So, I am putting together an adoption plan for the Kaysville church and Elevation Church.
One of our values here at Elevation has been to make sure people know and understand that THE CHURCH is people not a building.
One thing we haven’t had to deal with is a building, since we rent a theater on Sunday mornings and offices throughout the week, but this Kaysville church has a building that we will be turning into our second location.
So here is what I have been thinking…what should we call the second site, the building we will be adopting. The name of the church that we are adopting is Promise Christian Assembly…so what should we call the second site, the Kaysville location without using the name “Church” or “Assembly” or anything else that denotes a “Church.” We want to communicate people are the church not the building.
So…name that building… $100 gift card to Starbucks to the winner
I didn’t post this before I left, but I’ve been out on vacation this last week for Christmas. The family and I took off to Colorado to hang out with my mom for the first Christmas in 14 years. We will be heading back tomorrow to SLC!
I’ll be back to the blogging world after that…I’ve got a bunch of stuff rattling around in my head…stay tuned.
Here is the quote I used today from Bono. I had so many people ask me about it I thought I would post it.
No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was – Messiah – or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: Ok, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain!! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched….
So, one of my best friends, and the co-founding pastor of Elevation Church just kicked off a new blog as of late. REAM OF PAPER
It is a great new blog to read. It will make you think for sure.
I remember back when we first created an elevation church blog. Ryan and I wouldn’t really post a ton of stuff, I’m learning to post more even today, but back then…Ryan would post maybe one new item every 8 days. So, when Ryan told me he was kicking off a new blog I thought to myself that calling it a ream of paper was not a very clever way to talk about him putting his ideas out there. As maybe a tiny notebook would do…but he has proved me wrong and the blog has almost a new post everyday that keeps you learning, thinking, pondering, and laughing.
Every month I meet with a leadership coach via the phone. His name is Walt and he lives in Colorado. Walt is a master of asking the right questions to help me walk through the decisions I am making as the Lead Pastor of Elevation Church.
Tomorrow is my coaching appointment for this month.
Walt doesn’t tell me how to do things…but helps me find the answers through questions, ideas, and research. I wish I would have had a coach at the beginning of planting Elevation.
If you are a church planter (no matter where you are in the stage of planting) get a COACH now. There is never a too early time or a too late time. Get a coach!
I have several mentors in life as well. One of my mentors is named Jim. Mentors are different then coaches. I ask my mentors questions to gain feedback more on the lines of what they would do in my situation and why they would make that decision. Mentors teach from their experiences and wisdom, the questions come more from me…not them.
Everyone needs a mentor.
And everyone needs to mentor someone.
I am mentoring two people right now in Utah and mentoring a church planter who is planting a church in another state.
Jim and Walt are responsible for my growth as a leader…yet they serve in totally different roles.
Well, for the last year. Yes, the last year. We have been meeting with a little church group in Kaysville, Utah. We have been meeting with them to discuss the idea of a merger.
A “merger” is a polite term. Lifechurch.tv likes to call it an adoption and I really like that term as well. With a true adoption of a kid into your family, they come with their own ideas of how things are, but you help to integrate them into the new family that has its unique way of doing things.
So we have been having these adoption talks with this church. The ADOPTOR being Elevation, the adoptee being this Kaysville church.
At the end of September their pastor resigned, feeling God moving him on. Their board has been meeting over the last few months and voted to pursue this adoption full force.
Yesterday…if you noticed me jet out of the 2nd service as soon as I was done speaking, I drove over to this little church in Kaysville, where one of our worship teams was already set-up and leading worship, to preach during their AM service. I spoke about God’s unique calls on our lives and also for groups of people, churches.
Then after speaking – they had a business meeting where I shared a few things about Elevation Church.
Our history and vision – plant churches, multi-locations, sites, house churches all over Utah
Introduced our leaders that were present at the business meeting.
What would happen if they were adopted by us – they would become our first site in a multi-site vision, must like you have double services on a Sunday morning, this would be another service hub, but at a different time as what we are doing in Layton.
I shared that if they don’t want CHANGE then they shouldn’t vote to be adopted by Elevation.
Then I took some questions from the audience.
We left them to do their voting and they served food to all that were there on Sunday. It was a great time of getting to know each other and hanging out. Then their board announced that the vote had been unanimous in favor of being adopted by Elevation!
Our legal board will now look at all these pieces in January and make sure that the liabilities and legalities are covered during this adoption.
We will start putting together an adoption plan in the meantime.
My daughter came up to me after we were done eating lunch and said, “are you going to be the pastor here?”
“Yes I am.”
“Goodie!”
Looks like another step is in the making of our vision to expand the message of Jesus in Utah. Please join me in prayer during these next few weeks as a solid plan is put together.
We played this video on Sunday at our gathering…what an amazing video.
Baptisms don’t get old when you celebrate them for what they are…one of the most amazing public declirations ever. If we could get away with it, I think we would find a fountain in the middle of a mall and baptize people there, as long as the food court was near so we could party afterwords!
Tell us what you think about this video. It really touched us on Sunday.
Posted December 29th, 2008 by trinity 
