*shrug*

I just wanted to throw this out there.  Churches should have ridiculously good customer service.

When people come to you with questions, you have to be knowledgeable, helpful and over-the-top.  When they call, you should pick up the phone instead of having their first point of contact be a bunch of voice prompts. When they email, you need to respond quickly and answer questions completely with a genuine response and not some form letter.

Here’s a thought for a church’s website.

Give web visitors the option of asking a question to a live person online.

You see businesses with this feature all the time.  If you have a sales question, there’s a live sales person available to chat with. This has been extremely helpful to me in the past.

For churches, have an open chat room for people to come and ask for directions, ask about service times or whatever else is not covered by your website.

As a bonus, I bet over the course of a couple months you’ll begin realizing where your website is failing your visitors . . .

Go over to Beanstalk and click on their chat button.  Talk to whoever is there and tell him what great customer service they have.  Or click on this link to go directly into the chat room.

I just felt the urge to post this.  Pros, cons?  Let me know what you think.

Pastor: Turn your bibles to 2 Kings, Chapter 2.
you: *thinking to yourself* That’s the story of Elijah and Elisha.  I am a Bible scholar!

Pastor: Open up to the book of Esther.
you: *recalling* Oooh, good book.  That’s the book before Job.  Man, I’m good.

Pastor: Let’s start reading from Luke 2:1.
you: *turning to neighbor* Aha!  This is going to be another sermon on the birth of Jesus.  Just wait and see . . .

Familiarity is a funny thing.  Knowledge is too.

What happens when someone tries to talk to you about something you already know?  You check out.  The attitude is there is nothing you need to know.  No new wisdom can be obtained.

Ever check out of a sermon?  Ever read a passage in the Bible but really just skimmed it because you’re already familiar with it?

1 Corinthians 8:1-2 (NIV)
¹ [...] We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ² The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

Familiarity and knowledge are funny things.  They keep us from what we “ought to know.”

I can encourage people. I can challenge people. I spend time with God daily. I’m comfortable praying out loud. I can give advice and guidance.

In essence, I am a leader. I can do things that leaders do.

I can talk the talk.

I realized this today in a small group I am attending. I can read, extract practical application, and talk about the areas that God is “challenging me in.” It all sounds good. Makes me look like I have my spiritual life under control.

But am I doing anything with that talk?

The answer is no. Don’t deceive yourself Alex.

James 1:22-24 (NIV)
²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Disclaimer: I’m not off the deep end. This is not a post confessing I have been a deceptive leader. God is just challenging me to the next level of leadership. One that I have yet to answer because I have been deceiving myself.

Consider this a light bulb moment post.

A moment where you realize what God desires from you will actually require some action. More commitment. More drive. More humility.

A moment where you realize what God desires is actually worth the sacrifice.

Today’s song of the day is Undignified by The David Crowder Band.

1 Samuel 6:21-22 (NIV)
²¹ ... I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. ...

In King David’s own words, “I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” In my own personal translation of that, “I just don’t care.” I just don’t care what the world thinks.

Have you ever thought about what Jesus has done for you? What reasons you have to “celebrate before the Lord?”

It’s crazy to think about all the things God has done for each one of us, yet our lives don’t reflect that goodness. Instead, our lives may unknowingly tell God what he has done for us is not enough; not enough to overcome being self-conscious about what the world thinks.

Matthew 13:44-46 (NIV)
⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

What we have to celebrate before the Lord should be as compelling as the treasure/pearl in the parables above. We should look at our lives and be overflowing with joy, gratitude, love, etc. for what Jesus has done for us.

It should compel us to want to live lives that are “even more undignified than this.”

That joy should be so compelling that we just don’t care what the world thinks. We want to tell about it from the rooftops; to everyone we see. We wouldn’t be afraid to pray for someone in need in the middle of a community pool. We wouldn’t be afraid to jump up and down during worship in celebration of the goodness of God. We wouldn’t care what our friends or family think about how much we love Jesus.

But why are we afraid?

I love Jesus. But why do I sometimes still look around to see what the world thinks?

Awhile back I took a look at the different options for maintaining multiple Wordpress blogs with a single install in order to streamline Wordpress and plugin updates. I looked at pretty much all the options on this Codex page and only one stood out.

In fact, it was head and shoulders above all the other ones.

So I introduce you to Stephen Rider’s Virtual Multiblog based on Allan Mertner’s original idea.

It currently powers stovallweems.com, kerriweems.com, shineinc.org, and awake08.com.

Please check it out. I love the elegance in it’s implementation!

Ponder with me . . . pick something you’d like to be good at and think of the results you could have if for the next ten years you spent two hours a day everyday deliberately practicing that “craft.”

According to the research conducted in what’s called the Expert Performance Movement, if pondering the above went into practicing the above, you would be approaching superstar status in your craft. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet. Those kinds of superstars.

Now ponder with me . . . pick something you could do that would advance the Kingdom of God. That would reach a community with the love of Jesus. That would train fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

What kind of results would we have?

You better believe we would have results. We would be uber-influential for Jesus. God’s army would be ridiculously larger.

But is that worth it to you? Is it worth even just 30 minutes a day?

What if we were to create a growth environment focusing specifically on one thing for the next ten years?

What would you focus on?

1 thing. 10 years. You can make a difference.

Further Reading

Check out some of these other articles on the idea of “deliberate practice” and frame the concept into something that would be of value to Jesus.

Studying the Bible. Leading small groups and volunteer teams. Preaching. Sharing Jesus to random strangers. Reaching out to the lost and hurting of your community.

• Secrets of greatness: Practice and hard work bring success (if you only read one article, read this one)
• How Did A-Rod Get So Good (if you can only read two, read this one too)
• A Star Is Made
• Become an Expert with the Power of Deliberate Practice

You ever have one of those nights where you can’t sleep because you feel like God is on the prowl?

I’m having one of those nights, so I decided to log some of my thoughts. Maybe it’ll tire me out so that I can sleep afterwards.

Uncovering a core value

Every now and then I wonder what my “Jesus core values are.” The things I would try and consistently impart to others. As an intern, I know Pastor Stovall consistently stressed the importance of not being offended and submitting to authority.

So those seem to be core values of Pastor Stovall.

For the sake of God’s purposes, advancing the Kingdom, reaching out to the lost, etc., you can never die to self or sacrifice enough.

I think that is one of my core values.

The natural is just not good enough

You can only get so far in the natural. You can only get so far with a well articulated and organized email with a specific call to action. You can only get so far.

The rest of the way requires some supernatural intervention. It requires God to come in and work his mojo. Maybe that’s why God asks us to pray. We can only do so much with our own hands.

To all my fellow co-laborers

Please don’t ever forget this chapter …

1 Corinthians 13 (NIV)
¹ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹² Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This is a follow-up to my last post talking about ways to ensure continual spiritual growth. In the post, I talked about some big bucket areas that I wanted to check on monthly to ensure I was growing in them.

Along with those buckets, I wanted to look up some memory verses as reference points for my actions during the month.

Here are the buckets/verses I came up with.

Reading/meditating/memorizing the Bible

As I mature in my faith and understanding of God, it’s become more apparent how critical it is that I saturate myself in the Word of God. I’m getting to the point where I feel like it needs to be my #1 spiritual discipline.

I mean, it’s the stinkin’ Word of God in written form. Where else is God’s wisdom, advice and direction going to be more clear? It doesn’t get more burning bush than “Love God, love your neighbor.” Seriously.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NIV)
¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

Interceding for others

I have a tendency to pray for my issues and my needs way too much. Last I checked, there was only one me and billions of other people. To be fair, it seems like I should probably pray for some of those billions of people a little bit more than I have.

1 Timothy 2:1 (NIV)
¹ I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone

Ability to love people and demonstrate that love

Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34) anybody? We have always got to be growing in our love for God and other people.

Romans 13:8 (NIV)
⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

Engaging others about Jesus

I live in a bubble. A gimongous, Christian bubble. It’s time to pop that bubble and get dirty. <—period.

Luke 5:32 (NIV)
³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Confessing sins

This was added after my initial list because it needs to happen. I need to continually be broken before Jesus about all the stuff I’m screwing up.

1 John 1:9 (NIV)
⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Last Tuesday, Pastor Paul Scanlon of Abundant Life Ministries came and spoke to the staff at Celebration Church.

It was good stuff.

One of the things he talked about was creating an atmosphere of growth. He used a laptop as an analogy for human tendency. If you let a laptop sit there, it will eventually “go to sleep.” The same goes for us as humans. We naturally tend to maintain the status quo and be lazy.

But use a laptop just a little bit and the possibilities are limitless. Force a human to grow and his/her possibilities are limitless.

So I’ve been thinking about creating an atmosphere of growth in my own spiritual life.

For starters, there are a handful of things I know I need to be consistently growing in regardless of what season or stage in life I’m in.

• Reading/meditating/memorizing the Bible
• Praying (not just for my needs, but others as well)
• Ability to love and show love
• Being a light to those who don’t know Jesus

Those are the ones I can think of right now. I’m a systems kind of guy, so what I plan on doing is looking up some related scripture, memorizing them and taking a look at my progress on these areas each month.

Let’s call this Phase 1 of creating a growth environment.

When you’re on the mission field, you expect God to move. All the time and in every little situation. You are more inclined to “go with God” and be open for the tasks and challenges placed before you.

Not so much in the United States. We have 9 to 5 jobs to attend to. Hobbies, friends, sleep to catch up on. Lawns to mow, errands to run.

You find out someone is sick and respond with “I’ll be sure to pray for you.” And you forget. Been there, done that. You’re in Wal-Mart and the line is ridiculously long and not showing any signs of getting shorter any time soon. You get impatient.

In Costa Rica, when we find out someone is sick or has a specific prayer need, it’s like “alright, let’s throw down some prayer and laying of hands right now.”

What? Our plane is delayed because of a watermelon and we have to stay an extra night? God must be doing something. There must be a reason. What? We’re tired and want to go home and have been waiting on the curb for an hour. How about we sing some worship songs while we wait?

How about we go talk to that guy sitting by himself (Leslie) and lead him to Jesus while we’re at it.

At every step of the trip, our eyes were not tuned into our own needs and desires but the needs and desires of God. At every step, the question was not what about me, but what about Jesus? How can we use this situation, whether good or bad, to represent Jesus and bring the love of God into the world?

One of the things I took away from Costa Rica is the understanding that God can and does move in every little situation.

There is a way to bring the Jesus perspective into pretty much every situation. Even here in the United States amidst our “normal” routines. It’s just a matter of consciously being aware of and taking advantage of them. What if we were to pray with people on the spot? Sing worship songs in long lines. Talk to the people in line with us?

There’s too many unsaved people in the world to be ignoring opportunities given to us everyday.