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Giving Up Center Stage

Erik — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:09:38 +0000

In 2 Samuel 12, Joab (the captain of David’s army) does something striking. He willingly gives up the glory, honor and credit for a battle to his king. In verses 27-28 he sends a messenger to David saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and captured its water supply. Now bring the rest of the army and capture the city. Otherwise, I will capture it and get credit for the victory.”

We like center stage. We like the limelight and the attention we get from a job well done. Especially when we’ve worked hard to earn it. But in this account, Joab simply hands it over.

Why?

Because Joab knew his role. He understood that his job wasn’t just to win battles. His job was to support the king.

This is the philosophy I take when it comes to my role as a staff pastor. My ministry position may have a title. I may have an age group or a specific segment of people in the congregation that I’m responsible for. Those responsibilities may define what I do, but they don’t define how I do it.

A good staff pastor does what he should do. A great staff pastor does the “what” and understands how to do it in a way that serves his/her Pastor and gives up center stage. This isn’t to say that a staff pastor should never be honored for his work, but it is to say that some credit isn’t meant for the staff pastor. Understanding these circumstances and properly reacting to them is what separates a good staff pastor from a great staff pastor.

And that’s not to suggest that I completely understand it or succeed at this. But I do strive to serve my Lead Pastor and honor his personality, dreams and vision for the church. Otherwise I risk injecting my own agenda and stealing center stage from him in the process.

So how do you respect and serve the authorities over your life? Have you found yourself in situations where you are tempted to steal center stage?

the spirit of giving

Cornerstone Easter Video Interview

Erik — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:16:04 +0000

I wanted to share one of the videos we showed on Easter. It’s an interview we did with one of our church members who had an incredible experience with God during a prayer time at our church. We put it together pretty quickly because we didn’t hear about it until just a few days before Easter.

Ken did a great job. He just sat down and said everything he needed to say in one take.

The music is the song “Quiet” from the band “This Will Destroy You.” I came across them after I heard their music in the movie Moneyball.

I’m very happy with how everything came together for the short amount of prep time I had to put it together.

Did Eyewitnesses Write the Gospels?

Erik — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:09:23 +0000

I came across this video from a post that George P. Wood made on his blog. Normally, when I see a video over a couple of minutes I don’t usually watch it, but I decided to settle in and give it a few minutes. Almost immediately, I realized that this was going to be well worth my time.

In it, Dr. Peter Williams provides some great insight into some evidence for believing that eyewitnesses wrote the Gospel accounts. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Can't see the video in your RSS reader or email? Click Here!

“Garmin or God” Series Design

Erik — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:26:41 +0000

Today we started a new message series at Cornerstone called, “Garmin or God: A Road Trip of Transformation.” Throughout the summer we’re going to follow the journey of the Isrealites as they wandered through the wilderness and learn from their experiences.

Right now, the plan is to create a short video element for each message in the series. You can see the first video below.

I created the graphic for the series using one of our staff member’s TomTom and a bobble head (body?) Jesus that I ordered online. In fact, I actually changed the concept after the first idea didn’t come together for me (shown below). We originally wanted to take a picture of a car dashboard with GPS and Jesus. It was just too busy and I wasn’t happy with how things were laid out.

So I scrapped all that and went with a more simple design. Granted, it’s nothing ground breaking (Myriad Pro font, white background, wet floor…Apple anyone?), but for me, it was a win.

This was the first time I did any photography for my own design, so there was a bit of a learning curve for how to take a picture and get a useable image. This was particularly true relating to the images I used for the final design. I ended up shooting them outside on a white box. I tried different lighting and darker backgrounds (like a green storage bin) but the silver springs on Jesus reflected the colors and it was impossible to work with in Photoshop.

In the end, I’m happy with it. We had a good response today and my prayer is that stuff like this enhances people’s experience at Cornerstone and gives them something to look forward to.

Don’t Touch Me

Erik — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:46:08 +0000

We’re doing a series of messages at Cornerstone on the 5 Love Languages.

Today we showed a parody of the show “The Office” to introduce our 4th love language: physical touch.

The whole video was shot in about an hour by one of our students, Zach (he did a GREAT job).

I wrote the two page script (got the concept with help from @the_Kevon) and edited it.

Enjoy.

Sermon Series – 5 Love Languages

Erik — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 04:24:51 +0000

We’re starting a series of messages this month at Cornerstone called “5 Love Languages”. It’s taken from the book with the same title by Gary Chapman. If you’re in the area, make sure you join us.

I used Apple’s Motion app to create a video “bumper” to show before the message and use with other media we’ll make in connection with the series (weekly video update on Facebook and archive video of the message).

Check it out below.

New Year

Erik — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 07:42:28 +0000

I’ve noticed a bit of an attack on resolutions this year. Okay, “attack” may be a strong word, and it may not be widespread. However, I’ve come across several blogs that expressed some negative sentiment towards the idea. I’m not sure where this is coming from, but on one of the posts I read, the author expressed her disdain for resolutions. To her, they were never kept, because they were too radical. Instead she said, we should look to improve areas that we are already excelling in. She then proceeded to make goals for what she wanted to do in 2011. Maybe I was missing something, but they seemed like resolutions to me, regardless of what you call them.

Life works in cycles. We need to experience the ebb and flow that these times bring. For me, the New Year is a time to reflect on the past and find vision for the future.

The Past

It’s healthy to slow down and consider the road we’ve been on. For me, 2010 has been marked with transition. I’ve changed my role in ministry, moving from being a Youth Pastor to Executive Pastor). And we’ve moved from Chicagoland to the St. Louis area. This past year has been a time to heal and be restored. I had to let go off some things as a result of our move that were incredibly important to me (family, friends, familiar environment, etc.). The end result, however, is that my family and I are healthier and stronger because of it. It hasn’t always been easy, be we have great new friends and a church family who have walked with us through the process.

I made 3 commitments/resolutions/goals last year.

One-Year Bible Reading Plan – I completed this…though I missed a lot of days and had to make them up along the way.
Read one book per month. – Didn’t make this one, but I was probably more diligent in my reading than I have been in past years.
Spend more time with family. – I’d say this year has been great for our family and we’ve been able to spend a good deal of time together.

Future

Read one book per month. – I wasn’t going to quantify it this year, but I’m tired of not reaching this goal. This one is important to me. I’m at a point in my life, where I realize how incredibly important this is for me. Part of this will involve cutting distractions out of my life (and that will be the hard part).
Physical Activity – I’m not saying I’m going to exercise everyday or anything like that, but I need to be more active. People may role their eyes at me when I say this, but I’m getting older…and I’m starting to feel older too.
Develop my skills in two areas: Design (general principles as well as skill with the tools) and Web Development (specifically WordPress and Joomla!). I like doing this. Setting up WordPress and Joomla! sites is incredibly satisfying to me. I want to hone these skills and learn more about coding and development. I’m certainly no pro, but I’d like to continue growing in these areas.

So, there you go. That’s my list. What’s on yours?

book review – “Exponential”

Erik — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:05:54 +0000

Somehow I ended up on the the email lists of a few book publishers. I get several offers to review books on my blog, but many of them just don’t interest me and I don’t have the time for the extra reading (especially on topics that don’t apply). But every once in a while, I get an offer that sucks me in. “Exponential” is one of those books.

I’ve been a staff pastor for several years. I have dreams of one day leading a church and/or planting one. When that happens, I’ll be revisiting this book for some of the ideas and concepts it contains.

“Exponential” is a book about creating and sustaining multisite ministry among churches. At the core of this is the idea of reproduction through apprenticeship. This is something that applies to every believer, not just pastors interested in adding an additional location for their church. And for me, that’s what makes this book great. As much as this is a book about church planting, it’s also a book about how to create ministries and leaders who seek to reproduce themselves in apprentices (to use the term in the book) who will in turn continue to pass their heart/vision/skill on to others.

I found this book to be very accessible and easy to read. It’s written by Dave Ferguson with some humorous notes from his brother, Jon Ferguson, along the way. It has some great personal stories/examples to balance out and illustrate the philosophical and strategic content. And there’s a lot of that here. It’s full of practical advice and tips for how to reproduce and raise up leaders and churches. This is one of those books that will end up on my shelf for future reference.

For me, a book like this challenges me on a couple of levels. First, it causes me to evaluate my current ministry assignment and find ways to improve on how I am leading and what I am passing on to others (apprentices) around me. Second, I begin to step back from my current situation and dream about what God is calling me to and where he will eventually lead me–sort of a big picture or long term vision.

If you’re a pastor interested in starting a multisite location or if you are a lay leader in your church, “Exponential” is an excellent resource for you to find ways to reproduce yourself in others and expand the Kingdom and the ministry you lead.

You can buy “Exponential” at amazon.com (if you purchase through this link, you’ll help support the blog).

For disclosure’s sake, I need to add that my copy of Exponential was provided for review by Zondervan.

book review – “steering through chaos”

Erik — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:19:15 +0000

When I started reading this book, I breathed a sigh of relief. That’s because I received a copy of this book for free for the purpose of reviewing it on my blog. In addition to that my friend Justin Lathrop (who is on staff with the author) invited me to the “blog tour” of the book. When I accepted the invitation, in the back of my head I said, “I hope this is good, because I really don’t want to struggle to give it a decent review.” However all fears were quickly forgotten as I began to read. “Steering Through Chaos” is a great book that effectively communicates its message.

In “Steering Through Chaos”, Scott Wilson aims to help the reader understand, embrace and navigate through one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of pastoral ministry: change and transition.

Scott does a great job communicating in a way that comes across as sincere, authentic and experienced. His approach and style made reading this book not only informative, but enjoyable as well. Often I felt like Scott was just having conversation with me over coffee. In chapter 8, he discusses the importance of having a life coach. For the author, it’s the single most important principle in the book. I couldn’t help but think that the book itself is like a mini life coach session with Scott.

Most books that I read end up back on the shelf and get lost in the mix. A few books go to the shelf and stick out. These are the books that I make note of their position, the look of the spine and its height. These are books that I want to find again. The ones that will serve as a reference for me in the future. “Steering Through Chaos” is part of that later group.

For me, this book was a refreshing look at what pastoral ministry is about. Reading it served as a sort of “realignment” for me. Unfortunately, in the past I’ve seen a lot of what ministry is not. This book has come to me at a time when I really needed to see an optimistic, healthy, God-honoring perspective of ministry and the challenges that it brings. I appreciated that Scott’s passion isn’t to lead effective change in and of itself. Instead his focus is to be deeply committed to following Jesus and bringing as many people as possible with him on the journey (even though that often results in a bit of chaos along the way). This is probably best illustrated in chapter 5, which deals with the importance and need for corporate prayer. It’s a powerful reminder to make sure we’re listening to the right voice.

This is a book that I’m going to be recommending to the staff I serve with at Cornerstone. It provides some great insight on how we can work through some of the challenges that we are/will be facing as we continue to grow and transition.

I recommend this book to anyone in a leadership role, especially those in ministry and those who need to keep a vision alive in front of a group of people.

You can purchase “Steering Through Chaos” by Scott Wilson on amazon.com.

wronged

Erik — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:18:45 +0000

Several weeks ago I was reading from the One Year Reading Plan when I came across 1 Corinthians 6. The Apostle Paul is writing about how some of the Christians at Corinth had disputes with each other and had brought those disputes to secular courts for judgment. Paul criticizes them for their inability to resolve their differences on their own.

But then Paul takes the topic to a deeper level. He says in verses 7-8,

“Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.”

And then week ago Pastor Phil spoke about forgiving those who have hurt you and caused you pain. It was a great message. One of those where you nod your head and think, “yeah, I need to forgive those horrible, evil, arogant people who have wronged me. They’re so bad for treating poor, innocent me that way (#sarcasm).”

Then came the proverbial “kick in the teeth”.

Pastor Phil closed the message out by encouraging us to not only forgive, but then to also pray that those who have wronged us would experience blessing.

Ouch.

Then this past week, Mark Batterson wrote on his blog about bitterness and how to overcome:

I honestly believe that prayer is the only antidote to anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. You can’t just forgive. You’ve got to pray for that person. Why? Because it will change your heart. You’ll find that a supernatural love for that person disarms your anger. Forgiveness will set your free. And prayer is the key.

Um, anyone else see a reoccuring theme here?

Yeah…I think I have some praying to do….

what to wear