Mayor Len Brown dance in church”

LifeChurchManurewa

Re-Casting Vision

Recently a pastor asked me on how I cast vision and motivate everyone to get on board. I answered, “when I first started, it was with much tremble, fear and gnashing of teeth”.  Back then I was inexperience, didn’t know much about church leadership and casting church vision. All I had was a burning passion for God and what he laid in my heart.  I was like Moses saying to God and the ‘burning bush encounter’ – ‘What shall I say to the people who sent me’…….Lucky for Moses God said “Tell them I AM WHO I AM”.

Today I look forward to casting Vision.

This weekend I am meeting with all my leaders at LifeChurch. I will once again recast our vision as a church. My goal as a leader is to realign everyone and everything so that we are all on the same page, singing the same song.  This is necessary because you want all your leaders to be on board. Next weekend I will be doing the same thing with the whole church.

Here are some of the things that I will be sharing:

1.  Who we are.

Identifying who we are and explainging the reason why we exisit as an organisation is a great start. As a church we have a purpose and are on a mission. We don’t just exist.

2.  Where we are going.

This is where I will be talking about our goals and dreams and what we will do and where we will be.

3. Why we are going there.

I will be explaining reasons why we need to go there. Why do we do what we do? Why do we do it differently.

4.  What it feels like to be going there.

I will be honest with people. I will share the good the bad and the ugly. Lets face it ministry is hard work but it can also be a lot of fun. I love fun and hard work together.

5. What they can do.

I will be calling for commitment. Their time, energy, skills, resources and so on.

6.  How we’re going to do it.

I will be sharing our strategy as a church. This is one of the major differences between churches.

7.  What the rewards will be.

Ultimately God will say “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” I want to train their ears to look forward to hear that from God. When your team and church understand that God rewards us all individually and accordingly, then they will work to please God not the pastor. They will work to build the Kingdom not just the church organisation. When they get an eternal perspective that this is about the will of God and his purpose for our lives, then I beleive I don’t need to hard sell the reason why we exist as a church.

I think thats why it was so hard for me to talk vision in my early years.

We are here to please the audience of one. God.

BIG Weekend @ LifeChurch

This Weekend we kick off a new series called ‘One Prayer’. We will be looking at the attributes of God. Basicly getting to know God more, who he is!! Did you know that 1665 other churches around the world will be doing the same series at the same time?? That is incredible!! Its the Kingdom of God!

LifeChurch Folks this Sunday is also ‘Bring  a Friend Sunday’. There’s plenty of seats in the theatre and I am sure your friemds and families will appreciate your invitation to join us this weekend. We have been praying for you and your friends, our Intercessory prayer team have been praying for your friends.

Give them an opportunity to hear about God and why you are so passionate about him.

This weekend also we will be hearing from Tai Simati. You don’t wanna miss her story!! For those who don’t know Tai,… She is a young teenage mother who lost her only child in a house fire Jan 2009. Since then Tai has made a journey toward God ………………………You need to hear it for yourself!!! Powerful stuff!!

We will also be hearing from the SWITCH Leadership Boot Camp Recruits!!

I also have a big announcement to make this Sunday about whats coming up!!!

So make those connections now!!! I look forward to seeing you this weekend!

Global Day of Prayer this SUNDAY

Let the SERVOLUTION begin………

Yes the wait is over. Today is Servolution day!!!

We kicked off the revolution of service with an awesome time of prayer at 5 this morning, laying the servolution foundation for the next 3 days!!

In a couple of hours our first team will hit the streets with a massive cleanup strategy. The goal is to pick up rubbish in every street, avenue, crescent, place, road, lane, boulevard, vale, drive, close, court, way, in Manurewa.

So if you want to be part of the Servolution, just come down to Clendon Recreation Centre Car Park and join the fun!!
This is the Day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it.!!!

What would happen if….

Local churches partnered together to reach out to their community

We put works to our faith

We became serious with our prayers for those who don’t know Christ

Church leaders stop being so territorial about their church

The church became so bright in the community

The Body of Christ became so generous

We are not ashamed of the Gospel

Christians were so committed to their faith

All the Local churches came together on a Sunday morning to worship together in one location

We stopped playing church and start being the church

We started interceding for our political leaders and our nation

Church leaders would stop thinking about their own local church and start thinking about the Kingdom of God

We acted on truth – The Word of God.

We Christians stopped living in sin, clean up our act and pursue holiness

Christians believed what they believe

How many churches do we need?

I facilitate the ministers fraternal in our community of Manurewa and I have been talking to a lot of pastors over the last 15 months, trying to connect and build relationships and see what we can do together as the Body of Christ in Manurewa. Its been a very interesting task. Some have welcomed me and the idea of networking with open arms some are not quite keen at all. Some sat on the fence for a while and now finally decided to join us. Praise God!! Acccording to my last count there are 71 Christian Churches in our community. Next year there will be 3 more new church plants in Manurewa. Talking to one of the ministers this year he commented ‘great to have you here in Manurewa, the more the merrier’. I remember saying yes to him but now I am asking myself do we really need 71 churches in Manurewa. Is it really true theat ‘the more the merrier’. 

Some ministers may not like this but I am starting to think that if we have a lot of  churches in an area and the physical, emotional, social and spiritual condition of the community is not changed then I don’t think ‘the more the merrier’ is the right attitude. 

The church, the body of the Christ and the hands and feet of God in this world must engage in redeeming and restoring people, the community. We are saved to do Good Works. Ephesians 2:8-10.

I am excited with the relationships already established with other churches in the area, we are able to connect, pray, share ideas and support each other. Now I think we need to move to another level of engagement!! Thy Kingdom come!!!

(Image by executableoutline.com)

Let’s not go to church!

I believe that we’re placed here on earth to demonstrate the love of God. The essence of the gospel is love and we can’t just theologise it, we need to practisise it. (my own invented word). The bible talks about the church as the ‘body of Christ’. We are the hands and feet of Christ in our communties. I like what Rick Warren said: “It seems to me that today the body of Christ, that the hands and the feet of the body of Christ have been amputated in most churches, and all we are is just one big mouth”.

The church must be ‘one big functioning body’. Let’s not be a church on a wheelchair, bound to the four walls of our church buildings, we are the hands and feet of Christ. Our function as a church is much broader than what we do on Sunday mornings, because church isn’t the place where you meet. It isn’t a building. Church is who you are and what you do. Church is the demonstration of who Christ is, his person and his message. Let’s not go to church, let’s be the church.