My Worship Revolution

I don’t want to ruin the ad if you haven’t seen it, so just take a look:

I’ve always said I wanted to train a chimp to do that for me.  I’d have the coolest band ever.  Good stuff.
HT: Steve

Looks like I’m gonna be here with our team Nov. 7-10.
Anyone else going?

#21.
I know, it’s been a while.
Sorry.
This one:
Over time.
Under produced.
But hey…at least it’s up.
Here’s to getting back on track.
Enjoy!

Ok, so maybe I wasn’t completely honest in the first post when I said "in no particular order."  That was the case for the first two.  The perks are probably a big draw to volunteering at the aquarium.  Staff know that they are appreciated.  The vibe – I sure as heck wouldn’t mind hanging out there with people a couple of hours every week.

But this last reason is perhaps, in my opinion, the number one reason people volunteer their time for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  People volunteer at the institution for the sake of…

The Cause

Everywhere you go at the aquarium, every exhibit, every show, reminds you that there is much to be done to save our planet.  To take care of our oceans.  To care for the animals.  And every volunteer I came in contact with seemed to openly share this vision, this mission, with unbridled passion.

And not only did it appear to be a valuable cause to each volunteer, but perhaps even more importantly, the aquarium is clearly making a positive difference for the cause.  People donate money because they know it will make a difference.  People donate time because they know it will make a difference.

I guess this was just a good reminder to me…nothing I didn’t already know.  We can share all the vision in the world.  We can serve Jesus and talk about the God we all serve.  But unless we produce results, people are going to lose their own passion for it and go somewhere that is.  People want to know that their effort matters.  The leadership lesson for me: I have to be unapologetically passionate about doing everything I can to set our ministries and our volunteers up to win!  i have to be so passionate about seeing people experience life change as a result of Christ’s faith, hope, and love that I will stop at nothing to do all I can to see it happen.

To be honest, this scares me sometimes.  i have some amazing leaders who have gone out on a limb in a way to get behind our vision of Life Groups at CLC.  Right now, many of them are passionate as a result of the vision.  But I know that it is the evidence of changed lives that will continue to motivate them and encourage them to keep going.  I trust that God is at work and this will happen, but I also recognize that I need to make sure that I do my part in the deal.  And the funny part is, I need my volunteers to see God come through.  We can’t accomplish it without them.

So perhaps when people began to disappear from the ranks of our ministries (especially if it’s a pattern), before we find fault in their reasons for not stepping up we need to ask ourselves if we are being effective in our mission.  Are lives being changed?  Are people coming to Christ?  Are there tangible expressions and evidence that what we are doing is truly impacting the Kingdom?  If not, that may explain the lack of excitement to sacrifice…and understandably so.

Rolled sown to Monterey yesterday for a Ministers and spouses retreat at the Embassy Suites.
Started the excursion in a golf tournament with Kyle, Ed, and Wes.
4 man scramble (which we discovered after playing 4 holes of 2 man).
Best ball.
When we got there, I wasn’t on the list for some reason.
After getting it all sorted out, Ed verbally told them that the fourth players name was "Marchessault."
Apparently, that didn’t translate so well verbally.  You can see our final standings in the pic below.  notice my name:

I promise, I didn’t play from the red tees!  Although, maybe I should have.
We won some movie tickets for our efforts…
For having the highest score.

Worst part, Wes took a few strokes off our score before turning it in.  The real score was a bit too embarrassing.
Geez.  We cheat and we still come in last!
Time to hit the range.
I’m out.
Marcia.

So again, I don’t claim to be an expert on volunteer recruitment or maintenance.  Rather, I am taking some time this week to reflect on what it is that I think might drive people to give their time as staff at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Hopefully these things can help me to become a better leader as well.

The second thing aspect I came up with that makes volunteer opportunities enticing…

The Vibe

If you’ve ever been to the aquarium in Monterey, it is just a cool place to be.  As you walk in the doors you
are immediately immersed in this marine atmosphere with a giant whale skeleton hanging above you and the anticipation of visitors as they hustle by.  I remember walking into a current exhibit there, The Outer Bay.  It is a one million gallon exhibit with ginormous tuna and hammerheads.  You walk up to a huge glass pane in a darkened room with theatrical style lighting illuminating the underwater world in front of you.  Again, incredibly immersive.

This was one that Dave threw out as we were chatting in the parking lot of CLC after a week of installing sound equipment.  As an example he cited a well known ministry in the area.  Vintage Faith Church recently opened a coffee shop at their building where bands play after the Sunday night service.  They hope to open it full-
time to the public when they get all the permits.  This place is legit.  The vibe is way cool.  Check out some pics from my visit Sunday night:

His point: why wouldn’t you want to volunteer a shift at the counter there?  It’s a fun place to be.  Now a lot of churches don’t want to put money, or even more than that, effort into creating an environment that allows for a "cool vibe."  Some would even go so far as to say that it is superficial and bad stewardship.  I would throw out this question though: If our church is an environment that not even those who follow Christ want to be in, why in the world would someone who doesn’t even want to step foot in the door?

It doesn’t always have to mean new technology and cool lighting.  But whatever the method, what are we doing at our churches to create and atmosphere that people want to spend time in?  Volunteers and unchurched alike.  Why not put forth the effort to create an environment that allows for community and energy?

Several weeks ago my wife and I visited the aquarium in Monterey for the first time.  I love the ocean and I love aquariums!  It was amazing seeing the different animals and watching the SCUBA diver feed the fish in the kelp forest.

But there was something else that really caught my attention.  It was the staff.  Just about every staff member you saw was a volunteer.  I think I heard them mention at one point that the have over 1000 volunteers!  That is incredible!  then it started to bother me a bit.  I thought to myself, "They have tons of volunteers to run this place that people pay good money to come to, and most churches have trouble getting people to volunteer to help further the cause of Jesus Christ on this Earth!  What the heck?"

So that really got me thinking.  What is it that drives people to volunteer there?  I had a few thoughts of my own based on my experience, and then began dialoging with multiple people about it.  Got some really good thoughts from Dave Dunning over at Legend Theatrical. 

Based on that, I came up with three ideas as to why I think people give their time to the aquarium.  I think they have some implications for how we do things and how we view our volunteers.  Don’t know how accurate they are, but I thought I would share them with you for the last half of the week.  Let me know what you think.

In no particular order, the first reason I figure people serve as unpaid staff at the aquarium…

The Perks

From what I understand, the aquarium goes a long way to appreciate their volunteers.  There are special evenings where the aquarium is only open to volunteers and their families.  The aquarium seems to let them know they are valued, even if they are only there once a week for a four hour shift.

Unfortunately, many of our churches don’t do so well at his.  I’ve seen people get burned out on ministry at times because they were asked and asked and asked to give and made to feel guilty for even desiring acknowledgment of appreciation.  Yes, people should serve for the sake of serving Jesus.  But they should also know they are valued and appreciated.

Some valuable ways I’ve experienced to help:

• When I was at Revolution we had an annual volunteer appreciation dinner and we went all out as a staff to make it fun and worth attending.  I think that went a long way to show the volunteers they mattered.  It’s a practice we have talked about importing here at CLC.
• After a teaching I heard from North Point I tried to make it a point to write 3 thank you cards to volunteers each week.  Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, but I think I’ll get that going again.
• I try to take people from my teams out for lunch or coffee on occasion with no agenda but to love on them and appreciate them.
• And of course, just regularly (and genuinely) thanking volunteers can go a long way.

What are some ways that you let your volunteers know they are appreciated?  What perks does your church provide to refresh volunteers beyond just the "treasures in heaven?"  Or do you even agree that this is an issue?

Seriously though, there’s no way this can be comfortable…

My first and only trip to Santa Cruz before beginning to dialog with CLC was a trip up with David Trotter almost three years ago to visit Vintage Faith Church.  You can see what he wrote back then here.  At that point, Vintage Faith was just starting out as a new church and meeting at Santa Cruz Bible Church.

Now, almost three years later, I am here at CLC and Vintage Faith has been meeting for the past year or so almost right across the street from us at First Presbyterian Church, two churches, one vision.  I’ve been wanting to get back over to visit now that we’re neighbors, and I was finally able to tonight.  I love visiting other churches, being able to kick back and worship, and learning from what I am able to take in when I’m there, the good and the bad.

I chose a very significant and different week to visit Vintage Faith.  They were in between series, giving a vision update and making some rather major announcements.  More on that later.

When I arrived the parking lot was way packed.  So after driving through it, I had to exit and park a block or two away.  One of the concerns at CLC has been our parking situation as well, but it was interesting to see how many people were walking from a bit of a distance to get there.  I was hoping to visit sort of covertly, but I knew the greeter at the front door, and immediately saw a friend from CLC when I got inside.

Some of the things I enjoyed:

• Very cool vibe inside.  Large ornate silver cross up front and center with fabric and some lighting.
    I found it interesting that I could only see six lighting fixtures that they were using.  They used them well, though.
• The sound was nice and thick.  It was loud (as I prefer it…nevermind, that’s a whole different post) and full.  It really seemed to envelop and immerse you in the worship time.
• It was hard to spot Josh Fox off to the right as he welcomed people and started worship.  At first this bothered me a little bit, but at the same time I thought it was kind of cool to have very little focus on the team and have the central focal point up front as the cross.  Whether they have it like that every week, I don’t know.
• As Dan Kimball did the first part of the message, it was very conversational.  There was a part of his speaking where he had lots of people give input as to what it tangibly meant to have life more abundant.  It’s bothered me at times that we get together at church and listen to one person teach while we stare at the back of peoples heads.  This approach was kinda nice for a change.  More community focused I guess.
• Cool response to the message.  I’ll show that in a sec.

The big announcement: Vintage Faith and First Pres. are merging to become one church.  It will be called Vintage Faith and they will become Presbyterian.  First Dan shared about the history of Vintage, then Lee Perky shared the history of First Pres. and the joining of the two, and then Josh Fox addressed some details as to what it would look like, wrapped up by Kristin, who oversees Community groups and Hospitality, explaining the response and communion.

As a visual representation of the joining of the churches, people went forward to several stations at all three services where artists traces outlines of their faces as a symbol of the two churches becoming one family.

So a few things the service got me thinking of:

• Vintage Faith is doing some great stuff in the city of Santa Cruz.  It is an honor to get to do ministry nearby.  We’re all on the same team, and I’m excited to see an impact being made.
• One of the things Dan shared was some research they did when they started Vintage Faith.  Based on what they found, 90% of Santa Cruz does not attend church.  That is a HUGE mission field.  There is plenty of work to be done.  Another Pastor I met with several months ago said the most accurate estimate he know of was actually 93%.
• CLC is not Vintage Faith and never will be.  And it shouldn’t be.  I think we could learn a lot from what they are doing.  They have clearly been successful in reaching a segment of this community and have to a certain degree "broken the missional code" of Santa Cruz.  But we need to so that by being true to who we are at the same time.  However, don’t hear me wrong.  I still think that means some serious examination and changes for us, but that will be addressed in our current series as we share where we are headed as a church.

All in all, it was a fun night and a nice opportunity to get out and actually get to learn a lot about our neighbors.  It was fun to worship with another part of the fam.  And it was good to remind me of the need and opportunity in our immediate community and be reminded of the mission that Jesus has laid out for us.

Chargers (14-2) vs Bears (13-3)

Preempted by

Raiders (2-14) vs Lions (3-13)

These heathens need Jesus.
Come on Fox!

ESPN.com – better than nothing.
And I have to listen to the Bears broadcast since you have to pay for the Chargers.  What the heck!?

UPDATE:

iChat saves the day…problem solved!

Thanks Steve!