Wednesday, March 31, 2010 @ 6:19 pm by Josh Burcham

Content from Perry Noble’s blog over at www.perrynoble.com. The guy oozes leadership principles. His post, Ten Questions That Unchurched People ARE NOT Asking! is worth the time to read.

#1 – “What do you do to disciple people?”  (This question is usually asked by people who want to ‘microwave” spiritually, not understand that they themselves actually became mature in the “crock pot.”)

#2 – “Who is speaking this weekend?”  (They usually don’t care about the WHO…it’s the WHAT that matters to them.)

#3 – “Are you reformed in your theology?”  (Most of them have no idea what in the heck this means!)

#5 – “What version of the Bible do you use?”  (Many unchurched people don’t even really know there are different versions!)

#6 – “What denomination are you affiliated with?”

#7 – “How many different activities can I sign my family up for in order to add to the insane schedule that we already have?”

Read all ten questions here.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 @ 11:12 am by Josh Burcham

I write to encourage, challenge and help people move to the next level in leadership, creativity and being a Christ-follower. It is what gets my blood flowing, it’s what gets be excited. Anytime I come across information that would help in those areas I pass them onto you. Craig Groeschel wrote this post, Breaking Up the System, and it was worth you taking the time to read if you are in any type of leadership.

Even a good ministry system will eventually limit what God wants to do if the system doesn’t evolve or totally change.

(By system, I mean any program, structure, philosophy, or culture that shapes and helps produce a desired outcome.)

Once people operate within a system long enough, they often start to do ministry out of “muscle memory.” They tend to do the same things and work with the same people, but the results often start to slowly (or quickly) diminish.

Because this is what “we’ve always done,” people might think we just need to do what we did—better. In reality, God might want you to de-construct some ministry philosophy or system so you can hear His new direction.

For example, years ago we were doing everything you could think of at LifeChurch.tv. God directed us into a season of focusing on only five things. This philosophy served us well for about four years. It allowed us to focus on our core ministries without being distracted by lots of less-than-our-best efforts.

After a few years, it became obvious this season was coming to a close. What used to seem freeing started to become limiting. After prayer, we intentionally broke the established system to learn something new.

Read the rest of the post and more great post by Craig and Bobby here.

With that quote, as with everything I write, action is required. It doesn’t make much sense if we just soak in and never squeeze out the sponge, because life isn’t about you. You would be a waste a great human being if you just soaked in knowledge and Christ expects us to go out and do.

Thursday, October 15, 2009 @ 10:44 am by Josh Burcham

Leaders this is for you. As the saying goes, “Leaders are learners. When you stop learning, you stop leading.” Mark Batterson is in the process of finding another location for one of their service, because without notice the movie theater that they have been for years closed down. In this season he is still leading, where most leaders would be getting nervous and just making decisions. Now start learning…

“I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.”

I Samuel 15:24

Leadership mistakes are often predicated by nervousness. Saul got nervous when Samuel didn’t show up so he took matters into his own hands. He got ahead of God. He rationalized his sin. But the root problem is that he feared people more than he feared God. That is evidenced by the fact that he forgot he was anointed by God not appointed by the people. That is a dangerous place. It makes for nervous leaders. And nervous leaders are terrible leaders.

If you care too much about what people think about your messages, it’ll short-circuit the anointing. You’ll lose confidence. When God has anointed you, you care more about people but you care less about what people think. Your confidence comes from saying what God wants you to say. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

Care more. Care less.

Reading the post and more over at Evotional.com.

Saturday, October 10, 2009 @ 2:24 pm by Josh Burcham

You can’t deny the fact that God is moving in some powerful ways over at Elevation Church in North Carolina. Well, I guess there are some out there that could. Pastor Steven posted this insightful post on Vision and resources. Church leader you should read it:

Yellow is to sun as ____ is to moon
Guns n Roses is to best band ever as Tiger Woods is to ____
God is to Satan as dogs are to ____ (the answer, clearly, is cats)

Here’s a ministry simile for all of you who are currently facing a resource challenge.

Resources are to the vision of a ministry what wake is to a boat in the water.

Wake follows the movement of a vessel in direct proportion to the velocity.  And it always trails behind the motor.

Resource follows the movement of a vision in direct proportion to the velocity of the vision.  And it always follows behind the vision.  Behind the risk.  Behind the initiative.

Don’t wait for the wake to magically appear.  Produce it by moving forward.
Stop waiting for resources to fall out of the sky.  Go forward as hard as you can as fast as you can with all that you’ve got.

Read full post and more here.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 @ 2:39 pm by Josh Burcham

Original post from Perry Noble of Newspring Church. Most of the time we don’t set out in creating these is conceptions, they usually come from our comfort with life. Being comfortable usually scares me, it means: I have probably stopped seeking Jesus in my life. Are you comfortable?

We get things messed up from time to time…especially the words of Jesus…here is what He did NOT say…

#1 – “They will know you are my disciples by your theology, and the arrogance that accompanies it.”  (John 13:35)

#2 – “Dream really small dreams and make sure you never ask for anything big!”  (John 14:12-14, Psalm 2:8)

#3 – “If someone doesn’t believe just like you believe…make sure to do all you can to attack, criticize and beat them down as much as possible.”  (Mark 9:38-41)

#4 – “Be tolerant of everyone…I am one of the many ways to God.”  (John 14:6)

#5 – “Make sure you make the church about you…that you are served well…please, don’t do anything that might cause you any type of inconvenience.  My goal is for you to be happy!”  (Matthew 20:28, Luke 9:23-24)

#6 – “Please, whatever you do, DO NOT tell people the good news…keep it to yourself!  The reason I died on the cross is so that you could get into really small groups of people and talk about ‘deep things’ that aren’t going to help anyone when it comes to eternity.”  (Matthew 28:20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:48, John 20:21, Acts 1:8, Romans 10:14, Romans 10:17)

#7 – “Don’t EVER try anything new…don’t ever take a risk…don’t ever take a step of faith.  Be AVERAGE!”  (Isaiah 43:18-19, Hebrews 11:1, Hebrews 11:6)

#8 – “You can follow me and it will not impact your money at all!”  (Matthew 6:19-24)

#9 – “Pray a prayer to get out of hell…and then live however you want.”  (John 14:15, John 14:21)

#10 – “You can do it without me!”  (John 15:5)

#11 – “I don’t expect you OR your church to be fruitful in any way.”  (John 15:4)

#12 – “Isolate yourself from the world!”  (John 17:15)

#13 – “Make sure there is a time when you question my word because it will one day be no longer relevant.”  (Luke 21:33)

#14 – “Stop crying out to me in desperation…can’t you see I’m busy.”  (Mark 10:46-52)

Read this post and future post at PerryNoble.com.

Thursday, June 25, 2009 @ 9:02 am by Josh Burcham

Stealing from Brad Ruggles on this post, it was too good to pass up: “There’s an ancient principle that says you can learn more about something by first defining what it’s NOT before you try to define what it IS. Let’s take a look at a few things that Church ISN’T.”

Church Isn’t About Protecting Christians From The World
Some of the church environments I experienced maintained that the church was a haven of peace and hope in a horrible, broken world. We were the sheep. They were the wolves. We had to protect our sheep by keeping the wolves out. We were “in the world but not of it,” remember? While there are many churches who consciously or sub-consciously adhere to the idea of being a place to hide from the evils of the world, I remind you the type of company Jesus kept when he walked this earth. He could have adopted the Pharisee’s method of separating himself entirely from everything “unclean.” Instead, he was known as a “friend of sinners.” Can our church say that?

Church Isn’t A Location or Building
While most of us know this intuitively, we still need to be reminded that the church isn’t a specific building or location. Our buildings and programs create environments for church to happen but they are no more or less sacred than our living room or even the neighborhood pub.

Church Isn’t About You
This one is the most important distinction in my opinion. Church isn’t about YOU. It’s about THEM. I have no patience for people who visit a church and come home complaining that the music was too loud, the message too long or the air conditioning too cold. Some people view church as a “pick-me-up,” a little boost of joy and happiness to get them through the week. Show up, sing a couple songs, shake a few hands, go home and pull out the potroast. The church was never meant to be a place to cater to Christian’s comforts. It is and always has been about “seeking and saving those who are lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Read the rest of What Church ISN’T over at bradruggles.com.