BIG Sunday

I am so excited as I look back over the events of this past week and our worship celebration at Bridges of Hope Fellowship today.

All week long, we have been telling people about BIG Sunday that took place today. We encouraged people to invite their friends, family, and co-workers. Today was the day of all days. We arrived to a full house this morning for an awesome time of celebration for the goodness of the Lord. Following the opening song, the following video played that told everyone that we did get our loan approval for the next step of our new building project and that we have secured the 60 member mission team from Georgia to build our new facility in just 10 days, starting on June 11, 2010. Also, that we have an HVAC Company that wants to donate the materials and labor to install our system for the new building. Watch the video...

Afterwards, I shared that we had received confirmation that Falcon Audio/Video/Lights of Oklahoma has contacted us and wants to donate our high end speakers for our sacturary at the new building. Also, that we are going to be placing a 24 x 60 portable office unit behind the new building to accommodate the Children's Worship Center and the Youth Worship Center. We have secured a mission team from Pine Grove Baptist Church in South Carolina to come in July to do the remaining finishing touches on the building, etc. The site work will be done my April and we'll be ready to pour the concrete pad to start the building. For regular updates on the building, visit www.forwardinfaith.us

The crowd broke out in applause and shouting of praise for all that God has done for us this week. It was truly a time of great excitement!

I preached today on the "Cornerstones for Fasting" in preparation for the 21 Day Fast that our church will be going through beginning on Sunday, March 14, 2010. If you missed it, check it out online at www.sermon.net/pastord

During the invitation, we had several to recommit their lives to Christ and then Tim Owen surrendered to the call of God on his life to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Praise His name!

DeWayne

The Four Stages of Growing a Team

Every church or ministry leader will benefit from understanding the key stages of team development (both paid and volunteer). The four Stages of team development were originally identified by educational psychologist Bruce W. Tuckman in the mid-1960's. Still valid today, they are:

• Forming


• Storming


• Norming


• Performing

Forming is what happens at your leadership retreat or first meeting. Everyone comes with company manners and is nice to each other. You might do some bonding games or talk about all you will achieve together. Hopefully you leave pumped and feel almost like you've found a fresh love.

Back home and back in the trenches, reality hits. The turf wars begin. Team members begin to jockey for acknowledged expertise in an area. Things get tense. You may wonder what you were thinking when you agreed to be a part of the team!

The storming phase has begun. Teammates are diligently working to identify who does and knows what. Pressure increases on how the team works together and challenges how the team deals with differing opinions around the table. Successfully working through this uncomfortable season will establish group norms. Just like after any storm, calm follows, relatively speaking that is.

Norming is building on the outcomes from the storm. This leads to growing trust within the team, and real forward progress begins.

With clear norms, performing becomes doable because the team is attuned to the same wavelength. It's almost as if you can read everyone's mind. The team delivers high-performance, and life is good.

Unfortunately, the process doesn't always work quite this smoothly. Many teams never get beyond storming. Not quite understanding what is going on, leaders risk allowing things to get personal. This can become a de-motivator, and team members may start jumping ship, stalling progress. Teaching your new team the four phases can help them knowingly and successfully move through the storming phase.

Since most teams experience some turnover in their life span, it is vital to be aware that whenever a new member joins the team or someone drops from the team, the process will usually revert back to the storming phase. Be sure your team members are equipped to survive the storming process and work through to norming.

Awareness of what's going on in your team and what phase you are in can smooth the growth of your team.

Sounding the Macedonian Call - Impacting a Community for Christ!

Dear Friends,

It is with great excitement that I send this email. Would you please take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to carefully read what could be the most important email that you have received today? This is URGENT!

I have the awesome opportunity of serving as the pastor for Bridges of Hope Fellowship in McMinnville, Tennessee. We are a church plant that turned 3 years old at the beginning of October 2009. In three short years, we have witnessed God change many lives for the kingdom. We have seen marriages restored, alcoholics and drug addicts set free, homosexuals loosed from their lifestyles and gloriously born-again. Praise God!! We are being used mightily to impact the McMinnville and Warren County area with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now it is time to take the next step. We have purchased 5 acres of land that sits on one of the most highly traveled highways in the county. Everyday, there are approximately 8,000 cars that pass by our land. In our rural culture, you are never considered legitimate until you have your own church building. So, we believe God has led us to build the first phase of our new facility and the time is NOW. We have moved every step in faith and realize that the mere task of getting groups to come and help us build this building is a huge step of faith, especially starting in January. However, we trust and know that God will provide the laborers to help us bring glory to God through what others would call the impossible. We’ve been told that we can’t build anything in a recession, but God told us they were wrong. We’ve been told that we are crazy, and we might be. But the one thing we do KNOW, is that God is faithful and sits on the throne. He promised us that He will provide if we ask. Work will begin as early as this week!!!!

YOUR PART…. We are simply asking for you and your church to pray about and consider bringing a team from your church or ministry to help us accomplish the task that has been laid before us. We need both skilled laborers and assistants to come and help us show the people of Warren County what the Body of Christ really looks like. Great, now that your in…
1.) Open the attachment, which is a complete time line and list of needs to be filled. All materials will be provided, but you will need to bring your tools with you. Also, attached is a photo and layout of the building.
2.) Contact Keith Carey (kcarey@trinitydesigngroup.com) who is overseeing the coordination of volunteer teams for our building project. If you do not get a response, please call 615-848-9292. He prefers to connect via email for the first contact.
3.) Gather your supplies and hit the road!

WHAT IF YOU CAN’T BRING A TEAM…. We would love for you to come help us, however, if you can’t, there are a few other ways you can help us reach this community for Christ.
1.) Pray for God to provide the teams needed to accomplish this task, the safety of every team involved, the needed finances to finish it, and for God to be lifted up and glorified in the entire world because of our faithfulness and obedience to carry out His command.
2.) Give a financial gift to help us succeed in this project. Maybe you or your church could take up a love offering or give out of your missions giving to help us.
3.) Pass along this request to other churches or individuals you know of who have teams that could help us.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this request for help in impacting a community for Christ! If you should have any questions, I am always available to answer them at 931-815-8870 or by email at pastor@gethope.info. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Fourteen Things Jesus Did NOT Say by Perry Noble

#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)

New Sermon Series

Pursuing happiness takes work. It’s tough to find and even harder to hold. Ever want more than that for your life? God does. He wants us to be blessed. Discover what the Bible says about living The Blessed Life.

Don't miss this poweful new series by Pastor DeWayne to get you started right for the new year. It starts this Sunday, January 10th at 10:30 a.m. at Bridges of Hope Fellowship in McMinnville, Tennessee. If you can't make it, be sure to check it out at www.sermon.net/pastord

This is one series that is sure to change your life for the better, both now and for eternity.

15 Signs That A Church Is In Trouble

15 Signs That A Church Is In Trouble (Posted from MMI blog)

#1 – When excuses are made about the way things are instead of embracing a willingness to roll up the sleeves and fix the problem.

#2 – When the church becomes content with merely receiving people that come rather than actually going out and finding them…in other words, they lose their passion for evangelism!

#3 – The focus of the church is to build a great church (complete with the pastors picture…and his wife’s…on everything) and not the Kingdom of God.

#4 – The leadership begins to settle for the natural rather than rely on the supernatural.

#5 – The church begins to view success/failure in regards to how they are viewed in the church world rather than whether or not they are actually fulfilling the Great Commission!

#6 – The leaders within the church cease to be coachable.

#7 – There is a loss of a sense of urgency! (Hell is no longer hot, sin is no longer wrong and the cross is no longer important!)

#8 – Scripture isn’t central in every decision that is made!

#9 – The church is reactive rather than proactive.

#10 – The people in the church lose sight of the next generation and refuse to fund ministry simply because they don’t understand “those young people.”

#11 – The goal of the church is to simply maintain the way things are…to NOT rock the boat and/or upset anyone…especially the big givers!

#12 – The church is no longer willing to take steps of faith because “there is just too much to lose.”

#13 – The church simply does not care about the obvious and immediate needs that exist in the community.

#14 – The people learn how to depend on one man to minister to everyone rather than everyone embracing their role in the body, thus allowing the body to care for itself.

#15 – When the leaders/staff refuse to go the extra mile in leading and serving because of how “inconvenient” doing so would be.

This is certainly some good stuff that every church leader ought to look at seriously! Hope we can all learn from it.

Missional or Mission-minded

This past weekend was awesome! We took a team of 9 people from Bridges of Hope Fellowship to The Summit Church in Knoxville, Tennessee for a mission trip. www.thesummitlive.tv

The Summit is a new church plant that is one year old. They have leased a store building and needed help to pour new life into an old structure. They called it "Extreme Makeover: Church Edition." There were 100 volunteers who descended upon the building to serve the church through all types of construction. It was covered by two different television crews out of Knoxville, WBIR and WVLT. WBIR interviewed me about our involvement in the project and I was happy to obligue.

For our team, this was a first for about 4 of our people. We had the privilege of sowing into the ministry and community of others. I had never pulled wire before, but I have now. My crew (Natalie, Dwight, Cathy & Steven Clayton) pulled metal clad wiring throughout the walls for the entire children's ministry builidng. My knees are certainly feeling it after being on the hard concrete floors for two days. Next time I'll know to take some knee pads. Oh well, you live and learn!

The trip was great for our people. We had great fellowship down there and back. We had church as well as laughed so hard that we literally cried. I can't wait for the next trip.

So, in my opinion, missional is where you actually engage the community in missions hands-on and get outside of the four walls of the church. Whereas, mission-minded is where you talk about missions and give to missions, but never put it into action. I am working hard to model for the people at Bridges of Hope the servant leader model of a pastor. I want to serve along side of our people, not dictate to them how to serve.

Thanks guys for making it a great weekend of service to God and The Summit! I think everyone should go on a mission trip. Your life will never be the same!