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Friday, 06 January 2006
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Outside the Box # 186 In This Issue: Happy New Year! • GETTING HEALTHY • CREATIVITY THINKING • SEVEN COMMANDMENTS OF EXERCISE • MEN'S FRATERNITY STUDY RESOURCES • MINISTERING IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS • LIFE-GIVING PRAYERS FOR YOUR CHURCH GETTING HEALTHY Christmas featured mom's homemade raviolis and meatballs. On New Year's we made "Fruit of the Sea" which is pasta with scallops, shrimp, clams and king crab legs. And of course there were all the great deserts. Now we are using our new treadmill trying to get off the extra weight!
I had to laugh when we went to pick up the treadmill at Costco. There we are getting this piece of exercise equipment but before we loaded it up we stopped at the snack bar in the front of the store for a slice of pizza. Seems I have my work cut out for me.
A friend of mine tells me he starts every day with "reconditioning his mind." Everyone that starts a diet and exercise routine knows the importance of that.
Growing churches have learned the principle of "reconditioning" as well. They have learned the importance of breaking out of unhealthy cycles that are life threatening and doing those things that help them to grow fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
As we start the New Year, now is a good time to get back on track and recondition our body, mind and spirit.
Happy New Year!
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church DevelopmentClick here for the Outside the Box archive 
SEVEN COMMANDMENTS OF EXERCISE Adapted from an interview with Susie Kania of the Cooper Wellness Center in Dallas.
1. KNOW THYSELF
If you're starting from nothing, get a physical exam first. Especially if you're a woman over fifty or a man over forty. And don't worry if things go slowly at first. Everybody starts at a different level.
2. THOU SHALT NOT WEAR WINGTIPS
If you're going to walk, wear quality shoes. "People don't always see that as important and they'll go out and walk in whatever they have. … If your feet and legs hurt, then it's hard to exercise."
3. THROW OFF EVERYTHING THAT HINDERS
Don't carry hand weights when you walk. "That has a tendency to throw off the biomechanics and you might end up getting injured. I recommend doing strength training at a separate time."
4. ROME DIDN'T LOSE TWENTY-FIVE POUNDS IN A DAY
"You're not going to accomplish in two weeks what you've undone in the last two years." Start slowly and progress slowly, so you can exercise without hurting yourself. "If you get an injury when you're starting an exercise program, that's very discouraging. You'll get frustrated and probably won't do anything again for a while."
5. THOU SHALT TRY SOMETHING NEW
"Put some variety in your exercise program. Vary your exercises or classes. Try new things—cycling, kickboxing, whatever. Make it enjoyable so you look forward to it."
6. THOU SHALT KICK IT UP A NOTCH
"As you progress and get more fit, you need to continue to challenge yourself, so that you don't get in a rut." In other words, your body gets used to the level you're at. Until you reach your desired plateau, keep challenging yourself—slowly but surely.
7. FLEE THE ELEVATOR
"Look for opportunities for activity as you go throughout each day. Look for the hard way to do things instead of the easy way." In other words, take the stairs. Park farther away from the office.Click here for the "Get Physical" article 
MINISTERING IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS Penn-Del Home Missions is pleased to offer three distinct courses to help individuals serve their communities better during times of crisis. All training is done in partnership with Crisis Intervention International and is held at the Philip Bongiorno Conference Center in Carlisle, PA.
CRISIS RESPONSE IN SCHOOLS
January 31, 2006
This workshop provides the structure and process for effectively managing the wide spectrum of school-based crises. It is an invaluable resource in preparation for, and during, actual crisis situations.
The workbook used, A Practical Guide for Crisis Response in Our Schools (additional $30.00), conveys critical information to assist schools in responding effectively to “everyday crises” as well as school-based disasters. It is an invaluable resource for administrators, support personnel, faculty and children and youth workers.
By reaching our school families early with a comprehensive Crisis Response Plan, we can potentially prevent the acute difficulties of today from becoming the chronic problems of tomorrow.
Certification through the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.
DISASTER & TRAUMA COUNSELING
February 1, 2006
This program is designed to teach participants the fundamentals of, and a specific protocol for, disaster and trauma counseling. The audience for this class includes mental health professionals, paraprofessionals, religious and indigenous workers who have received training in the basics of disaster mental health and the crisis counseling program.
Disaster victims develop symptoms seen in any group of people subjected to extreme and/or prolonged stress. They may develop stomach aches, headaches, insomnia, panic attacks, depression, even suicidal thoughts. We know counseling at the time of the trauma can make the difference between recovery and a lifetime of mental health problems.
Certification through Crisis Intervention International and is of value for working with Homeland Security / FEMA.
COMPASSION FATIGUE
February 2, 2006
This Accelerated Recovery Program for Compassion Fatigue workshop will bring a unique approach to acknowledging and giving us the tools to deal with compassion fatigue issues. This day will be insightful, hands-on and very valuable.
Compassion fatigue may occur in a wide range of persons involved in providing aid to others. They have found that it is most prevalent among professionals and personal family members, friends, and associates of trauma survivors. Pastors, social workers, disaster relief workers, health care workers, emergency service professionals, police, and shelter workers among others, are all susceptible to Compassion Fatigue.
Certification through Crisis Intervention International and is of value for working with Homeland Security / FEMA.Click here to download the registration form 
CREATIVITY THINKING "Everyone has creative potential, but creative people think they are creative."
Self-esteem is one of the most important elements of creativity. People must believe in their ability to develop original ideas and they must continue to believe in themselves after repeated failures.
Creativity flourishes in an environment that rewards attempts, as well as successes, and is conducive to failure. People must feel comfortable failing before they will repeatedly take risks or attempt creative approaches.
Roger von Oech labels four stages of the creative process:
1. Explorer
Finding new ideas and resources from which an idea may be built.
2. Artist
Transforming ideas (gathered by the explorer) into something new.
3. Judge
Ideas developed by the artist are evaluated and their merits are weighed; suggestions are offered on how they can be improved or further developed.
4. Warrior
Implementation of the ideas approved by the judge requiring persistence and determination.
SECRETS TO CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
• Be an optimist
• Take your time
• Get enough information
• Brainstorm by yourself
• Redefine the problem
• Plan for results
• Break the routine
• Make a minus a plus
• Don't give up.
• Allow yourself to daydream
• Ask questions
• Have a sense of humor
• Tolerate ambiguity
GROUP TECHNIQUES TO GENERATE CREATIVITY
Brainstorming
Groups generate as many ideas as possible, listing ideas on a chart so that group members may modify them or combine them to create additional ideas. Criticism is not allowed during brainstorming, nor is evaluation of ideas.
Storyboarding
An adaptation of brainstorming, but it is primarily nonverbal so articulate group members are not able to dominate the process. Storyboarding uses a process similar to parliamentary procedure to gain support of an idea before it can remain part of the discussion. Storyboarding allows group members to produce data and solutions to problems generating ideas off of previous suggestions.
Nominal Group Technique
Focuses attention on individual members' ideas by having members write down their ideas/solutions on their own before sharing them with the group. Ideas are all recorded, everyone votes to prioritize ideas, then discussion is held on only the top ones before another vote is taken. This technique allows everyone to participate and contribute ideas before the group reaches its decision.
ROADBLOCKS TO CREATIVITY
Thinking there is one right answer
Many of us have the tendency to stop looking for alternative right answers after the first answer has been found. Often it is the third, fifth or tenth right answer that is what we need to solve a problem in an innovative way.
"That's not logical"
Logic is an important creative thinking tool when you are searching for ideas, however, excessive logical thinking can short circuit your creative process.
Following the rules
You often have to break out of pattern to discover another.
Being practical
Practical people know how to get into an open frame of mind, listen to their imagination and build on the ideas they find there.
Avoiding ambiguity
Too much specificity can stifle your imagination!
Being afraid of making a mistake
Errors are a sign that you are diverging from the norm. If you are not failing every now and then it is a sign you are not being very innovative.
Click here for more Leadership Tips from George Mason University 
MEN'S FRATERNITY STUDY RESOURCES “What’s true of mountain climbing is true of manhood,” says Dr. Lewis. “You can’t climb the mountain of manhood disconnected from other men.” Yet, too often, we try.
But Men’s Fraternity is designed to help change that by bringing Christian men together in a safe, comfortable setting where they can learn the true, biblical meaning of manhood and honestly share their challenges and concerns.
The kits feature each 45-minute teaching session, as led by Pastor Lewis, on individual DVDs. Leaders can choose to show the DVD as-is or use it as the basis for their own presentation. Following the teaching session, men get together in small groups for discussion.
In addition to the DVD Kits, each study in the Men’s Fraternity series offers two additional components: a Viewer Guide with an easy fill-in-the-blank format, and a CD Pack. The latter features the audio portion of each weekly lesson, so it’s great both for leader preparation or for helping participants make up missed sessions.
Click here to check out the Leaders Resource Center 
LIFE-GIVING PRAYERS FOR YOUR CHURCH Encourage our pastoral staff when ministry gets tough. Help them remain faithful with the things You’ve entrusted to them (2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Cor. 4:1-3).
Teach us to respect and honor our elders/deacons. May they give wholehearted attention to prayer and ministry. Keep them devoted to their families and above reproach. May they be gentle, honest, and wise as they carry out their responsibilities (Acts 6:4; 1 Tim. 3:1-2, 5:17; Titus 1:7).
Appoint worship leaders who stand in awe before the splendor of Your holiness. Use their praise to defeat the enemy. May they be true worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth. Let them glory only in You, Jesus (2 Chron. 20:21-22; Jn. 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3).
May every speaker/teacher correctly handle Your word of
truth, admonishing and teaching wisely. Let them speak with faith that springs from relationship with You (2 Tim. 2:15; Col. 1:28; 2 Cor. 4:13).
Let our youth workers set examples in speech, life, love, faith, and purity. Cause them to be strong, alive-in-the-
Word overcomers. Give them discernment to deal with troubled youth as they teach them Your life-giving principles (1 Tim. 4:12; 1 Jn. 2:14; Prov. 7:7,2).
Thank You for every behind-the-scenes worker who is de-
voted to service. Bless them for their obedience and generosity—may You receive praise as a result! Reward them for serving You humbly and wholeheartedly rather than seeking to be noticed by others (1 Cor. 16:15-16; 2 Cor. 9:12-13; Eph. 6:7).
Increase our number through new converts. Let the gospel be presented to the lost among us with power, the Holy Spirit, and deep conviction, not only through the words of the sermon, but also through our lives. Teach us to make the most of every opportunity as we spread everywhere the fragrance of Christ (Acts 2:47; 1 Thess. 1:5; Col. 4:5; 2 Cor. 2:15).
May the hurting come to know You as El Roi, the God who sees them. Bind up the brokenhearted. Set the captives free. Replace mourning with Your oil of gladness. Comfort them so they will have a ministry of comfort to others (Gen. 16:13; Is. 61:1-3;
2 Cor. 1:3-4).
Holy Spirit, lead us to level ground. Show us ways we grieve, quench, or resist You. We live by You; help us keep in step with You. Reign in us so we experience Your freedom (Ps. 143:10; Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19; Acts 7:51; Gal. 5:25; 2 Cor. 3:17).
We eagerly desire the spiritual gifts You’ve given for our common good. Help us understand the various gifts and how they work. May we use what we’ve received to serve others, administering grace in love and with renewed passion (1 Cor. 12:4-7, 14:1; 1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:6).
We desire to be pure and obedient so our love for each other will be sincere and from the heart. Give us a spirit of unity so we glorify You with one heart and voice. Help us accept one another in love (1 Pet. 1:22; Ro. 15:5-7; Col. 3:14).
May we sow generously into our church without reluctance or compulsion. Make grace abound so we have the finances we need to do every good work You’ve assigned us. Make us rich in ways that result in generosity so You will be praised (2 Cor. 9:6-11).
Remind us that sharing with others is a pleasing sacrifice to You. Keep us outwardly focused so we don’t become self-absorbed. Enable us to extend mercy to people in every kind of need (Heb. 13:16; Phil. 2:4; Jude 22-23).
Help us as we struggle with sin. Keep us from the enemy’s condemnation. Thank You for doing away with sin on the cross so we are no longer slaves to it. Help us throw off everything that entangles and persevere in the race (Ro. 6:6, 8:1; Heb. 12:1).
Protect and deliver us from the evil one. May we be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves as we deal with him. Show us how to test every spirit. Help us recognize the enemy’s schemes so he won’t outwit us (Mt. 6:13, 10:16; 1 Jn. 4:1; 2 Cor. 2:11).
Make us a house of prayer! We want to pray first, always, and continually with thanks. May each of us recognize that this is Your desire for all, not just a few. Transform us into righteous men and women whose prayers are powerful and effective (Mk. 11:17; 1 Thess. 5:17-18; Ps. 32:6; Jas. 5:16).
Revive us so we burn hot for You. Give us singleness of heart and action that we may always fear You and follow Your precepts. Open our minds to Your Word and set our hearts ablaze within us (Rev. 3:14-16; Jer. 32:39; Ps. 111:10; Lk. 24:32,45).
Adapted from A Month of Prayers for Your Church by Sandra Higley.
Click here to order Prayer Cards by NavPress 
Congratulations to Penn State and Joe Paterno on their third overtime win over FSU. It wasn't pretty but a win is a win Not bad for 79 years old!
Saturday, 24 December 2005
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Outside the Box # 185 In This Issue: MERRY CHRISTMAS! • WHAT'S INSIDE THE BOX? • HELP HURTING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS • SERMON WRAP • ACMR REFLECTIONS • AN INTIMATE MOMENT AT THE MANGER • 8 THINGS ABOUT E-MINISTRY WHAT'S INSIDE THE BOX? Several years ago I met Bob in a sub shop. We spoke for over an hour about faith. As a tattoo shop owner, he gave me his views on church from the eyes of the unchurched. Bob's insights were surprising and saddening.
Bob told me about the Christmas he did go to church. He was shocked that the minister did not talk about Jesus but rather told war stories. Then Bob looked at me and said, "Aren't you supposed to talk about Jesus at Christmas?"
This weekend as people attend your services, what will they find inside the box? I sure hope it is Jesus!
Have a Merry Christmas!
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
SERMON WRAP A young woman. A young man. Their journey. A birth that changed the course of human history.
As we prepare for Christmas services at our churches, we all start out with the same basic elements. As church leaders, our challenge is to take this age-old story and tell it in a way that rises above our society's consumer-focused perspective and provides powerful insight into the meaning of this holiday.
At Fellowship Church, Pastor Ed Young and his team focuses intense energy each year on communicating the essential message of Christmas from a unique angle. As they sit down to plan their services, they keep the following criteria in mind:
• As with every message, the Christmas message must communicate effectively to everyone at the Table: the seeker, the baby Christian and the mature believer.
• This is the only message many will hear all year, so the Gospel from the cradle to the cross must take central stage.
• The message must be both simple and compelling—what is the one application we want people to leave with?
• Complex theological terms should be avoided or explained clearly, especially for the many unchurched in the audience.
• The Christmas service should be a reflection of what we do all year—it should exemplify the kind of excellence and creativity you are committed every week.
• Carefully plan how each element of the service ties in with the central focus of the message—if it doesn't, cut it.
• Don't forget the emotional element—people must be impacted both emotionally and intellectually to be motivated to change.
• Keep it fresh—how can we communicate the age-old story of Christmas in new and creative ways?
• Finally, give people a reason to come back next week—make it relevant, make a difference in their lives, and they will be compelled to come back again.
Click here for Christmas resources from Fellowship Church 
AN INTIMATE MOMENT AT THE MANGER A scream from Mary knife's through the calm of the silent night.
Joseph returns, breathless, water sloshing from the wooden bucket. The top of the baby's head has already pushed its way into the world. Sweat pours from Mary's contorted face as Joseph, the most unlikely midwife in all Judea, rushed to her side.
The involuntary contractions are not enough, and Mary has to push with all her strength, almost as if God were refusing to come in the world without her help.
Joseph places a garment beneath her and with a final push and a long sight, her labor is over.
The Messiah has arrived.
Elongated head from the constricting journey through the birth canal. Light skin, as the pigment would take days for even weeks to surface. Mucus in his ear and nostrils. Wet and slippery from the amniotic fluid. The son of the most High God umbilically tied to a lowly Jewish girl.
The baby chokes and coughs. Joseph instinctively turn him over and clears his throat
Then he cries.
Mary bares her breast and reaches for the shivering baby. She lays him on her chest and his helpless cries subside. His tiny head bobs around on the unfamiliar terrain. This will be the first thing the infant-king learns. Mary can feel his racing heartbeat as he gropes to nurse.
Deity nursing from a young maiden's breast. Could anything be more puzzling or more profound?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus help me to remember this Christmas that your power is not about strength but weakness, your greatness is not about demanding rights but releasing them, and your presence can transform even the most ordinary place into something special. AmenClick here to order Ken Gire's devotional, Moments with the Savior 
HELP HURTING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS Kim Wier reminds us in her book, Redeeming the Season, that Christmas can be a very difficult time for those who have lost a loved one...
Do you know someone experiencing a difficult first this Christmas? You can offer comfort and encouragement by reaching out with sweet remembrances. Below is a list of ideas to consider. Remember, these are not just things you can do for a close friend or family member. Reach out to neighbors, church members, coworkers and even casual acquaintances that are facing a difficult time of transition. The simplest gestures you make during the emotional holidays will be sweet to them indeed.
• First, don’t be afraid to mention the person they have lost. Nothing is worse than thinking everyone has forgotten the one you loved.
• Mention specific memories you have of that person.
• Mail an encouraging card. Include scriptures that are appropriate to their situation.
• Invite him or her to lunch or coffee and be a good listener. Some great questions are, "How are you really doing?" and "What are you struggling with most?" So many people avoid the subject of grief that you may find your friend is longing to talk with someone about what they are going through.
• Send a note to children who have lost their grandparents. A good time would be when they accomplish something their grandparent would have enjoyed seeing. Remind them how proud their grandparent was of them.
• Put the person’s name or picture on the refrigerator and pray during the holidays.
• Make a donation to a cause that their loved one cared about, then send a note to tell your friend what was done in their memory.
• Place flowers at the front of the church in their loved ones memory.
• Encourage other friends to mail notes throughout the Christmas season.
• Be available.
God entered the world that first Christmas to carry a burden we could not carry ourselves. What a wonderful season to do the same for others.
Click here for Kim's book, Redeeming the Season 
ACMR REFLECTIONS As you take time to fill out your Annual Church. Ministries Report (ACMR) I believe there are some thoughts from Mark Waltz, pastor of connections at Granger Community Church, that may help you as you put it in context:
PEOPLE MATTER... SO, WE COUNT
It's not profoundly new or newly profound. It's not profound. It's not new. For critics of the mega-church or the seeker-sensitive church (again, I prefer "Jesus-focused and people-sensitive"), the issue of counting seems to be profoundly old and irrelevant, but that's another post.
Rather, I bring it up again because I'm wrestling with what I've allowed to transpire over the past year or so as I've led our teams to help connect our members and attendees in group and ministry team relationships. But before I get there, I offer the reminder that there are two categories of measurement for what any organization tracks when evaluating success (success is always about accomplishing stated goals, objectives, mission - and every church should have those):
HARD MEASUREMENTS: visible, identifiable, trackable numbers and percentages
SOFT-SIDE MEASUREMENTS: feedback, stories that reveal perception, and in the case of the local church - life change
Here's the wrestling match for me. I swung the measurement pendulum so far to the soft-side to validate the power of story among relationships that no one on my team (including me) expected the hard measurements to be inspected. Remember: what's expected gets inspected.
So, I'm revisiting both sets of measurement tools: hard and soft. They both matter. Numbers are people - always people. And people matter. They matter to God and they matter to us. Period. A great story from a person is just that - it's great! But, when charged with the responsibility to create environments for people to connect to each other and Christ, who and how many of our people are stepping toward Christ in those environments will determine whether or not we even hear stories of life change.
Part of the challenge for us at Granger is that we teach and encourage relationships - not merely groups. We have groups, we create groups, we have a group ministry; but we strive to practice authentic, caring, Christ-honoring relationships. Groups are a method, not the essence. This means that establishing a target is challenging. What number in group relationships is "success" or sufficient?
So, I'm curious. Since people matter - what are you measuring in your group environments? What are the gages you're putting in the pipeline to read outcomes? How are you filtering and communicating stories of life change from those relationships?
Click here for Mark's weblog 
8 THINGS ABOUT E-MINISTRY Terrell Sanders, president of Main Street Enterprises shares 8 things pastors need to know about e-ministry...
1. Your target audience for church growth is Internet-savvy.
Most church growth comes from what we call the 18-to-18 range – people from 18 years old to families with 18-year-old children. This also happens to be the group with the highest Internet usage. According to research by the U.S. government, teenagers and families with children at home are the most frequent Internet users of any demographic group. Using the Internet to communicate with families and young adults is a natural fit.
2. Your Web site will be your "first impression" for many people.
Most people under the age of 40 grew up with technology, and they automatically go to the Internet for information. We have found that many families relocating to a new city will research both where to live and where to worship over the Internet. They will often make their "first cut" shopping list before they ever come to town.
3. If you're not on the Web, you don't exist to many people.
As a corollary to the previous item, people who use the Internet as their primary research tool will not know you exist if you don't have a Web site.
A 20- or 30-something person is much more likely to use the Internet to find church service times than to look in the yellow pages or newspaper. Our informal surveys have shown that many young college graduates don't even have yellow pages in their homes. My teenage daughter didn't know theaters listed movie times in the newspaper – she gets them off the Web.
4. Seekers will visit your Web site before attending your services.
The Internet provides a perfect tool for people wanting information anonymously. Seekers who are not ready to "come to the building" will visit your Web site to see what you believe and why. Savvy organizations are using the Web to educate visitors and encourage them to take the next step. Online sermons and photos of services and events go a long way toward making a seeker feel secure enough to make a first-time visit.
5. A whole generation exists that will seek "religion" online.
In his book Boiling Point, George Barna projects that 10 to 20 percent of the population will rely on the Internet for all of their spiritual input and output by 2010. Whether you like it or not, the prediction seems to be right on track. When these people go to the Internet with spiritual questions, who will be providing the answers? What will they be taught?
6. The Web site is too critical to be run by a volunteer.
I can tell you stories of churches from New York to California who were disappointed or burned by volunteers who built their Web sites. What happens if your volunteer Web developer gets transferred out of state or leaves the church angry?
How do you gracefully fire a volunteer when the church's need exceeds his or her abilities?
Church leaders frequently ask me to help them justify why they should pay large amounts of money to develop a professional site when they have a volunteer who will do it for free. I ask them if they use free volunteers to install and maintain their roof and plumbing. In three years, no large church has ever admitted it used volunteers for their roof or plumbing – it's just too critical to depend on volunteer help.
7. You can't afford a cheap site.
With a high percentage of your potential visitors viewing your Web site before they visit your congregation, you can't afford a poor quality site. All the time and money you have spent building your congregation's resources and reputation are worthless if people won't visit the first time. Visitors are judging the values and programs of your church from your Web site. Are your key programs properly represented? Can a Web visitor see how active your youth group is from your site?
8. People are viewing your current Web site right now.
I can almost guarantee you that people are viewing your current site every month. People moving into your city are researching churches before they move. People interested in changing congregations are viewing your site. Seekers who have been made aware of your church are looking for more information on your site. You may not be providing the information, but people are looking for it.
Start asking your visitors how they found out about your church. You'll be surprised how many young families found you on the Internet. Good or bad, your Web site is generating impressions every week. The big question is – are you satisfied with the impression they are getting?
Home Missions Churches can list for FREE on Find A New Church 
Outside the Box # 184 In This Issue: HIRING EAGLES • ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? • THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH • HIRING EAGLES • CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT • GRAVITY • VIRTUAL OFFICE ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? In a few hours I will be at Lincoln Financial Field along with 68,000 other Philadelphia Eagle fans as they face the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. This game will be huge challenge for Philly. Without T.O. it will be interesting to see if the team can rise to the occasion.
In church planting we use a behavioral assessment that is founded on the belief that "past performance is the best future predictor." In T.O.'s case, the Eagles looked beyond his character and chemistry because of his great skill. Last year he helped this team get to the Super Bowl and came pretty close to helping them win it. What a difference a season can make. Poor character will always cause problems in the long run.
Tonight I will be cheering with the rest of the lunatics in Philly. Now that the turkey is gone, we are hoping that Andy Reid will be able to get his Eagles soaring again.
FLY EAGLES FLY!
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
HIRING EAGLES Dan Reiland writes...
There is more to developing a strong and effective staff than hiring well; but if you don’t hire well, you are in trouble from the start. Remember, no matter how much work it takes, it is easier to hire than fire.
KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AND WHY YOU ARE HIRING
When it comes to hiring staff, assumptions are lethal. Perhaps you lost your youth pastor. The typical response is: "We need to hire another one." That may or may not be true. Rather, ask what the church needs most at this time. You may determine that you do need a youth pastor. Take it a layer deeper. Ask, "What do we want in a youth pastor?" It is important to know what emphasis you want the youth ministry to take. This is not up to the youth pastor to decide. While each person has a unique style, personality, and gifts, senior leadership sets the direction and philosophy of youth ministry. When this is not done and clearly communicated during the hiring process, you will nearly always hire the wrong person. It often results in a good and hardworking youth pastor at odds with a good and hardworking senior pastor because they have major ministry philosophical differences.
The following questions will serve you well in the hiring process:
* What will bring notable strength to the church?
* What does the church need most in this season?
* What can the church afford? (And what can it not afford?)
* What would most advance the mission of the church?
* How can we improve on the most recent past?
NEVER HIRE IN A PANIC OR OUT OF DESPERATION
Remember the nursery rhyme about the old lady who lived in a shoe? She had so many kids she didn’t know what to do. Well, that was our story. In a congregation of well over 2,000, more than 36 percent were children fifth grade and under. Our facilities were busting at the seams and people kept coming—and they brought their kids. Our children’s team was good, but we needed a children’s pastor.
There was one service where I could have sworn there were more kids at the end of the service than the beginning. Spontaneous generation isn’t possible, is it? Where were these kids coming from? I felt tremendous pressure to find and hire a children’s pastor. There were moments I was tempted to hire anybody with a pulse. Anyone who was breathing and said they loved Jesus would do.
Experience has taught me, though, that when I hire in a panic or out of desperation, I regret the decision. So for 10 months I processed résumé after résumé, phone call after phone call, interview after interview. But it was worth it. Our patience and diligence landed God’s person for us.
Take your time when hiring. When in doubt, don’t hire. Wait. The pressure of an open position is better than hiring the wrong person.
LEARN HOW TO ATTRACT QUALITY STAFF
You can’t attract eagles into a chicken coop, and they don’t bite on chicken feed.
* Cast a big vision. You may not always be able to pay big dollars, but you can always cast a big vision. Know your dream and vision—tell it in a compelling way. Let candidates see how they can have a part in a future with great potential.
* Be forthright and honest about the church’s situation. Tell them the good and the bad. A great leader will see the rough parts as a challenge.
* Pay well. You may not always be able to pay big, but you can be as generous as possible. When you can afford to pay better, do so. We all know ministry is not about getting rich, but if you find an eagle, you are wise to pay well.
* Let them know you are committed to their personal growth. Explain in practical terms how you expect results from them but not without investments from you.
* Be authentic about who you are. Let them get to know the real you during the hiring process. This doesn’t mean that it’s all about you. In fact, you should talk far less than the candidate. But do let them see your heart and discover who you are as a person. It won’t take long after they are hired, so why not find out what the chemistry between you will be like before they are hired?
KNOW WHAT AN EAGLE LOOKS LIKE
Leadership is without question the primary trait you are looking for. But hire by hire, there are minor and major differences in the specific skills you are looking for. For example, when hiring a children’s pastor, the ability to recruit is a major factor, while musical ability is minor (if needed at all). When hiring a teaching pastor, the ability to communicate is major, while the ability to administrate is minor.
Let’s get back to leadership. Eagles influence people. This is key in all hires. However, leadership and leadership skills can be taught, learned, and improved. If the basic raw material is there, and you are willing to make the developmental investment, the growth of the candidate should go well.
The absence of good character—or a major character flaw—can turn a potential good hire into a disaster. You can develop skills, but candidates will usually retain the character they come in with. Therefore, make certain you feel confident about the character traits important to you. To do this, you must invest much time with them and ask dozens of questions.
The following is a character list that gives you something to begin with.
* Integrity. The first and most important thing I look for are things like honesty, authenticity, ethical and moral patterns, and a sense of being trustworthy.
* Strong Christian testimony and lifestyle. It surprises me how many staff members are never asked to tell their Christian conversion testimony during the hiring process. I not only want to know their conversion testimony, I want to know devotional habits and how they are currently maturing in their faith.
* High energy and contagious passion. Low energy and low passion people do not lead well for long. This isn’t about personality. There are many leaders who are not the life of the party but have tremendous energy and passion for what they do. It’s about a fire in the belly that causes and sustains initiative and the pursuit of results.
* Intelligence. Hire smart people. This may seem like a "duh," but I caution you to be attentive to this point.
* Good sense of humor. This reveals whether or not they take themselves too seriously and can laugh at themselves. As a leader, it’s important for others to perceive you as enjoyable to be with, someone who possesses the ability to be lighthearted and enjoy life.
* The capacity and desire for further growth and greater potential. You don’t want to hire people who are as good as they are going to get. Neither do you want to hire someone who has potential but no desire to grow.
SET YOUR STANDARDS AND STICK TO THEM
We have talked about the danger of hiring too quickly. This principle of standards is connected to that idea. Set your standards and do not lower them. Repeat out loud to yourself if necessary, "I will not lower my standards." Don’t settle for less. Go for the best.
The following is a sample hiring criteria that provides a quick picture what a set of standards might look like. (Note: You will be tempted to make your list too long, and end up losing sight of what is important to you. Keep it short. Aim for those things that are of utmost importance to you.
YOUTH PASTOR
PROFESSIONAL
5 or more years ministry experience
College degree
At least 28 years of age
Previous church size of at least 300
Track record of sustained leadership success and expertise with youth ministry
PERSONAL
Self-starter/energetic
Organized
People person
Intelligent
Passion for lost kids
We could fill volumes when it comes to hiring, but for now, these five core principles will serve you well. Let me leave you with a simple but powerful old standard. When it comes to hiring and developing staff, there are three things to focus on: character, competence, and chemistry. Are they who they say they are? Are they good at what they do? Do they mix well with others? If you have had staff for any length of time, you know that just because they receive a paycheck doesn’t mean they function well as a team.
Click here for the rest of Dan Reiland's article 
GRAVITY Randy Alcorn recalls the day the Eric came to see him...
Eric stormed into my office and flopped into a chair. "I'm really mad at God."
Having grown up in a strong church family, he'd met and married a Christian girl. Now he was the picture of misery.
"Okay...so why are you mad at God?"
"Because," he said, "Last week I committed adultery."
Long pause. Finally I said, "I can see why God would be mad at you. But why are you mad at God?"
Eric explained that for several months he'd felt a strong, mutual attraction with a woman at his office. He'd prayed earnestly that God would keep him from immorality.
"Did you ask your wife to pray for you?" I said. "Did you stay away from the woman?"
"Well...no. We went out for lunch almost every day."
Slowly, I started pushing a big book across my desk. Eric watched, uncomprehending, as the book inched closer and closer to the edge. I prayed aloud, "O Lord, please keep this book from falling!"
I kept pushing and praying. God didn't suspend the law of gravity. The book went right over the edge, smacking the floor.
"I'm mad at God," I said to Eric. "I asked Him to keep my book from falling...but He let me down!"
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From the time we were young teenagers, many of us have had heard lists of reasons for walking in sexual purity. God commands purity and forbids impurity. Purity is right. Impurity is wrong.
True? Absolutely. But it's equally correct to say, Purity is always smart. Impurity is always stupid.
There it is-what I'm calling the purity principle:
Purity is always smart; Impurity is always stupid.
Not sometimes.
Not usually.
Always.
Click here for more excerpts from Randy Alcorn's, The Purity Principle 
THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH An interesting ministry approach has been developed by Pastor Joseph Fuiten and his team at Cedar Park AG in Bothell, Washington. He says that “the Cathedral Model is not about architecture or the size of the building... it is about building a ministry. Simply put, a Cathedral Church is a local church functioning in an inspirational and leadership capacity through a variety of ministries. All these ministries serve the broader church and community.”
Church planting and community ministries help define the Cathedral Church. Cedar Park sees itself as more than just a church in one location. The distinguishing characteristic of each of these ministries, the thing that helps them define the Cathedral Church, is the fact that they serve the wider Christian community and act as an outreach to non-Christians as well. Cedar Park is reaching out through:
• Cedar Park Christian Schools with Campuses in Bellevue, Bothell, Totem Lake, Whidby Island, Mt. Vernon, and Everett.
• Chapel of the Resurrection Funeral Home and Cemetery
• Gennesaret Spanish Church
• Centro de Entrenamiento Ministerial (Ministerial Training Center)
• The Chapel at Cedar Park
• Cedar Park Eastside in Totem Lake
• Cedar Park Family Church in Lake Stevens
• Cedar Park Northshore
• Cedar Park Counseling Network in Kenmore and Issaquah.
• Mechanics Ministry
• Chapel of the Resurrection Wedding Ministry
• School of the Arts
• Summer Day Camps
• Cedar Park Community Services
• Cedar Park Athletic Association
Pastor Fuiten states, “People often ask me about the size of Cedar Park. I always answer, ‘It depends on when you count them.’ I know what they mean. Because they don’t know who we are, they tend to think of us as a local church so they want to know how many are in the Bothell Sanctuary on Sunday morning. I think of us as a Cathedral Church so I think about the people we minister to every week. If we counted all of those, we are over 5,000 strong. I refer to that as our ministry circle. Those in our ministry circle are those who participate in our ministries on a regular basis.”Click here for Three Emerging Distinctions of CP's Cathedral Church 
CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT Christmas is on a Sunday this year and that presents both opportunities and challenges. Recently I was in Oakmont with Pastor Bill Ellis and Pastor David Kennard and we spoke a little about Christmas eve service this year.
They are planning on doing three services on Christmas eve (5:00 p.m. with childcare, 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. NO childcare). They are also having one service on Christmas morning at 11:00 a.m.
I asked David to send me their previous service planning schedule for their "Carols by Candlelight" service. It is one of their most well attended services of the year. I thought this might help you in your planning:
Prelude………………………………….. Teresa
Welcome and Invocation………………. Pastor Bill
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” #123..… Congregation
Micah 5:2, Isaiah 7:14; 9:2, 6, 7………. Donna
“Emmanuel”……………………………... Beth
Matthew 1:18-23……………………….. Bob
“Jesus What a Beautiful Name” ………. Bethany, Carrie & Melissa
“O Little Town Of Bethlehem” #141…... Congregation
Luke 2:1-7………………………………. Melissa
“Hail to the Newborn King” ……………. Steve, Jane & Sue
Luke 2:8-14……………………………… Stephen
“What Child is This” #137……………… Congregation
“How Much I Love You” ……………….. Warren
“Angels We Have Heard” #132……….. Congregation
Matthew 2:1-8…………………………… Mike
“O Come All Ye Faithful” #145………… Congregation
Matthew 2:9-12………………………….. Pastor David
Offering (will be appropriated to those within our
congregation who have need at this time)
“Good Gifts” …………………………….. Courtney, Larry & Taylor
Reflection and Prayer…………………… Pastor Bill
Lighting of Candles
“Silent Night” #147………………………. Congregation
“O Holy Night” …………………………… Pastor Dave
Benediction………………………………. Pastor Bill
Click here to check out Riverside's website 
VIRTUAL OFFICE Pastor Mark Morrow, Crosswalk Community Church in Williamsburg, Virginia is effectively utilizing tele-commuting. Here is what he has developed...
Since most church plants borrow facilities for Sunday worship services, they also usually lack office space. Rather than leasing office space, a properly established “virtual office” can save the new church a great expense so that money is spent on people rather than bricks and mortar. We have found the following insights helpful as we have networked our staff and facilitated communication.
* All employees' office out of their homes – an area separate from the rest of the living quarters.
* All employees are issued a laptop, a cell phone, a multi-functional printer/copier, and high-speed internet service by the church.
* All employees are reimbursed for any expenses they incur. (ie: counseling at Starbuck's, paper for printers, etc.)
* Although there are no “office hours,” all employees are expected to be “on call” from 8:00am to 10:00pm, seven days a week.
* All employees are paid for services completed, not hours logged on the clock.
* All employees report to staff meeting at the same time and place each week at a remote area of a restaurant to discuss matters of relevance.
* The church office line can be forwarded to whomever is assigned to answer, which can vary from day to day.
* The church office line is answered as if it is rung in an office rather than in someone's home. When someone asks for a particular employee, the receptionist lets him/her know that a message will be sent promptly so that a return call could be expected shortly.
* This concept can only work in a permission-giving environment, not in an environment of control.
* One's ministry life is integrated into his/her family life and vice versa. Life is not so compartmentalized this way. It is much more natural.
With the above requirements, the staff members at CrossWalk are as connected as those at any other church. The added benefit is that there are fewer interruptions. Another benefit is that each employee can work according to the style that best suites them. This concept called “tele-commuting” is gaining more and more popularity in the workplace. It is certainly more cost-efficient as well as time-efficient.Click here for Crosswalk's Church Planting Resources 
Outside the Box # 183 In This Issue: REVOLUTION • FUSION • HOW TO CROSS A PIRANHA-INFESTED RIVER • A FAITH REVOLUTION • PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP • 12 MISTAKES OF CHRISTMAS OUTREACH • CHURCH PLANTERS WORKSHOP FUSION This past Friday was Homecoming at Valley Forge Christian College. Tony Cruz challenged us during chapel that FUSION is a nuclear reaction in which nuclei combine to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy. Churches, colleges and other organizations that understand and embrace that will be stronger and more prepared for the future.
YESTERDAY
Many alumni made it back. What a great time getting to see friends from 20+ years ago and 20+++ pounds ago. There were so many great memories.
TODAY
One of the most exciting things for me was seeing the development of the campus. I can understand why it now has close to 1000 students. Parents still cry when they drop off their kids but now it is because they will miss them! The campus looks better than it has ever looked before and the expanded curriculum offers many more options.
TOMMORROW
At the senior luncheon we had an opportunity to present to each senior an alumni blanket. We recognize that they are just a few months away from stepping into a whole new set of opportunities. George Barna describes the next 20 years as a Revolution. This group will play a significant role in the most massive reshaping of the nation’s faith community in more than a century.
Are you ready for the Revolution?
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church DevelopmentYou can check out the college website by clicking here. 
A FAITH REVOLUTION Relying upon national research conducted over the past several years, Barna profiles a group of more than 20 million adults throughout the nation labeled “revolutionaries.” He noted that although measures of traditional church participation in activities such as worship attendance, Sunday school, prayer, and Bible reading have remained relatively unchanged during the past twenty years, the Revolutionary faith movement is growing rapidly.
“These are people who are less interested in attending church than in being the church,” he explained. “We found that there is a significant distinction in the minds of many people between the local church – with a small ‘c’ – and the universal Church – with a capital ‘C’. Revolutionaries tend to be more focused on being the Church, capital C, whether they participate in a congregational church or not.”
“A common misconception about revolutionaries,” he continued, “is that they are disengaging from God when they leave a local church. We found that while some people leave the local church and fall away from God altogether, there is a much larger segment of Americans who are currently leaving churches precisely because they want more of God in their life but cannot get what they need from a local church. They have decided to get serious about their faith by piecing together a more robust faith experience. Instead of going to church, they have chosen to be the Church, in a way that harkens back to the Church detailed in the Book of Acts.”
BIG CHANGES IN THE MAKING
One of the most eye-opening portions of the research contained in the book describes what the faith community may look like twenty years from now. Using survey data and other cultural indicators he has been measuring for more than two decades, Barna estimates that the local church is presently the primary form of faith experience and expression for about two-thirds of the nation’s adults. He projects that by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current “market share” and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack. Importantly, Barna’s studies do not suggest that most people will drop out of a local church to simply ignore spirituality or be freed up from the demands of church life. Although there will be millions of people who abandon the entire faith community for the usual reasons – hurtful experiences in churches, lack of interest in spiritual matters, prioritizing other dimensions of their life – a growing percentage of church dropouts will be those who leave a local church in order to intentionally increase their focus on faith and to relate to God through different means.
That growth is fueling alternative forms of organized spirituality, as well as individualized faith experience and expression. Examples of these new approaches include involvement in a house church, participation in marketplace ministries, use of the Internet to satisfy various faith-related needs or interests, and the development of unique and intense connections with other people who are deeply committed to their pursuit of God.
SEVEN PASSIONS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY
In the effort to increase their obedience and faithfulness to God, Barna discovered that Revolutionaries are characterized by what he identified as a set of spiritual passions – seven specific emphases that drive their quest for God and a biblical lifestyle. Although these are areas of spiritual development that most local churches address, millions of adults who are the most serious about their faith in God were the ones least likely to be satisfied by what their local church was delivering in terms of resources, opportunities, evaluation and developmental possibilities. The consequence is that millions of committed born again Christians are choosing to advance their relationship with God by finding avenues of growth and service apart from a local church.
Asked if this meant that the Revolution he describes is simply a negative reaction to the local church, he suggested that most Revolutionaries go through predictable phases in their spiritual journey in which they initially become dissatisfied with their local church experience, then attempt to change things so their faith walk can be more fruitful. The result is that they undergo heightened frustration over the inability to introduce positive change, which leads them to drop out of the local church altogether, often in anger. But because this entire adventure was instigated by their love for God and their desire to honor Him more fully, they finally transcend their frustration and anger by creating a series of connections that allow them to stay close to God and other believers without involvement in a local church.
One of the hallmarks of the Revolution of faith is how different it is for each person. “It would be wrong to assume that all Revolutionaries have completely turned their back on the local church,” the researcher stated. “Millions of Revolutionaries are active in a local church, although most of them supplement that relationship with participation in a variety of faith-related efforts that have nothing to do with their local church. The defining attribute of a Revolutionary is not whether they attend church, but whether they place God first in their lives and are willing to do whatever it takes to facilitate a deeper and growing relationship with Him and other believers. Our studies persuasively indicate that the vast majority of American churches are populated by people who are lukewarm spiritually. Emerging from those churches are people dedicated to becoming Christ-like through the guidance of a congregational form of the church, but who will leave that faith center if it does not further such a commitment to God. They then find or create alternatives that allow that commitment to flourish.”
How do most Revolutionaries justify calling themselves devoted disciples of Christ while distancing themselves from a local church? “Many of them realize that someday they will stand before a holy God who will examine their devotion to Him. They could take the safe and easy route of staying in a local church and doing the expected programs and practices, but they also recognize that they will not be able to use a lackluster church experience as an excuse for a mediocre or unfulfilled spiritual life. Their spiritual depth is not the responsibility of a local church; it is their own responsibility. As a result, they decide to either get into a local church that enhances their zeal for God or else they create alternatives that ignite such a life of obedience and service. In essence, these are people who have stopped going to church so they can be the Church.”
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
While the Revolution brings with it some very promising qualities – an intense pursuit of godliness, new networks of believers supporting each other, heightened financial giving to ministry endeavors, greater sensitivity to the presence of God in the world, a greater sense of freedom to be a genuine disciple in the midst of a secular society – Barna also pointed out that the Revolution brings great challenges to those who choose that pathway.
“There is the danger of exposure to unbiblical or heretical teaching. There is the possibility of experiencing isolation from a true community of believers and the accountability and support that can provide. It could become easier to hoard one’s treasures rather than giving generously. Some might find it more difficult to sustain a life of worship without a place or means of expressing that praise to God.”
Barna contends that these are very serious challenges faced by Revolutionaries – but that they are no more serious than the threats to the spiritual health of regular church-goers. “Objectively speaking, these are the very same problems that we identify among people who rely upon the efforts of a local church to facilitate their growth. We find plentiful evidence of unbiblical teaching in small groups, Sunday school classes and other local church venues. We know that few churched Christians give 4% of their income back to God, much less 10%. We recognize that most people attending worship services in a church sanctuary leave feeling that God was not present and that they did not personally connect with the living God through that experience. We have identified the relative absence of accountability within most congregations. So even though Revolutionaries face serious challenges in blossoming into the fervent God-follower they hope to become, perhaps the main difference is simply that they have a wider range of options for achieving their faith goals than do people who are solely focused on faith delivered through a local church. In either case, it is ultimately up to the individual to make sure that they have their spiritual priorities right, that they are investing themselves in activities that draw them closer to God, and that they stay focused on pleasing God more than themselves or other people.”
The explosion of Revolutionaries in the U.S., however, raises new challenges for people involved in ministry. “This new movement of God demands that there be new forms of leadership to appropriately guide people in their faith journey,” Barna said. “It requires new ways of measuring how well the Church at-large is doing, getting beyond attendance figures as the indicator of health. And it demands that new tools and resources be accessible to a growing contingent of people who are seeking to introduce their faith into every dimension of their life.”
Click here for more Barna Updates 
12 MISTAKES OF CHRISTMAS OUTREACH Michael Johnson and Tom Bowers, in their article The Twelve Mistakes of Christmas Outreach, note that any church that takes active steps to avoid the mistakes listed below will dramatically increase the effectiveness of their outreach:
1. Not planning for something great
2. Doing little or no outreach during Christmas
3. Planning outreach without a plan
4. Breaking the Law of Large Numbers
5. Trying to do too much
6. Sending a Christmas Message
7. Always trying something new
8. Doing outreach instead of with reach
9. Not making Christmas children-centered enough
10. Communicating a heart-less message
11. Choosing costly options
12. Not connecting Christmas with Easter
Click here for a full explanation of each of the 12 mistakes 
HOW TO CROSS A PIRANHA-INFESTED RIVER There’s a book that came out several years ago that gives you instructions on what to do in the direst circumstances that you can imagine. It’s called The Worst Case Survivor’s Handbook. One of my favorites is how to cross a Piranha-Infested River. Here are the steps it gives...
1. Do not cross if you have an open wound. Piranhas are attracted to blood.
2. Avoid areas with netted fish, docks where fish are cleaned, and areas around bird rookeries.
3. Cross the river at night.
4. Swim or walk across quickly and quietly. Try not to create a large disturbance in the water that might awaken piranhas.
5. Stay out of the water when piranhas are feeding. (What happens if they get hungry as I am walking across? BUFFET!)
This Worst Case Handbook has sold millions of copies and it covers every kind of situation you can imagine:
How to Perform an Emergency Tracheotomy
What to Do If You Run Into a Mountain Lion
How to Respond If You Jump Out of a Plane and the Parachute Doesn’t Open
Now it’s written straight. It actually is advice from experts in their fields—the best advice on what to do in these types of situations. But nobody buys the book for the actual advice. It is sold in humor sections of bookstores as kind of a joke.
In reading this Handbook it can be really humorous until you turn to the section called,
How to Survive a Tsunami
All of a sudden, it isn’t funny any more. It is so strange. I can’t help but wonder how many lives might have been spared—how many hundreds of thousands of hearts might not be broken now if people had just known what is in this book. It is meant to be humorous, and it is until the scenario described actually happens. Then it’s not funny. It’s life or death.
As believer's God's Word is our Survivor's Manual. It goes beyond life and death and reaches over to eternity.Click here for the Worst Case Scenarios Website 
PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP Boot Camp is coming to Penn-Del on November 7-10, 2005. It is an effective, adult-based form of learning that focuses more on the practitioner than the presenter in that it is hands-on learning with a personal coach. Sessions include group activities, reflection, planning, skill-building and vision-developing exercises. BootCamp includes the following strategic components:
NEW CHURCH PLANTER TRAINING
You will work through six strategic questions that must be answered and acted on if you hope to successfully plant a new church. You will be supported by dedicated coaches and facilitators who will assist you in a powerful discovery process designed to prepare you for an effective “launch.”
CHURCH HEALTH TRAINING
Experienced facilitators and coaches will guide you in the formation of a strategic plan intended to maximize the ability of your church to fulfill its divine purpose. You will discover how to overcome common barriers to ministry effectiveness and church health.
COACHES TRAINING
You will be introduced to foundational principles of coaching. Coaching is simply coming alongside another leader and helping them succeed! You will be exposed to proven concepts of effective coaching and have the opportunity to immediately put them into practice as you assist other leaders in their BootCamp experience. Coaches can choose to coach in either track.
BASIC ASSESSMENT TRAINING
You will be introduced to the fundamentals of the “behavioral interview.” This tool has been used effectively to help in the selection of church planters.
Penn-Del credential holders can apply the Continuing Education Grant to Penn-Del BootCamp. For more information contact me at tom@penndel.org.
Click here to download the Boot Camp brochure 
CHURCH PLANTERS WORKSHOP You are building a church that tries to meet the needs of people, how about taking some time to renew and recharge as you try to figure out…
WHAT’S NEXT?
You have launched the church but need to know how to take it to the next level. This one-day training is designed to help you assess your present situation and strategize your next steps with other church planters and Pastor Mark Morrow from Crosswalk Community Church in Williamsburg, VA.
THIS TRAINING IS FREE FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM!
Plan on bringing your spouse and team members.
Housing can be provided on Sunday night for those traveling a distance (just let us know). Also, lunch is provided.
Philip Bongiorno Conference Center
430 Union Hall Road, Carlisle, PA
Monday, November 7, 2005
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
To register:
E-mail penny@penndel.org or call 717.795.5921
Click here for directions to the Conference Center 
Outside the Box # 182 In This Issue: VISION • MADRID VISION • LEADING CHANGE • WHAT KIND OF A CHURCH? • PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP • VISION KILLERS • HONORBOUND CONFERENCE MADRID VISION HOLA!
We just returned from a family adventure to Madrid. Through a travel deal we were able to fly for just $175 per person roundtrip on a Continental 777. Yes, I am crazy for thinking we could do Madrid in 5 days!
In Madrid we enjoyed the Royal Palace, the Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museums, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Alcázar Castle, the Roman Aqueduct in Segovia and the beautiful Spanish architecture.
One of the best things we did when we arrived was to purchase passes for a double decker tourist bus called "Madrid Vision." It took us around the city and gave us an overview of the culture, history and location of significant sites. Our time aboard the top of the bus gave us an opportunity to get a grasp of what we wanted to spend the rest of our time doing.
On my 7 hour flight back to the states I was thinking about how leaders would be well served to board a symbolic "Vision Bus." This could provide them with an overview of the history of their organization and the landscape of where they are trying to go. From what I have seen, the best teams board the bus together as they formulate a strategic plan to build upon. Hopefully some thoughts from this edition of OTB will help you as you further develop that vision.
Enjoy the ride!
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church DevelopmentYou can check out our trip photos by clicking here... 
WHAT KIND OF A CHURCH? While in Spain, we had an opportunity to visit several impressive cathedrals. The sad part is that somewhere along the line, they lost their vision. They are huge edifices lacking a healthy dynamic body of believers. If we are not careful we too can become more concerned about our buildings than believers. Vision helps us to keep the main thing the main thing. Here are some thoughts from Aubrey Malphurs.
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WHAT KIND OF A CHURCH WOULD WE LIKE TO BE?
VISION is essential to a church. However, unlike the values, mission, and purpose, the vision is more subject to change. It is dynamic, not static. Over time, the vision must be renewed, adapted, and adjusted to the cultural context in which the congregation lives. The change takes place only at the margins of the vision, not at its core. The core—the Great Commission—does not change. The details of the vision and the words used to convey them will change. The vision provides us with a picture of what the mission will look like as it is realized in the community.
The vision concept is not new to the Scriptures. You will find visions sprinkled throughout the Old and New Testaments. For example, God caught Abraham's attention with his vision for him in Genesis 12:1–3 (the Abrahamic covenant). God used Moses to communicate his vision for his people, Israel, in Exodus 3:7–8 and Deuteronomy 8:7–10. It is possible that the "joy" that Jesus looked forward to while enduring the cross was the vision of his return to the presence of his Father in heaven (Heb. 12:2).
THE IMPORTANCE OF A VISION
The limited information that is available indicates that pastors and congregations are struggling with the vision concept. For example, in commenting on pastors and their visions, George Barna writes, "But when we asked these pastors, 'Can you articulate God's vision for the ministry of your church?' we found that roughly 90 percent of them could articulate a basic definition of ministry. But only 2 percent could articulate the vision for their church." David Goetz writes, "In Leadership's study, however, pastors indicated that conflicting visions for the church was their greatest source of tension and the top reason they were terminated or forced to resign." Clearly, vision is of utmost importance to leaders and their ministry. Here are seven reasons why.
A VISION ENCOURAGES UNITY
In a ministry a shared vision changes people's relationship to one another. When a leader casts a vision in a church, it is no longer "their church," it becomes "our church." The ministry's vision encourages and allows people to come together and work together. It creates a common identity in two ways. First, it signals to all where the ministry is going. It says that if you want to go where we are going, then climb on board—let us go together. Second, it fosters the retention of congregants and staff. A common vision says that we are working together toward the same goals. We need each other if anything significant is going to happen for Christ. This, in effect, mirrors such passages as 1 Corinthians 12:20–22 and Ephesians 4:15–16.
A VISION CREATES ENERGY
Not much happens without an inspiring, compelling vision. Not much was happening in Nehemiah's day. The people had no vision. Jerusalem lay in ruins, and no one was motivated to do anything about it (Neh.1: 3). Then along came Nehemiah with a vision from God to rebuild the gates and walls of the city. Visions are exciting and they energize people. They strike a spark—the excitement that lifts a ministry organization out of the mundane. They supply the fuel that lights the fire under a congregation—leaders are able to stop putting out fires and start igniting a few. A vision from God has the potential to turn a maintenance mentality into a ministry mentality. And when your vision resonates with your values and mission, it generates the energy that fuels the accomplishment of the ministry task.
A VISION PROVIDES PURPOSE
The right vision creates meaning in people's lives. It gives them a sense of divine purpose in life. They are a part of something great that God is accomplishing at this time and place in history. With a shared vision, people see themselves not just as another congregant or a "pew warmer," but as a vital part of a church that is having a powerful impact on a lost and dying world. They are not simply in a church; they are on a mission. They are part of a revolution that has the potential to change this world, to have a wonderful impact for Christ. For example, a wide gap exists in terms of commitment and dedication to God and a sense of personal significance between one member who, when asked what he or she does, replies, "I am a teacher" and another, who may have the same ministry, but answers, "I am changing the life course of a class of adolescents who will someday accomplish great things for Christ."
A VISION FOSTERS RISK TAKING
A shared vision fosters risk-taking by a congregation. This is especially true in church-planting situations. When the point person or lead pastor casts the vision, everyone knows what needs to be done. That is not the question. The question is, How will we do it? Sometimes we know the answer, but most often we do not. Consequently, ministry for Christ becomes an exciting adventure into the world of the unknown. We attempt something for Christ and it does not work. We attempt something else and it does work. Though much of what we are doing is experimental, it is not ambiguous. It is perfectly clear to all why we are doing it. It is for God and the Savior. People are not asking for guarantees. They all know that no guarantees exist, yet people are committed anyway. The risks are great, but so is the God they serve, and the vision he has given them. How else can we explain the early church and what God accomplished through them or those believers that make up the faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11?
A VISION ENHANCES LEADERSHIP
Developing a vision and then living it vigorously are essential elements of leadership. I define a leader as a godly servant who knows where he or she is going and has followers. That describes not only the Savior, but his disciples and those who ministered in the early church as recorded in Acts. Godly servants are people who display Christ-like character throughout the ministry organization. They exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, given in Galatians 5:22–23. They know where they are going and where they are leading their ministry. They have a dynamic mission and, most important, a clear, energizing vision that paints a picture of the future. The consequence of character and vision is followers. When a congregation has a leader who owns a vision and lives that vision in a Christ-like manner, they will follow that leader to the ends of the earth.
A VISION PROMOTES EXCELLENCE
God desires that his church minister and serve well on his behalf. This calls for ministry excellence. Whatever we do for Christ must be done well, not sloppily or haphazardly. In the Old Testament God required that people give their best when they brought animals for sacrifice (Lev. 22:20–22). This was excellence in worship. In the New Testament Paul explains that God expects us to put forth our best efforts in our work. He says to perform as if we are working for him (Eph. 6:5–8; Col. 3:23–24). This is excellence in the marketplace.
A shared organizational vision promotes a standard of excellence. Deep down, people want to do a good job, to have a sense that they are effectively and powerfully advancing God's program through their ministry in the church. The vision casts a picture of what that looks like. It provides a visual, mental measure by which staff and congregation can evaluate how well they and the ministry are doing.
A VISION SUSTAINS MINISTRY
Ministry can be very difficult, even painful. Discouragement and disappointment often lurk in the ministry hallways and boardrooms of the typical church. It is not beyond the enemy to incite persecution against Christ's church (Acts 8:1). Spiritual warfare comes with the ministry territory (Eph. 6:10–18). Many have risked or given their lives for the Savior and the furtherance of the gospel. The list of martyrs for the cause of Christ is extensive. Why? What has sustained Christians from the beginning of the church in the Book of Acts up to today? One answer is a biblical, compelling vision. It encourages people to look beyond the mundane and the pain of ministry. It keeps a picture in front of them that distracts from what is and announces what could be. All the trouble and grief that we experience in this world while serving the Savior are trivial compared to the importance of what we are attempting for him. That picture, carried in our mental billfolds, is one way God sustains us in the worst of times.
Click to read an excerpt of Advanced Strategic Planning 
VISION KILLERS VISION KILLER #1: TRADITION
One of the most popular and devastating barriers to true vision is the notion that God would never cause you to change what you have always done before. This usually is expressed through such exclamations as “but we’ve never done it that way before.”
In reality, God uses traditions in ministry to provide people with a semblance of consistency and stability. Traditions can form a foundation upon which He build the future. Traditions can serve as a bridge between the past and the future, enabling people to retain a comfort zone while focusing on Him.
But God has no use for traditions that block progress. He blesses those traditions that build the church and His people, not because they are traditions but because they serve His purposes. Indeed, He tends to reshape traditions by moving them in new directions. He updates them with a more relevant and contemporary expression of those truths that made the tradition valuable initially. But His primary concern is not with the style or format of the tradition; His interest is in its ability to draw people closer to Him.
Tradition is generally a reflection of the past. Vision is always a reflection of the future. Is there any room for a marriage between the two? Absolutely! Because He is the God who created and reigned over the past, He can use history to His advantage in your life and ministry. He has no reason to blot out all memory of the past or to deny its value and power. Instead, it is likely that He will continue to move you in a ministry direction that helps you mature. Maturity means growing beyond your past and embodies what and where you have been. He will use your past to enhance your future.
In your ministry, acknowledge your past for what it has been. Recognize the traditions and patterns that enabled you to impact people’s lives for His glory. Use those as stepping-stones, building your ministry for maximum impact. Determine how you can honor your past by incorporating past strengths into your future.
VISION KILLER #2: FEAR
Grasping an implementing God’s vision can be a frightening prospect. As mentioned earlier, vision requires change. Change means breaking out of the comfort zone, doing new things or operating in areas in which we lack a track record of success or substantial levels of self-confidence. Change can be scary. Moving in new directions or attempting new methods of ministry is risky. Risk raises the possibility of failure, and none of us want to fail, especially in ministry.
Sometimes we are overcome by fear because we have failed in the past and dare not reach for the stars again. Sometimes we dwell on our past failures or our sense of limitation. Rather than define defeat as either repeating the same mistake or refusing to take a risk, we think of it as not reaching our goals. We then allow the fear of failure to restrict our universe of opportunities to those that are safe. By focusing on our failings, we miss out on our potential.
We also experience fear in situations that we cannot control completely. Few Christians, leaders or not, arrive at a point where they totally release the reins of their lives and allow God to rule every moment of every day. We often lack faith the size of a mustard seed. In its place, we assert our authority over our destiny. Consequently, we are paralyzed by fear, limited in our ability to forge new trails for God’s glory.
Vision replaces fear with energy and hope. It dismisses unbelief and replaces it with peace and assurance. Vision raises questions, but it does not raise nagging doubts.
If you are beset by fear about the future or fear about the vision He has entrusted to you, recognize that fear for what it is : lack of faith in God’s ability to work through you for His purposes. Pray through the fear. Abdicate control of your ministry to Him. Believe that He can do what He desires to do.
VISION KILLER #3: STEREOTYPES
A stereotype is a popular preconception about people or conditions. American culture is saturated with stereotypes. Christian culture and ministry too, are riddled with such cliches.
Recently I encountered dozens of stereotypes in churches, all of which I tested and found to be untrue. A church in Arizona persisted with traditional organ music on Sundays because its membership was elderly. It was discovered, however, that members were sick of the style of music and desired “something a bit more modern and lively.” A pastor in Alabama confided that his church was in turmoil over the role of women and how centuries-old stereotypes about their abilities and gifts prevented them from serving in biblical ways. Stereotypes regarding racial and ethnic characteristics, versions of the Bible, styles of preaching, the educational capacity of certain schools, the acceptability of styles of music and many other elements have caused divisiveness and hardship within the church and have prevented us from penetrating the church beyond the sanctuary walls.
Stereotypes are sometimes used as a shortcut to truth. However, such shortcuts do not exist. In contrast, God’s vision for your ministry is founded on truth. It requires that you see yourself and the world realistically and respond in a realistic manner. Stereotypes lead to bad decisions. God’s vision leads to wise decisions if you have cleansed your mind and heart of the erroneous perceptions that may be reflected in stereotypes.
VISION KILLER #4: COMPLACENCY
Sometimes we fail to behave with vigor and passion because we are ignorant or complacent. “It doesn’t matter what we do. God will bless our efforts.” This statement is a prescription for half-baked, half-blessed ministry. He does care what we do. If He didn’t care, He would not have given dreams and words to the prophets. In fact, He would not have provided prophets. If He didn’t care, He would not ask us to seek His guidance and ask for His blessing. If He didn’t care, He would not have allowed certain passages of the Bible to become part of the canon. (eg Jas. 2:14-17, Luke 14:28-32, Rev. 3:15-18).
God’s passion for mankind is evident in the story of Jesus Christ. The passion of visionary leaders like Paul and David is evident in their works. Complacency is the extinguisher of that smoldering passion. Once the passion has been extinguished, we are of little value in the raging fight between the powers of light and darkness. Those who reflect complacency and ignorance will be the next casualties on the spiritual battlefield.
As you evaluate your quest for His vision, test your passion quotient. Are you ready to give it all you’ve got? Would you die for the chance to see that vision become reality? Do you care enough about your relationship with Him and for the deployment of the vision He gives you to put everything you have on the line? Is your church so lethargic that the prospects of fulfilling the vision are slim? If you are serious about serving Him to the fullest, identify those people whose hearts are lukewarm and avoid letting them hinder the process.
VISION KILLER #5: FATIGUE
Ministry is not easy. Even the greatest spiritual warriors need times of rest. Jesus took time for solitude. If you have difficulty generating excitement about the vision or if you have trouble grasping the vision, check to see if you are running on empty.
Vision calls for a tremendous degree of faith and energy. Seeking vision when you are exhausted makes no sense. Your natural inclination will be to resist those perspectives that call for you to break down known barriers and to redefine the known. Fatigue will limit your vision and your influence for Him.
I have also witnessed cases where a congregation has essentially rejected God’s vision because it, as an entity, was too spent from recent battles and victories to entertain the prospect of climbing new spiritual mountains. It is the wise leader who prepares the church body to hear and to embrace that vision by persuading them to rest for the next leg of the journey.
As a leader grappling with a matter of universal and eternal significance, you, too, must be well rested before embarking on the vision-seeking journey. Prepare for the challenge by recharging your mental, emotional and spiritual batteries. When you are energized for the challenge, move forward.
VISION KILLER #6: SHORT TERM THINKING
Today, leaders are increasingly interested in cashing in resources for short-term benefits. The tragedy is that it leaves nothing in place for the long run. To follow such a course robs us of a satisfying future by chasing immediate gratification. We deplete the past to enjoy the present at the expense of the future.
The truth is,, however, that God’s vision for ministry is long term in nature. His vision may well outlive the visionary. His goals are eternal, not temporal. His knowledge and resources are unlimited, enabling us to pursue a vision for which He will be responsible to the end.
His timing is often different from our own. He is not pressured by time. He has created a season for each good thing and knows the appropriate pace for life. His timing is perfect. We should pursue the vision in concert with His timing. Rather than seek quick results and tangible benefits in the short term, how much better to dream the big dream and to be part of the fundamental transformation of people’s lives and of entire cultures. His vision may lead you to such grandiose activities. Define your measures of success in ministry such that you respond to His timing, not that of the world.
In the end, you are the only person who can limit your ability to dream big with God. As a leader, you have a responsibility to recognize and overcome the inhibitors of God’s vision. IF you are truly committed to capturing His vision for your ministry, see the pitfalls for what they are : danger zones to be avoided. They are not obstacles that should remove you from the action on the spiritual playing field.
Click here for a printer friendly version from George Barna 
LEADING CHANGE John Kotter (who teaches Leadership at Harvard Business School) has made it his business to study both success and failure in change initiatives in business. "The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces satisfactory results" and "making critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains". Kotter summarizes the eight phases as follows.
ESTABLISH A SENSE OF URGENCY
Talk of change typically begins with some people noticing a vulnerability in the organization. The threat of losing ground in some way sparks these people into action, and they in turn try to communicate that sense of urgency to others. In congregations it is typically membership loss, financial struggles or turnover in key volunteers and leaders. Kotter notes that over half the companies he has observed have never been able to create enough urgency to prompt action. "Without motivation, people won’t help and the effort goes nowhere…. Executives underestimate how hard it can be to drive people out of their comfort zones". In the more successful cases the leadership group facilitates a frank discussion of potentially unpleasant facts: about the new competition, flat earnings, decreasing market share, or other relevant indicators. It is helpful to use outsiders (say, for us, to bring in consultants, the unchurched, people from other denominations, regional or national staff people) who can share the "big picture" from a different perspective and help broaden the awareness of your members. When is the urgency level high enough? Kotter suggests it is when 75% of your leadership is honestly convinced that business as usual is no longer an acceptable plan.
FORM A POWERFUL GUIDING COALITION
Change efforts often start with just one or two people, and should grow continually to include more and more who believe the changes are necessary. The need in this phase is to gather a large enough initial core of believers. This initial group should be pretty powerful in terms of the roles they hold in the church, the reputations they have, the skills they bring and the relationships they have. Regardless of size of your organization, the "guiding coalition" for change needs to have 3-5 people leading the effort. This group, in turn, helps bring others on board with the new ideas. The building of this coalition – their sense of urgency, their sense of what’s happening and what’s needed – is crucial. Involving respected leaders from key areas of your church in this coalition will pay great dividends later.
CREATE A VISION
Successful transformation rests on "a picture of the future that is relatively easy to communicate and appeals to customers, stockholders, and employees. A vision helps clarify the direction in which an organization needs to move". The vision functions in many different ways: it helps spark motivation, it helps keep all the projects and changes aligned, it provides a filter to evaluate how the organization is doing, and it provides a rationale for the changes the organization will have to weather. "A useful rule of thumb: if you can’t communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are not yet done with this phase of the transformation process."
COMMUNICATE THAT VISION
Kotter suggests the leadership should estimate how much communication of the vision is needed, and then multiply that effort by a factor of ten. Do not limit it to one congregational meeting, a sermon by the minister, or a couple of mailouts to members. Leaders must be seen "walking the talk" – another form of communication -- if people are going to perceive the effort as important. "Deeds" along with "words" are powerful communicators of the new ways. The bottom line is that a transformation effort will fail unless most of the members understand, appreciate, commit and try to make the effort happen. The guiding principle is simple: use every existing communication channel and opportunity.
EMPOWER OTHERS TO ACT ON THE VISION
This entails several different actions. Allow people in the church to start living out the new ways and to make changes in their areas of involvement. Allocate budget money to the new initiative. Carve out time on the board agenda to talk about it. Change the way your church is organized to put people where the effort needs to be. Free up key people from existing responsibilities so they can concentrate on the new effort. In short, remove any obstacles there may be to getting on with the change. Nothing is more frustrating than believing in the change but then not having the time, money, help, or support needed to effect it. You can’t get rid of all the obstacles, but the biggest ones need to be dealt with.
PLAN FOR AND CREATE SHORT-TERM WINS
Since real transformation takes time, the loss of momentum and the onset of disappointment are real factors. Most people won’t go on a long march for change unless they begin to see compelling evidence that their efforts are bearing fruit. In successful transformation, leaders actively plan and achieve some short term gains which people will be able to see and celebrate. This provides proof to the church that their efforts are working, and adds to the motivation to keep the effort going. "When it becomes clear to people that major change will take a long time, urgency levels can drop. Commitments to produce short-term wins help keep the urgency level up and force detailed analytical thinking that can clarify or revise visions."
KEEP THE MOMENTUM FOR CHANGE MOVING
As Kotter warns, "Do not declare victory too soon." Until changes sink deeply into a church’s culture -- a process that can take five to ten years -- new approaches are fragile and subject to regression. Again, a premature declaration of victory kills momentum, allowing the powerful forces of tradition to regain ground. Leaders of successful efforts use the feeling of victory as the motivation to delve more deeply into their organization: to explore changes in the basic culture, to expose the systems relationships of the organization which need tuning, to move people committed to the new ways into key roles. Leaders of change must go into the process believing that their efforts will take years.
INSTITUTIONALIZE THE NEW APPROACHES
In the final analysis, change sticks when it becomes "the way we do things around here," when it seeps into the bloodstream of the corporate body. "Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are subject to degradations as soon as the pressure for change is removed." Two factors are particularly important for doing this. First, a conscious attempt to show people how the new approaches, behaviors, and attitudes have helped improve the life of the church. People have to be helped to make the connections between the effort and the outcome. The second is to ensure that the next generation of congregational leaders believe in and embody the new ways.
Kotter writes, "There are still more mistakes that people make, but these eight are the big ones. In reality, even successful change efforts are messy and full of surprises."
Click here more from John Kotter on Change 
PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP Boot Camp is coming to Penn-Del on November 7-10, 2005. It is an effective, adult-based form of learning that focuses more on the practitioner than the presenter in that it is hands-on learning with a personal coach. Sessions include group activities, reflection, planning, skill-building and vision-developing exercises. BootCamp includes the following strategic components:
NEW CHURCH PLANTER TRAINING
You will work through six strategic questions that must be answered and acted on if you hope to successfully plant a new church. You will be supported by dedicated coaches and facilitators who will assist you in a powerful discovery process designed to prepare you for an effective “launch.”
CHURCH HEALTH TRAINING
Experienced facilitators and coaches will guide you in the formation of a strategic plan intended to maximize the ability of your church to fulfill its divine purpose. You will discover how to overcome common barriers to ministry effectiveness and church health.
COACHES TRAINING
You will be introduced to foundational principles of coaching. Coaching is simply coming alongside another leader and helping them succeed! You will be exposed to proven concepts of effective coaching and have the opportunity to immediately put them into practice as you assist other leaders in their BootCamp experience. Coaches can choose to coach in either track.
BASIC ASSESSMENT TRAINING
You will be introduced to the fundamentals of the “behavioral interview.” This tool has been used effectively to help in the selection of church planters.
WHAT’S NEXT?
This one-day training happens on Monday and is designed to help you strategize your next steps. Mark Morrow from Williamsburg, Virginia will be teaching on preparing your Constitution and Bylaws and developing your leadership team. Free for Boot Camp Alumni and friends.
Penn-Del credential holders can apply the Continuing Education Grant to Penn-Del BootCamp. For more information contact me at tom@penndel.org.
Click here to download the Boot Camp brochure 
HONORBOUND CONFERENCE Don't be left out!
We now have nearly 1200 men registered for this weekend's conference. It is NOT too late to register!
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The HonorBound Men’s Conference will be at Trinity Assembly of God in Lutherville, Maryland on October 14-15, 2005. Our theme this year is Every Man’s Dream.
John Bevere “An Adventure to Live”
John Bevere leads a multi-faceted international outreach that includes a weekly television program, The Messenger, which broadcasts in 214 nations. He has authored numerous books including The Bait of Satan, The Fear of the Lord, and Under Cover. He will be with us to do two sessions this year on Friday night and Saturday morning.
Terry MacAlmon “The Love of their Father”
Terry is the composer of "I Sing Praises" and has become one of the most well-known and respected worship leaders of today. Terry's heart is to see the body of Christ come to know the Father in a deeper way through intimate worship. Terry will be ministering on Saturday morning.
Dr. Mark Rutland “The Admiration of their Family”
Dr. Mark Rutland is the president of Southeastern College in Lakeland, Florida, and the founder and president of Global Servants, an international missions ministry to provide training and support to national pastors and leaders. He is the author of Character Matters, Nevertheless, and Hanging by a Thread. Dr. Rutland will be speaking on Saturday afternoon.
HOTELS
Most of the Honorbound Conference Hotels we have contracted with are full. If you have yet to book a hotel, I recommend that you search with Travelocity, Expedia or Orbitz for the best rates available.Click here to download the HonorBound brochure 
Outside the Box # 181 In This Issue: EMERGING CHURCH • COURTNEY'S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT • GODCASTING • REACHING OUT TO AN EMERGING CHURCH • BLUE LIKE JAZZ • SIX TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR THE CHURCH • HONORBOUND CONFERENCE COURTNEY'S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT My oldest daughter, Courtney, came home Sunday from the Youth Beach Trip with a glow on her face. She announced that she had something big to tell us.
Our imaginations raced...
• Had she decided which college she would attend next year?
• Had she decided to become a missionary?
• Had she wrecked the car? (I guess she wouldn't be smiling if that happened).
Finally after milking out the silence for as long as possible, she proclaimed that she got baptized that morning at the ocean. What an awesome experience for her and the other 30 kids that were baptized by Youth Pastor Eran Holt. We celebrate with them!
More and more churches are taking baptism outside. There is one church in New Zealand that has what they call, 'Extreme baptism.' It involves new believers being baptized by bungee jumping off a bridge over a river so that they dip in the water. Before they jump, careful calculations are made of the weight of the jumper and the elasticity of the cord so that when the cord is fully stretched the believers are immersed up to their waists in the river before being pulled out to shouts and whistles from other members of Athletes Church Extreme.
That sure takes baptism to a whole new level. I sure hope they are good at math!
Blessings,
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
REACHING OUT TO AN EMERGING CHURCH The 2005 Minister's Enrichment takes place in Carlisle on October 3-5. It will be a gathering of pastors, staff and ministry leaders from across the Pennsylvania and Delaware District.
This fall leadership event will feature Dr. Earl Creps from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. He will share his insights on “Reaching Out to an Emerging Culture” and the topics he will be addressing during the main sessions include…
Engaging the Unchurched
Understanding the iPod Generation
Pentecost in the Emerging Culture
Understanding the Trends that Will Shape the Next 20 Years
This year’s Enrichment will also feature these special workshops to help you in your ministry…
Mentoring Emerging Leaders (Bill Ellis)
Culturally Relevant Youth Ministry (Eran Holt)
Reach the U (Lyman, Bancroft and Schreiber)
Church Planting Roundtable (Tom Rees)
Emergent Church in a Rural Community (John Kuert)
Dodging Ministry Potholes (Jan Creps)
Creating a Culture of Outreach (Gerry Stoltzfoos)
Creating Space for 20-Somethings (Jeff Dyer)
Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life (Stan Williams)
Building a Multi-Ethnic Church (Greg Cruell)
Utilizing Culture to Lead People to Christ (Mike Milano)
Priorities: Knowing What Really Matters (Jan Creps)
The 2005 Ministers’ Enrichment promises to be a great time for us to come together for training and encouragement as we work together to build the Kingdom of God!Click here to download the Emerging Church brochure 
SIX TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR THE CHURCH Reggie McNeal believes that by changing the questions church leaders ask themselves about their congregations and their plans, they can approach the future with new eyes, new purpose, and new ideas. In his book, The Present Future, Reggie asks these tough questions...
New Reality # 1: The Collapse of the Church Culture
Wrong Question: How do we do church better?
Tough Question: How do we de-convert from Churchianity to Christianity?
New Reality # 2: The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth
Wrong Question: How do we grow this church?
(How do we get them to come to us?)
Tough Question: How do we transform our community?
(How do we hit the streets with the gospel?)
New Reality # 3: A New Reformation: Releasing God’s People
Wrong Question: How do we turn members into ministers?
Tough Question: How do we turn members into missionaries?
New Reality # 4: The Return to Spiritual Formation
Wrong Question: How do we develop church members?
Tough Question: How do we develop followers of Jesus?
New Reality # 5: The Shift from Planning to Preparation
Wrong Question: How do we plan for the future?
Tough Question: How do we prepare for the future?
New Reality # 6: The Rise of Apostolic Leadership
Wrong Question: How do we develop leaders for church work?
Tough Question: How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?
Click here to read the first chapter of The Present Future 
GODCASTING Like a mustard seed doused with Miracle-Gro, podcasting is rising rapidly as a new way of delivering the Gospel to people across the street and around the world. The New York Times’ Tania Ralli reports:
Kyle Lewis, 25, missed going to church one Sunday last month. But he did not miss the sermon.
Lewis, who regularly attends services of the National Community Church in Alexandria, Virginia, listened to the sermon while he was at the gym, through a recording he had downloaded to his iPod. Instead of listening to the rock music his gym usually plays, he heard his pastor's voice.
"Having an iPod is a guaranteed way to get the sermon if you're going to be out of town," Lewis said, adding that he normally listened to the pastor's podcast at least once more during the week, usually while driving to work, even if he had attended the service.
Lewis's pastor, the Reverend Mark Batterson, started podcasting, or "godcasting" as he prefers to call it, last month. The hourlong recordings of his weekly service, available on theaterchurch.com, have already brought new parishioners to his church, he said.
"I can't possibly have a conversation with everyone each Sunday," he said. "But this builds toward a digital discipleship. We're orthodox in belief but unorthodox in practice."
Just as some Christian organizations embraced radio and television, podcasting has quickly caught on with religious groups. Since the beginning of July, the number of people or groups offering spiritual and religious podcasts listed on Podcast Alley (podcastalley.com) has grown to 474 from 177.
"Basically, every church can have its own radio show," Batterson said.
Sending spiritual messages over the airwaves is nothing new. The Vatican made its first radio broadcast in 1931 and today offers worldwide programming in 34 languages and some programs as podcasts, as well.
Evangelical Christians in the United States turned first to radio to spread their message, then to television. In the process, they built institutions like the Christian Broadcasting Network, headed by the Reverend Pat Robertson, and the Trinity Broadcast Network.
New technology like podcasting updates the mission, although on a much smaller scale for now. But Batterson said he believed that podcasting would have an effect on the church as profound as that of the printing press when the first Bibles were printed in the 15th century.
"If you really believe in the message you're preaching, you want as many people as possible to listen," he said.
Batterson said he liked the idea of "spiritual multitasking" to keep people connected to their faith throughout the week. He also uses a Web log to connect with the 800 members of National Community Church.
Odeo (odeo.com), a podcast directory, plans to encourage more churches, synagogues and mosques to use them, said Adam Rugel, the Web site's director of content. Odeo lists a broad variety of religious podcasts, including programs from Buddhists, Muslims and Jews.
Despite the variety of religious podcasts, Christian programs make up by far the largest segment of the category. Shows range from recordings made at the kitchen table to slick broadcasts with pulsing music and crisp audio, like that of "RevTim" (www.godcast.org/categories/revtimPodcast/).
The Reverend Tim Hohm, a Protestant minister from El Sobrante, California, makes two 15-minute podcasts a week about family and work issues. He said an average of 6,000 people downloaded the program in the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Mainstream religious broadcasting in the United States has long been dominated by conservative evangelicals like James Dobson and Al Mohler who have daily radio programs and claim audiences of millions. Both now offer some broadcasts as podcasts.
Melissa Rogers, a visiting professor of religion and public policy at the Divinity School at Wake Forest University, called podcasting a good illustration of the entrepreneurial drive behind Christian evangelicals. Nevertheless, Rogers said she did not expect podcasts to replace going to church.
"Podcasts provide a way for people who are very busy these days to get their religion on the fly, but for most people this will be a supplement, not a substitute," she said.
The Godcast Network (godcast.org), which began last October, offers 16 programs of Biblical readings, sermons and Christian rock.
"Rachel's Choice" is a weekly show by Rachel Patchett, the 8-year-old daughter of the network's founder, Craig Patchett, in which she plays a favorite Christian rock song followed by a reading from the Bible.
Most religious podcasts can be subscribed to with RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, a tool for condensing information into a feed. It enables automatic downloading of a new show to the listener's computer as soon the show becomes available.
For podcasters who record prayers or psalms, the function is especially appealing because it offers their listeners easy access to daily devotional readings.
Batterson, for instance, is aiming in the next two years to attract 10,000 subscribers who are looking for doses of spirituality on demand.Click here for a How To Guide for Podcasting the Faith 
BLUE LIKE JAZZ The following is an excerpt from Donald Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz.
When I was in Sunday school as a kid, my teacher put a big poster on the wall that was shaped in a circle like a target. She had us write names of people we knew who weren't Christians on little pieces of paper, and she pinned the names to the outer circle of the target. She said our goal, by the end of the year, was to move those names from the outer ring of the circle, which represented their distance from knowing Jesus, to the inner ring, which represented them having come into a relationship with Jesus. I thought the strategy was beautiful because it gave us a goal, a visual.
I didn't know any people who weren't Christians, but I was a child with a fertile imagination so I made up some names; Thad Thatcher was one and William Wonka was another. My teacher didn't believe me which I took as an insult, but nonetheless, the class was excited the very next week when both Thad and William had become Christians in a dramatic conversion experience that included the dismantling of a large satanic cult and underground drug ring. There was also levitation involved.
Even though they didn't exist, Thad and William were the only people to become Christians all year. Nobody else I knew became a Christian for a very long time…
o o o
When I moved downtown to attend the church Rick started, he was pretty serious about loving people regardless of whether they considered Jesus the Son of God or not, and Rick wanted to love them because they were either hungry, thirsty, or lonely. The human struggle bothered Rick, as if something was broken in the world and we were supposed to hold our palms against the wound. He didn't really see evangelism, or whatever you want to call it, as a target on a wall in which the goal is to get people to agree with us about the meaning of life. He saw evangelism as reaching a felt need. I thought this was beautiful and frightening. I thought it was beautiful because I had this same need; I mean, I really knew I needed Jesus like I need water or food, and yet it was frightening because Christianity is so stupid to so much of our culture, and I absolutely hate bothering people about this stuff.
So much of me believes strongly in letting everybody live their own lives, and when I share my faith, I feel like a network marketing guy trying to build my down line.
Some of my friends who aren't Christians think that Christians are insistent and demanding and intruding, but that isn't the case. Those folks are the squeaky wheel. Most Christians have enormous respect for the space and freedom of others; it is only that they have found a joy in Jesus they want to share. There is the tension.
In a recent radio interview I was sternly asked by the host, who did not consider himself a Christian, to defend Christianity. I told him that I couldn't do it, and moreover, that I didn't want to defend the term. He asked me if I was a Christian, and I told him yes. "Then why don't you want to defend Christianity?" he asked, confused. I told him I no longer knew what the term meant. Of the hundreds of thousands of people listening to his show that day, some of them had terrible experiences with Christianity; they may have been yelled at by a teacher in a Christian school, abused by a minister, or browbeaten by a Christian parent. To them, the term Christianity meant something that no Christian I know would defend. By fortifying the term, I am only making them more and more angry. I won't do it. Stop ten people on the street and ask them what they think of when they hear the word Christianity, and they will give you ten different answers. How can I defend a term that means ten different things to ten different people? I told the radio show host that I would rather talk about Jesus and how I came to believe that Jesus exists and that he likes me. The host looked back at me with tears in his eyes. When we were done, he asked me if we could go get lunch together. He told me how much he didn't like Christianity but how he had always wanted to believe Jesus was the Son of God.
o o o
Each year at Reed they have a festival called Ren Fayre. They shut down the campus so students can party. Security keeps the authorities away, and everybody gets pretty drunk and high, and some people get naked. Friday night is mostly about getting drunk, and Saturday night is about getting high. The school brings in White Bird, a medical unit that specializes in treating bad drug trips. The students create special lounges with black lights and television screens to enhance kids' mushroom trips.
Some of the Christian students in our little group decided this was a pretty good place to come out of the closet, letting everybody know there were a few Christians on campus. Tony the Beat Poet and I were sitting around in my room one afternoon talking about what to do, how to explain who we were to a group of students who, in the past, had expressed hostility toward Christians. Like our friends, we felt like Ren Fayre was the time to do this. I said we should build a confession booth in the middle of campus and paint a sign on it that said "Confess your sins." I said this because I knew a lot of people would be sinning, and Christian spirituality begins by confessing our sins and repenting. I also said it as a joke. But Tony thought it was brilliant. He sat there on my couch with his mind in the clouds, and he was scaring the crap out of me because, for a second, then for a minute, I actually believed he wanted to do it.
"Tony," I said very gently.
"What?" he said, with a blank stare at the opposite wall.
"We are not going to do this," I told him. He moved his gaze down the wall and directly into my eyes. A smile came across his face.
"Oh, we are, Don. We certainly are. We are going to build a confession booth!"
We met in Commons-Penny, Nadine, Mitch, Iven, Tony, and I. Tony said I had an idea. They looked at me. I told them that Tony was lying and I didn't have an idea at all. They looked at Tony. Tony gave me a dirty look and told me to tell them the idea. I told them I had a stupid idea that we couldn't do without getting attacked. They leaned in. I told them that we should build a confession booth in the middle of campus and paint a sign on it that said "Confess your sins." Penny put her hands over her mouth. Nadine smiled. Iven laughed. Mitch started drawing the designs for the booth on a napkin. Tony nodded his head. I wet my pants.
"They may very well burn it down," Nadine said.
"I will build a trapdoor," Mitch said with his finger in the air.
"I like it, Don." Iven patted me on the back.
"I don't want anything to do with it," Penny said.
"Neither do I," I told her.
"Okay, you guys." Tony gathered everybody's attention. "Here's the catch." He leaned in a little and collected his thoughts. "We are not actually going to accept confessions." We all looked at him in confusion. He continued, "We are going to confess to them. We are going to confess that, as followers of Jesus, we have not been very loving; we have been bitter, and for that we are sorry. We will apologize for the Crusades, we will apologize for televangelists, we will apologize for neglecting the poor and the lonely, we will ask them to forgive us, and we will tell them that in our selfishness, we have misrepresented Jesus on this campus. We will tell people who come into the booth that Jesus loves them."
All of us sat there in silence because it was obvious that something beautiful and true had hit the table with a thud. We all thought it was a great idea, and we could see it in each other's eyes. It would feel so good to apologize, to apologize for the Crusades, for Columbus and the genocide he committed in the Bahamas in the name of God, apologize for the missionaries who landed in Mexico and came up through the West slaughtering Indians in the name of Christ. I wanted so desperately to say that none of this was Jesus, and I wanted so desperately to apologize for the many ways I had misrepresented the Lord. I could feel that I had betrayed the Lord by judging, by not being willing to love the people He had loved and only giving lip service to issues of human rights.
For so much of my life I had been defending Christianity because I thought to admit that we had done any wrong was to discredit the religious system as a whole, but it isn't a religious system, it is people following Christ; and the important thing to do, the right thing to do, was to apologize for getting in the way of Jesus.
Later I had a conversation with a very arrogant Reed professor in the parking lot in which he asked me what brought me to Reed. I told him I was auditing a class but was really there to interact with the few Christians who studied at Reed. The professor asked me if I was a Christian evangelist. I told him I didn't think I was, that I wouldn't consider myself an evangelist. He went on to compare my work to that of Captain Cook, who had attempted to bring Western values to indigenous people of Hawaii. He looked me in the eye and said the tribes had killed Cook.
He did not wish me a greater fate at Reed.
All the way home on my motorcycle I fumed and imagined beating the professor into a pulp right there in the parking lot. I could see his sly smile, his intellectual pride. Sure, Christians had done terrible things to humanity, but I hadn't. I had never killed anybody at all. And those people weren't following Jesus when they committed those crimes against humanity. They were government people, and government always uses God to manipulate the masses into following them.
Both Clinton and Bush claim to be followers of Jesus. Anybody who wants to get their way says that Jesus supports their view. But that isn't Jesus' fault. Tony had come to campus a few days earlier, a bit sad in the face. He had seen a bumper sticker on one of the cars in the parking lot that read "Too bad we can't feed Christians to the lions anymore."
I prayed about getting in the confession booth. I wondered whether I could apologize and mean it. I wondered whether I could humble myself to a culture that, to some degree, had wronged us. But I could see in Penny's face, in Iven's eyes, that this was what they wanted; they wanted to love these people, their friends, and it didn't matter to them what it cost. They didn't care how much they had been hurt, and they certainly had more scars than either Tony or I, and so we bought the wood and stored it in my garage, and Friday night we went to the Thesis parade and watched everybody get drunk and beat drums and dance in the spray of beer. Tony and I dressed like monks and smoked pipes and walked among the anarchy, becoming soaked in all the alcohol spewing from within the crowds. People would come up to us and ask what we were doing, and we told them that the next day we would be on campus to take confessions. They looked at us in amazement, sometimes asking us whether we were serious. We told them to come and see us, that we were going to build a confession booth.
The next morning, while everybody was sleeping off their hangovers, Mitch, Tony, and I started building the thing. Mitch had the plans drawn out. The booth was huge, much bigger than I expected, almost like a shed complete with a slanted roof and two small sections inside, one for the monk and the other for the confessor. We built a half-high wall between the two rooms and installed a curtain so the confessor could easily get in and out. On our side we installed a door with a latch so nobody could come in and drag us away. Nadine painted "Confession Booth" in large letters on the outside of the booth.
As the campus started to gather energy, people walking along the sidewalk would ask what we were doing. They stood there looking at the booth in wonder. "What are we supposed to do?" they would ask. "Confess your sins," we told them. "To who?" they would say. "To God," we would tell them. "There is no God," they would explain. Some of them told us this was the boldest thing they had ever seen. All of them were kind, which surprised us.
I stood there outside the booth as a large blue mob started running across campus, all of them, more than a hundred people, naked and painted with blue paint. They ran by the booth screaming and waving. I waved back. Naked people look funny when they are for-real naked, outside-a-magazine naked.
Saturday evening at Ren Fayre is alive and fun. The sun goes down over campus, and shortly after dark they shoot fireworks over the tennis courts. Students lay themselves out on a hill and laugh and point in bleary-eyed fascination. The highlight of the evening is a glow opera that packs the amphitheater with students and friends. The opera is designed to enhance mushroom trips. The actors wear all black and carry colorful puppets and cutouts that come alive in the black light. Everybody ooohs and aaahs.
The party goes till nearly dawn, so though it was late we started working the booth. We lit tiki torches and mounted them in the ground just outside the booth. Tony and Iven were saying that I should go first, which I didn't want to do, but I played bold and got in the booth. I sat on a bucket and watched the ceiling and the smoke from my pipe gather in the dark corners like ghosts. I could hear the rave happening in the student center across campus. I was picturing all the cool dancers, the girls in white shirts moving through the black light, the guys with the turntables in the loft, the big screen with the swirling images and all that energy coming out of the speakers, pounding through everybody's bodies, getting everybody up and down, up and down. Nobody is going to confess anything, I thought. Who wants to stop dancing to confess their sins? And I realized that this was a bad idea, that none of this was God's idea. Nobody was going to get angry, but nobody was going to care very much either.
There is nothing relevant about Christian spirituality, I kept thinking. God, if He is even there, has no voice in this place. Everybody wants to have a conversation about truth, but there isn't any truth anymore. The only truth is what is cool, what is on television, what protest is going on on what block, and it doesn't matter the issue; it only matters who is going to be there and will there be a party later and can any of us feel like we are relevant while we are at the party. And in the middle of it we are like Mormons on bikes. I sat there wondering whether any of this was true, whether Christian spirituality was even true at all. You never question the truth of something until you have to explain it to a skeptic. I didn't feel like explaining it very much. I didn't feel like being in the booth or wearing that stupid monk outfit. I wanted to go to the rave. Everybody in there was cool, and we were just religious.
I was going to tell Tony that I didn't want to do it when he opened the curtain and said we had our first customer.
"What's up, man?" Duder sat himself on the chair with a smile on his face. He told me my pipe smelled good.
"Thanks," I said. I asked him his name, and he said his name was Jake. I shook his hand because I didn't know what to do, really.
"So, what is this? I'm supposed to tell you all of the juicy gossip I did at Ren Fayre, right?" Jake said.
"No."
"Okay, then what? What's the game?" He asked.
"Not really a game. More of a confession thing."
"You want me to confess my sins, right?"
"No, that's not what we're doing, really."
"What's the deal, man? What's with the monk outfit?"
"Well, we are, well, a group of Christians here on campus, you know."
"I see. Strange place for Christians, but I am listening."
"Thanks," I told him. He was being very patient and gracious. "Anyway, there is this group of us, just a few of us who were thinking about the way Christians have sort of wronged people over time. You know, the Crusades, all that stuff . . ."
"Well, I doubt you personally were involved in any of that, man."
"No, I wasn't," I told him. "But the thing is, we are followers of Jesus. We believe that He is God and all, and He represented certain ideas that we have sort of not done a good job at representing. He has asked us to represent Him well, but it can be very hard."
"I see," Jake said.
"So there is this group of us on campus who wanted to confess to you."
"You are confessing to me!" Jake said with a laugh.
"Yeah. We are confessing to you. I mean, I am confessing to you."
"You're serious." His laugh turned to something of a straight face.
I told him I was. He looked at me and told me I didn't have to. I told him I did, and I felt very strongly in that moment that I was supposed to tell Jake that I was sorry about everything.
"What are you confessing?" he asked.
I shook my head and looked at the ground. "Everything," I told him.
"Explain," he said.
"There's a lot. I will keep it short," I started. "Jesus said to feed the poor and to heal the sick. I have never done very much about that. Jesus said to love those who persecute me. I tend to lash out, especially if I feel threatened, you know, if my ego gets threatened. Jesus did not mix His spirituality with politics. I grew up doing that. It got in the way of the central message of Christ. I know that was wrong, and I know that a lot of people will not listen to the words of Christ because people like me, who know Him, carry our own agendas into the conversation rather than just relaying the message Christ wanted to get across. There's a lot more, you know."
"It's all right, man," Jake said, very tenderly. His eyes were starting to water.
"Well," I said, clearing my throat, "I am sorry for all of that."
"I forgive you," Jake said. And he meant it.
"Thanks," I told him.
He sat there and looked at the floor, then into the fire of a candle. "It's really cool what you guys are doing," he said. "A lot of people need to hear this."
"Have we hurt a lot of people?" I asked him.
"You haven't hurt me. I just think it isn't very popular to be a Christian, you know. Especially at a place like this. I don't think too many people have been hurt. Most people just have a strong reaction to what they see on television. All these well-dressed preachers supporting the Republicans."
"That's not the whole picture," I said. "That's just television. I have friends who are giving their lives to feed the poor and defend the defenseless. They are doing it for Christ."
"You really believe in Jesus, don't you?" he asked me.
"Yes, I think I do. Most often I do. I have doubts at times, but mostly I believe in Him. It's like there is something in me that causes me to believe, and I can't explain it."
"You said earlier that there was a central message of Christ. I don't really want to become a Christian, you know, but what is that message?"
"The message is that man sinned against God and God gave the world over to man, and that if somebody wanted to be rescued out of that, if somebody for instance finds it all very empty, that Christ will rescue them if they want; that if they ask forgiveness for being a part of that rebellion then God will forgive them."
"What is the deal with the cross?" Jake asked.
"God says the wages of sin is death," I told him. "And Jesus died so that none of us would have to. If we have faith in that then we are Christians."
"That is why people wear crosses?" he asked.
"I guess. I think it is sort of fashionable. Some people believe that if they have a cross around their neck or tattooed on them or something, it has some sort of mystical power."
"Do you believe that?" Jake asked.
"No," I answered. I told him that I thought mystical power came through faith in Jesus.
"What do you believe about God?" I asked him.
"I don't know. I guess I didn't believe for a long time, you know. The science of it is so sketchy. I guess I believe in God though. I believe somebody is responsible for all of this, this world we live in. It is all very confusing."
"Jake, if you want to know God, you can. I am just saying if you ever want to call on Jesus, He will be there."
"Thanks, man. I believe that you mean that." His eyes were watering again. "This is cool what you guys are doing," he repeated. "I am going to tell my friends about this."
"I don't know whether to thank you for that or not," I laughed. "I have to sit here and confess all my crap."
He looked at me very seriously. "It's worth it," he said. He shook my hand, and when he left the booth there was somebody else ready to get in. It went like that for a couple of hours. I talked to about thirty people, and Tony took confessions on a picnic table outside the booth. Many people wanted to hug when we were done. All of the people who visited the booth were grateful and gracious. I was being changed through the process. I went in with doubts and came out believing so strongly in Jesus I was ready to die and be with Him. I think that night was the beginning of change for a lot of us.
Iven started taking a group to a local homeless shelter to feed the poor, and he often had to turn students away because the van wouldn't hold more than twenty or so. We held an event called Poverty Day where we asked students to live on less than three dollars a day to practice solidarity with the poor. More than one hundred students participated. Penny spoke in Vollum Lounge on the topic of poverty in India, and more than seventy-five students came. Before any of this, our biggest event had about ten people. We hosted an evening where we asked students to come and voice their hostility against Christians. We answered questions about what we believed and explained our love for people, for the hurting, and we apologized again for our own wrongs against humanity and asked for forgiveness from the Reed community. We enjoyed the new friendships we received, and at one time had four different Bible studies on campus specifically for people who did not consider themselves Christians. We watched a lot of students take a second look at Christ. But mostly, we as Christians felt right with the people around us. Mostly we felt forgiven and grateful.
Sometime around two or three in the morning, the night we took confessions, I was walking off the campus with my monk robe under my arm, and when I got to the large oak trees on the outskirts of the font lawn, I turned and looked at the campus. It all looked so smart and old, and I could see the lights coming out of the Student Center, and I could hear the music thumping. There were kids making out on the lawn and chasing each other down the sidewalks. There was laughing and dancing and throwing up.
I felt very strongly that Jesus was relevant in this place. I felt very strongly that if He was not relevant here then He was not relevant anywhere. I felt very peaceful in that place and very sober. I felt very connected to God because I had confessed so much to so many people and had gotten so much off my chest and I had been forgiven by the people I had wronged with my indifference and judgmentalism. I was going to sit there for a little while, but it was cold and the grass was damp. I went home and fell asleep on the couch and the next morning made coffee and sat on the porch at Graceland and wondered whether the things that happened the night before had actually happened. I was out of the closet now. A Christian. So many years before I had made amends to God, but now I had made amends to the world. I was somebody who was willing to share my faith. It felt kind of cool, kind of different. It was very relieving.
Click here to order Blue Like Jazz 
HONORBOUND CONFERENCE The HonorBound Men’s Conference will be at Trinity Assembly of God in Lutherville, Maryland on October 14-15, 2005. Our theme this year is Every Man’s Dream.
John Bevere “An Adventure to Live”
John Bevere leads a multi-faceted international outreach that includes a weekly television program, The Messenger, which broadcasts in 214 nations. He has authored numerous books including The Bait of Satan, The Fear of the Lord, and Under Cover. He will be with us to do two sessions this year on Friday night and Saturday morning.
Terry MacAlmon “The Love of their Father”
Terry is the composer of "I Sing Praises" and has become one of the most well-known and respected worship leaders of today. Terry's heart is to see the body of Christ come to know the Father in a deeper way through intimate worship. Terry will be ministering on Saturday morning.
Dr. Mark Rutland “The Admiration of their Family”
Dr. Mark Rutland is the president of Southeastern College in Lakeland, Florida, and the founder and president of Global Servants, an international missions ministry to provide training and support to national pastors and leaders. He is the author of Character Matters, Nevertheless, and Hanging by a Thread. Dr. Rutland will be speaking on Saturday afternoon.
HOTELS
Most of the Honorbound Conference Hotels we have contracted with are full. If you have yet to book a hotel, I recommend that you search with Travelocity, Expedia or Orbitz for the best rates available.Click here to download the HonorBound brochure 
This Saturday in Reading, Pennsylvania is LEGACY: A Parent/Teen Conference designed to bridge the gap and open communication between parent/teen relationships. Click here for more information on LEGACY. 
Outside the Box # 180 In This Issue: MCNAUGHTON PLANTS A CHURCH • COLORADO • NEW LIFE IN BROWNSVILLE • HONORBOUND CONFERENCE • MCNAUGHTON PLANTS A CHURCH • THE #1 PROBLEM IN MEN'S MINISTRY • PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP COLORADO Colorado was awesome. Sherry and I had a wonderful time at General Council reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. The girls had a great time at Fine Arts and the Youth Services.
We took the next week for vacation and enjoyed seeing elk and moose in Rocky Mountain National Park, bike riding the Vail Pass, white water rafting the Arkansas River, shopping in Breckenridge, eating at Claim Jumper and Bubba Gumps, driving through the garden of the gods, touring Focus on the Family, off-roading up 13,000 foot mountain passes and touring the US Olympic Center.
As we toured the Olympic Facility we enjoyed the stories our guide had to share. At the Olympic pool she pointed out the towing harness. This is a training technique that allows the swimmer to experience swimming at world record pace. She spoke of the day that Michael Phelps got out of the water and for the first time said that he did not feel the pull of the harness. He knew he was at a record breaking pace and would later go on to win 8 Olympic medals.
She also spoke of a trainer that did an internship with the swimmers who was a good athlete but not an Olympic caliber swimmer. At the end of the summer he had talked the swim coach into letting him try the harness and he ended up setting two records: 1) Most time airborne and 2) Most water swallowed!
Sometimes as leaders we feel like Michael Phelps and things seem to be going at a great pace. Sometimes we may feel more like the intern and find ourselves going up and down, gulping for breath and swallowing hard. Yet in both instances the harness rope is attached. It is reassuring to remember that the Lord has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us.
In the Master's Harness,
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
HONORBOUND CONFERENCE The HonorBound Men’s Conference will be at Trinity Assembly of God in Lutherville, Maryland on October 14-15, 2005. Our theme this year is Every Man’s Dream.
John Bevere “An Adventure to Live”
John Bevere leads a multi-faceted international outreach that includes a weekly television program, The Messenger, which broadcasts in 214 nations. He has authored numerous books including The Bait of Satan, The Fear of the Lord, and Under Cover. He will be with us to do two sessions this year on Friday night and Saturday morning.
Terry MacAlmon “The Love of their Father”
Terry is the composer of "I Sing Praises" and has become one of the most well-known and respected worship leaders of today. Terry's heart is to see the body of Christ come to know the Father in a deeper way through intimate worship. Terry will be ministering on Saturday morning.
Dr. Mark Rutland “The Admiration of their Family”
Dr. Mark Rutland is the president of Southeastern College in Lakeland, Florida, and the founder and president of Global Servants, an international missions ministry to provide training and support to national pastors and leaders. He is the author of Character Matters, Nevertheless, and Hanging by a Thread. Dr. Rutland will be speaking on Saturday afternoon.
Honorbound Conference Hotels:
Embassy Suites, Hunt Valley $109.00 410-527-4781
Hilton, Pikesville 108.00 410-653-1100
Comfort Inn, Towson 99.00 410-882-0900
Amerisuites, Owings Mills 95.00 410-998-3630
Hampton Inn, Hunt Valley 84.00 410-527-1500
Click here to download the HonorBound brochure 
THE #1 PROBLEM IN MEN'S MINISTRY Why can't we ever sustain momentum in our men's ministry? Whenever we seem to create some good momentum, it inevitably peters out."
"Sustainability" easily ranks as the # 1 challenge to men's ministry. Many churches-even entire denominations-have quit trying. For many that still have a men's ministry "on the books," it has become an albatross around the pastor's neck. Guess what? It doesn't have to be that way. Here are a number of strategies to help you sustain momentum after the HonorBound Conference.
ALL-INCLUSIVE
Change your church's perception.
Think big! Your men's ministry is probably much bigger than your church leadership has been thinking. Don't think of your men's ministry as a small group of your most committed men. Six men meeting on Wednesday morning at 6:30 a.m. does not a men's ministry make. Men's ministry is "everything we do in our church that affects men." Have a plan to disciple every willing man in the church - ushers, parkers, choir, Sunday school teachers, elders, deacons and pew warmers -right where they are.
RELEVANT
Offer intentional content.
Imagine you will have a man and his family for 5 years. What are the lessons so important that if he should leave without getting them, you will have failed him? This, then, becomes the content of your discipleship program. Sustain momentum by scratching where men really itch. If you offer the right content, men will come.
MODEL
Challenge leadership to model what you're trying to create.
Don't just be a committee: pray, study, fellowship, and care for each other. In other words, model what you want to build. If the leadership team models authentic relationships, in due time men will see that and want to be part of it. Also, it is doubtful if you can ever sustain momentum among men if the leaders can't sustain momentum among themselves.
FOCUS
Coordinate disciple-making methods on a theme.
Sustain momentum by picking a theme (whether for a week, a month, or the year), then focus your entire church on that theme. The "constituted means" to make disciples are preaching, teaching, Bible studies, small groups, private devotions, mentoring, seminars, retreats, informal discussions, and leadership training. The 40 Days of Purpose program has shown just how effective it can be to point all the arrows in the same direction.
A SYSTEM
Reach new men by repeating the cycle.
Build a system that periodically "starts over" to reach other men who may be ready now, but not then. Man in the Mirror's "Create, Capture, and Sustain" model can show you how to build a sustainable men's ministry system (www.maninthemirror.org).
SERVICE
Send your men out to serve.
Sustain what you have by sending your men out. Once a man has grown to a point that he has a grateful heart, he will want to serve his Lord. He is no disciple who never wants to serve Christ. On the other hand, until a man has enough Jesus for himself, don't ask him to give away what he himself lacks.
SYNERGY
Foster interdisciplinary cooperation.
Sustain you men's ministry by meeting periodically with all the other ministry department heads. Suggest an "Interdisciplinary Discipleship Council" that meets quarterly. The more you know about each other's plans, the better total church planning you can do. Also, the visibility for men's ministry will create respect for the need to disciple men and the impact men have on the rest of the family members and church.
EXPECTATIONS
Manage your expectations.
Are you frustrated that you want men to succeed more than they do themselves? That's a formula for leadership dropout. Don't expect more than the Bible promises. Expect men to drop away every time you ask for deeper levels of commitment. On the other hand, don't expect less than the Bible promises. Many times the problem is not that our plans are too big, but too small. Raise expectations.
INTERGENERATIONAL
Create an emphasis on youth.
Almost 9 out of 10 teenagers will drop out of church by the end of their senior year in high school, and only 5 will return - 40% permanently drop out. Sustain momentum among your men by creating rites of passage that connect men and boys through sports, recreational activity, and small groups.
A SHEPHERD MODEL
Recruit "shepherds" to lead small groups.
Possibly the most important thing is to make sure your men really feel like somebody cares about them. You can experience a quantum leap in effectiveness when you change your leadership model from "teaching" to "shepherding." What men really need is someone who cares about them personally.Adapted from Patrick Morley and David Delk 
NEW LIFE IN BROWNSVILLE New Life Assembly of God in Brownsville is being given a fresh opportunity to grow as a church, thanks to a partnership formed with Faith Assembly of God in Uniontown, which is offering the congregation a new pastor, ministry teams and the prospect for a new life. "We have an Assembly of God church in Brownsville that was on the verge of closing,'' said the Rev. Don Immel, pastor at Faith Assembly of God. "The congregation had dwindled to a handful of folks. We didn't want to see that church close. Where there are people, there is a need.''
The church, formerly known as Maranatha Assembly of God, found help in Faith Assembly, a strong congregation with many ministries where weekly attendance is 600.
"There's a new model of church planting called the cathedral model or satellite model where a strong, established church founds or adopts an existing church to see that work established or continued,'' Immel explained. "We've adopted the Brownsville family. Maranatha is now New Life.''
Located at 126 Brownsville Ave. near the Brownsville post office, New Life changed its name in July and is now being pastored by the Rev. Mike Outrich, who became a minister while a member of Faith Assembly.
At the Uniontown church, Outrich taught Bible study, Sunday school, was secretary of the board of deacons, did a Cleansing Stream seminar and was transportation minister.
At New Life, he is being joined by his wife, Barb, and their children, Tony, 20; Jamie, 17; and Jessica, 7.
"I'm really excited because it gives me an opportunity to be a minister and I'm not on my own. I have help, good, solid help with methods that have been tried,'' said Outrich. "I don't see any bad in it. I only see success. I don't see failure. I see promise.''
The family is one of five who have been released from Faith Assembly to do ministry in Brownsville. Outrich said the families are handling youth and children's ministries, operating a nursery service and taking on worship teams.
All of them will participate in a commissioning service on Sunday, Aug. 28, at 6 p.m. at New Life, presided by Immel. Besides the Outrich families, the former Faith Assembly members include the Hudocks, Jenkins, Wargo families and Ginger Stark.
Outrich explained the Faith Assembly members volunteered to work in New Life and Immel noted that all of them are experienced in their ministries.
Results are already being felt.
"Since the transition, attendance has tripled. We had 35 at worship (on a recent Sunday). In the summer, that's good news and it's a trend we anticipate will continue,'' said Immel.
The commissioning service will be the official launching of New Life and a start of many events the two churches will do together.
"When Faith Assembly conducts an outreach event, New Life will conduct an outreach in Brownsville,'' said Immel. "On Sept. 11, we'll have our annual Friends Day outreach and so will New Life.''
Outrich explained that New Life will actually celebrate a Family and Friends Weekend. Saturday, Sept. 10, which will be Family Day that includes children's activities beginning at 2 p.m. with members of the Gettysburg Masters Commission. The activities include an inflatable Kiddie Pillar and Sumo wresting suits. Singer Mary Beth Rudder will perform at 3 p.m. and The Switch, a teen Christian band, will perform at 4:30 p.m. A comedy team called The Skinny Improv from Springfield, Mo., performs at 7 p.m. There will be picnic food available all day.
On Sunday, Sept. 11, New Life will observe Friend Day, with an award going to the person who brings the most friends and the message being "I Have a Friend in Jesus.''
Outrich said, "We hope to get our name out to the community, that New Life can bring hope and life to the residents of Brownsville.''
Immel said, "We hope this pilot will be a successful model that we will be able to replicate in years to come. Our desire is to look at communities where a healthy Pentecostal church would be a possibility and plant churches in those communities in the future.''
New Life Assembly of God's schedule of services includes: Sunday school at 9:30 a.m., Sunday worship at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., and Family Night on Thursday, beginning at 7 p.m. with adult Bible study, a youth group meeting and children's activities that officials hope to turn into a children's service.
For more information on New Life, phone the church at 724-785-7141.By Frances Borsodi Zajac, Herald-Standard 
MCNAUGHTON PLANTS A CHURCH This fall, Professor Dan McNaughton is launching a church in Spring-Ford. Here are some details you may find interesting...
Tom: Why start this new church? How is it that you believe God has worked to bring you to planting this church?
Dan: My passion to one day plant a church began in 1981 when I had the opportunity to help start a church in Mexico City with my pastor, Rev. David Godwin, and a team from Oak Cliff Assembly of God, Dallas, TX. After that trip, I wanted to plant churches on the foreign mission field. I explored helping a missionary in Europe plant churches and even attended sessions at School of Missions as a guest because of this desire. I attempted to walk towards becoming a foreign missionary but the Lord did not allow us to go that way. Instead, the Lord led my wife and me to help plant a church in Danvers, MA, in 1984. That church was mothered by Evangel Temple, Springfield, MO, where we attended during college. One year later, we helped plant a second church, Boston Worship Center, in the North End of Boston, while I completed an M.A.T.S. in Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Although the desire was still there to plant churches, the Lord took us down a path of pastoring and teaching in the North America. I worked toward the completion of a Ph.D. in Old Testament and served as an Assistant Pastor in two churches: New Covenant Tabernacle, Buffalo, NY; and, Stone Church, Toronto, Ontario. I learned valuable ministry and relational lessons at each place. Then, the Lord directed us to come to Valley Forge Christian College, where I have taught Bible and Christian Living courses for the past 10 years. I have also taught various Sunday School classes, been involved in the worship ministry in local churches and have ministered occasionally in other churches in the region. In the back of my mind, however, I have always wondered if one day the Lord was going to let me plant a church. For this reason, I kept a notebook and a computer file of ideas these 20 years in preparation for this day.
For the past 10 years I have thought on-and-off about church planting in the area. Approximately two years ago, I began to feel the stirrings toward being involved in planting a church in the area. When I would walk or run in our neighborhood or go to public gatherings, I often felt a pain of sorrow for the many who do no know Jesus and so I would pray, “Lord, send someone who can reach these people and I will help.” I have prayed for people by name in our neighborhood. I have given vegetables from my garden as acts of kindness in hopes that one day the door would open to talk about Jesus. This burden has continued to grow. Then, a little over a year ago, Grace Assembly of God, Spring City, PA, announced their intention and desire to mother a church in the area. I was excited and informally tried to help find the right person to be the pastor. Several candidates were interviewed but the right person did not emerge. All the while, I continued to feel a tug on my heart to do it but I was wrestling with the logistics. I am very happy being a Bible professor at VFCC. But the burden and the thought would not leave. So I prayed that if the Lord wanted me to do it, he would have Pastor Mason ask me. In June of 2004, Pastor Mason, at the encouragement of our sectional presbyter, Brian Koch, and the Sectional Committee, asked me to consider providing leadership to a new church in the area. I took that as a strong indication that I should walk towards the door of becoming a church planter knowing that where the Lord calls, the Lord provides.
After a week or two of prayer, I visited with Bryan Koch, who listened to the vision the Lord had given to me. At the end, we prayed together and he encouraged me to go through the Church Planter’s Assessment which I did in August 2004. The assessment was positive. God provided the finances and the time away from my classes to attend the Penn-Del Church Planter’s Bootcamp in November 2004, where my burden and vision began to take shape.
In November, I met with Dr. Meyer, President of VFCC, and received his blessing and encouragement to plant this church and to develop a church planter’s laboratory to train and develop church planting teams. The Lord gave me a vision for a Church Planting Concentration which has been approved and added into the 2005-2006 VFCC Academic Catalogue.
The Lord also provided the time and the finances to attend a Church Planter’s Summit in Phoenix, AZ, where Rev. Charles Hackett committed to give $10,000 to help start this church. That money came to me just a few days ago.
Convinced that the Lord has called me to do this, I met with Penn-Del District Supt., Rev. Steven Tourville, to share my vision for the church. He encouraged me to pursue this. All of these things and many more have occurred to confirm that God has indeed called me to lead a team of people to plant a church in the area around the college for His honor and glory.
Tom: What is your vision? What will this church look like in five years?
Dan: We will be a church that reaches out to young (20-40 somethings), educated, unchurched professionals and their families. In order to reach these people, the church will be professionally casual and open. We will welcome every person who comes with a friendly conversation and a cup of Starbucks coffee or fresh orange juice.
Everyone, including children, will worship together. Our music will be contemporary and energetic. After praise and worship we will dismiss our children to attend a fun, creative and safe program designed specifically for their age level. The adults will experience a relevant, practical, biblical teaching designed to reach people who are seeking God in their lives. We will use a variety of methods to support the biblical truths: video, drama, fill-in notes coordinated with the PowerPoint. People who desire to follow Christ will be invited to pray with the presenter and to indicate their desire on a registration card. People will be available after the service for discussion and prayer if people are interested. Each visitor will receive a welcome letter from the lead pastor and an invitation to attend a small group from one of the small group facilitators.
The person who commits his or her life to Christ will be invited to attend a new believer’s class and a subsequent series of classes to help him or her become a committed follower of Jesus. These classes will include a Partner’s Class (what it means to be part of this congregation), a Growth Class (developing spiritual disciplines), Networking (finding a place of service), and Becoming a Contagious Christian (how to share about Jesus). These classes may occur on Sunday am prior to the service or at other convenient times.
Each person in the congregation will be encouraged to be part of a small group of committed believers. In time, we will have growth, task, recovery, support, and seeker small groups. We will develop growth groups first. These groups will focus on four things: Welcome, Worship, Word, and Works. The groups will exist to edify each believer and to reach out to the lost. In the welcome, each person will answer a non-threatening question to help others get to know him or her. The worship will include praise, worshipping, and listening. The word time will emphasize the application of the Sunday a.m. message. The works time will include prayer and planning to reach out to the lost. Task groups will include the four W’s but the emphasis will be on doing service. Recovery groups will help individuals get free from life-controlling habits. Support groups will create an environment where burdens can be shared by others. Seeker small groups will invite provide a non-threatening atmosphere for people who do not know Christ to ask questions and to get to know Christians while doing something they enjoy.
We will be a congregation that reaches out to the community through special events and special seminars, such as an community service, an relationship seminars, time and financial management seminars, Easter Egg Hunt, the Alpha Course (Feb. – April and Oct-Dec.), Athletic Camps (June-July), Kid’s Camp (July), and a Christmas Program (Dec.).
We will be a congregation that is friendly and supportive to students. We will provide a context in which students, many from VFCC, can find community, get involved in service and train for relevant ministry. We will also be a laboratory church for church planters who attend VFCC. Each planter will be able to come alongside each coach to learn and develop their skills so they are ready to go when the time is right. It is my plan and desire to plant our first church, five years from now. After that, I hope we can plant at least one church each year until Jesus comes.
Tom: Why is there a need for a new church in this area?
Dan: There are approx. 91,246 people who live in zip codes 19426, 19460, 19468 (Royersford, Phoenixville, and Collegeville). Approximately 31,485 have no faith involvement and another 28,301 have only a moderate faith involvement. Although 73,038 have a preference for historic Christianity, only 31,508 have a strong faith involvement. There is no Assemblies of God congregation in Phoenixville, Collegeville, or Royersford.
Tom: What kind of church are you trying to plant?
What is the mission statement and what are the core values of your new church?
Dan: Our mission is...
• To help connect young (20-40’s), unchurched, educated, professionals and the families to God and their community by:
o Providing relaxed, focused, time-conscious, unmanipulated, and relevant opportunities to connect with God
o Providing quality and meaningful programs for children and youth
o Providing financial and time management seminars
o Providing meaningful small group experiences
o Providing relationship support seminars
• To mentor VFCC students and church planters who want a place to serve and be mentored into ministry
Our core beliefs are:
1. The Empowering Work of the Holy Spirit (Expect the Unexpected) – We will seek the indwelling, empowerment, and direction of the Holy Spirit in our lives and our community so we can fulfill God’s mission to reach His world with His love. (John 14:14-31; John 16:5-16; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:15-20; Acts 1:8; 2:4; 2:42-47; 4:31; 10:34-48; 11:22-24; 13:1-3; 15:1-29; 16:6-10; 19:1-7)
2. Prayer (Without Him we can do nothing) – We will seek God’s direction and heart in everything we are and do. (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 3:1; 4:23-31; 8:15; 9:40; 10:9; 12:5; 13:3; 16:25; 28:8; Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:9)
3. Discipleship (In His Steps) – We will seek to help each person know, love and obey Jesus with everything he/she is and has (Dt. 6:4-9; Matt. 22:37-40; 28:18-20) in the following ways:
a. Authentic Relationships in Small Groups – We will love God, have fun together, celebrate our victories, mourn our defeats, care for one another in small groups. (Matt. 9:36; 18:15-20; Luke 7:34; John 13:34-35; Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-36; 6:1-7; 11:27-30; 1 Cor. 12:21-27; 14:26-40; 1 Thess. 5:11-12; Gal. 6:1-10; Heb. 3:1-6; 1 John 4:8; 1 Peter 2:4-5
b. Family Support (Family First) – We will support and encourage the development of strong family relationships, believing that God has established the family to be his primary method of influence for future generations of Christians. (Deut. 6:4-9)
c. Equipping for Service (Everyone is important) – We will help each person discover, develop and do what God has designed him/her to be and to do (Deut. 6:4-9; Eph. 4:11-16; 1 Cor. 12-14; 1 Peter 4:10; Rom. 12:1-8; John 15:1-8).
4. Relevance
a. Practical Biblical Teaching (Follow the Script) – The Bible interpreted in context will be our only source for what we believe, what we do and how we act towards others (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:42-47; 2 Tim. 3:16-17).
b. Meaningful Worship Experiences – We will worship God in the meaningful idioms of this culture. (Acts 3, etc)
c. Reaching the Unchurched – We will share Jesus in ways that answers the questions and needs of the people we are trying to reach. (Mark 1:17; Luke 15; Acts 1:8; 2:41-47; 4:32-37; 8:4-8; 8:26-40; 9:32-35, 36; 10:34-43; 11:19-21; 13:6-12, 13-48; 14:8-18; 16:13-40; 17:16-31; 1 Peter 2:11-12; 3:8-22)
5. Quality (It’s worth doing right) – We will live out and celebrate our Christianity with commitment, energy, excellence and enthusiasm - a “leave it all on the field” approach to following Christ. (Matt. 5:6-7; Matt. 25; Acts 2:46-47; Col. 3:23-24; Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 14:26-40)
6. Creative and Simple Structure (No sacred cows) – Structure will be developed to support our mission: service days and times, locations, service titles, programs, worship styles. When an existing structure no longer fulfills our mission, we will put it to rest. (Exod. 18; Acts 10; 14:21-23; 15:1-35)
7. Diversity (Everyone belongs) – We will endeavor to reflect the cultural mosaic of our community in our leadership team and in our constituents (Acts 6:1-7; 10:44-45; 13:1-3; Rev. 7:9; 14:6). We will reach out to all people regardless of their ethnic, social, economic, or political background.
8. Transcendent Giving and Sending Opportunities – We will be a church that recognizes God’s call on every Christian to go into the world with the message of hope through Jesus Christ. Some will go across the street. Some will go to different places in our country. Some will go around the world. We will celebrate when God sends someone and/or lets us participate by giving others can go to reach the lost wherever they are found. We expect God to allow us to help plant many churches in our region and throughout the world. (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 13:1-3; Luke 15)
Tom: What is the timeline for your church plant?
Dan: I see the following tentative timeline:
Feb. 2005
• Continue Tuesday lunch prayer meeting at VFCC for the church plant
• Continue training potential helpers from VFCC during a 7 part Chapel Elective Series on Church Planting
• Start a weekly leadership cell group to train Launch Team Leaders and their families (6 weeks)
• Continue Team Building with leaders on Wed. evenings
• Continue to meet individually with individual Launch Team Leaders to develop vision and plan in their specific areas
March 2005
• Start Networking training for Launch Team Leaders and VFCC helpers (8 weeks) on Sunday a.m. during Sunday School at Grace Assembly or in my home.
• Begin training VFCC small group leaders in preparation for Fall 2005 groups (6 weeks)
April 2005
• Start training Launch Team Leaders on Alpha (10 weeks)
• Have a corporate prayer meeting with the entire Launch Team
• Interview each person who goes through spiritual gifts and involvement course to see where they will be involved
• Secure a location for a Fall 2005 public launch
May 2005
• Begin going door-to-door in the Limerick, Royersford, Collegeville area to talk to people and prayer walk
• Have a corporate prayer meeting with the entire Launch Team
• Continue Alpha group training
June 2005
• Continue Alpha group training
• Continue door-to-door
• Have a corporate prayer meeting with the entire Launch Team
July 2005
• Launch team starts small groups
August 2005
• Begin training teams for Sept. 18th launch: ushers, greeters, music, drama, video, hospitality
• Begin to canvas targeted area for Sept. 18th launch
• Start VFCC small groups
September 2005
• Launch the public service September 18th
1. Welcome Team: Greeters, Hospitality Area, Ushers, Small Group Leaders
2. Creative Arts Team: Worship, Drama, Video, Sound
3. Preaching
4. Children’s Ministry Team – Nursery and The Net during service
• Small Groups
October 2005
• Start partnership meetings on Sunday am before service
• Start Sunday School for Children
• Launch new small groups
November 2005
• Start spiritual growth training on Sunday am before service
Jan. 2006
• Launch new small groups
• Week of Prayer
• Start Evangelism training on Sunday am before service
March 2006
• Do Easter Egg Hunt Outreach
• Launch Alpha Course
• Start Networking training on Sunday am before service
• Start Partnership training on Sunday am before service
April 2006
• Launch new small groups
May
• Start Growth training on Sunday am before service
• Start Financial Management training on Sunday am before service
June-August 2006
• Basketball and Soccer Athletic Camps
• Kid’s Camp Outreach
September 2006
• Begin Parenting Seminars
• Partnership training on Sunday am
October 2006
• Purpose Driven Church with Groups
• Sponsor Light the Night Sites
• Alpha Course
• Growth Training on Sunday am
November 2006
• Thanksgiving Outreach for Foreign Students
December 2006
• Christmas Outreach to Foreign Students
• Christmas Drama/Musical Outreach
Jan. 2007
• Launch new small groups
• Week of Prayer
• Partnership, Networking and Evangelism training on Sunday am before service
(Repeat above yearly pattern)
March 2010
• Plant a church in the Philadelphia area
To be added to Spring Valley Community Church's Prayer Letter, you can e-mail Professor McNaughton at
dlmcnaughton@vfcc.edu.
Click here for Steps to Planting a Church in Penn-Del 
PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP Boot Camp is coming to Penn-Del on November 7-10, 2005. It is an effective, adult-based form of learning that focuses more on the practitioner than the presenter in that it is hands-on learning with a personal coach. Sessions include group activities, reflection, planning, skill-building and vision-developing exercises. BootCamp includes the following strategic components:
New Church Planter Training
You will work through six strategic questions that must be answered and acted on if you hope to successfully plant a new church. You will be supported by dedicated coaches and facilitators who will assist you in a powerful discovery process designed to prepare you for an effective “launch.”
Church Health Training
Experienced facilitators and coaches will guide you in the formation of a strategic plan intended to maximize the ability of your church to fulfill its divine purpose. You will discover how to overcome common barriers to ministry effectiveness and church health.
Coaches Training
You will be introduced to foundational principles of coaching. Coaching is simply coming alongside another leader and helping them succeed! You will be exposed to proven concepts of effective coaching and have the opportunity to immediately put them into practice as you assist other leaders in their BootCamp experience. Coaches can choose to coach in either track.
Basic Assessment Training
You will be introduced to the fundamentals of the “behavioral interview.” This tool has been used effectively to help in the selection of church planters.
What’s Next?
This one-day training happens on Monday and is designed to help you strategize your next steps. Mark Morrow from Williamsburg, Virginia will be teaching on preparing your Constitution and Bylaws and developing your leadership team. Free for Boot Camp Alumni and friends.
Penn-Del credential holders can apply the Continuing Education Grant to Penn-Del BootCamp. For more information contact me at tom@penndel.org.Click here to download the Boot Camp brochure 
Outside the Box # 179 In This Issue: TAKING A BREAK • SPEEDING • ED YOUNG ON TAKING A BREAK • MINISTRY IN MAYBERRY • SCHEDULING BREAKS • SIX CHALLENGES FOR SMALL CHURCHES • PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP SPEEDING Britney, my youngest turned 16 earlier this month and is diligently preparing for her driver’s permit test. Last week as she was studying she asked me, “Dad, how fast are you really allowed to go over the speed limit?”
Of course I laughed as I imagined what the reaction would be if she was stopped by a State Trooper and in all seriousness told him that she remembered her dad saying you could get away with going five miles over the speed limit without getting a ticket.
I then gave her the answer she needed to hear, “Brit, the speed limit is just what it says on the sign!”
In all truth isn’t this how many of us live our lives? Ed Young says, “One constant I've noticed in churches, regardless of size, is that a leader's schedule usually runs at an insane, NASCAR-speed pace.”
Somehow we need that reminder that working seven days a week without a Sabbath is not healthy or Biblical.
What does your speed gauge say?
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
MINISTRY IN MAYBERRY Every small church pastor has to stop by MayberryChurch.com and listen to the podcasts! It's about ministry when your not Saddleback and you find yourself up a Willow Creek.
The "hosts", Randy and Dennis used to pastor in the big city in larger churches. Now they are on the coast of Oregon in a town of less than 10,000. Their broadcast will make you laugh, but the primary goal is to encourage and equip pastors in smaller churches.
Click here to listen to the Mayberry podcasts 
SIX CHALLENGES FOR SMALL CHURCHES In "Entering the World of the Small Church" author Anthony Pappas says that small churches must find a way to get beyond their current barriers. Here are the six challenges he believes are faced by small churches today:
1. Traditionalism threatens the future of our small churches.
Traditionalism, namely, the attitude that what has been must always be, is the argument for never trying anything new: “We’ve never done it that way
before.” For example, even if statistics would show that 90 percent of persons under the age of forty can’t stand organ music, small-church folk may think this fact less significant than the fact that “we do organ here!” Of course, there is much good in what has been and much we should preserve. But God also calls us to new things, new places, and new ways. Can we recapture not the behaviors of the past that have led to our present traditions but the pioneering spirit that shaped those behaviors in the first place? If we can, there is hope.
2. “Niceness” threatens our small churches.
Certainly church members should be nice and polite, you say. How can niceness be a threat? Granted, being nice is more a goal for some churches than others, but it becomes a threat when being nice is more important than speaking the truth in love. In one congregation a person with bipolar disorder nearly ran the church into the ground. Members focused on being polite lived in terror of his next explosion. Other members dropped out. Community members aware of the problem refused to join. Finally only a handful of cowed, depressed folk were left, all because the congregation was too nice to discipline unacceptable behavior or push him into getting help. Jesus was meek, but he was not always nice. He could assert himself and confront people. When something of eternal value was threatened, he had the chutzpah to speak out. Small churches that don’t advocate health now may not have the option tomorrow.
3. A “club” mentality threatens our small churches.
A club exists for the satisfaction of its membership. The church of Jesus Christ does not! Now, I am not saying that small-church members need to be dissatisfied. But a little holy dissatisfaction wouldn’t hurt. We need to remember that the Body of Christ must always be about the business of sharing good news with those not yet within the congregation. Churches that have lost their heart for evangelism are living out their final chapter.
4. Paralysis in the face of conflict threatens small churches.
Wherever there is life there is conflict. Some conflict is healthy. Indeed, it stretches people’s understandings, it motivates them to strive for excellence, it helps them to see greater options, it even saves us from boredom. But conflict that is endemic or extreme will poison and then paralyze a congregation. Christians fall prey to the misunderstanding that disagreements are of the devil. Conflict is resolved neither by denying it nor by avoiding it. Progress is frozen in many small churches because the members have never learned how to fight in a Christlike manner, that is, they haven’t learned to speak their truth with love, to strive for win-win outcomes, or to subordinate their positions to God’s will. So either the conflict degenerates into destructive patterns or the factions become locked in immovable positions. Neither helps. “Agreeable disagreement” must be learned.
5. Negative “scripts” threaten small churches.
Some small churches are dying by their own lines, lines such as “We’re too small,” “Nothing we try ever works,” “What’s the use?” or “Where are the ‘good old days’?” One of my churches closed a few months ago. In the conversation that led to its closure I inquired about recent outreach efforts. The leadership informed me that the congregation had offered a series of public seminars, but “only one or two new people came.” Parishioners told themselves they had failed. I said, “Two people represent 10 percent of your current congregation. If you could have loved them into joining, you would be among the fastest-growing churches in the country!” But their script, not mine, prevailed, and death was the result.
6. The cost of our buildings is a threat to small churches.
Although many small churches have attractive, serviceable, appropriately located, and fairly well maintained buildings, many do not. One of my churches has a mortgage payment larger than all its other expenses combined. Another will be anteing up around $100,000 to clean up an old oil tank. Many have
thirty to forty worshipers strewn about a sanctuary that will seat three to four hundred. One faced repairs so costly that it chose to knock the building down! Our church buildings do have spiritual significance beyond their bricks and boards. But the community of Jesus Christ must not be allowed to degenerate into a building-preservation club. It will lose its spiritual edge and its message of salvation and hope.
Click here to order Anthony Pappas's book 
ED YOUNG ON TAKING A BREAK Taking time off is a must for church leaders.
Here is why and how to do it.
I've had the opportunity to see the inner workings of church life from an early age-I grew up as a PK (preacher's kid), I'm a pastor, and I've been in churches ranging from several hundred to more than 20,000 in attendance. One constant I've noticed in churches, regardless of size, is that a leader's schedule usually runs at an insane, NASCAR-speed pace. The truly great leaders in these churches, though, understand a basic, yet absolutely critical principle for surviving the marathon of ministry. They draw away on a regular basis. Because here's the bottom line, leaders—if you don't take scheduled breaks, your schedule will break you.
God created and then He rested. He's built that rhythm into our lives. And it's amazing when you look at the life of Jesus Christ to see how many times He pulled back and gave himself some time alone during his ministry. We were not designed to run on and on and on without stopping. If we aren't getting rejuvenated and refreshed regularly, we won't be able to give the 100% we want to our church, our staff, our family, and ultimately to God. If we are emotionally drained, we are susceptible to all types of temptations and sins. That's why so many people end up on the side of the road in a ditch, because they did not pay attention to this.
Let me share with you some of what I've learned throughout the years about taking breaks:
1) We should take time off daily.
We should find at least 15-30 minutes a day to do something replenishing, whether it's working out, reading a book, going to the driving range, or taking a walk.
2) We should take time off weekly.
We should have a weekly Sabbath, a day when we do zero concerning the church. The church can become very seductive, like a mistress, so on that day don't call the church, don't work the cell phone, and don't stop by the church. I would challenge you to do something that really recharges your batteries during that time.
3) We should take time off quarterly.
You should at least take one weekend off per quarter that does not count against your vacation time. We've put this provision in place for all of our staff that work weekends and it has made such a huge difference.
4) We should take time off yearly.
Everyone should at least take one or two extended breaks a year. Shoot for two weeks away to allow enough time to completely unwind and renew yourself.
Taking time off will develop other communicators.
I love to see how God uses unique people to communicate in unique ways. It's thrilling for me to hear about how God has blessed a weekend when I wasn't even a part of it.
When you take time off, you'll hear God in a deeper and more profound way.
Without that weekend wave cresting over my head, I can disengage and be a regular guy. During one break, I stopped in at a little coffee shop after a long run and was reading the paper. I was scanning the editorial section, something I don't normally give myself time to do, and saw this headline that said, "Uncertainty—the key word in our culture today." As I read it, God said to me, "Ed, that's a sermon series." Boom, I came back and it was one of the best sermon series we've ever done.
Don't let ego get in the way of taking time off.
It's tempting to feel like, "Man I'm the only one who can do that, I'm the only one that can really preach, I'm the only one that can really sing…" No you're not, no I'm not, we're not the only ones. God wants to use other people, and some of us are so dominated by pride that we're afraid if we're not there, someone might step up and actually do a better job than us or that things might fall apart. I truly believe that leadership is measured more by your absence than your presence.
You won't know how badly you need time off until you're off.
You don't realize the energy that you are utilizing emotionally, spiritually, and physically until you take a break. The enemy wants to keep you going so fast that you stress out and dry up, because he doesn't want your church to thrive. But if we draw away regularly, we can get off that downward spiral, recalibrate, and stay focused on what God wants to do in our ministries.
I understand there are certain times when you're starting a church that you've got to have a huge energy burst. But I would challenge you, after that first year, to start doing what we're talking about right now. Taking regular breaks communicates powerful stuff to your spouse, to your kids and to your church about your priorities. I surround myself with great people who hold me accountable on this.
From the Creative Pastors Blog 
SCHEDULING BREAKS When is there a good time in ministry to take a break? Since the weekends don't stop, it's tempting to feel like we shouldn't stop either. When attendance is low, you might think you need to be there so more people will show up. Don't fall for that! There are certain times of the year when your numbers will dip no matter who is speaking.
You should look at your calendar and find those natural times when attendance might be flat and take advantage of that. Also, check out your schedule and see where you are going to expend the most energy. Try to line up a break after those big events or seasons.
Here's a look at our slower attendance times when you might consider taking a break from speaking:
* The weekend after Christmas
* The first weekend of the New Year
* Spring Break
* Memorial Day weekend
* Summertime, particularly in July
* The weekend after Thanksgiving
Taking a break is a great time to develop other speakers, and also allows other ministries to be in the spotlight.
Here are three more quick break strategies...
1) Don't announce to your church members that you are going to be gone. Too many people like to use that as an excuse for skipping the weekend service. Keep the element of surprise in the speaking schedule so that they will show up and be blessed by your other speakers.
2) If you are in town during your time off, consider introducing the speaker. This will show your buy-in and remind your church that you enjoy learning from other speakers too.
3) If you will be out of town, think about recording a video introduction for the speaker. It is a great way to maintain your presence in the church while you are on a break. You might even want to add a teaser for an upcoming series.
Need a cheap get away? Click here to find out accepted Priceline bids 
PENN-DEL LEADERSHIP BOOT CAMP Boot Camp is coming to Penn-Del on November 7-10, 2005. It is an effective, adult-based form of learning that focuses more on the practitioner than the presenter in that it is hands-on learning with a personal coach. Sessions include group activities, reflection, planning, skill-building and vision-developing exercises. BootCamp includes the following strategic components:
New Church Planter Training
You will work through six strategic questions that must be answered and acted on if you hope to successfully plant a new church. You will be supported by dedicated coaches and facilitators who will assist you in a powerful discovery process designed to prepare you for an effective “launch.”
Church Health Training
Experienced facilitators and coaches will guide you in the formation of a strategic plan intended to maximize the ability of your church to fulfill its divine purpose. You will discover how to overcome common barriers to ministry effectiveness and church health.
Coaches Training
You will be introduced to foundational principles of coaching. Coaching is simply coming alongside another leader and helping them succeed! You will be exposed to proven concepts of effective coaching and have the opportunity to immediately put them into practice as you assist other leaders in their BootCamp experience. Coaches can choose to coach in either track.
Basic Assessment Training
You will be introduced to the fundamentals of the “behavioral interview.” This tool has been used effectively to help in the selection of church planters.
What’s Next?
This one-day training happens on Monday and is designed to help you strategize your next steps. Mark Morrow from Williamsburg, Virginia will be teaching on preparing your Constitution and Bylaws and developing your leadership team. Free for Boot Camp Alumni and friends.
Penn-Del credential holders can apply the Continuing Education Grant to Penn-Del BootCamp. For more information contact me at tom@penndel.org.Click here to download the Boot Camp brochure 
Outside the Box # 178 In This Issue: CELEBRATING VICTORIES • WE REJOICE! • GENEROPOLY • LEARN TO CELEBRATE THE VISION • 5 WAYS WE GROW ATTENDANCE • JULY FOURTH VIDEO • TRINITY COMMUNITY CHURCH WE REJOICE! Life is full of challenges and if we are not careful we can spend all of our time going from one thing to another without stopping and celebrating the victories.
• Last week we began the process of pulling up our garden mulch and replacing it with landscaping stone. We spent Friday and Saturday laying down 10 tons in the front of our home. When we look at how nice it looks… WE REJOICE! (Until this Wednesday when another 10 tons is delivered for the back).
• On Friday, Britney celebrates her sweet sixteen birthday. As we look at the Christian young woman she is becoming… WE REJOICE! (Until she gets her driver’s permit and then we worry).
• Take that little church we almost closed two years ago. Pastor Jan called on Sunday to let me know that someone stopped by the church and gave her a check before the service started. They received a $14,000 offering this past week. More importantly, four people came to Christ last month. WE REJOICE!
Change is not always been easy and can be discouraging if you constantly look forward at where you have to go without stopping to look at ground you have gained.
I may not know what tomorrow will bring but today I celebrate the victories and blessings we have had as a nation, family and church.
What are you REJOICING over?
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
LEARN TO CELEBRATE THE VISION By Andy Stanley
Many churches never stop to celebrate, and they're missing a great—and fun—opportunity to reinforce the vision. Celebration is what puts skin on the vision. I received one of those great e-mails from a lady in our church. It brought tears to my eyes. She wrote: "In your talk last Sunday you spoke about the impact that small group leaders have on the children in their group. I wanted to let you know about my son's small group leader. My son Graham is in the fifth grade and his group leader is Greg.
"As you know, Greg was called into active service as a part of the Iraqi freedom mission. Greg was sent to Italy, then Turkey, and then to an aircraft carrier. But did that stop him from being concerned about the members of his small group? No. Greg sent e-mails from Turkey to the kids in his group, telling what was doing and asking how the kids were doing. He even went so far as to call Graham from Turkey."
Did that have an impact? It sure did! Greg cared enough about his small group members to keep in contact while in a war zone. It made me think. What do you do with an e-mail like that? You celebrate it!
So on Strategic Service Sunday, I talked about serving in the local church and the opportunity to get involved. I used all my persuasion skills because we needed to enlist lots of volunteers in the following three weeks to staff our fall programs.
During that service I said, "Let me read you an e-mail from one of our volunteers."
Since Greg was back home by then, I'd asked him to sit in the front row wearing his military uniform. I read the e-mail. People were visibly moved.
Then I said, "Greg, would you stand?" And people applauded. After that service, more people volunteered than we could have imagined.
Nothing gives definition to vision like celebrating victories.
Baptism is another great opportunity to celebrate. In order to be baptized in our church, in addition to acknowledging a personal Christian faith, each person must do a two to three-minute videotaped testimony that we play in the service right before the baptism.
This is their opportunity to tell their story to the whole congregation. We encourage them to share what God has done in their life. One will say, "I was lost and somebody invited me to North Point. I came, I trusted Christ, and now I'm in a small group." Then they are baptized, and their small group stands and cheers. That embodies the vision. Almost every Sunday we find a way to celebrate, hoot and holler, yell and scream.
Once a year isn't enough. Spontaneously isn't enough. You must celebrate the vision over and over.
Click here for the entire article from CT 
JULY FOURTH VIDEO This Monday is Independence Day. As you prepare this Sunday's service why not include the ONE DAY video clip from Sermon Spice?
The Bible tells us to be thankful. This patriotic video calls us to be thankful to God for the blessings we enjoy, as well as to appreciate the sacrifices so many have made in building a free country.
Click here for an affordable download for July Fourth 
GENEROPOLY Are You a Generous Person?
In a culture that is consumed by accumulation, generosity is a character quality that is to be desired. Revolution Church in Long Beach, California launched a creative series (http://www.revolution242.com/resources/sermons.html) to re-orient the hearts of their church around the biblical principles of generosity.
Be sure to click the creative videos on their link below and let it stir your creativity.
Click here for details and videos of Generopoly 
5 WAYS WE GROW ATTENDANCE On the way back from a Board of Directors of the Evangelical Free Church, Bruce Johnson took a few moments to wrestle with the question of, "How can we radically grow our denomination?" Here are his thoughts from his Blog...
... I then thought about a conversation I had with my staff this year when I asked them, "How can we double our church in the next twenty-four months?", which lead me to the same conclusion I came to with my staff, which is, that there are only five ways (that I'm aware of) that any church (or denomination) can increase their regular attendance.
1. You can add new people who are not currently attending your church (or denomination). This seems rather obvious, but the question is, "What strategies will allow us to attract new people?" Prayer, evangelism, marketing, etc. are all key strategies—as are issues like relevancy, worship style, excellence, etc.
2. You can increase the regular attendance of people who currently attend your church (or denomination). In other words, instead of coming once a month, you get people to come two or three times per month. Again, this usually involves issues like relevancy, excellence, care, discipleship, leadership, communication, in house marketing, etc.
3. You can close the back door. Every church has a back door, but decreasing the speed or the number of people who are leaving your church can increase your regular attendance. This is harder to do than numbers one and two, but not impossible. Assimilation, care, connection, discipleship, conflict resolution, etc. all play a part here.
4. You can open up new options. In other words, you could plant a new church, you could start a video venue with a new worship style, you could start a multi-site campus, you could add a new service, etc. Opening up new options creates the potential for new people to enter in to your church in new ways.
5. You can increase your capacity to serve. I've written an article about this, but I believe that God blesses a church based on it's capacity to serve those people. Why would God give a church with the capacity to serve 200 people, 400 people? Or a church with the capacity to serve 1,000 people, 2000 people? So, increasing capacity, can lead to God's blessing. And capacity almost always involves new leaders, new structures, new technologies, etc.
Sometimes we make growing churches or denominations so difficult. But when it's all said and done, it all comes back to one of these five methods. So, take out a piece of paper Pray. List the five ways to grow. Strategize, in your context, how you can do all five of these. Pick your best ideas (after praying about them). Then, act on them and watch the growth take place!
Click here to check out Bruce's blog 
TRINITY COMMUNITY CHURCH TRINITY COMMUNITY CHURCH OF HOCKESSIN, DELAWARE
Strategic Plan for Planting a New Assemblies of God Church
The following is a strategic plan for planting a Church in the Hockessin, Delaware area. Hockessin is located 30 minutes outside of Wilmington, DE, and backs up to the Pennsylvania line. It has the highest family income in the state and is populated with many people who have everything but a relationship with Christ. It is a community of over 15,000 people with another 85,000 that fall into the gap between Newark and Wilmington, Delaware. The Assemblies of God is the only denomination that is not represented in this area. This region is a strategic location for our Section, District, and General Movement. The following proposal lays out all of the components of this church plant. It also reviews the overall vision, mission, logistics and timing of this new church that God has placed on our hearts to start.
PURPOSE
The Purpose of Trinity Community Church is to reach the people of our community who do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and lead them to a life in which they become fully mature followers of Christ.
MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to live a life that leads people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We want to honor God by serving his people and ministering to their needs. By demonstrating biblical expressions of love to our community, we want to open the door to evangelism and see everyone move toward spiritual maturity as they obey Christ’s command to serve as he served. Our simple theme will be “Worshiping God, Obeying His Word, Serving his People”. This premise will be at the heart of everything we do.
BACKGROUND
Many years ago God had begun to work in my heart that he was calling my wife and I to leave the life he had provided us with and begin to serve him in a full-time capacity. We were not sure what that was, but began to feel some pressing needs to reach the lost in the community we had been raising our family in for the last twelve years. We had been blessed to have gained significant experience in both the church we had attended for over twenty years and the business world I had worked in. The burden we were sensing was confirmed in our Pastor’s heart years later with his vision to change the church landscape in Delaware.
Then, back in April of 2004, four families from the general community begin meeting monthly for a time of prayer over what God wanted to do in this relatively untouched area. This initial team focused on reading his word and praying to determine his will for our lives and the lives of this community. We also traveled with our families for two weekend retreats where we laid out the vision, purpose and mission for his work in the Hockessin area.
All families are members of First Assembly of God in Wilmington, Delaware. Our Senior Pastor and Sectional Presbyter is Reverend Tim Satryan, a truly faithful servant who has been given a vision by God to plant ten Churches in the Delmarva Section in ten years. We have his complete support in this the third plant. Each member of this initial team has worked together in Wilmington for ten to fifteen years in just about every ministry capacity. The experience, diversity, and strength of this team that God has assembled is overwhelming. Each of our lives has been orchestrated by God to bring us to this exact point where we are going to partner to plant God’s Church in this area.
The four families also mirror the demographics of the community with specific emphasis on the cultural and religious backgrounds. The unsaved contacts alone in each couples’ network could build a strong initial platform for the church plant. However we are reaching out beyond that even for the startup of the church. Many of us have lived in the area or been transplanted there for a number of years. The people we are reaching out to are our neighbors, friends of our children, colleagues from work, individuals with whom we coach our kids’ sports teams and many more. The key to this plant is how plugged into this community the whole plant team is and how each of us have a circle of unsaved men and women in our existing network of relationships.
These people are hungry for something real and we know that Christ is the one who will meet all their needs. In addition to the above-mentioned families there have been a number of additional families that are praying for God’s will in their lives and may be formally joining the initial team. Each again matches the demographics and background of the area. Some of these families are from Wilmington First Assembly and some are from within the community already.
OVERALL STRATEGY
The community we are planting in has a very strong Catholic and multicultural population. There are large groups of people searching for a real relationship with Christ and other Christians. For that reason we chose the name “Trinity” that translated well to that group of people. Belief in the Trinity is one area that our Catholic friends and we agree on. It is also a word that resonates well with the Asian and Hispanic communities. We quickly understood that the church name needed to resonate more with the community than it did with us. Another major aspect to our area is that it is made up of successful individuals who are stretched in many directions. Most families have dual incomes, at least two children and are leveraged heavily financially. Their weekends are spent running themselves and their children from event to event and place to place. The amount of time they actually have to just be with each other is minimal. They have all the material things this world can provide, but are missing the love of Jesus. Our church will be structured in a way as to demonstrate true Holistic Ministry. We will evaluate every ministry opportunity by the question, “Does it promote an abundant ‘God glorifying’ life?” If it does not, we will either make the necessary changes or shut it down completely.
Our community also struggles from the “Cul-de-sac” syndrome, where people have a relationship with individuals in their small circle, but no real sense of relationship with their community. The relationships between husbands and wives and parents and children are also challenged and tense due to their driven lifestyles. Each service, home group meeting or activity we have will draw people and families closer. We will not have programs just because we “are supposed to” but will evaluate every opportunity to come together to see if it draws us closer to Christ and each other. Time is an extremely precious commodity to these individuals and everything we do will have to take that into account. Innovative servant evangelism will be a trademark of our church. We will reach out to people with needs that are well below the surface. Again these people do not need things, but they have hurting marriages, distant teenagers, aging parents, and overall family issues. We feel very comfortable ministering to this community because in many respects we are just like them and have fallen into many of the traps and challenging circumstances in our own lives. It is only by the grace of God that we have overcome many of these obstacles, but it takes a constant focus on God and what his love and obedience require.
CORE PRINCIPALS
We will ascribe to the Sixteen Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies of God as the overall beliefs and values of our church. In addition, the following core principals or values will be the standards and guidelines of our approach to ministry:
• PRAYER: We value the incredible privilege of communicating with God, and we seek to make this church a place of individual, corporate and public prayer.
• FAMILY: We value the family as God’s primary unit of society, and seek to assist people in their marriages, in developing the next generation and in caring for the elderly.
• AUTHENTIC WORSHIP: We value God among all and seek to sincerely worship him alone in spirit and truth, both individually and corporately.
• COMMUNITY: We value the development of genuine community among believers that truly demonstrates the reconciling love of Christ.
• MINISTRY EXCELLENCE: God gave his absolute best for us, and we desire to give our very best in his service.
TWENTY-FOUR MONTH STRATEGY
April 2004 – July 2004 (Preparation)
During this time, the initial group of families began monthly prayer meetings where we waited on the Lord for hours at a time to study his word, worship, and pray to understand his will for both our lives and this community. In parallel to these Prayer Meetings we began to survey and evaluate the needs of the community. We reached out to our many friends and contacts within the community to validate the needs and concerns that were on our hearts. However the primary focus of these sessions was prayer, praise and bible study with an emphasis on the challenges and obstacles we would face as a leadership team. A powerful bond developed between the entire team. We reached a higher level of trust, compatibility and care for one another. God opened our eyes during this time in a very clear way. The Holy Spirit moved in both our meetings and our lives to strengthen us as a corporate body.
July 2004-January 2005 (Continued Prayer and Vision Casting)
During this time the Team went away for two weekend retreats where we gathered for a special time of prayer and also went through a structured time of laying out the type of church this area needed at a high level. We evaluated both new and traditional ministry programs with an eye toward what would work in this environment. The Pastor, his wife, and the Pastor of the Mother church also attended the Church Plant Boot Camp in November of 2004. During this intensive week of training, we worked through many of the next steps and action items for our initial team. We returned to the group with many of the tools and process steps that not only validated much of what we had done, but also laid out some very important next steps for us. It also helped us develop a blueprint for how we would proceed and how we would continue in this preparation stage. It was at our second retreat on New Year’s Eve, as we started the year off in prayer, that the entire team became confident that it was God’s will that we plant his church in the fall of 2005. God confirmed so much to us that he had begun to place on our hearts and made our burden for this community even stronger. Everything from that point on has become focused around making sure that we were marching to God’s timeline for our lives and his church. We prayed hard and listened intently to make sure that such a significant change in our lives was completely of God.
January 2005-March 2005 (Beginning to Build the Strategy)
During this first quarter of 2005 the team prayed through and agreed that the name of the Church would be Trinity Community Church, an Assembly of God Church in Hockessin, Delaware. The goal of this name as we stated earlier is to reach a broader spectrum of the community and overcome barriers that people have already put up. Simply using “community” seemed to be the best choice in accomplishing that goal. However we will be an Assemblies of God church, referencing our beliefs, principals, and values in all church communications as appropriate. We have also developed an initial plan for the ministries we would go live with in the fall. In addition we have reached out to three major facilities to house the church initially. This has created almost a buzz in the community and somewhat of a competition to see what school will get to partner with us in launching this church. Everything we have begun to do has been prayed through and is set up to generate interest and momentum within the community. We have begun to develop our marketing campaign and have been reaching out to many individuals within the community to make sure our initial plans still match the needs and challenges of our area. We have also stepped up our external recruitment approach. We are talking up the church plant with friends, family and acquaintances within the community. We have approximately thirty individuals who have agreed to at least visit and in many cases attend the new church. A number of these are unsaved and/or do not attend a church at this point. They also represent strong networks and families across the area. They are people from all walks of life who have been searching for what is missing in their lives and are very interested in joining us. We feel very strongly that with the additional few families that are praying about joining our team from Wilmington we have all the resources we will need from the mother church. None of these families have been formally recruited; many have just felt a call for transition in their lives way before even realizing this plant was coming to their community. Our focus is on external recruitment especially among the unsaved within our community.
April 2005- June 2005 (Seeking God for Specifics)
We have kicked-off April with a twenty-one day special time of prayer and fasting for the initial team. During this time we will pray and wait on the Lord for specifics around each ministry area and the changes that will be taking place in many of our lives. With this strong foundation in place we will use the rest of the spring to focus on leadership training for those who will be heading up cell groups and/or ministry teams. We will also begin to identify gaps where we need to identify additional resources and support. We will also lay out a detailed financial analysis, complete with full first year costs and an accurate list of those who will partner with us. In addition to the Penn-Del District 20:20 Program, we have an aggressive schedule of churches and other areas we are going to seek funding from as a Home Missions Church. Since we will be ministering in a fairly affluent area we understand the emphasis on fundraising we must have. We are confidant God will provide.
During this time the individuals on the initial team will also begin their transition from the mother church. Our goal is to do everything in our power to make sure Wilmington successfully re-invents itself into the strong church that it is and will continue to be. This includes training new leaders and ensuring existing ministries that we are responsible for do not miss a beat. We will also finalize our meeting sites and begin to meet with officials, leaders and others in the community. Our small/cell group training and strategy development will begin during this time. We will use a process and curriculum that has proven to be effective in this type of community. Team Leaders will be responsible for their groups and for incorporating their groups into the church. We will also have a continued emphasis on leadership training and begin to look for opportunities to open doors for servant ministry in the community.
June 2005 – August 2005 (Launch Preparation)
During the summer of ‘05 we will focus on pre-launch activities. The worship band will begin to meet for practice, prayer and Bible study. We will begin to identify all equipment requirements and place orders as appropriate. The church financial system will be set-up along with all the necessary insurance, legal, banking, and constitutional requirements. Our goal is to have the bulk of the logistics and ministry set-up work completed by the end of the summer. Both our Youth and Childrens Ministry Teams will develop their approach, curriculum and complete worker training programs. We will also use the summer to hold two “preview sessions” for the community. These events will showcase the church’s vision and mission to the community. They will be held in a large facility in the heart of the area we are planting in. Each session will highlight the ministries we will be going live with and also validate our input on what the area is looking for. Both these sessions will be preceded by bulk mailings, newspaper ads and output from other media sources. Late summer will also see the launch of our cell/ group teams. At a minimum our goal is to start – up at least five teams prior to our church launch.
During this time and at the preview services we will identify the strategy for our service schedule. We are going to have to really focus on this because this is such a busy population. Due to sports schedules and the incredible amount of activities, we will have to look at non-traditional times. Once the launch has occurred and the church formally gets established we may quickly look at a Saturday night service. This would be a good draw for our Catholic friends and families. It would also allow us to have the school or recreation center set up prior to Sunday morning giving us extra time to minister in pre-morning activities. We will emphasize programs that bring families together to worship the Lord, fellowship and have fun. Being sensitive to people’s time is a must to be successful in this environment.
September 2005 – October 2005 (Count Down to Launch)
As we prepare for go-live, much activity will center on training and practice for our first formal services. Leadership Team activity will begin to intensify. We will begin to meet on Sunday September 4, 2005 for two months to begin training and practice for our launch. In addition to being a time of training, these first two months will give us an opportunity to plug some of the folks from the cell groups who do not have a church into ministry opportunities. In these two months we will work to refine and develop the details around every aspect and ministry for the new church. We will focus on details and pilot or test every ministry and part of the service. We will use 360-degree feedback from “experienced guests”, and video tape our entire program to improve it. This community demands excellence and we will only get one chance with many of the people we invite. At this point we anticipate our first service to be Saturday and/or Sunday October 22nd / 23rd.. We plan on making the Sunday morning service relaxed but an efficient use of time. Our focus will be on reaching the lost at this service and finding ways to plug them into other aspects of our church. To say we will be structured like a “seeker church” would be too strong, but we will be using many proven new ways to present the gospel. Starting off with a thirty minute hospitality time and ending at or before noon will be important as Sunday continues to be the only day this community is not running around like crazy.
During this phase we will also step up marketing of the church with perhaps billboards and more granular mass mailings. We are evaluating even using press releases if we can get that kind of traction with the newspapers. The initial team along with those who have already joined us will begin a second extended time of prayer and fasting leading up to our go-live date. As everything is geared toward launch preparation we will focus on testing, practicing, and ensuring that every part of our services and ministries are ready for kick-off. We will also really develop the details and structure behind our evangelism strategy. Our approach to outreach and meeting people through meeting their needs will be finalized.
October 2005-April 2006 (Keep the momentum going)
At this point the Grand Opening (Launch) will be held on Sunday October 23, 2006. We will focus on having a service that has contemporary music, effective communication of the gospel, and a professional approach that promotes a warm and friendly atmosphere. The service will involve everyone on the leadership team and every guest will fill out a registration card in order to update our prospect list. We will have an immediate follow-up on guests at the launch (both by small group leaders, the Pastor and letters that thank and encourage them.). Post launch activities will also include starting up new members’ classes. The classes will meet during a convenient time and be very sensitive to the backgrounds and initial beliefs of these new believers. We will also have some existing members attend these classes to promote cohesion. During this time additional small group classes will be kicked off, as demand requires. During this post-launch phase we will continue to be very sensitive and reflective to how we are fitting into peoples’ lives. We will make sure the church feels inclusive and promotes a warm and friendly atmosphere. We will be listening very carefully to the feedback from our guests. The success or lack of success of some key aspects of our ministry will become apparent very quickly and we need to make sure our approach is responsive.
A full-scale assimilation plan will be used to move people from guests to growing productive members of the church. We are still evaluating many of the proven techniques and strategies to move individuals through this process. We will agree and begin training on an approach by the end of August. Our focus in the spring of 2006 will naturally be on evangelism and growth. It will be a recognizable time of outreach and growing spiritual maturity for those who have recently found Christ or started a renewed relationship with him. Again a detailed approach to how this process will be implanted is under review.
FINANCIAL STRATEGY AND PARTNERSHIPS
As a team we are fully aware that we are planting a church in an area that will be fairly expensive to minister in. We understand the need for a broad range of partnerships and support. Our approach includes capitalizing on all of the financial programs available thru the Penn Del District as well as the Delmarva Section. We are also going to be efficient stewards and use all of our resources wisely. A complete 2005/2006 budget will be developed and submitted to the Delmarva Section Presbyter and the Board of our mother church for approval by July of this year. We have also begun to pick up sponsorships from churches within and outside the Assemblies of God network. We will also be recruiting organizations and corporations for financial support that are owned or operated by Christian men and women. Funds are already coming in to the mother church that are marked for this work. Even with our mother church’s faithful approach to church planting in our section, we will look to it for minimal support at the most. God has blessed us tremendously to this point and we fully anticipate him meeting all of our needs going forward.
We will also be a very generous and giving church to match God’s direction and will. Our first Sunday’s offering will be given to another church in need and we will have a very aggressive overall missions strategy within our church. We are praying and thinking very big. Our initial thoughts plan on planting a new church either locally, semi-locally (North America) or abroad at least every three years. We also envision owning a facility that will accommodate our growth and help us minister effectively in the community within three years. We will always strive to be a church that looks to reach up to the Lord and out to the lost and hurting within our community. Our goal is to not sacrifice this approach due to lack of financial resources and/or capacity. Our initial leadership team is made up of mature blessed individuals who know the power of faithful tithing and giving. We will demonstrate this to our new church through example, testimony and timely teaching.
MINISTRIES AT LAUNCH
The following ministries will be fully functional when we go live:
- Music, Praise and Worship
- Children’s Church
- Cell Group Ministry
- Full Evangelism Strategy
- Youth
- Hospitality Program (Internal & External)
- Missions (Includes Church Plant Strategy)
- Effective Teaching & Preaching
In addition we will have some sort of family-night focused service, perhaps even weekly. For each of the above listed ministries, a strategy and approach is being developed that includes individual responsibilities, specific details around targets, resources and overall approach. Each area will have an empowered leader that will have responsibility for overseeing the ministry and for execution. These individuals will be part of the church’s leadership team and be accountable to the Pastor. We anticipate that through God’s divine plan this church will grow very quickly. The circumstances and demand in the community for a full gospel church is very high. The quality and quantity of both internal and external people who have come on board without any real formal recruiting is overwhelming. We need to have the infrastructure in place to respond to this quick growth. Each ministry will have both a growth strategy and contingency plan as resource levels fluctuate.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Starting this church is an idea that the Lord put on my heart ten years ago. Going back even further there were countless opportunities to grow and learn that He laid at our feet even before that. We know this is God’s call for our lives and know that everything he has done for us in every way has prepared us for this challenge. We know starting and growing this church is very hard work and it will be difficult. However God has surrounded us with nothing short of an incredible group of individuals to help us. It is humbling and staggering when we step back and see what God has put together. I personally feel very unworthy to have this opportunity, but I do not feel unprepared. This church will be all about growing the kingdom of God. We are going to have no other agenda. It is not just a group of individuals who want to have church and be around each other, but also a group of folks who really want to change the lives of people in their community. We all want to be faithful and obedient to God’s call on our lives, by being a blessing to this area.
Submitted in His name and for His Glory,
Steven J. Trader
Pastor Trinity Community Church
Tuesday, 21 June 2005
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Outside the Box # 177 In This Issue: LEAVING A LEGACY • BRUNO SAMMARTINO • COUNTDOWN TO SERVICE • LEGACY PEANUTS • FATHER'S DAY IDEAS • SERMON SPICE • EXPLORING THE MULTI-SITE OPTION BRUNO SAMMARTINO I remember Sunday afternoons at grandmom and grandpop's house in West Philly. After morning service we would walk into the kitchen and grab a piece of fresh bread and dip it in the sauce that grandmom was making. Delicious!
Then we would come into the living room and sit down on the furniture wrapped in vinyl and watch wrestling with Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant, Chief Jay Strongbow and Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. The real heroes weren't on TV however, they were watching along with us.
I watched my grandfather suffer with cancer for years and I watched my grandmother take care of him. The strength that both of them possessed was amazing.
As we approach another Father's Day, I am reminded of those that have gone before us and the Legacy that they have left us.
Happy Father's Day!
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
LEGACY PEANUTS The late Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip, designed some questions to help people reflect on the truly important things in life and the legacy they will one day leave behind. Schultz began by asking people if they could name the last five winners of...
* The Heisman Trophy?
* The Miss America contest?
* The Academy award for best actor or actress?
For most people, remembering even a few of these past award winners was a challenge—even though each of these award winners had been a household name at one time.
Schultz would next ask people a second question: what are the names of five...
* People whose stories most inspired you?
* Teachers who most influenced you?
* Friends who have helped you most?
Not surprisingly, Schultz found that these names came quickly to the lips of the people he spoke with. Why was it so much easier to name these people? It’s because we can easily remember the people who have had a personal impact on us. The people who really make a difference in our lives are not necessarily the ones with the best credentials, the highest education, the finest awards, or the most money. They are the ones who take a personal interest in us, the ones who guide, trust, and believe in us.From Ken Blanchard's Ignite! E-newsletter 
SERMON SPICE This Sunday is Father's Day. Why not spice up your presentation with a video clip from Sermon Spice? Though you may personally connect with the "Burping" clip, I recommend "The Dad Adventure." It is a light-hearted look at the serious job of being a dad that will encourage all the men in your congregation to “live the adventure” of investing time in the lives of children.
Time to put that multi-media equipment to work!
Click here for afordable downloads for Father's Day 
COUNTDOWN TO SERVICE If you are looking for a clever way to inform your congregation that a service or event is starting, consider one of Worship Films' new Countdowns.
Be sure to check out "Names of God." This video is especially appropriate as it displays the names of God as it counts down.
Click here to preview Countdown downloads 
FATHER'S DAY IDEAS Here are a few Father's Day ideas from church planters around the country...
We are going to give every dad a can of "Dad's Rootbeer"
Having a pancake breakfast with lots of meat before church
Having a drawing for a really nice BBQ tool set (they sell them at Home Depot and Costco). It's like a metal brief case and you open it up - very nice.
We also will have a Hummer parked up front and we're thinking about giving a way a ride in the Hummer.
Masks Men Wear…
Three masks to discuss....
Batman... Talk about the social mask.
Lone Ranger... pretty clear how that one affects men.
Darth Vader... Hiding the pain and hurt in our lives.
We also give away a free pair of socks to every dad. It's a little campy but it works. "Sock Dad this Father's Day" has been a slogan we're used.
We're also going to be giving away $5 Home Depot gift cards this year.
Check out more ideas in the Pastors Forum 
EXPLORING THE MULTI-SITE OPTION TOPICS
Why Multi-site Works
7 Steps to Multi-site
5 Lessons That Could Save You 5 Years
PRESENTER
Jon Ferguson
Co-founder of Community Christian Church
(5000+ attendance, 6 sites)
LOCATION:
Philip Bongiorno Conference Center
Motel Meeting Room D
Carlisle, PA
WHEN
Monday, June 20th
9:00-12:00 AM
WHO SHOULD COME
Pastors and church leaders who may be interested in finding ways to more rapidly expand God’s Kingdom.
Gerry Stoltzfoos, Freedom Valley Worship Center in Gettysburg, writes, "One of the most exciting ideas I have seen in a long time for expanding the Kingdom is Multi-site, a church that meets in multiple locations. In the last few years, more than 1500 of them have sprung up around the country. Suddenly it seems as if everyone is doing it and it is working- in all kinds of ways.
On Monday June 20 at 9 AM, I am bringing in Jon Ferguson, one of the co-founders of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois http://www.communitychristian.org to present a concise, informative seminar about why and how multi-site works. A short time ago I was at one of their on-sight practicum’s, and found it to be an exhilarating experience. I found more fresh, creative, workable ideas to expand the Kingdom at this seminar than I have heard in a long time.
I’m writing to offer you an opportunity be part of this event, and consider adding an additional site to your church as a way to expand the Kingdom if God faster and better. Bring as many of your team members as you wish. Bring an offering of $100, or whatever you can afford to help us with this event, if you can. Or just come, and we will cover it for you as an investment in your church’s growth and the Kingdom’s expansion.
To register, please email Gerry at Gerry@FreedomValley.org.
Click here for more on Multi-site 
"THAT'S MY KING" DVD
In the Superintendent's Keynote Address he ended by showing the late S.M. Lockridge presenting an incredible message that attempts to describe our indescribable God.
You can preview it and order it through Vertical Sky. I highly recommend you get the entire set of Igniter Videos. Click here to preview and order
Outside the Box # 176 In This Issue: CHOOSING TO CHEAT • TRAVELOCITY ROCKS! • CHOOSING TO CHEAT • EXPLORING THE MULTI-SITE OPTION • TOO BUSY? • 40 DAYS OF WHATEVER • SUMMIT SURVEY TRAVELOCITY ROCKS! Last week I booked a fall family trip from Boston to Spain on Travelocity's website for $115 a person roundtrip! Of course I later received a call from Travelocity that a mistake had occurred but they were working hard to honor it.
Why? Because that is the way they operate. They call it the TRAVELOCITY GUARANTEE. They say, "Human error happens; nobody's perfect—but in those rare cases that we make a mistake you can count on us to take responsibility for it, and to be thoughtful and fair as we work to resolve it."
I checked today and saw that the four of us have been ticketed on Continental for Madrid ($115.00 each).
Amazing! I see that same quality cultivated in great ministries. They take responsibility, set the bar high and work hard to make it happen.
Hasta la vista,
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
EXPLORING THE MULTI-SITE OPTION TOPICS
Why Multi-site Works
7 Steps to Multi-site
5 Lessons That Could Save You 5 Years
PRESENTER
Jon Ferguson
Co-founder of Community Christian Church
(5000+ attendance, 6 sites)
LOCATION:
Philip Bongiorno Conference Center
Motel Meeting Room D
Carlisle, PA
WHEN
Monday, June 20th
9:00-12:00 AM
WHO SHOULD COME
Pastors and church leaders who may be interested in finding ways to more rapidly expand God’s Kingdom.
Gerry Stoltzfoos, Freedom Valley Worship Center in Gettysburg, writes, "One of the most exciting ideas I have seen in a long time for expanding the Kingdom is Multi-site, a church that meets in multiple locations. In the last few years, more than 1500 of them have sprung up around the country. Suddenly it seems as if everyone is doing it and it is working- in all kinds of ways.
On Monday June 20 at 9 AM, I am bringing in Jon Ferguson, one of the co-founders of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois (http://www.communitychristian.org) to present a concise, informative seminar about why and how multi-site works. A short time ago I was at one of their on-sight practicum’s, and found it to be an exhilarating experience. I found more fresh, creative, workable ideas to expand the Kingdom at this seminar than I have heard in a long time.
I’m writing to offer you an opportunity be part of this event, and consider adding an additional site to your church as a way to expand the Kingdom if God faster and better. Bring as many of your team members as you wish. Bring an offering of $100, or whatever you can afford to help us with this event, if you can. Or just come, and we will cover it for you as an investment in your church’s growth and the Kingdom’s expansion.
To register, please email Gerry at Gerry@FreedomValley.org.
Click here for more on Multi-site 
40 DAYS OF WHATEVER What is next after 40 DAYS OF PURPOSE and 40 DAYS OF COMMUNITY?
Daybreak Community Church in Mechanicsburg has been handing out 40 DAYS OF WHATEVER bumper stickers that are based on Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”
40 DAYS OF WHATEVER would make a great summer series!
Click here for study tools for Philippians 4:8 
CHOOSING TO CHEAT A college basketball player is told by his professor that he has flunked a test, even though he only got one problem wrong. He asks, “Why did I flunk?”
The instructor answers, “You’ve not been getting good grades, and you are sitting next to the brightest student in the class. He also got one problem wrong.”
The basketball player answers, “That could just be a coincidence.”
“But you both missed the same problem,” the professor responds.
The basketball player says, “Well, that could be a coincidence.”
The professor says, “Yes, but a straight A student wrote next to the question, ‘I don’t know the answer to this,’ and you wrote, ‘I don’t know the answer to this either.’”
In Andy Stanley’s book, Choosing to Cheat, he doesn’t talk about immoral cheating like cheating on a test but rather he shares the idea that we all cheat somewhere in order to make it through life. In other words, we have to give up certain opportunities in order to take advantage of certain other ones.
Work. School. Family. Church. Hobbies. Fitness. Housekeeping. Socializing. Sleep. Stanley reminds us that with only so many hours in each day, we simply can't fit everything in. And what we choose to cheat is a clear announcement of what we value.
The truth is we can’t answer every demand, we can’t satisfy every voice and we all have our limits. Somebody in our life is going to feel cheated, because we don’t have enough time. That’s our problem. In this sense, everyone cheats.
Who or what are you going to cheat?
Regent Business: The Epidemic of Busyness Among Christian Leaders 
TOO BUSY? Try These Practical Time-Management Tips
by Samuel M. Natale (Regent Business Review)
Tip #1: Since most of us are of good heart and willingness to help, there is a tendency to say "Yes" to things before we have a chance to really think them through. Hence, my first tip is: Never (and I do mean NEVER) carry your appointment book with you. I know, it's hard to imagine life without it, but if you do not have the book with you, you must take a break from any request for your time to go find your book and check your availability. This permits you space to get sane about what you really can do … or not do. Once you locate the book, take a broader view of your commitments and see where and how this request fits.
Tip #2: Safeguard your peak performance time. Time of day is a critical determinant of your productivity. I recently sat on a dissertation committee where the student explored how each of us has a most productive time of day. There is apparently a genetic and developmental issue that determines when each of us is "at our peak." Identify this peak time and protect it for your highest priorities.
Tip #3: Say "no." It's a wonderful word, but few of us use it with the frequency it deserves. To be honest, our inability to say "no" is usually more about our desire to be liked and affirmed—and to avoid others' disapproval—rather than about our desire to be helpful to others. Indeed, we should be helpful to one another and to our common missions, but that means fitting our abilities with the situation at hand and deciding whether our skill set and time permit us to productively satisfy the request. Saying "no" does not mean that you don't care about the other person, but that simply, for many possible reasons, the other person's request cannot be a priority for you at that moment.
Tip #4: Prioritize your "to-do" list. A to-do list is a critical tool, but it needs to be used sensibly and it needs to be prioritized. Too often, our hastily scribbled list becomes a catch-all for all the things we can think of that eventually need to be done. So, by the end of the day, we have heroically completed twelve of the twenty-four items on our list. Problem is, none of the items was time-stamped as "important" or as having primacy over the others.
You see, the "to-do" list is only as good as the prioritizing it contains. The A's should be the urgent/primary things; the B's should be those things that are good to get done; the C's … .well, if we don't get those done and we have prioritized them correctly, they'll either disappear or come back in another form later.
Tip #5: Use the "Pareto Formula" as an important control mechanism. It suggests that, generally speaking, we get eighty percent of our results from twenty percent of what we do. Just check your closet and notice that you wear twenty percent of your clothes eighty percent of the time. Many successful executives report that determining their critical twenty percent—and then giving their best time to those initiatives—makes an enormous difference for them in time use.
Tip #6: Delegate—sometimes. Delegation is an important and frequently-mentioned technique in the time-management literature. But, truth be told, that makes me smile since in these days of more work with fewer people (and since I am not a millionaire), I often find it difficult to find anyone to whom I can delegate.
Delegate where you can, of course, but remember that when you delegate a project, you retain responsibility for its completion. A deadly trap (and one inexperienced managers often make) is to delegate that which they do not know how to do. Sure, it seems like it saves time, but it actually costs you more time later. How can you supervise accuracy and efficiency when you do not know what should be done or how it should be done? So yes, delegate (when you can find someone), but just delegate those things that you understand how to do.
Tip #7: Don't think of personal time as "free" time. It may sound trivial, but when we name time as "free," then it is available to other people and projects. Personal time should be used for the things you really need to do individually, from personal care to exercise to reading and meditation.
Tip #8: Practice "sacred selfishness." This is a concept taken from a Bud Harris book of the same name. He defines it as "making a commitment to valuing ourselves and our lives enough to pursue the decision to become people of substance." The idea is that we should make enough space in our lives so that we can be excellent and so that what we do has meaning and significance. The scholastic adage "Nemo dat quod non habet" (one cannot give what one does not have) is pertinent here. We can't get the job done well if we're burnt out.
Tip #9: Don't let the telephone tell you what to do. There are few conveniences greater or more intrusive than the telephone. But the issue is control. YOU must control it and not the other way around. Just because someone calls does not mean that you must take the call. Obviously, you need to return urgent calls, but some people act as if every one of their calls is urgent. YOU need to make the decision which call is necessary to answer, not your caller. In fact, it may not be a bad idea to screen all calls and take only those that appear or are truly important. As for calling back, simply group your calls and return them either before lunch or before quitting time, when people are eager to get on with their lives rather than dally on the phone. It actually works, believe it or not!
Tip #10: Don't let the door tell you what to do. As with the phone, you don't have to answer every knock on the door. If you're in the middle of a project, it may be more sensible simply not to answer the door. A "Do Not Disturb" sign can work on some occasions, though there is a tendency for many visitors to think that the sign is not meant "for them." But when a sign is not appropriate, then it is usually fine to close the door and ignore it, permitting you to stay on task. Then, be available at a later time for those who may need your attention. And here's a bonus: this technique also effectively blocks the "time eaters" who roam the halls looking for something to occupy themselves!
More from Regent: Am I Too Busy For God? 
SUMMIT SURVEY We are listening...
Now that the 2005 Penn-Del MinistrieSummit is behind us, I encourage all that attended to help us serve you with excellence by taking a moment and completing this 10 question online survey.
Based on the survey results from last year, it helped us with changes we made this year. We really are listening and are committed to partnering with you in ministry.
We feel that it is vital that the District provides you and your church with relevant and effective opportunities for growth. Your suggestions will help us as we strategize for next year's District MinistrieSummit (District Council) and plan for Ministers' Enrichment (Institute).
Click here to take the 2005 MinistrieSummit Survey 
"THAT'S MY KING" DVD
In the Superintendent's Keynote Address he ended by showing the late S.M. Lockridge presenting an incredible message that attempts to describe our indescribable God.
You can preview it and order it through Vertical Sky. I highly recommend you get the entire set of Igniter Videos. Click here to preview and order
Outside the Box # 175 In This Issue: CULTIVATING MULTICULTURAL MINISTRY • THE SPICE OF LIFE • TOTAL GIVING CREDIT EXPANDED • HYBELS ON MULTICULTURALISM • CROSS-CULTURAL ACTIVITIES • THE BATTLE FOR LATINO SOULS • EXPERIENCE THE SUMMIT THE SPICE OF LIFE Every Tuesday night a different member of the Rees household makes dinner. This past month has been great. Courtney made southern fried chicken, Sherry made Chinese chicken and cashews, and I grilled marinated chicken and pork (the other white meat).
Last night was Britney's night. She prepared and served a meal that a gourmet chef would have been proud of... Red Apple and Onion Salad, Fresh Tomato and Basil Frittata, and Apricot-Raspberry Brie Bites. Dessert was a Chocolate Banana "Eggroll" With Cinnamon Cream!
Our family has certainly enjoyed the diversity of our dinners. How much more true is this for God's church!
I believe that God enjoys the diversity that can be present in our ministries. Generational, economic and ethnic diversity can add excitement and energy to a church.
After all, variety is the spice of life!
Blessings,
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church Development
HYBELS ON MULTICULTURALISM Bill Hybels was part of a forum in Christianity Today. Here are some of the questions he was asked and his reaction to them...
Q: The main argument of United by Faith is that Christian churches, "when possible," should be multiracial. What is your gut-level reaction to that assertion?
Hybels: Willow Creek started in the era when, as the book noted, the church-growth people were saying, "Don't dissipate any of your energies fighting race issues. Focus everything on evangelism." It was the homogeneous unit principle of church growth. And I remember as a young pastor thinking, That's true. I didn't know whether I wanted to chance alienating people who were seekers, whose eternity was on the line, and who might only come to church one time. I wanted to take away as many obstacles as possible, other than the Cross, to help people focus on the gospel.
So now, 30 years later, as I read this book, I recognize that a true biblically functioning community must include being multiethnic. My heart beats so fast for that vision today. I marvel at how naïve and pragmatic I was 30 years ago.
Q: What were your "aha" moments on this issue?
Hybels: Alvin Bibbs is an African American who leads our extension ministry and helps us with our inner-city partnerships. A few years back, when I was leaving to go on a family vacation, I said to Alvin as I was walking out the door, "God's stirring in me about the reconciliation issue. If you can give me one book on the issue to take with me, I'll read it while I'm gone." He grabbed the book Divided by Faith, and I took it with me on that week-long vacation. And that book just wrecked me.
I was like the stereotypical person that Divided by Faith talked about. I didn't view myself as being racist in any way. I therefore felt that there was no issue I was responsible for. If it was okay with me and my individual multiracial friendships, then it was all okay. And when I got to the section about the ongoing structural inequities, it devastated me. I thought, How could I have not seen this? And that was the beginning of my journey. I felt so badly about being a pastor for 25 years and having been as oblivious as I was to these kinds of issues. It was embarrassing. But these days I'm trying to make up for lost time.
Q: While the authors recognize different types of multicultural churches, they hold up "integration" as the ideal. How does that look at a big suburban church like Willow Creek?
Hybels: It would be very rare for you to come to Willow now and not see cultural diversity intentionally represented on our stage. You didn't see much for 25 years, but now we're very intentional about it, whether it's in our drama, in our worship team, in our band, or whoever is the host of the services, there's almost always going to be color and ethnicity represented. Again, we're still just in the embryonic stages, but our early attempts have been to celebrate the different cultures and to bet the farm that the power of Christ can bring us into something that's truly transcultural.
In every congregation, someone has to have a vision for what the church should be biblically and then the practicality to ask, How do we move toward that? In my opinion, a church doesn't have much of a chance of moving in the direction this book describes until the senior pastor has a "conversion experience" about this issue.
Q: As a pastor, what have you done to encourage your congregation to be more multicultural?
Hybels: First, I had to communicate at a rate that could take people along with me as opposed to blowing the church up. If I'd done a month-long series after I read Divided by Faith, it would not have been constructive. I started by giving brief personal remarks about the issue, and that led eventually to sermons.
I also started working behind the scenes to give more visibility at our services to the various ethnic groups in our church. I wanted it to become a normal part of our church before having to declare some big change that people could fight against.
We also added an African American to our board and have been intentional in seeking out people of ethnicity when filling vacancies in our senior staff. We now offer classes on bridging the racial divide. And we're also doing Casa de Luz, which is a Spanish-speaking service in our chapel. Our feeling is we want to be a laboratory where we can practice this stuff, because I don't know how you learn unless you just dive in the pool and start swimming around.
Click here for the full Christianity Today interview 
THE BATTLE FOR LATINO SOULS This article written by Arian Campo-Flores recently appeared in Newsweek...
Five years ago, Esperanza Hincapie had sunk into a pit of despondency. With a daughter in prison for murder, she contemplated swallowing a mouthful of pills to blot out her heartache. Then four Hispanic ladies from Rebano Companerismo Cristiano—a Pentecostal church in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago—came to visit her. They encircled Hincapie—a lifelong Roman Catholic from Colombia—laid hands on her and prayed. "I felt a tremendous chill," she recalls. "I began to cry and cry, and released everything." The following Sunday, one of the women drove her to Rebano, where Hincapie, 52, converted and permanently joined the flock. At her Catholic church, she says, "I always left feeling empty." At her new one, "I felt something beautiful—the presence of the Lord."
It was another successful conversion for Rebano, one of dozens of churches—including Lutheran, Jehovah's Witness and Seventh-day Adventist—that crowd the gritty streets of Hispanic-rich Humboldt Park and vie for Latino souls. Their ground battle offers a granular view of a broader struggle taking place nationwide. Forty million strong and deeply religious, Hispanics are traditionally Catholic. But, research shows, the longer they are in the United States, the more open they are to other faiths. While 72 percent of first-generation Hispanics are Catholic, according to one study, that figure drops to 52 percent by the third generation—a trend that has long troubled the Catholic hierarchy. Latinos remain the Catholic church's fastest-growing ethnic bloc, but they are also one of the fastest-growing segments among Mormons, Methodists and most other denominations. The result: all faiths are courting Hispanics with a marketing savvy more often associated with corporate America. These churches "have plans to grow, and they're aggressive," says Edwin Hernandez of the University of Notre Dame. "The competition is rampant."
That's especially true among Pentecostals. With their cathartic, music-filled worship style and aggressive proselytizing, they've made deep inroads in Hispanic communities. Of the 610 Latino churches that Hernandez and a research team have mapped in Chicago (as part of an ongoing study of how the churches attract and retain congregants), 202 are Pentecostal, compared with 119 that are Roman Catholic, though the latter are much bigger on average. In Humboldt Park—a neighborhood filled with Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Central Americans—Pentecostal churches abound in rich variety, from storefront outfits with strict codes governing dress and behavior, to warehouse operations with more lenient approaches. While the leaders tolerate one another, rivalries simmer close to the surface. From her perch at the tiny Iglesia de Dios Peniel, Pastor America Garcia eyes Rebano down the street—where female congregants might sport tight pants and belly rings—with suspicion. The place is rife with "libertinism," she says. "When people leave, they go to orgies, to movies, to dances!" Rebano's Lynette Santiago has heard all this before. Back when her parents led the congregation and replaced old-school coritos, or spiritual songs, with a salsa band, a disapproving pastor labeled her mother "the Devil."
Santiago and her husband are now focused on attracting a younger generation to replace the old guard that left when her parents ceded the reins. The couple has abandoned traditional evangelism—wielding a bullhorn and a fistful of tracts on a street corner—in favor of M.B.A.-caliber marketing. Drawing on materials from Outreach, a marketing firm aimed at white evangelical churches, they've experimented with a variety of growth strategies—direct mail sent to Latino addresses culled from consumer databases; a "40 Dias con Proposito" ("40 Days of Purpose") campaign inspired by Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life." Above all, they offer an inviting sanctuary with amenities for all, like a new youth center stocked with games and computers. "People are looking for service," says Santiago's husband, Freddy. "It's like a business." Membership has increased from 625 two years ago to 900 today.
In the religious marketplace of Humboldt Park, the fastest-growing churches are the ones that have engaged the surrounding community. New Life Covenant, an Assemblies of God congregation, swelled from 125 to 1,700 members in four years after Wilfredo De Jesus took over as senior pastor. With entrepreneurial zeal he created 70 ministries for every conceivable niche group and enacted Biblical stories with live animals such as a camel and a 500-pound pig. The church also started men's and women's shelters and a farm outside Chicago for drug addicts and prostitutes. "We started to just go after people who were wounded and hurting," says Associate Pastor Rico Altiery. To fund these projects, the church has relied on a combination of tithes—which have ballooned in tandem with the congregation—large individual donations and public grants.
At nearby St. Mark's Catholic Church, the deacon, Antonio Navarro, has watched with dismay as his Latino congregation has shrunk steadily over the years, partly due to defections to other faiths. "Sometimes they don't see the value of what they received here," he laments. The church has staunched some of the bleeding with a charismatic group that offers a worship style akin to that of the Pentecostals. But Catholics will never match the aggressive evangelism of rival churches. "We keep trying to imitate the Protestants, but it doesn't work," says Richard Simon, Cardinal Francis George's liaison for charismatic renewal. Just ask Esperanza Hincapie, whose jailed daughter abandoned the Catholic church two years ago. A prison ministry sponsored by an evangelical church converted her.
Click here for the Newsweek article 
TOTAL GIVING CREDIT EXPANDED The Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God has taken action to encourage churches to provide their facilities for the purpose of encouraging ethnic Assemblies of God congregations. They have authorized that AG Total Giving Credit be given to a church that makes their facilities available for ethnic AG congregations at no cost.
Considering that the cost of providing facilities increases with the size of the church, the following AG Total Giving Credit may be given accordingly to the following seating: 200 or less ($150 credit per service), 201-500 ($350 credit per service), 501-1000 ($700 credit per service) and 1001 and over ($1000 credit per service).
Churches providing the facilities usage would be responsibile for notifying their district of the number of services and the congregation for which they were provided. The maximum number of services for which AG Total Giving Credit can be given will be 3 per week or 156 per year.
This is a way to help encourage the planting of new churches and reward the congregations that bless these emerging congregations.Click here for more info on AG Church Planting 
CROSS-CULTURAL ACTIVITIES Doing things together is a great way for your church to develop relationships with people of other cultures. Here are a few ideas:
• Attend a program presented by ethnic people on their site
• Share a meal with an ethnic church or organization
• Plan a picnic or outing together
• Share a film series
• Pulpit exchange with an ethnic church
• Teacher or worker exchange
• Exchange correspondence, tapes, or pictures
• Share sports activities
• Sponsor an immigrant family
• Offer English classes at your church
• Share a meeting or special event of your youth group, women's group, men's group, etc.
• Plan a special class in your Sunday School; invite ethnic leaders to speak
• Invite an ethnic church or organization to present a program on your site
• Do a physical work project in the community, or to benefit an elderly or disabled person or a family of recent immigrants
• Plan a joint vacation Bible school, youth night or other youth activityClick here for a ton of resources from Ethnic Harvest 
EXPERIENCE THE SUMMIT Good leaders never stop growing. They continue to climb up to the next level — gaining new knowledge and sharpening their skills. That is why the “Penn-Del MinistrieSummit” will convene at State College Assembly of God on May 3-5, 2005.
Leaders like Alton Garrison, H.B. London and Stephen R. Tourville will help you recalibrate, recommit, and renew your passion as a Godly leader. Worshops and leaders commited to helping us grow together in these areas include:
TUESDAY, MAY 3rd 1:30-2:30 PM
CHURCH GROWTH: Why Small Churches and New Churches Grow
Jeff Leake, Senior Pastor, Allison Park Assembly of God
PREACHING: Getting the Message Across
David Crosby, Jr., Senior Pastor, Pocono Community Church
TECHNOLOGY: Developing a Church Website
Troy Peterson, Worship & Media Pastor, CLA, Camp Hill
CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Tearing Down the Walls of Conflict
Tim Halbfoerster, Senior Pastor, River of God Church, Enola
URBAN CHURCH PLANTING: Reclaiming Your City for Christ
Peter DeArruda, Director, New York School of Urban Ministries
SMALL GROUPS: Engaging Seekers in Life-Changing Discussions
David Kennard, Adult Ministries Pastor, Riverside Community Church
CHURCH BUILDING: Building When You Run Less Than 100
John Thomas, Pastor, Brookville Assembly of God
STAFFING: Transforming Your Youth Pastor into Your Armor Bearer
Keith Davis, Youth Pastor, State College Assembly of God
WEDNESDAY, MAY 4th 1:30-2:30 PM
CREATIVITY: Developing a Creativity Team
Bryan Koch, Senior Pastor, Glad Tiding Assembly of God, Reading
PERSONAL FINANCE: Winning the Retirement Triathlon
Kevin Kohler, President, TFT Financial & Estate Services
CHANGE: Transitioning a Traditional Church
Jim Grove, Senior Pastor, Glad Tidings Assembly of God, Middletown
CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Building Bridges of Peace
Tim Halbfoerster, Senior Pastor, River of God Church, Enola
MULTI-MEDIA: Integrating Multi-Media into Your Church Service
Ray Petts, Senior Pastor, Dickson City Assembly of God
PARENTING: The Secret to Raising Sexually Pure Kids
Dannah Gresh, Author, And the Bride Wore White
CARE MINISTRY: Reaching Your Community through a Ministry of Care
Dorothy Wood, Ministry Development, Calvary AG, Dover
OUTREACH: Light the Night
K.R. Mele, Church Planter and Founder, Light the Night Ministries
Click here for the MinistrieSummit Schedule 
Outside the Box # 174 In This Issue: CULTIVATING CREATIVITY • GUYS MY AGE! • WHAT'S WORKING FOR YOU? • CULTIVATING CREATIVITY • PASTOR APOLOGIZES FOR ACROSTIC • CREATIVITY CAUTIONS • SUMMER VACATIONS GUYS MY AGE! This past weekend as Sherry and I went shopping at Kohls I found a camp style shirt that I liked. When I showed it to Sherry for her opinion she responded with the question, "Do men your age wear those kind of shirts?" OUCH!
When did I pass that line in her mind? Fortunately I still haven't in my mind and can wear a new camp style shirt at next week's regional Young Adult Conference with Charlie Hall and Mark Batterson. I have been asked to do a workshop on "Thinking Outside the Box."
In this edition we are going to hear from some pastors who think outside the box. I hope you and the people your age enjoy it!
Blessings!
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church DevelopmentClick here for more info on the Young Adult Conference 
CULTIVATING CREATIVITY Ed Young discusses the essential art of bringing freshness to ministry...
Several years ago, a generous church member invited me to go with him to watch a heavyweight fight in Las Vegas. I couldn't help but notice the signs. They're everywhere: big signs, little signs, blinking, flashing, moving signs, even talking signs. It was dazzling.
They don't have a lot to say, but they definitely know how to say it, I thought.
It's just the opposite in the church. We have everything to say, but we don't always know how to say it. We fail to communicate God's truth in a way that is both biblically based and culturally compelling. Consequently, many people view church as a dry, yawn-filled environment. And too many Christians, even church leaders, are just droning through life—doing the same thing the same way and expecting a unique result.
As a young person, I remember saying to myself, "If that's what being a Christian leader is all about, then no thanks."
Ten years ago I moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to begin a church. We started with core group that shared the same vision: to keep God's unchanging truth the same, while communicating it in a radically different style. As we reached out to the people around us in creative ways, people we could never have dreamed of touching began attending. We wholeheartedly believe that, more than any other venue, creativity should be at its best when Christians are together within the context of the local church.
Creativity is biblical. In fact, it's the fifth word in the Bible: "In the beginning, God created." God invented creativity. He thought it up.
Jesus modeled it, always changing his approach. "He did not say anything to them without using a parable" (Matt. 13:34). He spoke from hillsides, boats, and beaches. He drew in the sand, turned over tables, picked up a coin, pointed to a sower, and set a child on his lap. Ultimately, he used the cross to communicate his love for us.
For us, it's so tempting to fall into sameness. We ignore Christ's example and do the same thing week after week, and people grow tired of it.
How can we claim to follow an innovative God and be so boring? The church must be creative because people need it. How will Christians grow and mature if the church is stuck in a rut?
Stoking the creative engine
Here's an example of how the process works in our church.
In our community, lots of families go out of town for spring break, but the singles tend to stay home. And half our weekend attenders are single and in their twenties and thirties. So when I asked during a staff meeting, "What would be a good series topic for March?" someone suggested doing a series on spouse selection.
As we talked about it, someone pointed out that who you marry is the second most important decision of your life. Another person added that the series would be just as important to married couples who need to prepare their children. Everyone contributed, from the preschool department to business administration. In fact, I've realized that the most creative ideas often come from those who are not even remotely connected to the ministry we're discussing.
We pulled out flip charts and laptops and began to write down ideas, beginning with what to call the series. (I believe that titles are too often overlooked, but they are your first chance to capture and hold someone's attention, and should not be ignored.) We soon came up with "The Ulti-Mate," God's ultimate mate for your life.
From there we started sharing dating stories and listing biblical principles. By the end of the meeting, we had a solid concept and basic outline for an entire sermon series.
In a later meeting, our creative team, those responsible for the music and visual arts helped me frame the ideas into three messages.
For the first message, I wanted to talk about how people's fallacies about dating are like nursery rhymes. For example, "Hickory, dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock" illustrated how the incessant ticking of the biological clock causes both men and women to rush into a serious relationship before they're ready for the commitment of marriage.
I was going to recite the rhymes myself at various points in the message, but one of the team suggested having children do it. That creative idea took a lot more work—finding children able and willing to get on stage at all three services, practicing, and coordinating how the rhymes would flow in concert with the message.
Aside from the audience "aahing" over the cute kids, having children recite the rhymes created a unique memory for listeners. The visual and emotional effect created an important connection between listener and message.
For the second weekend, we planned to discuss defective dating. The idea came up of comparing premarital sex to taking a car off-road. We have a pretty big stage at Fellowship Church, and I wanted to drive a car across it to illustrate the point. Our team's response was, "Ed, driving a car on stage is a pretty tall order for just one point. Can you use it for the whole message?"
I went back to Starbucks, where I do much of my studying, and came up with several bad habits of ineffective daters. Each habit linked to a different part of the car: looking in the trunk illustrated finding the emotional baggage of the person you're dating, looking behind the wheel symbolized finding out who's driving (Jesus, or someone else?), taking the car off-road was a word picture of misusing God's gift of sexuality.
Of course, we had to find a car. We wanted something luxurious and expensive to show that God has the ultimate spouse in mind for each person. A man who has been investigating Christianity and attending our my small group for a while owns a car dealership, so we called him up to see what he could do. The next day he brought a new Mercedes 500 SL to the church. He said he was thrilled to help.Click here for print version from BuildingChurchLeaders.com 
CREATIVITY CAUTIONS Ed Young continues with a word of caution to BEWARE because creativity can have a dark underbelly. If not kept in its proper place, it can spin wildly out of control. And even with the best intentions, problems will occur and you will make mistakes. Accept that and don't let fear of failure paralyze you. Learn from your mistakes and move forward. Here are a few of the cautions we keep in mind.
1. Help! Message overboard.
This is by far the most dangerous pitfall. Creativity must be controlled by the rudder of relevant biblical truth. The Bible should drive our creativity; creative technique must not drive the biblical message. Biblically-driven teaching is the priority that never changes. I am motivated to be creative by seeing people come to Christ. Don't fall into the trap of trying to top yourself, getting bigger and flashier, at the expense of your message.
If an idea doesn't serve to underscore the theme, then it's not necessary. If you have to explain it too much, then it's probably a distraction, and best avoided.
2. Stranded in a sensory storm.
It's possible for a service to be too busy. Too many elements, even if they are all good ideas individually, generate a sensory storm that clouds the message.
Know when enough is enough and even cut back at times. Every so often— usually after a particularly multi-sensory weekend—we go back and do a simple, unadorned service. A basic meat-and-potatoes message will make the more creative services stand out.
3. Breaking the bank.
It's easy to get excited about creative ideas and start throwing cargo-holds of money at them, but it's better to involve the people around you. When we had the sports car idea, we looked around for someone who had access to one rather than trying to rent one.
It's a fallacy that you have to be a big church with lots of money to be creative. For eight years we met in rented facilities, where creativity was needed more. Plus, creativity can be more intimate in a smaller church. Since the audience can see a small object or photograph, a bigger visual is not necessarily a better one. When our church was smaller, we did a "Juicy Fruit" series on the fruit of the Spirit. We handed out pieces of the gum to illustrate the sweetness of spiritual fruit in your life.
4. A long day's voyage.
Creativity is fun. It turns boring routine into something challenging and exciting. At the same time, creativity is draining. The process of implementing a creative idea takes an enormous amount of time, thought, and energy. For me, there is nothing so demanding as thinking creatively. It requires both commitment and a tireless work ethic to take God's truth from the complex to the simple.
5. Flee the shallows of creative sameness.
It's possible to get stuck in a rut even while being creative. Looking back, I can see that at times we floundered, doing the same "creative routine" every week—a drama during every service, playing the same style of music, in the same way, with the same order in the worship service. We needed to spice things up with something like a cello or the bagpipes.
6. Navigating without a map.
Creativity naturally involves risk-taking, but make sure that what you do is culturally relevant and within moral and ethical bounds. I would not use certain words, phrases, or movie clips, no matter what kind of point it could make, because I don't want to popularize something that promotes immorality. Given recent events, I would not fire a gun on stage, even with blanks. If you're considering something that's at all controversial, run it by some spiritually mature, trusted friends who will tell you the truth. Some illustrations, controversial or in poor taste, are not worth the fallout. As the leader, you must draw the ethical map, based on Scripture, and make the creative coordinates clear.
WORTH THE RISKS
Despise the dangers, creativity has been well worth the efforts.
I once wanted to do a series on animals of the Bible and why God included them in Scripture. At a staff meeting, I asked each person to research two or three animals and their significance.
The result was astonishing: I got reams of reports on animals. We called the series "Animal Planet."
One message, "Camel Filter," focused on Matthew 19:24—"it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." We found a camel, Harpo, and I was going to ride him through the auditorium and up on stage. Harpo refused to go in the church doors, so we taped me riding him through the parking lot and showed it on the side screens. (I suppose the illustration worked better that way, anyway.)
We kicked off the series with Pet-a-palooza, a community-wide event. Everyone brought their pets one Sunday after church. We had trainers and groomers, food and games, and a petting zoo. It was a great time.
Recently we challenged our core believers to be more evangelism- driven. We called it "Lifelines." We decorated the stage like a ship, with a railing draped in ropes and an anchor at one side. We showed video clips of dramatic water rescues.
My point was that too many Christians are content to sit on the deck, soak up the rays, and work on their spiritual tan, while their friends are drowning all around them. Instead, we should be throwing out lifelines. We may be the only lifeline in their life. I told the members to look under their chairs. There each person found a Life Saver candy. It symbolized someone they knew who needed a lifeline. I said they could only eat it after developing a relationship with that person and seeing them accept Christ.
The message to be a lifeline is powerful by itself, but it becomes personal and memorable when linked by a creative illustration to actual people who need a Savior.
GETTING STARTED
Don't be overwhelmed by the prospect of huge changes. Start with the little things. For example, sometimes I speak sitting on a stool; sometimes I use a lectern; sometimes I use nothing at all. We rework the bulletin for every series, changing its size, shape, and color scheme. In a recent service led exclusively by our worship team, our worship guide was fashioned after a compact disc cover. Try changing the order of your worship service or get off the platform and walk the aisles during your message. Do whatever it takes to keep people interested in God's Word.
A close friend of mine is a personal trainer. When we exercise together, he always changes the workout. We never do the same thing the same way twice.
I asked him, "Henry, why are we changing? One day it's curls standing, the next day curls on my back. Why do you change it?"
"Ed, have you heard of the Confusion Principle?" he asked. "If you stay with the same workout, your muscles get used to it and stop growing. But, if you confuse them—work them in different ways—they'll get stronger and grow."
So I've tried to apply this principle in the church. Change the way the choir sings and at what time during the service they sing. Change the time you serve Communion. Maybe change your attire a little bit. Change the bulletin and use it as an outreach piece. I'm not talking about radical stuff now. Small tweaks will take you to giant peaks.
When people come to your church, they should be sitting on the edge of their seats saying, "What in the world are they going to do next?"Click here to check out Ed's Favorite Sermon Series 
WHAT'S WORKING FOR YOU? Terry Storch is on Ed Young's Executive Team and on his blog is asking the question "What’s Working For You?"
Here's what's working with this week's guest contributors...
THE INTERNET & BLOGS
Without a doubt, the most obvious thing that’s working for us is the Internet in general and blogs specifically. Churches need to be utilizing the web, and not merely as a glorified phone book ad. Nearly two-thirds of online Americans use the web for religious purposes (Pew Internet & American Life Project ). Blogs are an amazing way to connect people to a purpose. More church leaders (who can actually write) need to be getting into the blogging habit. This helps potential visitors get to know, and current attendees stay in the know. It gives a personal connection to a person, not an institution or establishment.
DIRECT MAIL
While the Internet is a great way to connect people, it’s not the only way. Direct mail is still a reliably efficient tool for reaching local communities. Just ask Bay Area Fellowship (www.bayareafellowship.com). It’s not as expensive as you might think and it has one of the highest response rates.
BRANDING & IDENTITY
Before most churches spend any money on advertising and promotion they need to take stock of where they are. It’s too easy to waste money on ineffective promotions. Before spending any money a church needs to be sure they’re presenting a consistent, intentional image. They need a good logo and tagline, an effective identity and brand that fits who they are. It adds immeasurably to any other effort you undertake.
CONSISTENCY & REPETITION
Most churches fail at this one. They aren’t consistent about their marketing and they fail to repeat the message often enough for it to sink in. Your logo is useless if you don’t use it consistently. Your tagline is pointless if your congregation doesn’t hear it enough to remember it. Consistent persistence is the phrase that pays.
GOOD IDEAS
What’s working so often starts with a good idea. Brilliant design can never save a bad idea. But if you’re working with a good idea, success is that much closer. And that’s often what churches need. A good idea is NOT slapping your name and logo on a postcard and sending them to the neighborhood. A good idea is a formulated plan about what you’re promoting, why you’re promoting it, and how you’re going to promote it. Starting an after-school study hall for teens too busy for another Bible study is a good idea.
WORD OF MOUTH
Most churches thrive on word of mouth. While my church doesn’t have any lofty marketing plans, we do have very strong word of mouth. Why? People connect with our church, like the approach, and tell their friends. If people like their church they should be talking it up with their friends, just like they’d recommend a good movie or a restaurant. If your congregation isn’t talking up your church, something’s wrong.
PEOPLE
Church marketing often comes down to people. As Christians, we are walking billboards for the Church. A genuine Christian can often do more for a church than all the postcards, billboards and TV commercials you’ll ever run.Click here to check out more insight on "What’s Working For You?" 
PASTOR APOLOGIZES FOR ACROSTIC SAN ANTONIO — Pastor Tom Kirkland, who spelled the phrase "u stink" in his five-point outline last Sunday, has apologized to his church.
"I should have looked it over more carefully," he says. "It was late Saturday night when I finished. I'm sorry."
His six points, based on the story of Abraham, were:
U nderstand your calling
S ay yes to God
T rust Him during hard times
I ntercede for others
N ew beginnings are possible
K eep going!
Plenty of people were offended.
"When I realized what he was spelling, I flipped over my outline so my son wouldn't see it," says Ursula Thompson, 46. The message of the sermon was lost on her, she says.
But others say it's not the first time "unintentional" acrostics have popped up lately. Kirkland, they suspect, is telegraphing his deep-rooted dissatisfaction.
"He spelled 'losers' one Sunday and 'get lost' the next, and apologized for those, too," says one woman. "He's getting little kicks out of it."
Click here for more April Fools' Day articles from Lark News 
SUMMER VACATIONS I love to travel and make a hobby out of doing it as reasonably as possible. Each year I book several exchanges with my timeshares for locations I think my family will enjoy. As we get closer we adjust our vacation schedule to ministry and sports schedules. What I have left I make available at great prices to my friends.
Each two bedroom condo is for 1 full week and will cost $550.00. Many of these weeks could rent for twice as much. Please note that the dates can NOT be changed. If you are interested you can reach me at 717.580.8188.
Here are the weeks I have available for this summer:
NEWPORT, RI
Fairfield Newport at Long Wharf Resort
Week starting 6/17/2005
OUTER BANKS, NC
Barrier Island Station-Kitty Hawk
Week starting 6/18/2005
HILTON HEAD, SC
Cottages at Shipyard
Week starting 6/25/2005
ATLANTIC BEACH, NC
Peppertree Atlantic Beach
Week starting 7/10/2005
HILTON HEAD, SC
Spinnaker at Shipyard
Week starting 7/23/2005
Click here for more information on these vacation weeks 
Thursday, 31 March 2005
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Outside the Box # 173 In This Issue: WHEN WARRIORS LOSE THEIR WAY • THE TEST • KEEP YOUR EASTER VISITORS RETURNING • BURNT OUT • CHURCHES TRY FRANCHISING • TOP 10 LIST: DEPRESSION • HILTON HEAD CONDO THE TEST This weekend Courtney took the SAT test. I found it interesting that the study guide suggested that they think of it as a game. It doesn’t sound like fun to me but I guess a positive attitude is better than fear and nervousness!
John Ortberg tells a story about a student preparing for a test in a class in ornithology, the study of birds. The professor is famous for giving really hard exams, so this student studies like crazy for the final. He even pulls an all-nighter. As he walks into the final, he discovers that this is no usual paper and pencil kind of a test. All there is on the wall are 25 pictures of birds. And the final is: you have to identify 25 species of birds from the pictures. But the real problem is that it doesn’t show the whole bird body; all it shows is the bird’s feet. So you have to identify 25 kinds of birds just from their feet.
Well, the student goes nuts. He says,
“This is crazy, nobody in the world can do this. I’m not going to take this final.”
And the prof. says,
“Well, I’m the professor. You have to take it. That’s the final.”
And the student says,
“Well, it’s absurd, I’m not going to do it.”
And the prof. says,
“All right, then I’m going to flunk you.”
And the student says,
“Go ahead and flunk me. I’m not taking it.”
And the prof. says,
“All right, you flunked. What’s your name?”
The student rolls his pants up to his knees and says,
“You tell me!”
What a great story!
Unfortunately, many tests aren’t fun.
No matter what test you find yourself in the middle of, remember that there is a God who cares and knows you, not only by your feet but also by your faith.
Blessings,
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church DevelopmentClick here for past editions 
BURNT OUT Byron Emmert looked successful on the outside, he was coming apart on the inside. Here is his story that was featured in Network Magazine…
Mowing the lawn on a late August afternoon can be miserable, but I hardly noticed the 94-degree heat, the dripping humidity, or the bugs buzzing around my head. I was too busy trying to brainstorm creative ways to end my life.
I remember thinking these words, because “kill myself” sounded too violent and “commit suicide” seemed too sinful. My mind was racing. My heart was aching. My spirit felt crushed by something evil. I was scared to death, because I wanted to die!
Feelings of despair overwhelmed me. An irrational list of my failures haunted me. I was an ineffective youth worker, a lousy husband and a sorry excuse for a father. Would I ever be successful in ministry? How could my wife Linda really love me? I had put her through
ministry hell. How could BJ and Tyler want me for a dad? I had ignored them for months. Everyone would be better off without me.
BUT, (that’s one of the best words for Christ’s followers) God’s Spirit interrupted my emotional holocaust! In that moment, God reminded me of the words spoken by Betsy to her sister, Corrie Ten Boom, while they were prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp: “There is no pit so deep, that God is not deeper still.”
I turned off the mower, slumped to the ground in our back yard and began to weep. The Father simply told me that He loved me and that He would get me through this darkness. He reminded me that my wife and kids loved me and that they needed me. He said He had a purpose and plan for my life. Jesus was giving me hope.
Now was this another “feel good” Christian story, in which I get up singing and smiling as I dance in the freshly cut grass, joyfully hug my beautiful wife and children as they run to me, drink lemonade, play ball, and go witness to a depressed person and lead him to Christ? Not quite. The good news was that I stopped thinking about suicide (and thankfully have never had those thoughts again). The hard reality was that I was numb emotionally and spiritually for several more days, until I took God up on His offer to give me the strength I needed to tell Linda some of my fears, doubts, and momentary thoughts of suicide.
My emotional system had been hanging by a thread for seventeen days. I sat down with Linda and poured out my heart. She poured out her love and spiritual wisdom that was well beyond her years. We agreed that I was burnt out physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I needed rest. God would meet our need. He did. But the depression continued.
My battle scars came in the form of depression. It was an ongoing battle for years that I typically lost. I was wounded, but lived in denial. You’ve heard the expression that “the only army that shoots its wounded is the Christian army.” Having grown up in a church environment where people preferred to talk about other people’s problems rather than their own (can anyone else relate to this?), I was fearful of admitting my weakness. Besides, depression seemed too closely connected to mental illness. I couldn’t go there. I had a reputation to uphold!
Plus, I had never experienced such closeness to God, seen Him display His truths to me so clearly, felt so loved by my family, so supported by co-workers, or so encouraged and prayed for by friends, as I had during that first DCLA event (over 15,000 students and leaders). In other words - I was doing great spiritually! As a strong Christian, I just couldn’t be struggling with depression! This was new to me.
Beginning in the fall of 1985, my main symptoms were insomnia, headaches, fatigue and periodic days of unexplainable sadness. I repeated a vicious cycle of depression for several years. My pattern was to...
...Be more spiritual (lots of Bible reading and prayer)
...Work harder (serving the Lord was fulfilling)
...Crash emotionally and physically for days (making life painful for Linda and the kids)
...Live in denial (I was a strong Christian and just needed rest)
...Feel guilty (ask for forgiveness and strength to be more spiritual)
...Be more spiritual (lots more Bible reading and prayer)
...And on and on.
This pattern was accentuated by ministry work that involved a lot of travel. I continued to help lead DCLA events, speak at YS student conferences, produce video projects, lead curriculum task forces and write materials, and speak at other conferences. I would be gone for days and thrive on the thrill and pressure of serving God and seeing Him work! It didn’t matter that I hardly slept and didn’t eat right; I had energy to burn for the Lord!
Then I’d come home and experience an incredible let down! I had no energy for my family. I would crash emotionally, become irritable with Linda and our three kids, and then withdraw. During my down time of worthlessness and denial, I often lived in paralysis. After a few days of rest and love from my grace-filled wife and kids, I would tearfully apologize, say that things would get better, and then I’d gear up and go again. And I’d repeat the horrible pattern.
BUT (there it is again), God continued to pursue me and eventually, I finally got it! After five years of Linda’s prayers, God arranged a few circumstances within a month’s time that got my attention. Linda lovingly told me that if I didn’t go get help, she would get it for me! Someone gave us a booklet that explained that depression can be biological. I had to cancel a speaking engagement with thousands of students, because I was so “sick.” The clincher was an article about depression in a Christian magazine. So I admitted my need to myself and Linda. I promised I would do whatever it took to get better.
We recruited a few family and friends to pray and hold me accountable. I went to a doctor. Testing ruled out manic depression/bipolar disorder, but there was evidence of a chemical imbalance in my body. A Christian doctor prescribed an antidepressant. The first drug didn’t work, so after several weeks we tried another one and the results were life-changing! I used it until two years ago when my doctor gave me another medication with fewer side effects and even greater results.
Do I ever get depressed now? Yes, but now it’s about the “ups and downs” of life, not the “valley of despair.” We all have those days when we’re feeling so low we could sit on a sheet of paper and dangle our feet, but I no longer have that fear of being trapped under that sheet of paper disguised as the weight of the world.
I continually thank God for His grace and mercy, for my loving family and friends and for providing the answers to my emotional, spiritual, physical and mental needs. These needs are all connected in the wonderfully complex way He created us.
Now you’ve heard my story. What’s yours? Some of you are trapped in depression and some of you are close to someone depressed. As ministry people, you no doubt are working with someone who feels like there’s no way out of their pit. What will you do?
Click here for the HELPLINE at EMERGE 
TOP 10 LIST: DEPRESSION Byron Emmert’s purpose for sharing his story is to encourage you to get help if needed, or to help someone else. He is not an expert on depression or a trained counselor, but here are his top ten lessons and observations about depression:
1. God is in control even in the middle of depression
The Bible doesn’t use the word depression, but gives plenty of examples of people who suffered with it, and how they trusted God with it. How about Moses, Elijah and David? They probably could have used some meds, but God used them greatly. We can be down and still be in good company! Our sovereign God isn’t surprised with our depression (Ecclesiastes 7:14); He will teach us through depression (Romans 8:28); and He will even equip us through depression (2 Corinthians 1:4). Ultimately, He will use it in our lives for His glory and our good!
2. It’s important to understand the nature of depression
There are many different forms. Some are purely psychological, a reaction to life’s challenges. Other depressions are biological, caused by genetic factors or medical conditions, like a low neurotransmitter in the brain. Some are spiritual, which contribute to the psychological.
3. It helps to know some of the common symptoms of depression
• A continual mood of sadness or hopelessness for at least two weeks
• Loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities
• Insomnia or over-sleeping
• Constant fatigue
• Apathetic, irritable, anxious
• Sexual problems
• Continual physical pain, including headaches, back and stomach pain
• Significant weight loss or gain
• Other symptoms - this is not an exhaustive list
4. It is very common for people to not recognize their depression
It often takes a family member or friend to help someone realize their need for help.
5. It helps to know some basics of how to help someone in depression
• Give them the opportunity to feel safe and talk. Listen. Care. Be patient.
• Don’t criticize them. They probably already feel guilty.
• Don’t claim to know exactly how they feel, unless you’ve gone through depression.
6. It’s important to understand the stigma attached to depression
Our secular culture and Christian community expect people to be in control of their emotions. Depression is often seen as being out of control, so many believers misunderstand those who are suffering and condemn them. They view it only as a spiritual issue (which it can be) and offer up trite answers like “let go and let God.” (I remember times during bouts of depression when I wanted to be like King Saul and hurl a spear toward a cliché-infected Christian.)
7. There is a proven connection between stress and depression
In his book, Adrenalin and Stress, (Word Publishing) Dr. Archibald Hart explains how our bodies produce adrenalin when stressed. Continual stress can actually result in some people becoming addicted to an “adrenalin high” and when deprived, experience “post-adrenalin depression.” This is part of my condition and I believe a real issue for people in ministry.
8. Use of medication doesn’t makes someone less spiritual
God uses His power, prayer, counseling and medications, but be careful, because antidepressants aren’t for everyone or for every situation. Do your own research and if possible, go to a good Christian doctor.
9. There are great resources to help with depression
Needless to say, the Internet is loaded with help. Rather than giving you a long list of great books and counselors check out Gospelcom.net and Christiananswers.net or call the help-line number in the link below. Talk with a trusted friend who cares about you no matter what.
10. Start dealing with your depression today
This is the most important and probably the most difficult part. I pray that God will move you to take the first step toward being whole again in this broken world. Don’t wait!
Click here to find a counsellor in your area 
KEEP YOUR EASTER VISITORS RETURNING Easter is the favorite church Outreach event: more people are invited and attend church on this day than any other. How can you keep those visitors coming? Bridge the six-week gap between Easter and Mother's day - the third highest attendance day. Here are a few ideas to keep them coming back.
1) PROMOTE YOUR NEW SERMON SERIES from the pulpit and in the bulletin. On Easter Sunday announce your upcoming series that speaks to felt needs not only in your congregation - but for seekers as well. Hang posters up in the lobby, and pass out InviteCards at the door.
2) STRATEGIZE YOUR FOLLOW-UP. Use more than one method: a letter from the pastor, a letter from the children's ministry leader for visiting children, a phone call, a hand-delivered WelcomeBox filled with home-baked goodies and church information, a postcard reminding them of upcoming events.
3) HOST A NEWCOMERS' BRUNCH immediately after the service, or in between services, on the Sunday after Easter. Keep it simple, light, and well-attended by staff and ministry leaders. Don't plan a formal program - just a meet and mingle time.
4) HOLD A SPRING FAMILY FESTIVAL after church one Sunday in April. Give the kids carnival tickets stapled to their Easter Sunday egg bags to use on the day of the festival for games as well as free tickets for their whole family for the barbecue (hotdogs and hamburgers) happening at the same time.
5) CONSIDER A PRE-MOTHER'S DAY EVENT. On Saturday, May 7, consider hosting a special women's event, such as a traditional English tea or a spring gardening event (ask a local gardening expert or nursery to set up some displays or give a talk on spring planting). Be sure to provide childcare for single moms.
6) MAKE HER DAY SPECIAL. Then on Sunday, speak on the institution of motherhood using a catchy sermon title like "Mother Knows Best", "The Politically Incorrect Mother" or "Dedicated Housewives." Provide everyone with special coffee and treats after service as well as a special gift to Moms.
KEEP YOUR CARDS AND LETTERS COMING. You've done a great job of providing your visitors with opportunities to revisit your church. Now, don't forget to let them know how important they are to you. Follow up all your major events with a thank-you card to the visitors. Keep it short and sweet: thank them for their visit, and let them know that no matter where they are on their spiritual journey, your church has a place where they can find answers and friends.
- ASSIMILATE THEM. If your church offers a "basics" class that addresses questions about Christianity, offer this class as a follow-up to your spring outreach. Many of your visitors may be anxious to spend some time discussing issues or asking questions about faith: ensure that they can get their answers at your church. You can include this class information on the thank-you card.
- DON'T FORGET THEM. Finally, don't let this be the last time they hear from you. Include your visitors in all your church mailings including newsletters, future direct mailings and any e-mail updates. Keeping them connected to your church will encourage them to continue coming and help them feel important to your church community.Click here to order Outreach Promotional Tools 
CHURCHES TRY FRANCHISING IT WORKED FOR BURGERS, NOW CHURCHES TRY FRANCHISING
This article by Patrick Kampert appeared in the Chicago Tribune on January 16, 2005. It has a number of interesting thoughts to explore.
Scott and Michelle Knollenberg of Plainfield can spend their Sundays letting national chains cater to their every need--physical, material and, now, spiritual.
They can grab an Egg McMuffin at McDonald's, a stylish lamp at Target, towels at Bed Bath & Beyond and a double tall non-fat mocha at Starbucks. But Sunday's highlight is the church service prepared by Naperville pastor Dave Ferguson and his national staff, which will be virtually identical in music, sermon, videos and skits at 10 locations throughout the country.
The Knollenbergs are members of Community Christian Church, which has Chicago-area sites in Naperville, Shorewood, Romeoville and Montgomery. Nationally, the network started by Ferguson and his brother Jon also has churches in Denver, Detroit, New York and Bakersfield, Calif.
In the business world, they call this kind of thing franchising. In evangelicalism, it's known as the multisite church, and it is a growing trend with a similar aim: providing consistent quality and service wherever you go.
Dave Ferguson, co-founder and lead pastor of Community Christian, said his church was one of about 10 nationally that were taking a multisite approach in 1998. Six years later, upward of 1,000 churches have embraced the movement.
Locally, Willow Creek Community Church, New Life Community Church and Harvest Bible Chapel are among the institutions whose growth has spurred them to find new ways to accommodate the crowds that flock to their weekend services. That usually means satellite campuses that are 10, 20 or 30 miles away from their main location.
Jim Hilmer, a Florida marketing consultant and a former executive for Blockbuster and the Leo Burnett ad agency, is impressed by the trend.
"I think it's very inventive for the church world," he said. "Most churches are pretty staid and tradition-bound."
Alan Wolfe, Boston College sociologist and author of "The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith," isn't surprised that these spreading megachurches are adapting facets of American culture to their advantage.
"When it comes to using cutting-edge technology, American evangelicals have always been pretty good at that," he said. "They were really pioneers in the use of radio, for example. That runs against the image some people have of evangelicals being backward and out of touch."
The Knollenbergs say these contemporary, non-denominational churches are anything but backward. In fact, the Naperville church's foyer is a coffee shop, designed with the help of sociologist and author Ray Oldenburg ("The Great Good Place"). Oldenburg's notion that humans require a "third place" for gathering as a community beyond home and work has been credited by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz as one of the factors contributing to the success of the coffee giant's shops.
Community Christian has so grabbed the couple's hearts that Scott Knollenberg turned down a promotion, his "dream job," in 2002 because it required moving away from the church to Peoria. He quit his position a couple of weeks ago to take a 60 percent pay cut and work for Community Christian full time.
"We're not content with having a nice congregation," he said. "It's all about, `How can we help other people find their way back to God?'"
DEFYING STEREOTYPES
While the November elections pushed "moral values" into the public eye, the Knollenbergs don't fit the stereotype of the judgmental fundamentalist either. They're in their early 30s and would flip to a different TV channel if they came across a televangelist.
They speak of their faith as a "journey" instead of a conversion. Growing up, church attendance "was more of a task you had to do every week," Michelle said. "We both learned more about the Bible and Jesus in the short amount of time we've been here than in all the years of growing up in church."
Community Christian and Willow Creek are geared to spiritual seekers in their weekend services. They put a priority on delivering a highly professional presentation to audiences that have grown up with 16-screen cineplexes, big-budget musicals and elaborate concerts. So when Willow Creek hired Colorado megachurch pastor Jim Tomberlin to spearhead its expansion to satellite campuses, he knew the far-flung locations couldn't skimp on the reputation that the South Barrington church has developed.
"When Starbucks opens up a Starbucks," Tomberlin said, "people expect it to be Starbucks, not a mom-and-pop coffee shop. There's a lot of meaning in the Willow brand."
Willow Creek has opened locations in Wheaton, McHenry County and the North Shore. All began with 300 people, and all now draw more than 1,000 each weekend. (About 20,000 attend in South Barrington.) The church is currently filling positions for a facility it will open next year somewhere in or near downtown Chicago.
"We've done surveys in the past, and when you ask people what the ideal church size is, they'll say about 200," Tomberlin said. "But when you ask them what they want from a church, they describe a church of 2,000--great preaching, great youth and children's programs, a pastor who's available to them.
"There's a sense that small is more intimate, and it's true," he added. "I believe these [satellites] allow us to do both."
WEEKLY MEETINGS
The services that the Knollenbergs attend emerge from video and phone conferences that the church staff has every Tuesday.
Each church staff has 10 days to tweak the service to fit the needs and context of its parishioners. A similar approach is used at Chicago-based New Life church. Its five locations range from Lakeview to Little Village.
"We all do the same message, but it will sound and feel a little different at each location just because of the multicultural aspect," said New Life pastor Mark Jobe.
Occasionally, the New Life churches gather for a single service, something Jobe cherishes.
"You'll have a young white professional who works at a tech company downtown sitting beside a first-generation immigrant Mexican who speaks very little English," he said. "But they're part of the same church and the same vision and connected to each other."
The Knollenbergs attend the south campus of Community Christian, and Ferguson or another pastor usually preaches. But some Community Christian locations use a DVD of the message that was recorded during the main campus' Saturday service the night before.
Ditto for Harvest Bible Chapel. Although Harvest has spun off a number of independent Harvest Bible Chapels in the Midwest and Canada, it recently added satellite campuses in Elgin and Niles. The Niles venue was a dying Baptist church of 70 people who voted to become a Harvest last April. Now, more than 500 people attend two services at the facility on Caldwell Avenue.
Part of Harvest's draw is the powerful, charismatic preaching of senior pastor James MacDonald, who also has a sizable following in Christian radio circles through his "Walk in the Word" program.
But Harvest executive pastor Joe Stowell acknowledges that a sermon projected on a large video screen alone won't guarantee growth.
"What we've seen is that people are willing to accept biblical teaching on video if it's accompanied with hands-on, person-to-person ministry," he said. "We learned pretty quick we need someone up front--a campus pastor--a guy who might visit them in the hospital if they're sick."
A PREFERENCE FOR HOMES
The approach is not for everyone. Steve Atkerson was on staff at a Southern Baptist megachurch before becoming president of the New Testament Restoration Foundation, which advocates that churches should primarily meet in homes as was done in the early days of Christianity.
"The difference we're suggesting is that church ought to be relationally oriented," Atkerson said. "Megachurches are, frankly, program-oriented."
Yet part of those programs is, in fact, home meetings, and sociologist Wolfe said they are the engine that drives the big church, though he is skeptical that video preaching will still be acceptable to congregations in 5 or 10 years.
"Without the small groups, the megachurch couldn't exist," Wolfe said. "People focus on these big huge chapels, but the small groups are where the action is."
The Knollenbergs host such a group every Wednesday night in their home. The nine members are currently discussing "Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them," a book by former Willow Creek assistant pastor John Ortberg.
"The concept of one pastor trying to take care of everybody doesn't work very well," Scott Knollenberg said. "We kind of take care of each other."
The Knollenbergs said they found support and encouragement from the group as they went through years of infertility. (Pictures of 10-month-old Chloe are now everywhere around the home.)
Beyond the bells and whistles of DVD sermons and multisite churches, even Ferguson agrees that filling that basic human need--community--is critical to his organization's success.
"If you can get people into small communities and invite God into that, good stuff always happens."
Register your team for the NewThing Multi-Site Practicum in Naperville 
HILTON HEAD CONDO I have a Hilton Head condo available for the week of June 25, 2005 for $550.00. This is a large 2 bedroom/2 bath unit that has a fully equipped kitchen, washer and dryer.
Located in the serene surroundings of Shipyard Plantation, the Cottages at Shipyard are reminiscent of Key West bungalows, each featuring a quaint covered porch. Situated on quiet cul de sacs, each with exquisite views of fish stocked lagoons or professionally manicured golf courses, the cottage is a great place to relax.
Newport, RI and another Hilton Head week are also available.Click here for more info 
Outside the Box # 172 In This Issue: STUCK • TERRELL HEARS FROM GOD • SHOWING THE PASSION AT CHURCH • THE SERIOUS SEVEN • LINK 2 LEAD • PLANNED RESURRECTION IN NORTH PHILLY • GREAT DADS SEMINAR TERRELL HEARS FROM GOD Well it has been one week since my Philadelphia Eagles went down at the hands of the Patriot Dynasty. I just want to say thank you to all my friends who took the time to deliver such warm and caring words of encouragement. You add a whole new dimension to "faithful are the wounds of a friend!"
Seriously, I look back at a season with many great moments. One of them would include the play of Terrell Owens. Only 6 weeks after ankle surgery, T.O. claimed that God cleared him to play, "I know what the doctor said, Coach, but God said I could play." How do you say no to that one?
After watching T.O. catch 9 passes for 122 yards I am glad Coach Andy let him play. But I have to wonder why God didn't give T.O. a few plays to pass on to Donovan McNabb while they were talking.
Maybe next year...
Tom Rees
tom@penndel.org
Assistant to the Superintendent
Men's Ministries & Church DevelopmentClick here for past editions 
THE SERIOUS SEVEN In the book, UNSTUCK, they list what they call are the SERIOUS SEVEN. Throughout the process of researching and writing UNSTUCK, they noted that while there are countless causes to being stuck, most can be understood because they fall into one of seven key categories of dysfunction.
Once leaders understand (and admit) that they're stuck, they then spend time determining the scope and cause of their predicament. It's not about tackling every single issue, but rather understanding which ones should be attacked first.
Are you STUCK? Take a look at the Serious Seven and think about your predicament. Can you place yourself and your organization?
OVERWHELMED
You used to be so certain about where to go, but here you are now, rudderless. It all seems like too much work. Or you feel like you're under too much scrutiny. Or there are too many moving parts.
Depending on the hour of the day, everyone can feel overwhelmed. But this predicament goes much deeper and has greater consequences.
Tell-tale signs include major procrastination. You can't figure out why you can't get started. You may even have many of the elements to succeed, but you're still stuck. The task ahead feels huge.
You hear or say things like this, "We know what to do, but we have no idea how we're going to get it done." "Is it just me, or does the boss look like a deer in the headlights?" "Failure might not be an option. But it doesn't look like success is either."
EXHAUSTED
Perhaps your original intent — your North Star, if you will — was clear. But as the team sailed on, the sextant was thrown overboard. Once a brilliant crew, the team is now paralyzed by politics, wasted efforts, opinions arising from fear, and even the occasional mutiny. Progress is slowing to a standstill.
Tell-tale signs include Team burnout. Resentment over new projects. Waning interest or involvement in team get-togethers and meetings.
You hear or say things like this, "It's not like things are broken, but it doesn't feel right either." "I'm pooped."
"If it's not one thing, it's another." "Once we get one thing fixed, something else springs a leak."
DIRECTIONLESS
You're stuck because your team is all thrust, no vector. People are busy, but aren't necessarily effective. Everyone is obsessed with their to-do list, yet there is no "big picture" to guide their actions. Decisions are made with little regard for the context of the day, let alone what tomorrow might bring.
Tell-tale signs include a lot of action taking place, but there are few tangible results. Often, team members are unable to connect their work to the larger context of what must be done. What's more, judgment calls about what's important often turn out to be wrong later.
You hear or say things like this, "I'm so busy, I don't have time to think." "We get to good, but rarely to great." "Why are we doing this?"
HOPELESS
A kind of general defeatism has set in. The team is spinning. All the hard work seems like exactly that, just hard work. There is no feeling of reward, no sense of achievement.
Tell-tale signs include a team that used to have tons of passion — but where'd it all go? There's no rallying cry, especially when the going gets tough. It takes an awfully big dose of success to get the same rush you used to.
You hear or say things like this, "We have no idea why we exist." "We all have our own agendas, and no one is on mine." "I'm outta here."
BATTLE TORN
This syndrome leads to a group so torn by its own foibles that it never even gets to fight the outside enemy. This is friendly fire at its most disturbing. It can bring even the toughest to their knees.
Tell-tale signs include team members with hurt feelings, bruised egos, or political agendas. Team interactions characterized by unresolved conflict, defensiveness, lack of communication, and high levels of inhibition. Factions, cliques, bullies, and desertions.
You hear or say things like this, "We spend more time fighting than working." "You don't dare speak up in meetings because someone will take your head off."
WORTHLESS
Moving targets. Muddy expectations. The right actions aren't rewarded. Even when the team does something amazing, it's overlooked. Before long, the team feels its contributions don't matter.
Tell-tale signs include the team not knowing what victory looks like — so they never know if they achieve it. The metrics of performance seem vague. Team members are puzzled over which goals to pursue.
You hear or say things like this, "He asked me to do this. Should I even bother?" "Do you think when they said it was due Friday they meant Friday?" "It seems like we're all just going through the motions."
ALONE
It used to feel like a close-knit unit, but somewhere along the way the sense of belonging was replaced by the haze of an identity crisis. Your crew lacks a culture to unite it, so it is far less than the sum of its parts.
Tell-tale signs include individual team members making up their own rules. The team never seems to be in sync. Every meeting feels like the first time the team has worked together. Lots of new leaders pop up, but they don't seem to last very long.
You hear or say things like this, "Unless the boss tells us what to do, nothing gets done." "New team members can't seem to master the ropes." "It's just chaos, chaos, chaos."
Click here for the UNSTUCK website 
PLANNED RESURRECTION IN NORTH PHILLY Pastor Otto Wegner and the congregation of Highway Tabernacle in Philadelphia, has accepted the challenge to adopt the seriously neglected and vandalized building of a former A/G church in North Philadelphia. Resurrection Life Church will bring new life to this inner city neighborhood.
Otto and his ministry need our help! He is inviting as many of us as possible to participate with him on Saturday, March 19th at 9:00 a.m. at the site of the planned resurrection! Together, we will be leading members of Highway Tabernacle; students, faculty, and staff from Valley Forge Christian College; local pastors; civic leaders; and friends in the pre-renovation open house at 17th and Tioga in North Philadelphia.
On that occasion, says Brother Wegner, “We hope to accomplish the following: Define the community’s need for the Lord Jesus, make a statement of irreversible commitment to establish a thriving church with many ministries at that location, lead our guests through safe areas of the properties with a narrated explanation of the planned ministries and needs we will be addressing, enlist all present to an active prayer ministry during the construction and start-up phase of the work, and begin the initial clean-up of the property.
“After a very brief explanation of our purpose for being at the site on that occasion, Pastor Stephen Tourville will lead us in prayer. And then, the work will begin as everyone will begin to carry debris from the building to awaiting dumpsters. We would also ask that you be among the first to sign a ‘Book of Praying Partners’ during your visit. We expect to finish with enough pizzas to satisfy famished workers at about 12:30 p.m.”
Please contact Otto at (215) 563-9192 to let him know of your planned participation!
SPECIAL IMMEDIATE NEEDS:
PICK UP: As they begin this project, Otto will need a pick-up truck. If you or your ministry has one that you can donate, please give Otto a call. It doesn’t have to look good but should run.
PEWS: Vandals stole the pews over Thanksgiving. If your church is planning to renovate and has pews that you may be willing to donate, please contact Otto.
Otto can be reached at (215) 563-9192 or owegner@highwaytabernacle.org.
Click here for pictures of the planned Resurrection 
SHOWING THE PASSION AT CHURCH This Easter season, many churches are planning to show THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. Churches can legally show the PASSION publicly within the US only by obtaining a Public Performance License from Swank Motion Pictures.
The Public Performance License is just $10.00 for church audiences up to 1,000 people, who are not charging admission.
If you are charging admission or have a larger audience, contact Swank Motion Pictures at 1-800-685-POTC.
This license enables a church to use the "Home Use Only" DVD or Videocassettes, purchased from retail stores.
At this time the Passion is not covered under a license with Christian Video Licensing International.
Click here to apply for your license online 
LINK 2 LEAD Link2Lead.com is a ministry tool for you and your leaders. The PennDel District has partnered with Percept to make this available to you. Our subscription expires in April 2005. To take advantage of this valuable resource simply log on to the Link2Lead web site and register as a user at no cost to you (PennDel and has paid for a district wide membership for one year).
Follow the instructions on the site and begin a new adventure into the information world that will assist you and the leaders of your church in planning for mission and ministry!
Click here to register 
GREAT DADS SEMINAR PennDel HonorBound is partnering with United Men of Faith to promote Great Dads seminars. This seminar focuses on “The 6 Basics of Being a Great Dad”, presenting key principles and many helpful, practical examples. To schedule a Great Dads seminar call Bob Keiderling with United Men of Faith at 610.437.1992.
The following seminars and scheduled for PennDel AG churches:
Saturday, March 19th
Pinchot Park
Pastor Cole McClenithian
Saturday, June 11th
Roaring Spring, Pa.
Pastor Tony Baker
Saturday, September 23rd
Bensalem, Pa.
Pastor David Cawston
Click here for more info on Great Dads 
OutsideTheBoxMinistry
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- Name: Tom
- Birthday: 12/20/1961
- Gender: Male
- Member Since: 4/10/2004
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Tom is director of Church Planting and Development of the Assemblies of God in Pennsylvania and Delaware and serves as the Assistant to the Superintendent. Tom is on the Elder Team for Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Reading, PA. He also is an adjunct professor at Valley Forge Christian College and is currently teaching Developing Evangelism and Discipleship Programs. He speaks extensively at ministry training conferences, men’s ministries events and leadership seminars.
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