Blur of a Start

What a great start to Church @ Skyline Valley. It’s been a blur of a three week period here.  But, the quick word is we had 125 BEAUTIFUL people at Grand Opening worship at Cinergy Cinemas. We’ve continued to see new faces over the past few weeks and we’re ready to grow!

I’m looking  VERY forward to the Christmas season. We’re pumping out another community mailer to let people know we’re here, we care, and we’re real about Jesus.  The new series begins December 6, it’s called The True Purpose of Christmas.  Hey, why be cute with the title at Christmas time.

We’re headed out to Jonesboro, Arkansas to represent Church @ Skyline Valley at the Global Impact Conference with Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro.  They have sent two groups to help us out with previews and Grand Opening. Many of the people attending are there because they were handed a flyer and candy by these groups.  They worked their butts off for the cause!

We’re honored to represent this great new church there this week and see a TON of other missionary types from literally all over the world and hear what God’s doing through them. God is big time busy! We’re also excited to reunite with the people who came to serve with us; nothing bonds you together more than putting your shoulders to the work with that level of intensity.

Already can’t wait to get back to Church @ Skyline Valley too.  I know that sounds mixed up, but it’s true.  I’ve never been able to sense such excitement with a new church or seen a people who are as totally real with God as we are.  Some just starting with Christ, others still passionate to grow more like Him.

It’s been a blur, yes I’m tanked/exhausted, and I’m totally pumped for Jesus’ church that He’s put into the world.  May we leave Jesus’ hand print on the entire globe before it’s over.

 

I Just Love that New Church Smell!

Cinergy Cinemas-Copperas Cove, TX

Church at Skyline Valley bursts onto the scene this Sunday. People have asked some interesting questions. It seems that most have never heard of a church meeting in a movie theater before.  This area seems pretty accustomed to thinking of church in terms of a building- I get a lot of “where is your church located?”  in spite of the fact that the mailer they received says point blank “meeting at Cinergy Cinemas.” The 9:30 time is a bit weird too, but we have to get out of there to allow the movies to start up.

Church just isn’t a place, a building. It IS people.  The church will gather this Sunday and it will leave.  ”Church” goes with you. It’s going to be fun pumping that concept (which is the Bible’s understanding of “church”) into the culture here.

This is now the third time I’ve been honored to start up a new church. The reason to do it is simple.  People need Christ and our mantra is “whatever it takes to lead people to Jesus. There needs to be a place in every community where you can go worship or hear the good news of what Jesus has done for you for the first time without the hang ups of how you dress, what your religious background is, or whether you have any Bible knowledge at all.

We make disciples/followers of Christ…from scratch.

The most satisfying thing about leading a church start is that one day a church isn’t there and then the next (because you were obedient, a lot of prayer, hard work and preparation) it IS there.  Ready for God to use us.

It’s an emotional roller coaster, it can be draining, but it’s the ultimate life adventure to be a part of one. And compared to what Jesus has done for me, rescuing me from what I deserved- to be apart from Him forever and punished for my betrayal of his laws- whatever difficulties may be involved are a small sacrifice.

I just love that new church smell! (and, remember,  I don’t mean the building)

Thoughts at 39

Today is my 39th Birthday. I spent the afternoon at Chick-fila reading, thinking, praying, writing, dreaming, setting goals. It’s goal setting that I’m determined to make part of my life. Written, real goals. A dream with a deadline. I’m reading a book by Brian Tracy and his quote about goals: “If you could make and accomplish just one goal in the next 24 hours, which one would make the most impact in your life?” (or that’s close to the quote).

That’s a powerful question. Mine had to do with my consistent time with God. Yes, don’t be shocked…Pastors struggle with this too even though we know and preach “no prayer, no power.”  I believe that would be the biggest impact on all the rest for me.  What about you, what goal could you accomplish that would make the biggest impact on all the rest of your life?

P.S. I had a GREAT birthday!

What nobody else is doing

Great quote came back to the forefront today by Craig Groeschel: “To reach people no one else is reaching you must do things no one else is doing.”

Are we doing that at Church @ Skyline Valley or playing it close to the vest? It’s not just wearing casual clothes instead of a tie or dumping church organ music for the band.  The truth is this: most people (and this is true wherever you live) do not attend church services and do not follow Christ.

“De-weirding” church is a phrase I often use. Because church people are strange to “not” church people. We’ve earned that because we do some funky stuff. Funny enough, communion and baptism aren’t the funky stuff we do that people think are weird. It’s more the way we dress, the songs we sing, and the way some say “Blessings to you” as we leave which is code for “I’m a Jesus loving Christian” to us and code for “I’m a fuuuureak!” to everybody else.

But more than de-weirding everything, which is a good start. What are we doing that nobody else is doing? What are we doing  to really jump out and say to people- these people might have some real answers for my problems…or sure I like Jesus, but his followers freak me out…this bunch didn’t freak me out as much and they seem to give a rip. I might check this out.

We’ve played it safe too long.  I’ll be thinking and praying and you do that with me. What can God pull us out to do that nobody else is doing? Let’s put a major dent in the future population of hell- there’s plenty of room in God’s place.

Who are your clients?

I was struck a few weeks back while watching “Whale Wars.”  Some think Paul Watson goes a bit overboard while onboard his Sea Shepherd group that goes around throwing stink bombs  on and, by his own words, generally “harrassing” Japanese whaling ships.

He received word from the Dutch authority to chill out on some tactics because he was in jeopardy of losing their Dutch government approval to be in Antarctic waters.

He was cordial, but blew them off and said, “I don’t care what they think, they’re not my clients-the whales are my clients.” I thought “this dude is beyond obsessed and wacko.”

It stuck with me and I asked myself as a Church starting Pastor, “Who are your clients?” I think most churches would say “we exist to reach people for Christ.” So, who are your clients-that would be those who AREN’T there on Sunday/Weekend Worship…right? Yet, isn’t most of what’s done in worship and the squeaky wheels that get heard those that are there? Well that makes sense, the people there are paying the bills after all. But read your Bible, they’re NOT paying the bills. They’re giving out of obedience to God and are supposed to be about the purpose of reaching people.

Don’t hear me say discipleship isn’t important, Christian growth doesn’t matter. That’s what most will take from this.  The point is that things are imbalanced…to serve the already believing. Look at your church budget and tell me whether or not that’s true. Look at your worship music selection and honestly tell whether or not that’s true. Look at your messages…is it true?

Next someone will say “we need to preach the Bible.” Duh, we do! I’m not saying less Bible, we need MORE Bible application. Jesus said, “How can you say you love me and not do what I say?” It’s about doing the Word,  not mere Biblical analyzation.

Maybe it will hit you right, maybe wrong- this topic ALWAYS is misunderstood. And I believe it just goes to show how imbalanced toward satisfying the Christians wants when we get that reaction.

Those who don’t know Christ are our clients. They don’t speak up because they’re not here; that’s why we have to keep our laser focus on them-they aren’t seen or heard and they are the ones we must love as Jesus love and sacrifice our Christian subcultural desires for.

Church at Skyline Valley’s focus is clear. It’s NOT to reach people for Christ. It’s to partner with Christ followers to reach their friends, family, neighbors, co-workers with Christ. We design things to move toward that mission.

Who are YOUR clients?

How to Survive 19 Years of Marriage with Timbo

Today is Robin and my 19th anniversary. We were married pretty young and waited a number of years before we had kids. If we’d known how much energy having kids would take, we wouldn’t have waited. And how much fun, of course, too but four boys can beat the old man up a good bit.

There are so many things that go into making marriage work. Like I shared Sunday, the secret from Ephesians 5:33 is for the wife to respect her husband and the husband to love his wife both in mutual selflessness.  Easy to say, tougher to do. But that’s what the strength of God’s Spirit helps us with.

A couple of things have been very crucial for us in “keeping it together” for 19. One is simply forgiveness.  Any time two people live in constant proximity to each other, there is conflict. Crud, I even argue with myself when I’m alone sometimes! And, because those closest to us are where we are most secure, we ironically give them less of our best than we do others. Now, that is another area to work on- to give our spouse the best of us rather than the other way around. (But that doesn’t mean we now have the right to be cranky everywhere else either).

But, we don’t always give our best. And we have to forgive. Tough, because have you noticed that the things that are most annoying (our faults) are repeated over and over. Well, that’s an area of struggle for me so, sure, I keep doing that obnoxiousness repeatedly. So, we have to “bear one with another” and forgive over and over and over and over…..

The best gift  my father in law ever gave to me were the words he said to us the night I asked him if I could marry his daughter with his blessing. I say that, in part, because he offered to give us the money he would spend on the wedding if we would elope. He’s a Pastor also and didn’t want to have to deal with trying to get through doing his daughter’s ceremony. But he did great, and my Dad Pastor did it also and he had no problem with shipping me off.  THAT money would have been a great gift. But Robin and her mom refused. Dang! But what he said still was better than any amount of money.

Anyway, he said- “You’re both welcome in our home. But Robin is not welcome alone if you’re having problems. Unless you’re beating her or something awful like that, you’ll have to work them out…you won’t be welcome here.”

Now, some of you saps are thinking how cruel. But, let me be blunt, you’re dead wrong!  That was pure love. His deepest desire was for his daughter’s best and he knows, in part from seeing the tragedy of failed marriages in his line of work, that people often too easily escape their problems by running away from them.

That’s another survival tip: have no, and I mean ZERO, other options. This is it, nowhere else to turn, nobody else to go to, stand in the batter’s box and deal with the pitch that comes your way.

Life stinks and is a joy all mixed in. Marriage is a test for eternity. It’s one of the ways God makes us more like him. That’s only done when you just hang in and hang on to each other for all you’re worth.

If more dads and moms would be like my in laws, marriages would be so much stronger and stay together so much more often. Secure it in your mind and heart- there is no out, no other option, gotta work with this person and open up and work it out.

My Beautiful is the greatest. Our first date I went back to my college dorm and said to God, “I know you probably can’t get me that one, but if you can give me a gal to marry just like Robin I would be forever grateful.” Well, I am grateful and I guess God’s answer was “Sorry my child, I only made one of her.”  Wow! God is a good Father.

Happy Anniversary Beautiful! Thank you for hanging with me for 19 years.

Want a red hot marriage…start here!

Yes, this weekend is Church @ Skyline Valley’s second preview worship. Maybe you’ve seen the Red Hot Marriage signs or gotten the mailer. The worship band will be kicking, the message will hit right where you live and the topic is “The One Secret to a Great Marriage.” Sunday, 10:30, Copperas Cove Civic Center, commercial over.

Robin and I will celebrate our 19th year of marriage two days after this event on August 4. 19 years! How does a marriage survive that long in our day and time, much less thrive. Robin might say about life with me after living in ten states, starting our third church, a herd of boys for kids, “Well, I’m not suffering from insanity I’ve learned to enjoy it.”

A number of years ago, Robin and I decided we’d do some premarital counseling together. When we’ve been able to, we’ve really enjoyed it. Although I’ve also come to somewhat agree with one wise counselor who said about premarital counseling, “You can’t tell anything to anybody who’s in heat.”

Well, we went to an all day training and there was a questionnaire involved telling your life experiences, personality, beliefs etc. Basically it was a “compatability” exam. We didn’t have kids at the time, I don’t think anyway, it’s all a blur. So, the first one was free so they suggest you take it with your spouse to get the idea of how it works.

We had fun doing that and then a few weeks later got back our results. The computer stated that “this couple” (us!) needed immediate counseling and intervention. “This couple” was completely incompatible in 9 of 10 categories and needed to get it together big time.

We were perplexed, we thought we were doing pretty good and life with each other was, if not neat and simple, at least consistently interesting. So we have absolutely nothing in common in terms of real interests, don’t think alike, our communication styles are different (that’s really so true, we’ve had numerous arguments over things we’re actually agreeing about) have a totally different style of dealing with conflict thanks to our “families of origin,” and needed counseling.

After pondering the thing for a few days, we filed it away. What was interesting was we had only one category that we held in common. In that category, we held consistently agreeable ideas and beliefs. We flunked every other category, but in this one we hit at 100%. Yup, it was in the area of our faith and belief in Christ.

Over the years, we’ve gained interests together with some accomodations. Sure we’ve had kids- that’s sort of one of those in common things. But I’ve tried to apply those great listening skills I learned in seminary (snicker) to take interest in her things, and she will go to baseball games with me…and I let her take a few magazines to read. What do I care? I’m watching the game, my Beautiful is with me, that’s all I need.

But, all that begins with a common faith. It may sound corny and that’s O.K.- if you both have a surrendered life to Christ, incompatability is not an issue any more. It’s fun to be married to an opposite. You have the foundational things in line, Jesus leads you toward selflessness to the other person, and, even if the other person doesn’t make sense to you sometimes….life is never ever boring.

Timbo

p.s. If you want “The One Secret”, you have to show up Sunday!

Comparison Complex

“NEVER COMPARE yourself! Other’s success will discourage you OR yours will make you prideful. Both are deadly.Gal.6:4″ – Rick Warren

Do you do this? I am the world’s worst. One of the little known things about Pastors, and especially church starting Pastors, is that we are notorious for comparing one another’s results. As if though we have that much to do with our “success” anyway.

Honest to God, I think some of the best work I’ve done as a Pastor was in the last church I Pastored in rural Alabama. I was out of my element and still don’t get the rural context. But a remnant of faithful people who were fed up with conflict, ineffectiveness, and “running off” Pastors and I decided we would do whatever it took to bring the church to a point of peacefulness and potential. By all standard accounts, it was a miserable failure because the numbers diminished, as well as the offerings, and my name was much maligned in the community. Yes, I left eventually to start this new church because I needed to move on and they did too- but we did what needed to be done.

Yes, I’ve been on staff at churches whose attendance was in the hundreds, but I’m coming to understand this…God isn’t impressed.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe God wants His church to grown and it is natural for healthy things to grow. I just remember how I felt so often at the time when other friends were blowing and going in their churches and we were fighting through a difficult process.

Even now, I have no idea what kind of numbers we’ll have on “Opening Day” of this new church. And I catch myself comparing myself to others’ successes. It’s a killer.

Here’s another secret, many with great success want to be compared to others. It makes us feel good when we can push our numbers to others. But it’s also amazing how God can humble us.

I came to a point where I had to realize I was most honored to be those people’s Pastor in rural Alabama. I had to recognize I was fortunate to work at a pizza place so the family could survive. I had to realize that my cute little Masters degree doesn’t qualify me to be too cool to put exactly 20 pepperonis on a pizza going to the buffet (and, yes, we had to count them).

I confess I’m a “recovering comparer.” But nothing’s too good for me any more (well, my wife is but that’s another blog posting). I pray I’m getting there a little bit more every day. Are you a “recovering comparer” or am I the only one?

Timbo

Tribute to Major Kevin Jenrette

This is my first blog post. I want the first to be an important one and this one is. As we celebrate July 4/Independence Day this weekend with fireworks and burgers, it’s worth remembering those who have bought our freedom with their lives.

I am now starting a new church near the Fort Hood Military Base in Texas (www.skylinevalley.org). Recently, I had the opportunity to return to my previous residence in Alabama. There, I had the privilege of speaking many times at chapel services at Lyman Ward Military Academy (www.lwma.org) – an all boys military school for junior and high school students. They asked me to return and speak at the Baccalaureate services for their graduates. I was honored to do so.

The President of LWMA is Col. Bill Jenrette, a retired lifelong military man who is investing his retirement years in the young men at Lyman Ward. To say he has my deepest respect is to say the least.

During the message I delivered, I spoke of heroes and what it means to be one. Words like sacrifice, duty, and honor in comparison to the words that we more commonly hear such as fame, comfort, bailout. I expressed how the true hero sacrifices in the short term to “enjoy the price” later on. I pointed out that heroes do this with and for no recognition, but because it is the right thing to do and their values demand it. That’s true in all of life and especially for those who serve our country as soldiers (along with their heroic families I might add).

Not many days later I received word that some insurgents had attacked a unit in Afghanistan and Col. Jenrette’s heroic son, Major Kevin Jenrette, had given his life for his country and even more for the cause of freedom. http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/archive/20030/

Words are simply words…and mine at that baccalaureate service seem hollow in comparison to the genuine demonstration of heroism that Army Ranger Kevin Jenrette was, is, and will be. Below is the email I sent to my friend and respected leader Col. Jenrette; what it said are my simple, inadequate sentiments. But as we celebrate this weekend, let’s remember the price of freedom is paid and we “enjoy” their price.

To our serving soldiers, to those of you who have served, and those of you who are families of fallen soldiers…..it isn’t much and it’s certainly not enough, but thank you. You are not forgotten!

Join me in celebrating…..and remembering.

Colonel Jenrette,

I was so saddened to hear of Kevin’s death while on the battlefield in Afghanistan. You have my sympathies and you and his family have my prayers.

Tonight, many Americans will sleep and give little thought to their freedom bought with the blood of brave men. These brave men do so without regard to appreciation.

Yet, Kevin’s sacrifice will not be forgotten by many of us. I’m inspired by his life; a speech such as I recently gave at Lyman Ward about heroism is hushed completely when we can simply point to a life given heroically and willingly.

Kevin has our deepest respect and honor. I will think of him by name each Memorial Day so long as I have a mind to remember it. And I look forward to meeting him one day in eternity and thank him personally for his loving sacrifice.

I know you are very proud of him through your tears. God bless you as you are held up in prayer at this time along with his young family.

With love in Christ,

Timothy Fowler