Souled out Servolution

 

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Teresa of Avila

things over heard

For those that don’t know, which is I think all none of you, I am a volunteer at Crosspoint Community Church (the writings and ramblings given on this blog are the sole opinion of me and not Crosspoint Community Church).

Crosspoint is a portable church, much like the first church, except we don’t follow a cloud around, put up a tent every Sunday, make our pastor wear ornate robes, and carry around the Ark of the Covenant. We do however like to burn animal flesh over a hot fire, but we call that a cookout.

To set up all the equipment, stage, lights, video, sound, lobby, and kids area early in the morning can be challenging to say the least. You could probably the imagine the cast of characters it takes to put all of this together in a short amount of time, it takes a very “special” kinda volunteer to want to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and set up church at a movie theater.

The point of this post is for those of you that have never experienced setting up the “tabernacle” early in the morning, I want to share with you some of the things over heard during set-up at Crosspoint.

1. We are going to need someone to clean up the goat crap if it craps on stage.

2. Hey guys, I am going to jump off this 8 foot ladder and I want you to catch me, it’ll be easy.

3. Over more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more. STOP!!!! Now put it back.

4. Bring the box with the snake in it down here.

5. Now get the box with the other snake and bring down the other side.

6. Where’s all our help? Oh there you are.

7. I hope I’m not a wuss and pass out while she is piercing my ear, I’ll make sure I’m positioned to not fall on the drums or guitar in case I do.

8. The goat ate Tony’s music.

9. Did Dana bring the wine?

10. Plug this here, this here, this here, this here and this here, you got that? No.

I kinda wonder what you would over hear when they set up the Tabernacle.

All kidding aside, I get to serve with a great group of volunteers on the set-up and break down team. These folks make the magic happen and you don’t ever see them. They are make a huge impact for the Kingdom one cable at a time, one light at a time, one piece of tape at a time. Love you guys.

Recipe

What do you get when you add students, moms, logistics worker, chemist, managers, teacher, pharmacist, guitar guy, editor, office administrator, bar tender, waitress, and a computer geek together?

Community.

I am so proud of my Life Group for stepping up and being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

Everyone did a great job, it was hard work but a lot of fun. Most important is that Christ was glorified and some very special people had fun. Thank you guys.

hands and feet

What does community service mean to you?

Does it mean wearing an orange jump suit and picking up trash on the side of the road?

Talking to a group of students about the dangers of drug use because a judge told you to?

Going to a homeless shelter and serving people on the soup line?

Giving someone your last five dollars so they could get a cup of coffee and sandwich or *gasp* a bottle of cheap booze?

Praying with a person that is hurting, the world has come down on there shoulders and they are on the edge of jumping off a bridge, swallowing a bottle of pills or cursing God?

Painting a local charity organization’s thrift store?

Buying groceries for a family that has hit a rough patch and just needs a little help getting through it?

What does being the hands and feet of Jesus mean to you?

mission, military, ministry

I am learning a few lessons this week in regards to leadership. I am not an expert on leadership and I don’t believe there is an expert in this subject. I will also contend that being great at something does not make you an expert. With that being said I will start in on how I suck.

Lesson #1: “Mission before men” does not apply when working in the ministry.

• Your mission is men.
• If you cannot communicate your mission effectively how do you expect your men to carry it out.
• Your mission is personal, so are your men.
• Your men do not change to your standards you have to be willing change to theirs, so long as it doesn’t compromise the mission.

Ok now let me give a few explanations. When I was in the military there was two schools of thought in leadership. The first mentality is “You place your mission before your men”. The second mentality is “Your men are the most important thing”.

The ideal mentality is to find a perfect harmony with both thoughts. I can say that I never met one leader that found that harmony while I was serving. Most of the leaders I knew had a “mission before men” mentality. To be perfectly honest I prefer that. That was the way I was taught to lead. You complete your mission no matter what the cost, what you are working for is the “Greater Good”, you may have to make sacrifices. I never charged any machine gun nests while I was in the military, I was a power lineman. Not a lot of machine guns or Iraqis to deal with when you are changing out street light bulbs, looking back I didn’t have a lot of friends either. But the streets were well lit and there were very few power outages on my watch, mission accomplished.

Working as a volunteer leader at my church is making me totally relearn and change how I lead. I am having to learn that the mission is men, or mankind if you will, and that includes the men that work side by side with you in your mission. Communication is always the biggest key to carrying out any mission, but  leading people in the ministry it is how you communicate what your mission is. You can bark orders and they will be carried out. You can ask someone to do something for you and there is a better than 99% chance that it will get done, but the person you asked will feel better about what they are doing as opposed to having a “task master” barking at them. Your mission is a personal mission because you are working for your personal Savior. The people you serve with are just like you, screwed up mutts that love Jesus, get to know them. Be willing to change how you do things to accomplish your mission. Being nicer to someone does not compromise your mission, getting personal with someone does not compromise your mission, you will accomplish your mission with greater success and fewer sacrifices by changing how you do things sometimes. Leaders are in control of the things around them, the people around them and themselves.

Unfortunately I suck at all these things. This past week at church I got into a disagreement with one of my very best friends. The disagreement got heated enough that he left so he could cool off. The disagreement essentially centered around my leadership style and communication. I won’t go any further into the whys but the whole thing really set me back on my heels and has made me think long and hard about how I do things. My friend and I have already reconciled like most men do, I let him punch me just as hard as he could in the arm and I got to ride his bicycle. Bottom line is I needed that from him to show me where I fail. Thanks buddy, I’m sorry.

shut up you big baby

I have been looking over the blur that has been the last few days. I have been complaining about how busy I am and how I don’t have time for anything. WAAAHHHH. Shut up you big baby.

I am blessed beyond measure, and I complain? Well the complaint department is now closed. Yes I have been busy, but I asked for it. I asked for God to use me however he wants (I almost typed needs here but God doesn’t need me for anything, he is God). This doesn’t just stop at church, it includes my home life, my work, everything. I want God to use me.

My father use to tell me that there are two types of people out there, those that  &%$#@! about it and those that will do something about it. Well here it is. Buck up, put your big boy pants on and go, fight through the BS and go. Just shut-up and go. There are greater things to be done and it requires sacrifice. Are you willing to sacrifice, for your work, for your family, for your God?

Daveisms

On freakin fire today.

Dave brought it to us, I have seen Dave on fire before but today, something was different.

One of the reasons why I love Crosspoint so much is there is no mistaking what our mission is and there is no mistaking what our passion is.

Dave had the look of a man on a mission today, he had the look of a man determined. Determined to walk into hell, stand in front of the gates and witness, preach, teach, convince, beg, do whatever it takes short of sin to reach the lost for Jesus. I honestly believe that he could have lead the whole church today to the gates of hell, called Satan out into the street and kicked him square in his nuts, and then started putting out the fire with a water pistol. I have seen Dave fired up before, but today it was different.

Today Dave preached on service and if you can’t tell by the name of my blog, that is something I am passionate about. Here are a few excerts from his message today.

• Church is an extreme contact sport.
• You have to be faithful to it.
• I’m eating my waffles,cartoons just came on. (excuses not to show up and serve)
• Paul said to the church in Corinth, not the one in Mississippi the one in the bible.
• My wife loves children, just not yours. (talking about the pastor’s wife automatically having to do childrens ministry)
• Hire more people to do the things you don’t have time to do, we can’t do that, we don’t have any money.
• Get the right people in the right seats on the bus so we can grow the bus and drive it faster.
• That guy looks like a drug dealer (talking about Jack Alford our associate pastor) I wonder what he was giving those kids.
• If you think someone is full of crap, junk is probably coming out of their mouth.
• Imagine if all the preachers in North Alabama knew Jesus.

If you go to Crosspoint Church and aren’t on a service team, sign up, e-mail Kenny (kenny@moviechurch.tv) leave me a comment on my blog and I will put you in touch with the right people, I promise you it is the most rewarding thing you can do to serve the man that died on a cross for our sins.

Sunday Dave-ism

Awesome service at Crosspoint Sunday.

Dave cast vision for reaching people in North Alabama and I am pumped about it. I took a few notes during the service and I wanted to share a few Dave-isms from Sunday.

• We are all partners in this thing called Kingdom.
• It is not about sitting in your holy huddle holding hands and singing kumbiya.
• The internet is the highway and hedges of today.
• Your stupid for paying 4 dollars for a cup of coffee, so am I.
• Go where other people are located.
• How many of you have twitter accounts? ok about 25%, alright how many have email? ok, all the old people raised their hands.
• At church or a movie theater you can’t sneak out without some one seeing you leave.

These are just a few of the points that stuck out with me during the sermon. I especially love the point about the internet being the highways and hedges of today. Fired up about 2009 and what God is doing.

the cover of the book

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

How many times in life have you heard that?

A lot.

We got to talk a little about that today at church, as a guy was on stage getting a tattoo.

Ya , it was very cool, but not the point.

The point is, what does the inside look like? Not the outward appearance.

How much time are you willing to invest to get to know someone?

My family and I got to hang out some friends after church in celebration of their youngest childs birthday, he turned 13 (happy birthday buddy).

First time I ever saw this guy and his family I thought, ‘ dude this guy looks like he would kick my ass if I said something wrong to him, and so will his wife’.

I always spoke to them when I saw them.

Most of the conversation was me asking ‘ how bad did that hurt’?

Over more time and involment we got to know each other better.

Yesterday I got a small glimps into their lives but it opened up a whole new level of respect that I have for this family, so much so that it had my wife and I talking about it on our way home.

Rodney Culp is the real deal.

This guy has set the bar way high for himself on how to be a Godly dad and it shows in the love that he has for his children and the love his children has for him.

It is also a high level he has set for being a husband, and it shows in the way he talks about his wife.

You believe him when he tells you that she is his best friend and soul mate, (doubt him on that and he will kick your ass, j/k).

A couple of things that stuck with me yesterday was the affection that his son showed him and the gratitude he had.

How many 13 year old boys that you know would grab a hold of their dad and hug him in front of another man, and express how much they appreciate the gift that was given to them and truly mean it? How many fathers out there has hugged their teenage son lately?

Out in Rodney’s shop he has a dry erase board, and on this board are messages from his soon to be 15 year old daughter.

Rodney told me that she will come out to his shop sometimes when he’s not there or when he’s not looking and write messages to him telling him how much she appreciates him for working hard and that she loves him.

I asked his daughter yesterday if her dad sits on his throne (ya, he has a really cool throne in his living room with swords close by) and spins the the point of sword on the floor when he knows a boy is coming over and if that scares her boyfriends. Her answer to me was she wouldn’t know if it scares them since she has never had a boyfriend.

Smart girl.

Jennifer (Mrs. Culp) told me that Rodney has set the bar so high on how to be a good man that their daughter will probably have a hard time finding anyone to measure up to those standards, for those guys with daughters, that is a good problem to have.

This family expresses there appreciation and love for each other openly and unashamed. How rare is that anymore, even in Christian homes.

I could go on and on about the Culp family, about how all of them volunteer in some way at church, and how they have enriched the lives of so many people that we don’t know.

I think Dave said it best when he told us yesterday, it’s not what’s on the outside, we are all marked up, but do you carry the marks of Jesus?

This family carries these marks.

Photo courtesey of JMDI.

Easy like sunday morning

I love serving at Crosspoint Church.

I think I may have said that already.

My good buddy, super fly connections pastor, and hero, Kenny Lopez made a comment today that made me smile a bit.

He was telling Andrew Kulp (this guy is planting a church in Maryland) that our theme song for what we do at Crosspt is Easy Like Sunday Morning.

Ha

Ha, ha,

Ha, ha, ha, ha….

I said I love what God and the leadership staff of this church lets me do, but easy???

I know he was kidding, it tickled me a little.

I have to admit that some mornings are easier than others, but regardless of easy or hard, I love it.

Did I mention I love serving God at Crosspoint.

I do.

If you have reservations about serving or your not sure how you can serve, come find me, I will hook you up.

Oh side note, got a very flattering job offer this past week, very flattering…turned it down.

Felt good to know someone thought I was worth that kind of money, with those kind of perks, especially with the economy the way it is.

Here’s a little song for you Kenny, and seein as how we are a rockin church, I’ll give you the Faith No More cover of this tune.