Living the Simple Life

Today starts the beginning of the biggest outreach LifeStone Church will do all year!  CITY REACH 2010!  City Reach is a outreach that is done by all or most of the MCM Network church plants at the same time during the same week of the year.  Our goal  is to reach out to the entire city of Pittsburgh and show the love of Jesus Christ in relevant and practical ways!  This is not only going to be the biggest event we do all year as a church, but I have a feeling it is going to be the funnest event we do.  Here is a break down of the week.  Since City Reach lasts the entire week (Monday-Sunday), you can imagine that we all are going to spend a lot of time together.  Monday night is our prep and prayer night.  This is sort of an orientation for our church members and leaders/prayer meeting/stuffing backpacks night.  A lot will happen on Monday night in getting everyone prepared and ready for the week of ministry.  Tuesday-Thursday is our Jungle Mania Kids program.  These nights will be specifically designed for the kids of South Side.  Jungle Mania will be a multi-media type event that will happen three days in a row loaded with games, loud music, prizes and most importantly, an opportunity for the kids to make Jesus Christ lord of their life!  We are excited to connect and minister to many of the kids from this community during these three awesome nights!  Friday night we will host our huge “Running Start Block Party”.  This party is going to be bigger than any community family event the South Side has ever seen!  The big deal on Friday night is we will be giving away 250 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to the kids of the community!  There will also be inflatables, games, food, and so much more!  The block party is surely going to be a highlight of the week.  Saturday, many people from our church are going to be making phone calls to people who attended City Reach and inviting them to come back to LifeStone Church on Sunday morning.  After an event like this, follow up is crucial (as it should be with everything we do), because we want to be able to connect people to our LifeStone Church family on Sunday.  Which all of it leads to Sunday morning at LifeStone Church where we will be giving away a Nintendo Wii to a very lucky person.   We also have some really neat things planned during the service.  I will be speaking on the power of your testimony and we will have 30+ people sharing their testimonies of how God has changed their lives via “Cardboard testimonies”.  If you have never seen cardboard testimonies, go to youtube.com and check them out.  It is an extremely powerful way to share what God has done in your life.  I really am looking forward to connecting with people on Sunday morning who came to City Reach during the week!

As you can see, it is a crazy week, but I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to partner with God and reach this great city with the love of God!  If you have any questions about City Reach or want to get involved, you can contact our City Reach Coordinator and LifeStone Church Outreach Director, Tiffany Hendrix at tiffanyh@lifestonechurch.com.  Also, if you want to just come and check it out, go to our website at www.lifestonechurch.com for directions, times, and locations.  We hope to see you this week at CITY REACH 2010!!!

This weekend at LifeStone Church I will be starting a new message series entitled, “Love Out Loud – reaching the ONE with the love of Christ”.  This series comes straight out of my heart for serving and outreach.  We all have people in our life that need God but either don’t know it, or refuse to believe it.  How can we show the love of Christ to those people in relevant and practical ways?  During this series, our goal is to equip the church in activating the love God has shown to us by giving it away to people in our lives and world.  Have you ever heard the term, “Actions speak louder than words”?  Well, this series will help to take that statement and make it a through-way of God’s love to the people we love.  We will talk about how to show the love of Christ to our unsaved family members, friends that we care for so much, how to use our personal story to share the love of Christ, and the biblical mandate we have to show god’s love to the nations!

Don’t miss a single week of this challenging and practical series, “LOVE OUT LOUD”!

Below is a recent article that the Church Multiplication Network just posted regarding the Grand Opening of LifeStone Church.  I had the honor to be interviewed for this post and give all glory to Jesus!  He deserves it:

In May 2010, 65 people hit the streets of the South Side in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to take part in Project 10,000. Led by planters Jack and Jamie Thomas, the goal of Project 10,000 was to invite every single person in the community to LifeStone Church’s grand opening on June 6. “We didn’t just canvas,” says Jack. “We knocked on doors and prayed with people. We saw divine appointments and connections happening.” One team member was even impacted by the invitation outreach. “Getting to pray for someone totally shifted her view of evangelism,” Jack explains. “Not only were we able to bless people in the community, but our team was motivated and excited by it.”

You can read the rest of the story HERE.

All of us at LifeStone Church are celebrating a tremendous day today as we hosted our inaugural Grand Opening! The energy was high, the excitement was off the charts, and the journey has just begun! Here are some key statistics that are worth celebrating from today’s service:

• 230 people in attendance
• 44 kids in our KidsLife Ministry
• 10 DECISIONS FOR CHRIST (GO GOD!)
• So many new faces from our community and surrounding communities!
• Our team heard many comments from people saying they loved church and are coming back next week!

Yesterday was the fourth monthly service at LifeStone Church and it was surely the best so far! It surely is a time to celebrate all that God is doing in our church and in South Side. That is why I am calling this week, “Celebration Week”. I want to take some time to celebrate God for all the great things that He is doing at LifeStone Church.  This past Sunday, we had 84 total people in attendance, 17 children in Kids Life, and 2 people gave their lives to Jesus! That right there has some “CELEBRATION” all over it, doesn’t it?

Here is one celebration point for me:

I was contacted by a guy this past week via email, who lives across the street from Armstrong Park.  Armstrong Park is the location we held our Easter Egg Hunt at.  He doesn’t have children and didn’t come over to the event, but felt that what LSC was doing in the form of this Easter Egg Hunt looked like a church he might want to go to.  So he emailed me and said he would be attending our service this past Sunday.  Well, not only did he attend, but he brought two people with him.  They loved the service and he especially loved the worship.  As I was talking to him after the service, he was all excited about our comeback event this evening at the WYEP Radio Station.  He said he was definitely coming and he would again bring more people to the event!  God is so faithful to put the right people in the right place at the right time!  That is what God did with this guy!  I am looking forward to connecting with him again tonight and hopefully meeting some of his friends!

What are some cool celebration points that you want to share about what God is doing at LifeStone Church?

On Saturday, April 3rd, LifeStone Church hosted our very first annual South Side Easter Egg Hunt called, “The Big Hunt”. I have to say that our expectations were exceeded in such a way that I can’t even put into words! For starters, we had 600 people in attendance and at least 300 kids that we know about. The atmosphere was electric with several lines waiting to get in that were several blocks in length. I have to believe that once everyone who braved the lines and got in, they had an amazing time! I truly hope that people saw that LifeStone Church is here to stay and that we care about people. This event was not done for any reason but to meet a need. We have seen that South Side is a community with a label. A label that is Carson Street and the young life. But what most people don’t know is that there are so many families and kids in this community that don’t have avenue’s for them to connect and relate with. This is a major need of the community and God has called LifeStone Church to help with that and serve the wonderful families and kids of South Side.

If you want to see more pictures from this amazing event, check out the LifeStone Church Fan Page on Facebook! HERE.

Here are some photo’s of our most recent monthly service (3-21-10) at LifeStone Church.  This service took place in our newly acquired facility in South Side!  It was a fantastic service and everything went absolutely amazing!  Of course, I have to give all praise to God for His leadership today.  But I could also never forget all of the wonderful people who call LifeStone Church home and how they served in such a big way today!  You guys are so amazing!   Only three more months until the Grand Opening of LSC (6-6-10)!   YEAH!

As many of you know, we have recently finalized our search for a building to host our Sunday morning worship gatherings in (Thank you Jesus!).  We are so thankful that God has opened this door and are so excited about the future of LifeStone Church in Pittsburgh!

During this process of working with the great people of the ASC, there is one slight adjustment that we are going to have to make.  Most of you know that our launch date has been schedule for May 16, 2010, right?  Well, the ASC previously scheduled an event on May 16, 2010 that is unchangeable and Memorial Day is the following weekend.  So that means that the earliest we can launch into our weekly services is June 6, 2010.  In fact, that is precisely what we have done.  OUR NEW LAUNCH DATE IS JUNE 6, 2010! Please spread the word to as many people as you can that LifeStone Church will not be launching on May 16 anymore.  Rather we will be launching our weekly services on June 6.

PLEASE CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR AN UPDATED LIST OF EVENTS.

We are so pumped!  “God is building His church and the gates of Hell will NOT prevail”!

GREAT NEWS EVERYONE! LifeStone Church has found a place to meet for our weekly services!  This facility will be a perfect location for us.  It has everything we need to offer relevant and life-giving services on Sunday mornings:

• A large space for KidsLife to meet (separate spaces for elementary, and for pre-k/babies).
• A large meeting space that seats up to 300 for the weekly LSC worship gatherings (built in stage, chairs, and tables).
• A large amount of off-street parking.
• The facility lay out is set up perfectly for a church.
• The facility is in a great location in the community (located on Sarah Street in between 25th and 26th streets).  This location is in the residential part of South Side and is also several blocks away from the South Side Works (the Works is where most of the expansion and growth of South Side is happening)!
• The management of the ASC are amazing people!  Vince, who is the manager of the club, is already becoming a friend of mine!  I am so thankful for the awesome relationships God is starting to develop!

Now that we have a home in our community, we can start to move forward with designing promotional materials for upcoming preview services and our Grand Opening!  So many doors have begun to open because this piece of the puzzle is in place now.  God is so faithful!  A HUGE Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us in our search!

During my years in ministry I have held many different leadership positions.  Some of those positions have been upfront and in the spotlight, others have been way outside of the spotlight.  As I have grown in my ability to lead people, I can honestly say without any doubt that I still have a long ways to go.  I recognize that I am not the perfect leader and because of that, I am constantly sharpening my leadership tools.  But the thought I want to present to you is that although you might have been put in a position of leadership or maybe you have natural leadership tendencies and characteristics, those don’t make you a true leader.  Leadership is much more than just responsibility, positions, and characteristics.  In fact, it’s more about your choice to consistently influence someone, a group, a team, a church, etc.  Leadership rises and falls on influence.  I have seen so many talented and gifted people perform great in the spotlight, but they were awful leaders because they hadn’t made the choice to consistently influence people.  Leadership is about taking interest in the well-being, destiny, and calling of someone else and helping them along their journey.  If you think back to your years in education, you didn’t just absorb things naturally when you were daydreaming, right?  When you made the choice to zone out, goof off, not listen, or not do your homework, then you didn’t learn!  The only time you truly absorbed and learned something is when you made the conscious decision to participate in your education.  That concept is also something that is learned because most of us naturally would rather be daydreaming than being lectured to or in the classroom.  But recognizing the lifelong importance and impact education has on your life takes precedence over our comfort.  You have to learn how to learn.  It’s the same principle in our leadership.  We have to learn how to be a leader.  We might have been born with the most amazing natural leadership qualities ever, but if we don’t consider ourselves a student of leadership, we will miss the boat on continual growth and influence.  It’s a choice we have to make!

As I mentioned before, I am still learning how to be the leader God has created me to be and I don’t pretend to know it all, but here are a few things that are currently helping me strive towards greater influence and leadership in my life:

1. Learning from God’s Word – Andy Stanley, Miles Munroe, Nelson Searcy, John Maxwell (just to name a few) are all great leaders and have amazing literature and resources on leadership, but let’s just be honest, none of them are God and none of them have authored a story that will last forever!  The Bible is the greatest leadership book of all time.  If you want to learn how to be a great leader, read God’s Word and study individuals like David, Paul, Peter, and Jesus (of course).  Read the Psalms and Proverbs and allow the psalmists and King Solomon’s teachings to sink in and touch your heart (There are so many great leadership principles written in that portion of Scripture).  We also can’t forget the teaching of Christ.  Study the Beatitudes, how he responded to public criticism, How he explained God’s love and mercy through the many parables and stories he taught, and most importantly his example of sacrifice in the work on the cross!  We can learn a lot about being great, godly, and gifted leaders from the Word of God!
2. Make the Choice to Influence – Don’t rely on your God-given gifts and talents to define your leadership.  Rather make the choice to influence people in ways that will help them, not to boost your reputation as a leader.  Make the choice and stick to it!
3. Be Willing to Admit When Your Wrong – There is nothing worse than a leader who thinks they are always right.  Seriously, when you can’t learn from your own mistakes and be big enough to admit you made a mistake, then you aren’t even close to arriving as a great leader.  Step up to the plate leaders!
4. Be Able to Delegate with Empowerment and Inspiration – If there has been anything I have learned in a major way, it is this.  Early on in ministry I tried to do it my way.  I had the “take it by horns” approach to leadership and if I wanted it done right, I needed to do it myself.  This is until I recognized my leaders were frustrated with me and about to quit, I was wearing myself out, I was getting sick because I worked too much, and I just wasn’t being productive!  When I had that epiphany, things began to change, I began to delegate many things that I had been doing “decent” and now the leaders I delegated to where doing those things “GREAT”.  The key is not just to give responsibility away, it’s to empower and inspire someone else to do the work of the ministry and team up with you.  If I just unload my unwanted responsibilities on someone, they aren’t going to want to do it.  But if I give them an opportunity to serve and support them, inspire them, and empower them to influence lives, then I have just expanded my influence by teaming up with someone else who’s influence is growing!  It’s crazy how this works!
5. Be Yourself - Not much to say here except for, if you aren’t you, then who will be you? ( I think that might be an Andy Stanley quote, but not sure..lol)  our time as leaders is way to short for us to try and be someone else, look like someone else, sound like someone else.  Work hard at being yourself!
6. Lead with the End in mind – Everything we do is about the Kingdom of God!  Every group, every ministry, every church, every network, every meeting, every service…(you get the point), is all the advancement of God’s Kingdom and leading people to the love, forgiveness, and life of Jesus!  If our motivation is the opposite, all we are creating is an earthly club of sorts.  Rather, if our agenda is the Kingdom of God and everything we do filters through that lens, then the impact we make wont just last for a day or even this lifetime, it will last for eternity!  Lead with the end destination of our souls in mind!  The Kingdom of God!

There are obviously more ways we can learn to be great leaders.  I just chose a handful to talk about in this post, but I encourage you to learn how you can be the leader God has designed you to be!  It makes all the difference in the world!

I have been thinking a lot about this past Sunday and what it represents for our church as we moved forward to the launch and beyond!  Here are a few things I learned from our first preview service:

1. God’s presence is everything!
2. God’s plan is better than ours could ever be.
3. When your people who are on the bus with you are all in the right seat, “greater things are yet to come”.  (Thanks Jim Collins)
4. Teamwork, Teamwork, Teamwork!
5. Your leaders will lead effectively and at a high level, if you lead them effectively and at a high level behind closed doors. (Set the bar high for your leaders)
6. Never be afraid to evaluate.  Fix what what is broken and celebrate what worked!
7. His Word is true, “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)  God will build His Church!
   
8. His Word is true, “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)  But we need to LET God build His Church!
9. Speaking a blessing over God’s people encourages and empowers them to walk under the influence and inspiration of Holy Spirit as they head back into their world.
10. Parking attendants are just as important in the Kingdom of God as pastors are. (1 Corinthians 12:14-20)
    

These are just a few things that stick out to me from this weekend that I feel are instrumental in gearing up for our second service next month!  These thoughts don’t necessarily pertain to just start up services but can be relevant for anyone and any pastor in ministry!  God is challenging me to not settle for the status quo in Him and not allowing our church to view it that way either.  As the pastor I feel the weight of the responsibility of my leadership and I have to admit, I love it!  I am so thankful God has given me the calling to lead people and set the bar high for them!  If I don’t set the bar high in my own leadership and walk with God, then my church won’t either!  A spirit of excellence must exist in our churches if we want to be effective to the core!  Just a few thoughts!

Outside Banner

Welcome Center

Kids Life Ministries

Jack Preaching

LSC Getting our worship on!

I wanted to show a bit of what our first monthly service looked like!  It was an awesome day.  We had 96 people in attendance with 9 of those being kids ranging from infants to elementary age.  The presence of God was in the house and the energy and excitement for how God is building His church was unbelievable!  I feel so amazed and perplexed that God would choose me to do this, but I’m not complaining that’s for sure!  It really does amaze me how the plan of God begins to unfold in your life when you really zero in on obedience to the voice and call of God!  God has blessed us and our situation and I keep having to pinch myself because this is a dream and vision come true of mine!  I also am looking forward to what the next three months of building our launch team, monthly services are going to look like!

Lord, we decrease so you can increase!!!!  Build your church!!!  Grow your team!!!!  Inspire your people!!!  Do it Lord!!!!

Most of us have seen the movie, “The Miracle”, right?  This movie depicts the miraculous Olympic journey of the United States Hockey Team as they defeated the Russians in 1980.  The Americans had virtually no chance to beat the Russians as they were not near as experienced and definitely not near as talented.  In real life and in the movie, head coach Herb Books (played by actor, Kurt Russel) gave a powerful speech to his American team right before they hit the ice against the Russian team.  Why I am showing you this video is because there is another video on YouTube where a little boy does his best as he imitates coach Brooks and I have to say, it is hilarious (he’s even dressed like the real coach).  Both speeches are below but you have to watch the “Real” Coach Brooks speech first, then the kid!