To Eliminate Mid-Week Service April 17, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Breaking News, Sunday Services, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation, Culture and Faith , add a comment

(Christianity Today.com) For three decades Willow has been focused on making the church appealing to seekers. But its detailed and thorough research (summarized in their new book REVEAL) shows that it’s the mature believers that drive everything in the church—including evangelism. Greg Hawkins, the Executive Pastor says, “We used to think you can’t upset a seeker. But while focusing on that we’ve really upset the Christ-centered people.” He spoke about the high levels of dissatisfaction mature believer have with churches. Drawing from the 200 churches and the 57,000 people that have taken the survey, he said that most people are leaving the church because they’re not being challenged enough. Because it’s the mature Christians who drive evangelism in the church Hawkins says, “Our strategy to reach seekers is now about focusing on the mature believers. This is a huge shift for Willow.”

One major implementation of this shift will occur in June when Willow ends their mid-week worship services that had been geared toward believers. Instead the church will morph these mid-week events into classes for people at different stages of growth. There will be theological and bible classes full of “hard-hitting stuff.” Hawkins said most people are very enthusiastic about the change.

On the seeker end of the spectrum, Willow is also changing how they produce their weekend services. For years the value people appreciated most about the seeker-oriented weekend services was anonymity. This is what all their research showed. People didn’t want to be identified, approached, confronted, or asked to do anything. But those days are over. “Anonymity is not the driving value for seeker services anymore,” says Hawkins. “We’ve taken anonymity and shot it in the head. It’s dead. Gone.” In the past Willow believed that seekers didn’t want large doses of the Bible or deep worship music. They didn’t want to be challenged. Now their seeker-sensitive services are loaded with worship music, prayer, Scripture readings, and more challenging teaching from the Bible.

Willow has been wrestling with the research from REVEAL since 2004. Hawkins said, “We’ve tried incremental changes for four years, but now we know we have to overhaul our whole strategy.” Small steps are no longer the method; Willow is revamping everything. “It would be malpractice for us to not do something with what we’re learning.”

In the larger REVEAL survey taken by 200 churches, people were asked what they want most from their church. Three of the top four responses were:

1. Help me understand the Bible in greater depth
2. Help me develop a closer personal relationship with Christ
3. Challenge me to grow and take the next step in my faith

Hawkins said that sometimes Willow gets accused of managing the church based on market research; of simply giving people what they want. “Look at what they want!” he said while pointing to the screen. “They want the Bible, they want to be close to Christ, they want to be challenged. Yes, we will give them what they want!”

Chicago 33rd Most Affordable Metro Area April 17, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Chicago Fact, The Arts in the City, Sustainability , add a comment

A new study by Bizjournals.com, a group of business publications, ranked housing affordability in the nation’s metropolitan areas, with terse advice for those seeking a financially manageable place to live: ABC —-That is, Anywhere But California.

Bizjournals compared median home payments and household income levels in the nation’s 50 largest metros. The study was based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, the most up-to-date source of federal data on housing costs. The study, to no one’s particular surprise, concluded that six of the seven most expensive places for housing are in the Golden State. Others on the list of America’s 10 most expensive home markets are New York City, Sacramento, Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Boston.

The study compared median home payments, property taxes and household income in 50 metros. Los Angeles was most expensive: The magazines estimated the monthly housing tab in L.A. amounts to about 75.5 percent of the median household income, with a median monthly mortgage-and-tax payment of $3,491.

Compare that to the most affordable metro, Oklahoma City. There, housing eats up just 19 percent of the median household income, the magazines said. The median monthly bill for mortgage and taxes is $667.

Chicago ranks as the 33rd most affordable metro, ahead of such cities as Portland OR (37th),Seattle, (40th), Boston (42nd), NYC (46th) and San Francisco (49th). In Chicago, where the aforementioned housing charges consume about 35 percent of our income, the study said. It pegged the median mortgage payment here at $1,358; add to that a median monthly property tax of $309, and your basic home-owning Chicagoan gets a monthly mortgage payment of $1,667.

The complete rankings are at www.bizjournals.com; go to “Online Edition” and click “Special Reports.”

Worship Top 25 April 14, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Inside Park, Urban Church, Powerful Passages, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation, Music That Moves, Culture and Faith , add a comment

As we sit each week at Park, and have worship times with Joseph Tenney and his team, I began to wonder what are the main worship songs that are played? So I did some research on the CCLI site and thought I would list out the top 25 played worship songs in churches around the U.S.

This list came from the latest results from CCLI which is the main Christian music copyright/licensing company for non-profit organizations around the world. They conduct two surveys per year, one in February and one in August. (Please note that this compilation does not contain many of the excellent old hymns which are sung a lot but are actaully public domain and not subject to royalties). However, it does contain “Shout to the Lord” which was recently sung on American Idol. This list is the latest data and is ranked from the most played to the least:

1	How Great Is Our God	Tomlin, Chris \ Reeves, Jesse \ Cash, Ed	4348399
2	Blessed Be Your Name	Redman, Beth \ Redman, Matt	3798438
3	Here I Am To Worship	Hughes, Tim	3266032
4	Open The Eyes Of My Heart	Baloche, Paul	2298355
5	Shout To The Lord	Zschech, Darlene	1406918
6	Holy Is The Lord	Tomlin, Chris \ Giglio, Louie	4158039
7	You Are My King	Foote, Billy	2456623
8	Forever	Tomlin, Chris	3148428
9	Lord I Lift Your Name On High	Founds, Rick	117947
10	Come Now Is The Time To Worship	Doerksen, Brian	2430948
11	God Of Wonders	Byrd, Marc \ Hindalong, Steve	3118757
12	Everlasting God	Brown, Brenton \ Riley, Ken	4556538
13	You Are My All In All	Jernigan, Dennis	825356
14	We Fall Down	Tomlin, Chris	2437367
15	The Heart Of Worship	Redman, Matt	2296522
16	You’re Worthy Of My Praise	Ruis, David	487976
17	Breathe	Barnett, Marie	1874117
18	Trading My Sorrows	Evans, Darrell	2574653
19	Beautiful One	Hughes, Tim	3915912
20	In Christ Alone	Townend, Stuart \ Getty, Keith	3350395
21	I Give You My Heart	Morgan, Reuben	1866132
22	Days Of Elijah	Mark, Robin	1537904
23	Friend Of God	Gungor, Michael \ Houghton, Israel	3991651
24	Better Is One Day	Redman, Matt	1097451
25	Above All	LeBlanc, Lenny \ Baloche, Paul	2672885

So what do you think of the list?

In Memory of Abby-Jill — We Will Miss You March 13, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Chicago, Family, Inside Park, Urban Church, Missional, DifferenceMakers, Culture and Faith , 3comments

This week, Park Community Church suffered a great loss, when one of its former staff, Abby-Jill Brauhn , lost her fight with cancer and went to be with the Lord on Tuesday morning, surrounded by her family in Wisconsin. Abby-Jill was a Godly woman who loved the Lord and loved people. She made a huge impact for the Kingdom and will be greatly missed, although I know she is feeling no pain and dancing in heaven as we speak. I will miss her greatly — I loved her passion to see people come to know Jesus in a personal relationship and I appreciated her tremendous gift of leadership on the trips I went on to the orphanage in Mexico. Here is a summary (with some adds by me about my friend) of the obituary sent to the Tribune:

Abby-Jill Marie Brauhn

September 16, 1964 – March 11, 2008

Abby-Jill Brauhn, 43, died Tuesday, March 11, 2008, at the home of her sister, Deborah Geary. She was the daughter of Maggie French and the late Stephen Brauhn. Abby was blessed with an extraordinary life. She graduated from Buffalo General School of Nursing, where she began her career as a registered nurse. She later joined Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals as a sales representative. Abby’s ambition and initiative brought her to Chicago, where enjoyed a successful career as new-products sales rep and then regional manager.

In 1995, Abby went on a short term mission trip to the FFHM orphanage that Park supports in the Baja of Mexico, and there her life chcanged and it would never be the same. She experienced a great renewal of her faith, and when she heard a higher calling in 1998, Abby went to work for Park Community Church in Chicago as the Director of Extension Ministries. Here she founded and grew Park’s annual Park Service Day ( now called For One Chicago), which engaged more than 900 Park Church members to serve the Chicago community for a day. She was a pivotal member of Park’s short term mission trips called Vacation with a Purpose, which led mission trips to orphanages in Mexico operated by Foundation for His Ministry and other places around the world. She always had a vision that she would create an orphanage, so when the opportunity came, Abby’s faith took her to California. In October 2004, she left Park to become a senior leader at Charla Pereault’s right hand side at FFHM in Oxnard California.

Abby lived a life that was full of joy, love, and devotion to her family, friends, and God. An avid reader and traveler, she embarked on many voyages around the world. She had a wonderful ability to touch all that she came in contact with. A diagnosis of terminal cancer brought her back to the Midwest, where she lived with her sister, Debbie, and her family. With faith and courage, Abby endured cancer treatment for two and a half years.

Abby-Jill is survived by her mother, Maggie, her sister Debbie, brother-in-law Brian Geary, brother Robert Brauhn, brother Adam Brauhn, sister-in-law Tasha, nieces Molly, Maggie, Katherine, and Grace, and nephews Christopher and Nicholas. Abby was preceded in death by her father, Stephen.

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A funeral service will be held at St. Anthony on the Lake, N2101 Hwy. SS Pewaukee Wis., on Friday, March 11, at 4:00 p.m.

“A Chicago memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 15th, at 1:00 p.m. at the GERMANIA PLACE BALLROOM (please note location has been changed).

In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure, 877.465.6636, or Heartland Hospice, 13255 W. Bluemound Road Suite 100, Brookfield, Wis. 53005.

Cesarz Charapata & Zinnecker is serving the family. For more information, please call the funeral home at 262.542.6609.

Barna — A New Perspective on Unchurched March 6, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Breaking News, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, Internet Resources , add a comment

According to a new study released by The Barna Group, popular measures such as the percentage of people who are “unchurched” - based on attendance at a conventional church service - are out of date. Various new forms of faith community and experience, such as house churches, marketplace ministries and cyberchurches, must be figured into the mix - and make calculating the percentage of Americans who can be counted as “unchurched” more complicated. The fact that millions of people are now involved in multiple faith communities - for instance, attending a conventional church one week, a house church the next, and interacting with an online faith community in-between - has rendered the standard measures of “churched” and “unchurched” much less precise. According to Barna, one way of examining people’s participation in faith communities is by exploring how they practice their corporate faith engagement. Unveiling a new measurement model, Barna identified the following five segments:

Unattached - people who had attended neither a conventional church nor an organic faith community (e.g., house church, simple church, intentional community) during the past year. Some of these people use religious media, but they have had no personal interaction with a regularly-convened faith community. This segment represents one out of every (more…)

Think You Know Chicago? Test Yourself March 5, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Breaking News, Urban Church, Chicago Fact, Chicago Photo , add a comment

As you most know, I love Chicago and everything about it. I found a great new show on our local PBS station WTTW, called Hidden Chicago, where Geoffrey Baer takes you all over the Chicago region in search of often-overlooked fragments of our city’s history. Many are in places you pass by every day. But when you learn their hidden stories you’re sure to say “I never knew that!”.

Leave a comment and tell us your favorite hidden chicago tidbit……

Test Your Own Knowledge of Hidden Chicago:

Q: Where will you find an actual ticket booth from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893?

A: In the back yard of a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Oak Park. It was moved there after the fair for use as a children’s playhouse and later became a garden shed.

Q: Where is the monument that Benito Mussolini gave to Chicago?

A: Along the Lakefront - just east of Soldier Field on the site of the 1933 World’s Fair. It’s a 2000 year old Roman column commemorating the arrival at the fair of a fleet of Italian seaplanes under the command of General Italo Balbo.

Q: Is there really a cowpath among the skyscrapers in the Loop?

A: There were no cows living in the loop when the highrise building at 100 W. Monroe was constructed in 1928. But a passageway through the building was left open anyway because the deed required it. It was part of a strip of land that a farmer named William Jones retained for his use when he sold this land in 1840. According to newspaper accounts Jones wanted to be sure he still had a way to walk his cows to pasture. It’s behind black metal doors and not open to the public.

Q: What’s that metal blob hiding in the bushes behind the Chicago History Museum at North and Clark?

A: It’s all that’s left of a storefront that melted in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Q: Where was the first movie version of “The Wizard of Oz” filmed?

A: At Selig Studios located at the corner of Byron and Claremont (map) on Chicago’s North Side. The yellow brick structure is now used for condominiums. Chicago was the silent movie capital of America before the industry moved to Hollywood. Another studio, Essanay is also still standing. Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and others worked there. It’s now St. Augustine College in the Uptown neighborhood.

Q: Why is there a mural behind the clutter in the manager’s office at Meyer’s Ace Hardware in Bronzeville?

A: This building once housed one of Louis Armstrong’s favorite jazz clubs, the Sunset Café. The mural decorated the back wall of the stage, which is now the store manager’s office.o

Which is the Urban Church? March 4, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Weblog, The City, Chicago, Breaking News, Church, Urban Church, The Cultural Conversation, Culture and Faith , add a comment

I came across this great illustration series by Steve Collins of what an urban church is not and what it is — tell me what you think. Check it out the excellent slideshow here.

DWELL: Driving Urban Church Planters March 2, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, Missional, The Cultural Conversation, DifferenceMakers, Culture and Faith , add a comment

At Park Community Church, our vision is to be a Biblical community where the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms lives, renews the city and impacts the world. Being a city center church, we are focused on reaching the city of Chicago and would like to reach 1% (29,000 people) of the city in the years to come. That is why we love conferences that focus on the major global centers like Chicago or New York, and one of those great get-togethers is coming up.

dwell conference

The Dwell Conference is scheduled for April 29-30, 2008 in New York City and involves two of our favorites: Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City will be co-hosting and partnering with Acts 29 Network in a premiere church planting event to create a world-class training for urban church planters. It has a fabulous lineup of some of the most influential church planting leaders as speakers at this event: Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, CJ Mahaney, and Darrin Patrick.

I also love their anchor verse for this movement of planters (as it has been an anchor for our church about urban living for years):

Jeremiah 29:4-7
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and DWELL in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”

Great Reminder on Stewardship as a Leader February 27, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Family, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation, Culture and Faith , add a comment

Tim Stevens, the Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church is a person I respect greatly, and he has another great nugget of wisdom for leaders of all types concerning how to get a strong financial framework in your life. As I move out of the church business and into my sports-oriented social networking start-up, FanFuego.com, these lessons hit home for me…here are some of my favorite nuggets on maintaining a good financial situation…read the whole article here.

If this is an area of concern for you, you should know that at Park, we have one of the leading stewardship experts in the land named Matt Bell. Check out his website at www.financially-speaking.com and you can subscribe to his excellent Biblical newletters on good financial management practices here.

credit cards

Don’t use a credit card for anything you can’t pay off right away. Use a credit card for convenience, but don’t ever pay interest. If you can’t control yourself, get rid of the cards.
Tithe–I really believe that God blesses those who tithe. I think he keeps the car running longer, the roof from leaking as soon as it would have, and He loves to sprinkle you with raises and added cash you didn’t expect.
Give generously. The tithe is the minimum. We began our first year of marriage giving 10% of our income and then increased it every year until we got to 20%. The first 10% goes to the general fund at our church. The other 10% we use to support missionaries, give to new building projects at our church, and bless people who come into our lives.
If you are married, don’t ever make a big purchase without talking to each other. Really, trust me on this. [AMEN BROTHER - I LEARNED THE HARD WAY )
Teach your kids to handle their money. They aren’t going to learn financial management at school. No one else is going to teach them to be generous. By the time they’ve been out of your house a week, they will have already received 14 credit card invitations. Teach them early.
Set aside money for fun. Fun with your spouse. Fun with your kids. Fun for yourself (for me, that means buying a geeky gadget on occasion).
Don’t wait until you have more money to put wise financial management into practice in your life.

Reminder: We are in the Hope Business February 25, 2008

Posted by Steve in : The City, Chicago, Volunteers, Church, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies, The Cultural Conversation, Culture and Faith , add a comment

As we see more and more people step over the line of faith each week at Park Community Church, I was reminded this week in an article by John Ortberg, Senior Pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church that as Christians, we are in the hope business. And as a leader, the one task a leader can never delegate, especially in the church, is hope.

As leaders, we need to be hope leaders, not forgetting our sins and failures but coming to the cross, confessing, learning from it and continually reminding ourselves that we live with hope, under grace. As a leader, we need to surround ourselves in ministry with those who can breathe hope and energy into our lives so we can do the same with those we lead. This may be outsiders or may be your ministry team.

When people see a leader with this kind of vital optimism, who radiates a sense that together we can do what needs to be done, then people tend to decide not to waste their energy wondering about “if” but focus their energy going after “how.”

Check out the article.

Appel, Frazee Out at Willow Creek February 1, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Weblog, Breaking News, Urban Church , add a comment

Not sure what is driving this, but last weekend, the Elders of Willow Creek announced that both Randy Frazee and Gene Appel, the two lead pastors, would be leaving Willow Creek. WOW! What a bombshell……The announcement is on the Willow Creek website:

Today the Elders of Willow Creek are announcing that two senior staff leaders have made personal decisions to pursue new ministries outside our church.

This June, Teaching Pastor Randy Frazee will become the Senior Minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, where he will teach and lead in partnership with pastor and author, Max Lucado. “After 8 months of prayer and counsel, I believe God is calling our family to expand the reach of the neighborhood initiative to San Antonio,” Randy said. “However, my decision to leave is mostly about family and a simple desire to be around my kids, two of whom are currently living in Texas and a third who will head to Texas for college this fall. “It has been a complete privilege and joy to be a part of the Willow Creek team,” he said. “You can count on our fervent prayers and blessings as we move forward on this endeavor.”

Gene Appel, Lead Pastor-South Barrington, who came to Willow Creek as Associate Pastor in 2003 and moved into his current role two and a half years ago, also announced his resignation from staff. “I love this church,” Gene said. “It has been an enormous privilege for me to serve here, but after months of internal wrestling and seeking the counsel of wise people I trust, I have come to a place of peace and clarity, and sense the nudge to move toward being the senior pastor of a local church again. I’ll continue serving in my role through the Easter season, and then I’ll begin prayerfully pursuing God’s next adventure. I am honored to have been able to serve in partnership with everyone at Willow and I have been forever impacted by this place. I will be cheering you on for the rest of my life.”

On January 17, 2008 the Elders of Willow Creek and Bill Hybels agreed that Bill will assume the role of Lead Pastor-South Barrington in addition to his other senior pastor responsibilities, which include oversight of the Regional Campuses and the Willow Creek Association. “I am honored to assume the responsibility to lead the staff and congregation at South Barrington and I look to God expectantly for what He has planned for us in the future,” Bill said. The Elders fully support the decisions of Gene and Randy, and are grateful to them for their faithful leadership, high character, and inspired teaching.

Great Post: The Difference Between Excellence and Perfection January 23, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Breaking News, Urban Church, Methods & Strategies , add a comment

As I scour the blogosphere for nuggets of truth and wisdom, I came across Scott Magdalein’s blog, ReadScott.com, the Worship Leader for The Fellowship @ Celebration Baptist Church in Jacksonville Florida and I loved this post because for many of us, we struggle with trying to obtain perfection, from ourseleves, and also from our reports, teams, and volunteers. Read it and ponder….

The Difference Between Excellence and Perfection
Posted by readscott

January 10, 2008

This concept, although given to me from my spiritual leader, is profitable and applicable to all leaders, both in churches and in business.

I was in a meeting with my pastor yesterday to go over the new designs and video bumper we’re using for the upcoming series. We both enjoy discussing ministry philosophy and church strategy and that’s where this conversation ended up heading. I’m not sure about any church leaders reading this, but I really enjoy having chats with my pastor. If you have a stuffy, unapproachable pastor, I feel bad for you. It builds tons of respect when your pastor comes to your office to sit down with you rather than being called to his office to be in his environment. Sorry for the digression. I’ll get back on track.

We were discussing something specific to my ministry in our church, worship, when he said something almost revolutionary for me and the way I lead worship and mentor my team. You may think it’s trivial and you’ve known it all along, but for me it was eye-opening.

He said, “Excellence and perfection aren’t the same thing. Perfection is not making any mistakes, playing flawlessly and without error. Excellence is letting the talents God gave you express themselves to their fullest potential.” This isn’t an exact quote, but you get the idea.

His implication was that the pursuit of perfection (a pursuit that I thought was synonymous with the pursuit of excellence) will lead to disappointment because perfection is unattainable. If I pursue excellence in worship, not only is it attainable, but God loves bringing bringing the best out of us. This concept also effects the entire team; as individuals and as a whole.

If I expect perfection out of my team, they’ll fail every time. It’ll kill morale and hurt their trust in me as their leader. If I expect excellence, my team will experience complete fulfillment in their own ministries as musicians. And, if this is going to remain a ministry and not transform into a traveling group (it’s not), then getting my team to a place of fulfillment in their ministry is the highest purpose.

In what areas do you need to seek excellence and not perfection?

Seal Found of First Jeruslam Temple Servants January 17, 2008

Posted by Steve in : Breaking News, Church, Urban Church, The Cultural Conversation, Photos , add a comment

A black stone seal found in an archaeological dig in Jerusalem adds more proof to a growing mountain of tangible evidence showing the accuracy of the Bible’s account of history. The seal, found in excavations taking place in the City of David just south of the Temple Mount, bears the name “Temech,” listed in the biblical book of Nehemiah as one of the families of servants in the first temple of Solomon who were sent into exile to Babylon after the destruction of the temple in 586 BC. The seal was found in stratified layers of previously unexcavated debris during the third excavation season of Eilat Mazar. Dr. Mazar works on behalf of the Shalem Center and the Ir David Foundation and under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In the 5th century BC, the Persian King Artaxerxes i made Nehemiah governor of Judah to return to Jerusalem and repair its walls, which had been left in ruins since the destruction of the first temple. As part of this renovation project, a tower was built along the eastern ridge of the top of the City of David. This tower, and the city wall adjacent to it, were erected very quickly on top of several layers of debris.

Though it still stood until very recently, that tower was in a state of disrepair and ready to collapse. Beginning this past summer, Dr. Mazar and her team methodically dismantled it in order to reconstruct it, and then excavated the layers underneath that had been sealed for centuries by the tower’s construction. In that debris near teh Dung Gate lay this stone seal.

Photo: Edwin Trebels courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
The Bible refers to the Temech family in the Book of Nehemiah: “These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town,” [Nehemiah 7:6]… “The Nethinim [7:46]”… The children of Temech.” [7:55].

“Perhaps it is not by chance that the seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered in our excavations that is located only dozens of meters away from the Ophel area, where the Nethinim lived at the time of Nehemiah,” said Dr. Mazar, referring to Nehemiah 3:26. “The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archaeology and the biblical sources,” she said. “It is tangible evidence that relates to a known family mentioned in the Bible.”

This seal follows other, similar discoveries made in the same area in the City of David. In 2005, Dr. Mazar’s team found a bulla (a clay disc used to seal scrolls) bearing this inscription: “Jehucal, son of Shelemiah.” Jehucal was a royal officer who worked in the administration of King Zedekiah, Judah’s last king before going into Babylonian captivity during the sixth century b.c. He is referred to twice in the book of Jeremiah (37:3; 38:1). Another bulla, found years earlier, was inscribed with the Hebrew name “Gemariah, son of Shaphan.” Mentioned in Jeremiah 36:10, he was one of the princes of Judah during Jehoiakim’s reign. His father, Shaphan, worked for King Josiah (2 Kings 22:3).

“One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find,” Dr. Mazar said of her latest discovery.

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