THE WORLD IS NOT GOING TO END!

THE WORLD IS NOT GOING TO END in 2012! Believe me! The Bible is clear on how the world will end. Have a Happy New Year.

Today I have been on my desk all day thinking, planning, praying and looking at the calendar. From the beginning of last year we declared 2011 the year of ‘Faith at another level’. After 12 months I can honestly say that it was definitely a ‘faith stretching’ year.

God enabled us to do so much. This year I’m open to more faith stretching opportunities. The need to pray is greater. Praying for wisdom and understanding. Praying for God’s favor.

10 Years: 2012 will be our 10th year pastoring LifeChurch. I can’t believe we are still here. Ane and I have learned so much right from day 1 and we are still learning how to lead. Some of the kids that were in our Sunday School back then are now our church leaders. Exciting times and greater things are ahead of us. We are blessed to have a great team of leaders and volunteers at LifeChurch who are so passionate about God and the Vision of the House.

I believe the best days of leading and pastoring are ahead of us.

New Church Building    We have bought a place in Manurewa. We will move into our new church home this year. Renovations will commence soon. Our new church home is right next to the town centre next to the red light street of Manurewa. Homeless people sleep on the front steps. A strategic location! We see a church that is open 24/7 not just Sundays.

New Frontiers:   This year we will sending missionaries to India, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The message of the Gospel must reach the ends of the earth.

International Partnership:   Once again we will be hosting and partnering with some international ministries in the Great Commission. More on this later.

Servolution:    This year Servolution is spreading to cities and towns outside of Auckland. We were so blessed to work with 48 different churches and denomination right across Auckland in 2011. This year, more churches are coming on aboard to serve and share the love of Christ in our communities through simple acts of kindness.  Mark your calendar and get involved 23-25 March. Email: info@servolution.co.nz

Please pray and partner with us to reach Manurewa, South Auckland and the World with the simple message of Hope through Christ.

Don’t despise the days of humble beginings

A small idea

A small conversation

A small amount of money

A small amount of time

A small number of people

A small amount of skill

But with a BIG GOD!

Eph 3:20 He will take it to whole nutta level!

Don’t give up!

 

Preparing the next generation

I’m writing this from somewhere 300000 feet above Australia on my way to Indonesia.
I have been thinking about what I shared at church yesterday and how it is going to impact not only my generation but the generations to come.

Pioneering is hard work. Leaving the comfort of the known and creating a path to the unknown is not for the faint hearted as my wife tells me all the time – Gods work is not for the faint hearted.

A Samoan proverb ‘Asa le gasu o le taeao’ – getting up early in morning to clear and plant the field. It is not easy, it’s cold, it’s dark, it’s wet from the due at night and most of the time you have to carve your way through the bush.

Those who come later will enjoy and reap the benefits of the farmer who consistently paved the way.

The success of the next generation in the things of God is largely depend on the work of today’s generation. I want the next generation to stand on the shoulders of today’s leaders so they can see further and farther, to have a wider perspective and see the big picture of what God wants to do in them and through them.

The Bible says that David served his generation then he died.

Advice to today’s generation – Don’t die without leaving a legacy.
Advice to the next generation – You are not suppose to fill our shoes! Fill your own. Start from where we left off.

Have you run out of good Ideas?

“…….!

No you haven’t!

There is an illusion most people are under.  “It’s all been done….!”

All the great ideas have been thought of or exhausted.  Hence, we settle for the status quo, an attitude of ‘go with the flow’, living in mediocrity and letting others do all the thinking for us.

God gifted every human being with a ‘brain’ for a specific purpose – TO THINK!

Our problem is we have been conditioned to contemplate within limited parameters set by our upbringing, education, culture,  community and so on.

When I read about the lives of people like Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, it just does not make any sense. These people were regarded as under achievers by society, soared big time. In fact they have done a lot of thinking for us. (I’m grateful)

I believe there is a measure of creativity in all of us. We have not run out of ideas. We just need to think, process, plan and commit to action.

Nothing good ever happens accidentally. Wishful thinking will get you nowhere, but to Wishful-land with a wish list. To become successful requires intentional strategic thinking, planning, and intentional actions.’

Ok, now I need to eat my own words. I have a lot of thinking to do over the next few weeks even more so, a lot of praying that my thoughts and ideas are aligned with the will of God.

 

Stop Being Normal!

…………following from last Sundays Sermon…………………..

You can not be a follower of Jesus and stay normal.

“When anyone is joined to Christ he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come”. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17

The dead old, boring, gutless, purposeless, normal you is GONE! You are now a new person, fueled by the power of Christ in you. Someone is going to take notice of the change and say ‘Something has happended to you. You are not the same person you used to be. If your boss at work doesn’t know that you are a Christian you are probably not.

You are new person. You are now radical and willing to do whatever it takes to live for Jesus and follow him, to love God and love people. It takes guts to follow Christ. Jesus said “If you want to follow me take up your cross and come follow me”.

You can’t follow Jesus and still try to live a normal life.

Cefas was a normal, everyday fisherman. But when Jesus called Cephas to leave everything and follow him, he did and he was not the same again. First his name was changed to Simon Peter. He never went to any preaching school but when he spoke on the day of Pentecost 3000 people gave their lives to Christ. Now thats not normal for a fisherman!!

Paul was a normal Pharisee doing what normal Pharisees do. At the time he was killing new converted Christians. But when he encountered God on the Road to Damascus, he wasn’t the same again. He reached the Gentile world with the gospel.

You can’t follow Jesus and continue to live life in a normal way. You can’t love with the same normal love you loved people before you found Jesus. You can not give the same way you used to give. You can not serve the same way you used to.

People who follow Christ Are not Normal. The Bible calls them ‘Perculiar people’ – 1 Petr 2:9, because with Christ they are now people of power, people of promise, more than conquerors but most of Faith in God who can do exceedingly, abundantly and above all……..Ephesian 3:20

Normal people are ‘average’ people who do average work and produce average results. No one is inspired with ‘average’.

Tell me someone who is well known because he/she was average. Show me a monument of an average leader.

Normal people don’t inspire others

Normal people don’t make incredible leaders

Normal People don’t change the world

Normal people don’t take risks

Normal people don’t face fears

Normal people die with a lot of regrets.

Step up another level today and live above normal.

Weekend Reflections

Had breakfast with our leaders at our place 6am Saturday morning. That’s crazy…. Great fun… we probably woke up the neighbours…… time to catch up. Our guys are so pumped with what God is doing at church and our next season as a church.

Spent the whole Saturday thinking, preparing, studying, reading, praying…..……..

Sunday morning on the way to church I prayed, “Holy Spirit bring conviction to our hearts”

Overwhelmed with the presence of God during worship.

There was a great sense of freedom and excitement. During worship I looked behind me and on the bleachers!! What a joy it is for any pastor to see young people worshipping God HARD OUT!! Church is the place to be on Sunday mornings!!

Preached my heart out.  Spoke on the heart of Jesus for the lost and the role of the church as representatives of Jesus …..along those lines…… Initially I planned to preach on the ‘Christ in the Community’ but after Saturday …..in my sermon preparations it ended up in a different direction…  The Holy Spirit answered my prayer and definitely brought conviction to our hearts.

On Sunday, we also launched our new season of Outreach. 2009 we will only be doing a few ‘Bridge Events’

Servolution: 3 days of Serving the Community

$2 Christmas.

Weekly Bread Run – Free to Randwick Park Community

Rubbish Collection – monthly

Paint Out – monthly

Global Day of Prayer

Prayer Walk

What attracts young people to church?

I spoke with someone on Monday from a local church just down the road. They are having difficulties with their young people. He said, ‘Our youth are out of control and they are not interested in church’. They are so difficult and they hardly come to church. They say church is boring”. He carried on …. He said “Lui I have noticed the number of young people that come to your church, how do you attract them and how do you keep them excited for church? Wow!!… to be honest I didn’t really know what to say, it took me by surprise because it seems like normal to have so many young people at church. Anyway I had a brief chat with him. I came home and I emailed the young people in our church and I asked them to help me answer my friends questions.  

Here are some of the comments I’ve received so far:

• How to attract youth – Besides been given it as ‘the vision’ for this house, so therefore God will make it happen and give strategy for it.

From the begining you keep saying it from the pulpit – that we value youth. A declaration in the house coupled with actions that reinforce it. By putting them into positions of responsibilty and then make that the norm. It becomes the norm of the house.

• One of the main attraction is youth seeing other youth, youth leading in church and youth doing car parking and connecting. Everywhere you go there are youth so of course youth would be more drawn to the church. When you see people you can relate to e.g. age, race, speaks the same language, attend high school etc etc… you feel connected straight away
• Also you always preach in a simple and practical way, not some prepared hard to follow and boring service. You also come across as a ‘approachable’ pastor, the kid/teen in you is real so young people feel comfortable and less threatened.
• LifeGroups for youth also plays a major role, this is where the youth bond and build friendship.
• Pastors funny not the traditional type of pastor to sit on his own High chair (“,)
• Sermons are just a bow and arrow in our hearts, never know what to expect lol
• I love that we are active and fun
• Worship is Great
• We catch up with the new beats
• Everything’s Adventurous like our pastor
• We young people are motivated because Life church value young people. We come cause we feel “valued”. Ministries within other churches are lead by much older people and the youth do their own thing.

• At lifechuch we are not separated and we all work together our motivation to live for God is through the accountability of everyone.
• I love it because being valued also means we are trusted. Our pastors trust us and encourages us all the time. Young people can never be excited about church if they do not have a close relationship with their leaders and pastors.
• Our pastor appreciates every work we do. Most of our youth members come alone, some have no parents to force us to come to church. We come by choice because the spiritual feeding we receive is overwhelming, it relates to us and helps us live through this hard life we live. Our love for god always increases and part of the that is the foundation of a great church to belong in.
• 1. Being Valued
• 2. Being Trusted
• 3. Having that close Relationship with our Leaders
• I believe the attraction of young people in the church is a reflection on the teaching and “Vision” of the church.  One of the visions of the church is “Valuing young children/youth” by committing to raising, training and empowering and releasing a generation (young people) of leaders.  This is what I truly believe in and this is what I see – a passionate leader (pastor), who is real and likes to keep things real for us to understand, and is passionate about the youth and believes in them, and in return they also believe and are on fire for God.  You can see this by the young people taking the Praise and Worship Team, the sound equipment, the announcements,etc.  The focus is always about letting the young people have a say.  When we as young people see this, we feel excited and are on fire knowing that we have someone who believes in us, understands where we are coming from, and is not afraid to let us dream and worship God in how we as young people would love to. I hope my novel helps, but I’m excited just writing about how I see the young people perceiving the church and how they can be heard and are able to voice their opinions.  I think its AWESOME!….

• When people ask me why I love going to church and why it excites my week its because of the culture and the environment the church holds.
• My previous church, people were never excited about church because the surroundings were boring, no one was welcoming and it was tradtional-religion oriented.
• As a young person still, church now (esp at lifechurch) attracts me by warm welcomes, friendly approaches and really connecting with me. That is why I think it attracts young people to church because the connecting, fellowshipping, draws them nearer not only to the church but God.
• Communicate really well with Pastor Lui and Ane because they understand what the youth is going through right now. So what im trying to say is, church is filled with people who listen to people no matter what their background was like. We accept anybody.
• We have a lifegroup set up with different age groups. We also invite them to bbqs or dinners so that we are not only a family within the church but outside of church. We fellowship in our lifegroups and try and connect and know each other by knowing our strengths and weakenesses.
• Our youth is growing rapidly because we are not only about lifegroups and connecting. We have fun. We enjoy each others company and encourage each other without any lows. The most exciting thing about coming to church is the people. How we love God, love people and we differently enjoy life.

 

Growth Elements

LifeWay Research and Dr. Thom Rainer were fortunate enough to be able to study 19 of the 22 fast growing churches and discovered four common Growth Elements

1. Pastors Set the Bar
Interviews indicate the churches have taken on the vision, priorities, and values of the senior pastor. Staff and lay leaders find it easy to follow the pastor. There are high levels of trust in these pastors.

2. Church Atmosphere
These churches are consistently described as “exciting,” “dynamic,” “energetic,” “upbeat,” “friendly,” “welcoming,” “warm,” and “positive.”

3. Evangelistic Appeal
Pastors indicate they seek to include the gospel in most, if not all, of their sermons. They stress the importance of preaching the gospel and providing opportunities for lost people to respond. More than two-thirds indicate they offer a public invitation at the end of every service. The others invite inquirers to fill out a decision card.

4. Intentional Outreach
The pastors are focused on reaching people for Christ. Whether it’s through focusing the content of sermons, planning the worship services, or simply the nature of church programming, it is clear that everything is designed with outreach in mind.

Source: LifeWay.com

Church Vision pt1

After Vision Sunday, I received several comments from our church people regarding the vision of the church. Most of  them were overwhelmed and greatful for having such a vision for the church and the community.

Some of the comments I made on Sunday:

Vision is the picture of the future that produces passion today. What is the picture of the church do you see? What picture of the community (Manurewa) do you see?

A Vision Guides us
A Vision keeps us focused all the way. -
A Vision fuels creativity and potential – Vision makes us do things we never thought possible - 
A Vision launches us into ministries and areas never considered before -
A Vision unites people - 

Vision reminds us of:
• Who we are:     Identity & Values
• What we are called to do:     Mission
• Where we are going:     Vision
• How we are going to get there:     Strategy

Misplaced People

Last week we had over 50 people attended our Ministry Class. We taught SHAPE (Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities,Personality,Experience)to help people discover their fit in church.

At LifeChurch we emphasise the importance of functioning in the church according to your God given gifts. One of the most frustrating thing in church leadership is people serving in the wrong places.  It’s a recipe for disaster and stifles growth. It creates frustrations and disappointments in Teams. People will point fingers and start to blame when others don’t function as expected. 

I believe there are no bad people, just misplaced ones. The key is putting the right people in the right places. And that is always a tricky one, believe me I have stuffed up several times on this one…..but it is an art all leaders must learn to develop.