ENDZONE

Be in the Zone this Weekend!!

I love my church

I wanted to find out what we are doing really well as a church that draws people to LifeChurch and stay in church. So two weeks ago I started asking people why they keep coming to LifeChurch. I gave them a fill in the blank question.

I love my church because_______________________________

Come back next week for answers!

New Series Coming Up

On of our Values as a church here at LifeChurch is ‘Relevance’. I know that’s a dirty word to some, especially those who think that in order to be relevant you need to compromise. I don’t think so! My desire is to teach/ preach the word of God without compromise. We just need to be able to relate to people’s situation, and environment. It is vital that we the church seek to communicate truth in ways that they will be able to listen, hear and understand. We need to be Relevant not Religious. 

Over the next 6 months we will be teaching/ preaching on some issues we believe are relevant not only to our congregation but also to our community here in Manurewa and South Auckland.

Here are some of the themes. We are yet to finalise the Series titles.

1. The Supernatural:  Angels, demons, evil, spirit world, horoscope, miraculous etc….

2. Sex: Opposite Sex, Pornography, Relationships, 

3. God: Who, where, when, how etc….

4: Death: Abortions, stillborn, life after death..etc…..

I asked the church the other day during church to txt me their questions. and issues they need answers to. Over the next 6 months we will bring answers from the Word of God to those questions and issues!

I think that’s being relevant!

Lastly, on a Vision Statement #8 we say:  

“We see a Church a with a clear and bold biblical message that changes lives. A message that is relevant to every situation of our lives. A message that brings restoration and healings in every relationship”.

Our Goal is Changed Lives!!

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.

Should Church be Managed or Lead? pt2

I am a leader.

God wired me that way and personally I don’t like management. But just because I don’t like management it does not mean that I shouldn’t be doing it. Its like taking out rubbish.

Just because you don’t like taking out the rubbish on the collection morning it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do it.

Like or not we still need to manage. Church management is not the most exciting part of ministry. I think most people prefer to preach, teach, lead, pray for people and so on, …….. for me I don’t like meetings and minutes, I don’t like budget and forcasts, I don’t like boards and governance. The truth is we still need to do the budget and plan and take out the rubbish ruglarly.

Leadership creates movement. Management sustains movement and make things happen. I admire the patience of managers.

A well managed home brings joy to the family and visitors at the same time, while the parents provide leadership and direction.

A well managed business results in profit while its owner is still looking for new opportunities to trade.

Church should be managed and lead at the same time. Ministry and management go together under under great leadership.

Leaders focus on vision, mission and strategies while managers are working together to make sure goals are achieved, objectives are met, and mission accomplished.

Should Church be Managed or Lead?

The simple answer is BOTH!. I think at church we talk a lot more about leadership and hardly on management. This results in too many chiefs (wannabes) and less Indians (I love those old cowboy movies).

For a church to make changes, move up the next level of spirituality, break away from dead old religious traditions that keep people away from God, in order for the church to impact its community with the message of Gods love, ……….The church must first be lead and then managed.

I have seen so many well managed churches who are not going anywhere and not making any impact at all because it is strictly managed, rigidly protecting the traditions and the preserving the ‘effective methods of the 70’s to reach the generation of the new mellinium’.

Every church needs a God given vision / mandate and a God given leadership to move the congregation in the direction God is moving in order to bring changes to the lives of the community.

For any movement to happen it requires both Leadership and Management. It Biblical. God gave spiritual gifts for the building of the church. Both leadership and management (administration) are spiritual gifts.

Those with leadership gifting and calling can’t do without the skills of the managers (administrators).

Leaders usually talk big picture stuff. Managers take into account every important detail to make sure the big picture comes to fruition.

I am a leader and rely heavily on my team with mangement skills, other wise it will be all talk and no action!

Lead and manage well!!

SWITCH Leadership Boot Camp

LifeChurch is committed to Raising, Training, Empowering and Releashing the Next Generation of Leaders. 4:00am monday morning and SWITCH (LifeChurch’s youth ministry)  is on the road, from South to West Auckland.

Guest Blogger – Sisi Fale – Leaders Retreat

It was a great time to be a leader and to be amongst the leaders. Thank you Lui and Ane for placing such an importance on the retreat and having ‘time away’ to reflect and where we’ve been, where we’re at and where we’re going. I was blessed because God turned up and some things I’d been praying for was confirmed there. God spoke and now I have to move but the awesome thing about it is that I have the support, a great team and the covering of active and God-focused pastors! Being a leader can be a lonely and unpopular place/position/occupation but the rewards God has in store is going to be worth it. Thank you for your leadership Lui and Ane. We honour you, we support you and we love you. Thank you for being our leaders!!! We look good because you make us look good. Bless you and your family.

Lui’s Note:  

Sisi & husband John lead our Youth Ministries @ LifeChurch, aka SWITCH2LIFE. They took on the new role this year and already they are making a huge impact in our young people.

What do you pray for?

Do you find yourself praying almost the same prayers over and over again?

Here are some of the things I find myself praying for almost everyday:

I pray for wisdom, vision, courage, faith, and passion.

I pray for my wife and children. (Habit: I lay hands on them while they are asleep).

I pray for our church family that each person will grow in God, find joy in serving Him, purpose in life and success in what they do and recently – Protection.

I pray for our City and particulalrly Manurewa. I pray for transformation and Salvation.

I pray for the Body of Christ and other pastors ( Habit: I pray God blessing on every church I go pass, especially in Manurewa)

I pray a lot of ‘blessing’ type prayers. (I guess it’s what most pastors are asked to do)

2 Timothy 1:3  -  I pray for you every day, and many times during the long nights I beg my God to bless you richly.

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.