The Right Person in the Right Place!

For several years I've known that there was a missing piece to the puzzle as it relates to our Lead Team here at Crossroads and what is necessary for us to go to the next level as a church. We have an incredible Lead Team, but one of the most important aspects of Church Growth is what we refer to as assimilation: The process of moving people from point A to point B. Specifically, seeing visitors becoming members and seeing first-time responders to the Gospel becoming full-fledged followers of Christ. These efforts really boil down to our spiritual growth classes, our small groups and our ministry teams. The management of these crucial areas have been handled by a couple of our Lead Team members, David Baudoin and Holane Davidson, who have done a great job, but have never been able to devote their entire attention to them. 

Not long ago, I was meeting with these two Lead Team members and we were discussing how our practice has always been to hire from within, but there simply isn't anyone currently in our ranks that can bring what we need to the table for the management of these efforts. David Baudoin asked, "Isn't there anyone in your circle of friends who might be willing to leave his pastorate to come on board with our team?" I thought about it for a second and responded, "You know what we need is a Paul Burke." David immediately answered, "What we need is Paul Burke!" Initially, I thought there was no way I could ask my friend to leave the church he was pastoring, but I couldn't shake the strong leading to do so and so I gave him a call. 

Paul and Cindy Burke are incredible leaders who took an extremely small rural church of twenty people and grew the church to over three hundred in weekly attendance. Even more remarkable is the fact that the church has over 70% of their adults in small groups and on ministry teams! Paul is uniquely gifted and experienced in the assimilation process and has accepted our invitation to join the lead team of Crossroads Church! We are so excited to welcome them onboard and to see this pivotal role now being carried out by the right person in the right place! 

The Extended Vacation of 2014

Donna and I have just returned from a four week vacation. We have never taken an extended leave like this before, but it was an incredible blessing and we made some wonderful memories and actually checked a couple items off my bucket list.

The vacation began to take form when I was invited to participate in an all-expense paid golf tournament at Pebble Beach to raise money for Fire Bible - An organization that prints a powerful Pentecostal Study Bible in the language of unreached people groups around the world. It is often the only Bible training the indigenous leaders of these people groups will have access to! Playing at Pebble is one of those bucket list items I mentioned, but the thrill of playing such a prestigious golf course pales in comparison to the thrill of helping place this incredible training tool in the hands of those reaching the unreached. Earlier this year, Crossroads gave $10,000.00 to Fire Bible! Here's a pic of my dear friends Scott Holmes, Gary Sapp and I at Pebble Beach. Scott and I placed 2nd in the Grand Champions category! The tournament included a round at both Pebble and Spanish Bay!

After I accepted the invitation to participate in the Fire Bible Summit at Pebble Beach, I received another invitation to enjoy an all-expense paid Alaskan Cruise with another incredible organization called Convoy of Hope. Convoy is the Christian equivalent of the Red Cross, coming to the aid of disaster victims around the world. We had always supported their work, but when we saw it up close and personal a few years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it became one of the ministries we support most as a church. They do incredible work! Alaska was another bucket list item, so Donna and I immediately accepted the invitation to go on the Cruise. The Pebble trip was the first week of July, the cruise was the last week - So it just made sense to make a month-long vacation out of it!

After leaving Pebble, we drove down the Pacific coastline on Hwy 1 and took in the beauty of Monterey Bay, Carmel by the Sea and Big Sur. The scenery is breathtaking! We also enjoyed a visit to the Monterey Aquarium with all of it's amazing sea critters! Next, we struck out for a visit to the Sequoia National Park. The big trees are absolutely amazing! The one named after General Sherman is the largest living thing on earth! 

After enjoying the beauty of the Sequoias, we headed to San Francisco. I've got to be honest with you, I've never really had any interest in visiting the Bay area, but after spending three days there, I can absolutely see what all the fuss is about. It truly is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited. We did all the tourist stops: The Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Pier 39, riding cable cars, etc. We enjoyed a lot of good food including a stop in China Town for some of my new favorite cuisine: Dim Sum!

After taking in the sights and sounds of San Francisco, we were off to see more Redwoods - This time the towering giants of Northern Cal. We made our way to see these beauties by the scenic route called Napa Valley. Gorgeous vineyards and orchards line the landscape there and Donna and I decided we definitely could live there. It is almost as pretty as my beloved Colorado! After reaching the Redwoods National Forest, we discovered it is as spectacular as everyone says it is. The enormity of these legendary trees leaves you in awe.

Our next stop was in Redding California so we could spend Sunday morning at Bethel Church, home of the renown Worship Groups Bethel Live and Jesus Culture. They had just hosted their annual School of Worship and Martin Smith, formerly of the group Delirious was there leading worship. It was a powerful service and we were so glad we made it part of our itinerary. An added bonus was a stop at McArthur/Burney Falls, a beautiful cascading waterfall that was as peacefully tranquil a place as I can ever remember visiting. 

From Redding, we made the long drive to Seattle where we would board the cruise ship. We arranged our timing so we had a couple days in Seattle before boarding and took in all the tourist attractions of this great American city as well: The Space Needle, The Market, The original Starbucks, The EMP Museum, etc. We even visited Seattle's Chinatown for, you guessed it - More Dim Sum! 

We enjoyed our cruise with some of our very best friends, Doug and Rachel McAllister. Alaska is as marvelous as everyone says it is. We had great weather and enjoyed two Port stops in the 49th State, one in Juno and one in Skagway. In Juno, we did a Whale Watching excursion that was amazing! We got a rare glimpse of 18 Humpbacks bubble feeding. Together, they blow out underwater, forcing an upward jet stream that sends fish to the surface of the ocean where they arrive with mouths open for feeding. The big pod of whales surfaced not more than ten to twelve feet off our starboard bow! In Skagway we took a raft down the river to an eagle preserve where we saw twenty-five to thirty bald eagles. What a thrill it was to see our national symbol of strength there in their native habitat. So majestic! Our last port stop was in Victoria, B.C. where we enjoyed beautiful gardens in this old historic Canadian city. 

I don't know if we'll ever get the chance to do another extended vacation like this one, but we sure enjoyed it and we are so thankful for it. I've figured out that one of my wife's primary love languages is travel and this trip said "I love you" loud and clear! 

Legacy

Yesterday, I got to visit with an incredible woman of God. Annie Jean Welch and her husband Gabe started our church in their home in 1956. Since then, the church has only had four pastors in 58 years and I am blessed to be one of them. Donna and I are so grateful for the privilege we have had to build on the great foundation these visionaries built so long ago. She raised an amazing family that we love dearly. As I bragged on her children and grandchildren yesterday, she grinned from ear-to-ear! God help me to leave this kind of legacy! 

The Fab Four

This past month we did a series called The Fab Four. With this past February marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles coming to America - performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, we just had to, right? After all, that moment really changed the world. It wasn't just the Beatles' music or popularity that made such an impact on American culture - It was their message. Timothy Leary (a popular physiologist at the time who was similar to today's Dr. Phil, only with a bad-boy twist) called the Beatles the Four Evangelists. Why would he use that term? The same term we would use for someone like Billy Graham? Because the Beatles changed the world with their message.

In our series we began by considering the gospel of John. (Lennon that is.) Think about his post-Beatles song Imagine: Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell beneath us. Above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Sounds innocent, right? Far from it. The gospel of John is Agnosticism. The belief that their is no god. Or, if there is a god, that He is impersonal and aloof: Uninterested and uninvolved in human life.

Next we considered the gospel of Paul. (McCartney that is.) After leaving the Beatles, McCartney established another super-group called wings. One of their most popular songs was the theme song for a James Bond film called Live and Let Die: When you were young and your heart was an open book, you used to say live and let live. But if this ever-changing world in which you're living makes you give up and cry - Live and let die. The gospel of Paul is Humanism, where self is exalted is god.

Thirdly we considered the gospel of George. (You guessed it - George Harrison.) His most popular post-Beatles song was called My Sweet Lord: I really want to know you. I really want to be with you. Oh! It takes so long. My sweet Lord. The song was all over the radio in the seventies and kids were walking around everywhere singing, "My sweet Lord." (Some of them even in church!) The thing many didn't realize was in the background of the song Harrison was singing "Hare Krishna..." The gospel of George was Polytheism.  The belief that there are many gods.

Lastly we considered the gospel of Ringo. (That could only be Ringo Starr.) One of his most well known post-Beatle songs was You're Sixteen: You come on like a dream, peaches and cream, lips like strawberry wine. You're sixteen, you're beautiful and your mine. Innocent, cute love song, right? Wrong. Ringo was thirty six when this song hit the charts! (Can someone say creeper?) The gospel of Ringo was Hedonism. The worship of pleasure.

Please don't get the mistaken idea that this was a Beatle-bashing series calling for a record burning session! We didn't spin any records backwards during the series to check for satanic messages! I'm not suggesting the Beatles were the AntiChrist in musical form and if you listen to their music you're going to hell! I'm just simply saying their message changed the world and helped usher in a whole new set of American world views in the 60's and 70's. The four world views we refer to as agnosticism, humanism, polytheism and hedonism became four of the greatest challenges to the gospel in the 20th and now the 21st Centuries!

When I got the idea for this series, I thought it would make a great apologetics discussion we could use to reach the lost and unchurched. However, as I began to develop my outlines for each message, it became clear that this series was intended to challenge the agnosticism, humanism, polytheism and hedonism in the church! What we would never profess to be, we tend to practice daily! Living as if there's no God, as though we ourselves are gods, making gods out of many things and living for pleasure above all else. Sound familiar? It's the Fab Four - Reflected not just in the post-Christian culture around us, but in our churches and in our own lifestyles.

To view the messages check out www.mycrossroads.org.