The Venture

There are days when you feel a church family move forward. Sunday was that day. The two big factors were a lot of prayer and having 76% of our church family in home fellowship teams last week.

Decisions for Christ
3 kids started a personal relationship with Christ in Kidzrock. A 5th grader was tearing up over her condition and how the moment was so special. THAT is the moment of the morning.

How Great Thou Art
We are trying for a more intimate setting. Our worship team went to an “ancient” song and it was my favorite of the set. Hearing our young church worship to this song was a beautiful noise to our Father.

Silence
Drew had us pause in silence for 30 seconds. For some, this worship moment felt awkward. For Rosie, it was the perfect opportunity to sense the intimacy of Christ.

28 Day Challenge
Our message was centered around Luke 10. Martha was too busy. Mary sat at her Lord’s feet and listened to Jesus. She discovered the “one thing”. For us, we need to take a Sabbath and spend time with Jesus. My b-day is today and I “guilted” GFC into buying our custom made Gateway Life Journal for every member of their family. You can learn how we are fleshing this out by clicking here or here. My number one prayer is that we hear from God every day.

Mother’s Day Video
Our kids did an excellent job telling their mommies why they loved them. You can watch it here. No way you are seeing the “other” one. Drew does an excellent job and is so stinking creative. We honored eight “super moms” that have been doing it solo. Friends in our church stepped up to make them feel special. More to come.

Coffee with old friend
I arrived in Dallas last night to spent the night with one of my best friends. Matt recently moved bck from Cal to be the master’s commission director. We stayed up way too late drinking Seattle’s Best. Good times.

The Rookie Triathlon in New Braunfels was the perfect event for my friends Steve Gilbert and Johnny Hauck to finish their first race. Their smiles made the day worth it! A freak injury left me in a role of support. As a volunteer I also had the opportunity to help runners and cheer for my friends. My wife Steph and her new buddy Jennifer both finished at 1:16. Brian finished strong in the top 25% of his age group. The Sportlife team was amazing and it was a great opportunity to be a light. This will be a race that I will do with many more people from Gateway and my kids some day.

Stephanie and I have been dreaming about hosting a fellowship team at our home for nine months. With fifteen minutes remaining, I throw the meat on the grill only to find that something is jacked with the propane. Don saved the day by helping me pour on the coals and man the grill while we welcomed our 15 friends and 18 children (Bryce was swimming in estrogen because 16 were girls under the age of 9).

Izzy brought a banana creame pie that caused me to get way to excited. I took a brand new knife out only to lacerate my index finger. I would like to say it was the loss of blood and not the sight of it that left me on my back with two friends holding my legs up in the air, but the medical experts tell me otherwise and I needed to go the e.r. “Heck no.” A little cut on the finger was not going to ruin our team gathering.

We went around the room and shared our stories. It was beautiful to hear my friends open up about themselves. I was more filled with joy during those sixty minutes than the day we launched Gateway. It was sometimes awkward, but very authentic. My prayer was that every Gatewayer experience this.

After everyone left, my sis Izzy followed me to, well all over San Antonio. As I look back, there is no doubt she displayed the greatest friendship gesture that I have received in over a year. Somewhere around 2 a.m., I told Izzy she could go home. She responded, “I just can’t have you passing out all over the place now that I finally found a place to belong.”

Four hospitals, seven hours, a lot of squirming, and 12 stitches later…I’m good as new.

Three different times I had to hold back tears last night. Deeper community is happening. What we have been dreaming about is becoming a reality. 146 Gatewayers signed up to join a six or thirteen week fellowship team. Steph and I are the coaches of one that begins in my home tonight, but we also joined the Financial Peace University team that started last night at the La Cantera clubhouse. Mike, Mike, Stacey, and Paula did an excellent job leading the team of 17 adults. If only our class clown would have stopped distracting everyone, I would have learned more. We have placed Christ in the center of our finances and delighted to experience zero debt. However, we still hope to be better givers and investors with what God has entrusted us with.

Our prayer is that more authentic and communal friendships will occur during this season of our church than the last six months combined. These fellowship teams are a little structured, but we hope that enough friendships will occur that our true vision for “teams” will go way beyond this model. I can’t wait to fire up the grill for another team tonight!

Gushing water from the Guadalupe River poured into Josh and Michael’s canoe before it flipped over in the class II rapids. It was the first of three times during a two day trip with friends. We faced rain, sprained ankles, hunger, back pain, long walks, bad directions, and heat; but I never heard our team complain. We had a blast because we love each other, never cussed (at least that I heard), and chose a positive attitude in the midst of difficulty.

My attitude is my choice. Here are questions to ask to help us with our attitude.

Are my words and actions lifting others up?
Am I prideful?
Putting others before myself?
Do people feel better about themselves after spending time with me?
Am I willing to sacrifice my preferences for others?
Do I have a servant’s heart?
Am I a complainer?

Do everything without complaining or arguing. Philippians 2:14

Attitude check: How has yours been lately?

kidzrock
3 kids raised their hands to make decisions to start a relationship with Jesus today! Thank you to Paula, Baileigh, and the kidzrock team for creating a fun and high energy environment for our kids to learn. When we get home, I always ask HG and Emma if they had fun and what they learned. Today, the big idea was, “Don’t get tired of doing the right thing.” (complete with motions).

single moms meeting
We met with a team that is creating a “wow” experience for our single moms on Mother’s Day. El Chaparral is covering the lunch and this will be unreal. If you know of a single mom not connected with our church, please register them online on our website.

new volunteers
We had a dozen new volunteers helping out all over the church. From our production team, greeters, kidzrock, to nursery…friends are finding a reason to be alive and having fun. Thank you to all of our volunteers!

fellowship teams
In the last two weeks, 146 people signed up to be on a fellowship team that starts this week. I am stoked that people will becoming closer friends this week in area homes. My prayer is that we will more of a church family after Thursday than we could ever achieve in our first 12 weeks as a church.

applause for the offering
It was fun talking about money this morning. We talked about how important it is to create financial space and become better stewards with the stuff God entrusts us with. Very cool that we actually cheered when we received the offering. The brutal facts are only 8% of our church tithes. A lot of our people are so new to church and being taught what God’s word says about tithing. I read an email sent to me this weekend. They are new Christ followers, baptized recently and started placing God first in the area of their finances:
It is a way of life for us now. We give to the church at the beginning of each month, and treat it like a bill - it is not negotiable. It’s hard sometimes and at first we would have those “if we had that money back…” thoughts. We both have debt from our past and have student loans, but we have not accrued any debt in over 4 years. We don’t even have a credit card and we have paid cash for anything we have bought. But we could still use some improvements. We also tithed our income tax and we plan to tithe our stimulus check.
The transformation in my friends’ lives is incredible and they have challenged me to tithe on my stimilus check too and designate it towards our building fund.

211 loop ride
5 of us made the 28 mile loop around Helotes this afternoon. There is probably not a better way to put an exclamation on an amazing God given day than riding with friends.

What was your favorite moment of the day? Thoughts, questions, or comments about tithing and debt?

Our town of Helotes throws a party every year in May called “Cornyval”. Because Heltoes means “ear of corn”, I assume that is why it is aptly named. The four day fair includes a rodeo, Country music, rides, and a ton of sausage and tacos. We loved seeing our neighbors and friends from Gateway during the evening.

It was a big moment for our family since Bryce just made the magical height of 36 inches which enabled him to ride the clanking metal rides. We were delayed because every carny felt like it was their God given duty to measure him up. Being around the carnies created the urge to grow my mullet back out. Unfortunately there would be no business in the front and I would have to rename her “skullet”. Oh yeah, whoever the older carny with a heavy German accent was who called me a cheapskate dad because I didn’t throw darts at his balloons for a raunchy poster please find another job. The highlight was leaving early and consuming even more food at Dairy Queen with Grandpy, Mi Mi, Uncle Josh, and Aunt Shara.

“If the Gospel isn’t touching others, it hasn’t touched you.” —Curry R. Blake

Although difficult, I can evaluate my effectiveness as a leader. When it slips it is usually because of the lack of intimacy I have had with my Heavenly Father. When I loose patience with my family it is usually because I haven’t spent significant blocks of time in prayer. When I choose my rights over the needs of my friends it is usually because I have just flew through a chapter in the Bible.

I have been too busy working the last few days and not enough time with Jesus. Ignite my desire to spend time in your presence now. I take second place to you.

“Why would you want to start a church instead of going to an existing one?” Besides feeling that God has called us to launching Gateway, we felt like we were wired for this venture. Of course, anyone who has launched a church has their own rules, so I thought i would add with my own. My “rules” below aren’t just for those starting churches, but for those who are considering going to work for themselves as well. With most businesses and churches struggling to survive in their first year, it is imperative to have “rules”.

1. Don’t start a church unless its an obsession and something you are passionate about. I felt possessed by this consuming vision that I constantly think about when laying in bed, showering, and riding my bike.

2. If you have an exit plan, its not an obsession.

3. Recruit team players who you think will love working in your system and with you. Character, Chemistry, and Competence are the non-negotiables.

4. Transformed lives cures all. Know how your church will operate and how you will actually make disciples. A simple defined process that is understood by everyone is key.

5. Know your strengths and focus on being great at them. Get the best you can. Outside the core competencies, hire people or recruit those outside your strengths.

6. As far as technology, it is not the main thing. However, having a good website, video projector, blogs, blast emails, and podcasts are a great way to communicate in our culture.

7. Keep the church flat. If you have leaders and pastors reporting to other leaders and pastors in a startup, we will fail.

8. Never forget the “why” and the mission. For us it is to become friends with the unconvinced so we can help them become life long followers of Jesus Christ. Every person who we meet or walks through our door is the most important person, matters, and for whom Christ hung on a tree for.

9. Do as much as you can “in house” and save money.

10. Make volunteering fun for the team. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. Surprising a key team member with a 3D U2 concert, random canoeing/cliff jumping, and handing out starbucks cards is way to have fun or celebrate during stressful seasons.

11. It is your responsibility to make sure your core leaders are growing. Offer accountability and opportunities for spiritual and leadership growth. Every team member is currently reading a leadership book so we can become better.

A few books that have influenced my “rules” are the Bible, 7 Practices of a Church-Andy Stanley, E-Myth Revisted, Simple Church, and Good to Great-Phil Collins

taste of teams
We launched our fellowship teams today! It was fun seeing coaches decorate their tables and bribe people to sign up at their table by using chocolate and dr. pepper. Our new series started on the 6 T’s with an emphasis on having partners on a team. Our spiritual race is no fun and rarely lasts if we are alone. As a pastor I care about everyone at GFC, but can not realistically care for them. My goal is that a majority of our folks will sign up by this Sunday. As we grow in size and influence, we must grow smaller through community and relationships. If you missed today, be sure to sign up for a team this weekend before we start the first week of May.

baby dedication
Haylee Brooke and Brayden James were dedicated today. I’m so thankful for my friends Hank and Devin for being parents who are committing to raise their children to be life long followers of Christ. I love talking trash to Steph about who the first one to hold Haylee at the hospital.

chocolate cake
Our drama team was too funny showing the lighter side of things we wish we could say during “fellowship teams”. The Chocolate Freak, errr, Moses, errr, Kyle was in rare form today.

chi alpha
Amy Hauck led worship today in an unplugged set to help us achieve a more intimate setting. Johnny helped me describe what his “team” looked like and then shared the vision for U.T.S.A. They told us this week about a group of students who were offering to exchange free porn for peoples’ bibles called smut for smut. You could literally hear the gasp in the room. We took up a missions offering for what will prove to be one of the most kingdom impacting ministries in our city. I’m so thankful to partner with this team to serve our city. I love college students!

my new friend Joel
Joel shared his story with me and Jonathan led him to Christ this week. I was so floored by his story that I grabbed our video camera to capture his story to show soon.

family bbq
Even with the fiesta parades, spurs game, and hurricane force winds; we had a great crowd show up behind the courts. Thanks to Bino we ate sausage and tortillas. We had a lot of fun playing sand volleyball and I was reminded why I don’t like playing basketball. I have no shot.