focus groups

I love being around other church starters. For one day, we met with our Church Multiplication Network in Kansas City as a focus group to help design a website that will be a more helpful tool for future church planters. There is a need for help beyond assessment, boot camp, and some coaching cirlces. Imagine a user designed site that could provide free resources, answers to your questions, and cohort groups. Steve’s team stepped out of the room for most of the day as Change Effect facilitated the event. I continued to learn from some really sharp friends and their journeys as this CE needed to understand the life of the church planter to design a site that would meet our challenges.

I left with these thoughts:

- I am excited about the passion and vision of CMN as they help prepare the way for future church planters.
- The local church is still the hope of the world.
- Social media and viral marketing will replace the dead model o direct mail.
- Scott Wilson continues to challenge me to be a better leader.
- Gateway would benefit from having conducting focus groups with new people, people who have not attended Gateway yet, and our volunteers.
- Being around Scott Meador reminds me why he will always be one of my favorite Soutwestern Harvesters.
- The Royals are one of my favorite small market teams.
- The K.C. BBQ is better than that in Wichita Falls, but not as good as Arknasas.

sunday six-6.28

Taking the Plunge
Brandon said good-bye to a life of drugs when he died today. I can’t wait to see what God does through his life. We celebrated the water baptisms of Mike, Renee, and Chris too!

New Beginnings
Six people placed their faith in a blood stained cross by being spiritually born again, but it is only the beginning. No turning back until Jesus comes or they die.

Volunteers of the Day
There were new volunteers every where today! I loved seeing June serve Jesus by ushering. I loved trying to find a creative place to say hi to people because new Gateway greeters were doing such a great job. I appreciate every friend who volunteers on Sunday! You are the best and the backbone of our Sunday morning experience!

9,000 at the Theatre on Sunday
Being portable at the theatre has its perks especially when you have the hook up with the “golden ticket”. Our fam stayed to watch “Up” and when it ended I noticed that the theatre was packed and no parking spots open. My good friend Eli the manager said 9,000 people would watch a movie at the Silverado today. I immediately imagined that many people being as passionate about Jesus as they are Holywood. What would our community look like?!

Dessert with New Friends
Friends who have recently started to attend GFC joined me and Steph in our home for dessert. They were interested in learning more about how Gateway got her start and what our vision is. I loved getting to know my new friends better and could see some rising leaders from this group. I love everyone of them and especially their kids.

Walking with Jesus
I can’t explain the passion I have for the new series we started. If our church grabs hold of this one, the enemy might as well raise the white flag and move on. During my climb up Kili, I was inspired by Jesus, Francis Schaeffer, Bro. Lawerence, Paul, and Moses to live my spiritual life that reflects a complete dependence on Jesus. If our life is a journey, we were not created to walk it alone. Imagine the sense of adventure, power, and joy that will result as we climb this new mountain together!

Here were a couple of texts I received:
That was one of the best messages I have ever heard, and it is changing my life. I say “is” because it did change and God-willing, will continue to change me to be more like Him. Mandy

The caribiner key chain you gave us really works! I am reminded of God’s presence around me all day!

climbing kili

As I sand screed down Kilamanjaro on day six, I couldn’t believe I accomplished another life goal. Kilimanjaro is the world’s largest free standing moutain and Africa’s hightest point. This volcano has five ecosystems that includes a rain forrest, dessert, and ice glaciers. Kilimanjaro is the misuse of two Swahili words, Kilima for mountain and Njaro for two colors. Global warming may eventually melt the white snow and ice at the top.

I’ve never climbed a 14er before so the idea of being above 19,000 feet in the air created some anxiety even though I was with good friend and He-Man Johnny Hauck. Food poisoning two days before our climb depleted all energy, but we were committed. After 7 hours of climbing, I dropped dead in my tent. Our guide knew it was a crucial moment when he woke me up to eat and give me what Americans call “Juice of Life”. It is a drink with some kind of plant and herbs. I still don’t know what’s in it, but didn’t ask too many questions. If we didn’t eat, there was no way we could continue seven days of climbing.

No matter how hard you train, not much can prepare you for the last day up the summit. We hiked 21 hours with out sleep at a very high altitude that left us vomitting and heads pounding. Imagine climbing over a mile of stairs with one lung and the temp plummeting to negative 15 degrees. Our guide reminded us in Swahili, “Pole. Pole.” which meant “Slowly. Slowly.” The suffering made reaching the summit even more sweet. It was surreal to see the sunrise and view 40 foot glaciers. The beautiful views and sacred moments with God only added to our experience. Drew gave me our handy flip camera to capture some great moments. I can’t wait to share the lessons we learned during our upcoming series – How to Walk with Jesus. It will give us the feel of climbing Kili together, but more importantly climbing a spiritual mountain at a pivotal moment in the life of our church.

missionaries matter

I will never forget the moment our launch team met with Steve Hayes during a pre-launch meeting. We heard his heart for Russia, prayed for him, and decided to support him monthly. During that week a respected minister told me that we should not give to missions yet, but should see ourselves as the mission. That was advice I felt compelled to ignore. In fact, it made me angry. Not only do we take a special offering once a month for special projects, we also financially support over a dozen missionaries by giving 19% of our church’s offerings and income away. I hope that our journey will never be about just us. As we take care of what is on God’s heart, he will take care of what is on our’s. We must obey Jesus’ command to go into the whole world with the good news. This week, about 20 people gathered in my living room to pray for the missionaries we support. It was a special honor to have a few of those missionaries with us. Michael Richardson was a former student of mine who spent the night with us. He and his wife Tiffany will be moving to Tanzania in January. Also, Steve and Jennifer Cuttino were here and will be leaving in January for the Czech Republic. They are paying a high price in so many ways to follow God’s calling.

Please pray for these missionaries this week and that Gateway will always be a missional church that not only sacrifices financially for the gospel, but will be intentional in training and sending our own students and people to the entire world as missionaries and church planters. It is the greatest honor.

Missionaries Gateway supports monthly:
Nick and Kimbra – Tanzania
Michael and Tiffany Richardson – Tanzania
Gus and Juana Trevino – San Antonio
Steve Hayes – Russia
Steve and Jennifer Cuttino – Czech Republic
Earl Creps – Berkeley, Ca
Ricky Van Pay and The Well Church Plant – Claremore, Ok
Johnny and Amy Hauck – UTSA, San Antonio
Kyle and Beth Volkmer – UTSA, San Antonio
Jonathan Bryce – UTSA, San Antonio
Rich Wilkerson and Peacemakers – Miami
Tommy Moore – Belize
James and Susan Dodd – Belize

Projects:
MX9 Church Multiplication and Church Planting
Daily Bread Ministry
Agora Inner City Kids Ministry
BGMC

walking with jesus

For six months, I have been anticipating our next teaching series that begins on Sunday. I have rediscovered what it means to intimately walking with Jesus and it has been personally transforming. My prayer every day since launching is for our church family to individually hear from Jesus every day and obey. What if we loved the Lord so much that we were constantly aware of his presence? Over the next several weeks, we will break down how this is possible and how the journey will never be the same.

interactive church

From day one, we have tried to create our church services to be more of an experience. We experimented with texting, it worked, but very slow. Thanks to Paratweet, we are launching a tool on Father’s Day that will help us become more interactive. We can get your feedback and answer questions during the service. For those of us who have twitter on a smart phone, all you need to do is include #GFC in your tweet.

If this sounds confusing or intimitating, Drew made this video to teach us everything we need to know. The first person who correctly guesses the band playing the background music in the video will win one of my favorite leadership books – Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels.

testimony time

I grew up in a small church that had Sunday evening worship services. I miss those times because they seemed more intimate and free. We wouldn’t care about what time we would get out of service and would “tarry” at the altars (confession – there were many times where I couldn’t wait for the “longer” services to end so I could slurp down my Frosty at Wendy’s). My favorite part of the service was testimony time. People would stand up and give a praise report about great things God was doing in their lives. Everyone else would cheer, shout “Amen”, and if it was a really good testimony everyone would stand up and start clapping. This was the cue for the song leader to strike up the band and sing “I’ll Fly Away”.

I’ve got one and since we don’t have Sunday night church anymore, I thought I would share it here with you. I just got off the phone with Martel. We were very close friends back in college, but we have not spoken in over ten years (one reason may be that I shot him in the foot with a bb gun). Thanks to Facebook, we reunited. He planted a multi-ethnic church in Phoenix called Destiny Church. He called to thank me for sending Justin to them. Justin’s spirit of a church planter has breathed life into Martel’s life, church, and ministry. They have implemented several new GFC ideas and their church has grown as a result.

(rewind one year) We met Justin’s wife at Rome’s and invited her to church. They came and Justin had a love affair with Jesus. He became a great friend and volunteered with our tech team. He was faithful and generous. Chris and Drew loved him and walked with him to become stronger in Christ. Three life crisises caused Justin to move back home to Phoenix. I was honestly worried about the friend I grew to love. I contacted Martel about reaching out to Justin and they connected quickly.

We may not understand why we suffer or go through things that we don’t “plan”. We loved and invested a year in Justin and watched Jesus grow a disciple. God allowed him to face three storms for a higher kingdom purpose. Thank the Lord and thank you Justin for never giving up. God’s grace, power, and love is made perfect in our weaknesses.

Do you have a praise report? We would love to hear it on the comment section.

sunday six-6.14

Marriage Miracle
After hearing Paul and Summer share how their marriage survived multiple affairs and destructive addictive behavior through God’s grace and forgiveness, we have no excuse to believe that God can restore ANY relationship.

Volunteer Team of the Day
By 7:20 a.m., Emily Cass transformed her theatre into a Kidzcorner experience. I am so proud that her team sees their time with four and five year olds as much more than child care. I appreciate you Emily for consistently leading with excellence. If I didn’t have a little something to do on Sundays, I would be honored to volunteer on your team.

Habits for Relationship Longevity
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Cor 13:7
To go the distance, we must…
1) Give more grace
2) Trust
3) Never give up!

Staff Team Lunch
I love our team’s comittment to the the main thing! It was great having our staff team over for lunch as V made her version of the panini and fresh fruit for us.

Spiritual Growth Meeting
Discipleship may be the most challenging pursuit in ministry. It is hard to figure out, spiritually taxing, and time consuming. We are forced to depend on the Holy Spirit as he continues to lead our spiritual journeys. After much prayer, I am stoked about what is happening next.

Mountain Bike Ride
I love the summer and had a blast riding with our mountain bike group that included three impressive chics. After riding O.P. Park and one “mountain lion attack”, we ate a recovery Mongolian feast at Hu Hot’s. If you have a bike, you are always welcome to join us on the second Sundays of the month.

love in action

Today was special for me as my family served together. Just after 6:45 a.m., we went out to Helotes City Hall to meet up with a dozen other Gatewayers to pick up trash on our adopted highway, landscape, install park benches, and clean up trash around Helotes’ new park. Emma helped unload some brush in a wheel barrel for landscaping and raked.

I have been hearing reports all day of other teams all over our city demonstrating God’s love in physical ways. One team made blankets and now cleaning the offices at a Pregnancy Care Center. Friends are partnering with Daily Bread to distribute and pass out food to the hungry in the poorest zip code in our state. Johnny Hauck’s team is building a kitchenette for an inner city kids’ ministry. My neighbor Scott and new student pastor Seth are leading students on a Rebuilding Together project where they are remodeling a needy family’s home. Our largest team is serving lunch to homeless friends at the d-town shelter.

Saint Francis said, “Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words.” I am so proud of you Gateway for being more than a church that attends a Sunday morning experience. You sacrificed time on a Saturday morning to serve those in need. You did more than that. You served Jesus and made him smile. I appreciate every one of you!

heroes

After two years of praying for Pastor Dixon Kanganga, I finally met my new hero. When we launched Gateway on 2.10.08, we gave our offering away to plant a church on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania. Our church has prayed for Dixon as he sacrifices in EVERY way to reach 1 million of his closest Muslim friends with the love of Jesus. Dixon’s dad was a witch doctor who died when he was a little boy. While contemplating suicide, his friend read John 3:16 and Dixon surrendered his life to Christ. In two years, he started a church in a disco hall before acquiring land connected with David Livingstone. The old church is in the background of this picture and while Dixon would preach, Muslims would throw stones through the windows at him.

It was a humbling experience to preach at his church. Dixon, Drew, Johnny, missionary Nick Stuva and I prayed and dreamed of creative ways to reach others with the Good News. Boots for porters, misquito nets, water wells, Fire Bibles, and a carpentery training shop with tools to train future church planters were just a few of the ideas. I can’t wait to see how God uses our partnership because of a kindred spirit we share for people. I have learned that the depth of our sacrifice determines the depth of our love.

Once very valued pictures of me with John Maxwell, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Rod Loy, George Wood, Johnny Damon, Alton Garrison, George Bush, and other great leaders have been placed in a file. This picture of my hero Dixon is the one that sits on my desk as a reminder of what sacrificial leadership and gritty love truly means. I hope to be a fraction of what this man is for Jesus.