Today we tear trailers down at Fellowship Church.  Trailers that have been around for a lot of years, have a certain amount of nostalgia associated with them, and currently house scores of little furry creatures that, for years, have caused much headache on our property.

We would like to have built first, a children’s facility or a new sanctuary, but before we did that, the trailers had to come down.  Years of use, abuse, decay, and becoming the habitat for skunks, raccoons, and ground hogs have left the trailers unusable for us, so before we put another building up, and continue to improve our facilities, we had to ask ourselves, “What has to go?”  I think before we said, “What do we need to do?”, we needed to say, “What needs to go?”

This was a must in terms of our  future maturity.

Told as if the audience @ Fellowship were twittering about the service this Sunday morning:

(10:28 am)  Is that Bon Jovi playing as we walk in the room?  Why yes, it certainly is.  Nice.

(10:29 am)  There’s nothing like walking into any room listening to the smooth rock voice of Bon Jovi, except maybe Axl Rose in the late 80′s, but we digress.

(10:30 am)  There seems to be a certain energy in the room this morning, like we’re all expecting something to happen.

(10:33 am)  Wow!  Al and the band are on fire this morning.  Somebody get a hose out here!

(10:34 am)  Nice video.  We didn’t know Steve Blumer’s mom came to the internet campus.  Cool.

(10:40 am)  2nd song was good too.  We WILL make the change and we won’t go back!  Also, does that guitarist have a fake finger?

(10:42 am)  Video of mom thanking the Gambogee place (elementary environment)  leaders for their role w/ our children teared us up a bit.

(10:43 am) Wow!  There are a lot of people in this room we don’t know.

(10:48 am)  Ha!  Marty opens with a great  story about his old pastor, Lonnie.

(10:50 am)  “A dream without a plan is only a wish.”

(10:55 am)  “We’re not trying to build an empire, but we are trying to infiltrate Massachusetts with the Fellowship Community.”

(11:00 am)  Marty’s about to launch into what he’s calling Phase 1 – the first phase of our new building project

(11:05 am)  4 specifics about “phase 1 – the beginning”

(11:05 am)  1.  The elimination of the back trailer – the “scourge of our existence”

(11:06 am)  2.  Patch and paint the rear exterior wall of the main building.  I guess we’ll be doing that part ourselves!  There goes that Saturday.

(11:06 am)  3.  Replace rear doors.  4.  Replace roofing on south side of church.

(11:07 am)   “Starting with phase 1 means first of all eliminating the distractions.”

(11:09 am)  $20,000 is a lot of money.

(11:10 am)  We want Fellowship to be a place where people can safely watch, connect, and grow.

(11:15 am)  Luke 14:25-33, Wow!  that Jesus guy says some really crazy things.  Where’s the love?

(11:21 am)  “To surrender to Jesus is not just to say,’I like Jesus’.  It’s more than that.”

(11:22 am)  “A person who is growing is a person who is planning to grow.”

(11:25 am)  “Before you grow, you’ve got to eliminate the distractions in your life.”

(11:31 am)  Suuuweeet!  Fellowship Worcester…we are cheering at that prospect!

(11:32 am)  The Splat Coffee shop!  Boo-yah!  Cheering again.  We’re doing a lot of that today! :  )

(11:32 am)  Very cool.  The Fellowship Haiti Mission.  más aplausos

(11:34 am)  “What are the distractions in your life that are keeping you from fulfilling your dream?”  Very inspiring Marty

(11:36 am)  Video of a quote from Milka about the FC family, but most of us are thinking about things we can eliminate in order to grow.

(11:39 am)  Worshipping.  “From the inside out, Lord my soul cries out!”

(11:44 am)  Last song just finished.  “On Christ the solid rock we will stand!”  Our hearts want to jump out of these bodies!

(11:45 am)  The immediate vision is clear in our heads, and we are ready for the future!  Go God!  Go Fellowship!

(11:48 am)  Oh crud, we forgot to pick up the kids!

(Noon)  We should follow Marty and FC Holden on Twitter.

My head is spinning.

As I told you before this year is my dream year – the year I implement some of the ideas that have gone on in my head over the last several years.   I will tell you what those things are, but, alas, that is not even the purpose of this post.  Somewhere between Christmas and now, my beliefs about what God is going to do here at Fellowship have gone huge, and it’s going fast.

Fellowship Holden is building. (more on that on Sunday)

“The Splat” is coming.

Fellowship Worcester is not far behind.

And on top of all this, Fellowship will be pouring into Haiti in finances and people power.

Of course none of this has literally started yet.  It’s all in planning stages, but God willing, very soon in this year Fellowship Church will never look the same. And this is why my head is spinning.

A mentor of mine says, “A dream without a plan is only a wish.”  I never understood what he meant until recently.  He told me that all of last year when I talked of my dreams, and I just plugged him as somewhat of a realist.  He should get out and dream more, I would tell myself.  Then after I found out I had been accepted into Ben Arment’s dream year, I made a plan to accomplish some of those dreams.  Without having spoken a word or having written a recent email to Ben, I just made a plan.  Certainly I could have done this beforehand, but something about this transition and 2010 and acceptance and people believing in me set me off, and a plan was made.

Then I sent my plan to my mentor, believing that he would think I was crazy and “settle me down”.  I was wrong.  He said this plan looked great and we may need to be fluid and changeable in regards to the plan, but it could be done.  Then he reminded me of the words he had spoke so many times before, “Marty, a  dream without a plan is only a wish.”

For the first time I got it.

The Family Experience dancers

Hundreds of people gathered tight into the dark room, with only thunderous music with a driving beat between them and the lights about to turn on to begin the event.  An energy filled the room as I walked out on stage to introduce the focus of the coming event.  Lights, there was a camera, and plenty of action ensued as the Christmas Family Experience took its excellence to another level.

What’s better than children dancing up and down to a song about compassion, actors who made all the adults roar with laughter, and a spiritual energy bringing it all together?  Not too much apparently, I found out as many people came to me afterward, thanking our church for the amazing program they had just experienced.  In fact, that’s why we call it that, because we don’t want people to come to a program, so much as we want them to experience something with the kids, like they do when they go to the zoo or see a Disney movie.

So four times a year we put away the band and the preaching and the “adults only” environment, and we all worship together, but different.  And the lights, and the production teams, and the high energy music, and the outstanding acting all focuses us on building something more than Fellowship Church – the Kingdom of God.  Even before we gave away the Nintendo DSi, we were all getting slammed hard with the call to being more compassionate in our everyday lives, children AND adults.

One lady looked up to the ceiling while sharing with me what she thought about the message conveyed during the environment, and she said almost with a whisper, “I hope they get it.  The Kids.  I hope they get it, because our generation sure hasn’t.”  Her husband looked at us both and said with a smile coming from the corner of his mouth, “I hope we get it.”

No, I stopped believing the Family Experiences we do at Fellowship Church were for the kids a long time ago.  They are for you, and they are for me.

Next Family Experience:  March 7, 2010

Which one of these are turkeys at Fellowship Church?

Now that’s a good helping of turkey to start off your Thanksgiving!
And to the others I am thankful for their huge helping of teamwork at Fellowship!

Part of the awesome team doing the right thing at Fellowship

Let’s assume that you want to do the right thing.  And you have a vision to see the right thing occur.  This may not be the case, but it’s fun to think that way.

The problem in wanting to do the right thing is that there are people who a)want to do the wrong thing, b) want you to do the wrong thing, or c) just want to hate you no matter what you do.

So here’s what generally happens in a person’s life who wants to do the right things from the beginning.  They come out of college ready to “change the world” or do the right thing, and then get to work.  This occurs in many professions – politics, law, church, medicine, education, engineering, and even entertainment.  Eventually they run into resistance, or people who would rather do a), b), or c) than allow that person to do the right thing.

Consequently, that person spends all of their time early on trying to fight the system of people who don’t want to do the right thing, and they never get around to actually doing the right thing.  They get angry.  They get complacent.  And typically they quit.  But there’s a solution.

Point the people that want a), b), and c) to someone else’s vision

Now lest you point out this post, please note that I did not say don’t love them.  In fact, sometimes pointing people away from where you are to somewhere else is indeed the loving thing to do.  Some of the most freeing moments in my life here at Fellowship have been when I’ve invited people to attend a different church that they would connect with on a vision scale.  It’s not because I hate them, but because it’s the loving thing to do based on keeping unity in the body of Christ.

If you’re trying to do the right thing, don’t attempt to change people’s minds or spend all your time fighting those who want to see you do the wrong thing or even their version of the right thing for your life.  Either leave or ask them to leave, depending on what’s best for the right thing.  Don’t quit.  Don’t let them get the best of you.

Keep doing the right thing.

What if you gave a teacher or a leader  everything they wanted?

At Fellowship, I’m teaching through a series called “I want to be one of them” and highlighting some heroes of the Christian faith.  I’ve shared the stories of George Mueller and Tony Dungy so far with two weeks left.  One of those weeks we will be talking Jonathan Edwards, one of the great pastors/theologians/authors/philosophers of 18th century New England.  As I’m reading one of his biographies, a thought came to my mind concerning learning from other people:

What would happen if I gave everything I had to mimic the teachings and example of ______________________?

Whether the “fill in the blank” for you is Jonathan Edwards, Joel Osteen, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Billy Graham, Rob bell, John Piper, Martin Luther, or Martin Luther King, what would happen if you gave them everything they wanted from you in their lives?

Now I understand the rhetoric that’s coming next from most people that we just follow Jesus, but every teacher and leader wants us to do and give something, and finding out what that is might be important.  Because we, being human, tend to be very one dimensional and like people who are like us and do not like people who are not like us.  If you like Jonathan Edwards or John Piper, you might like to have fun, but probably not when it comes to church.  If you’re into Joel or Nelson, I’m guessing you believe everything’s changing slowly into this ultimate utopia.  If mother Theresa or Martin Luther is your thing, then you want to work, work, work for the kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, and when you’re done, you have to keep going.  Clearly these are huge stereotypes and not to be made a big deal of, but the question is…

What would be the end result if you wholeheartedly followed the people you listened to?

Hanging out with Mike and Roo after an 18 hour drive

The times I remember the most are the ones I had to get off my duff and have.

The time Carie told me she’d never ever date me, then two weeks later, after she had time to reconsider, I remember watching the sun set on a Friday night (August 29, 2003, if you were wondering) listening to the reasons why she changed her mind.

Or the time I drove to Massachusetts in 1997 on about 2 hours notice because I had 5 days of nothingness.  The trip took 18 hours of driving solo.  Then after hanging out with my friends Ruben and Mike for 2.5 days, I headed back 18 hours to Atlanta.  Oh yeah, and I had just arrived into Atlanta from Tucson, AZ (35 hour drive) that evening.

Or the time Dave and I decided to gank a newspaper machine from out front a dollar store.

Or watching a play I wrote and directed be performed on Easter 2001 here at Fellowship Church.

Or taking pictures with the family in Mexico that our team had built a small house for.

Or the time last Saturday when I stood inside of a crowd of people, mostly younger, and jumped up and down to a few hard core Christian bands for the first time in more than 5 years.  I kept thinking to myself, I’m too old to be here.  But after reading Donald Miller’s newest work of art, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, I realized I was just creating another memorable scene in my life.  The kind of scene that I will look back and and be happy that God put me on this earth to live out an incredible story of memorable scenes.  Not necessarily a story (on this earth anyway) with an incredible climax where all my problems go away and my life eventually resolves itself, but one of fulfillment through Jesus and…

a whole lot more memorable scenes.

Aaaahhh, yes, the day off.

This week the team worked hard to prepare for an amazing experience on Sunday morning @ Fellowship and to provide that same experience online.  My focus will be in James, and we’ll spotlight one of my Christian heroes, George Muller.  But today I rest.  Not much on the schedule except Finders and date night with Carie.  That’s on purpose.  Rest is important.  One day of rest is as important as 5-6 days of work.  It helps focus you to your priorities and rejuvenates you to keep going.
And for me, one of the most important things about the day of rest is some quality time with God.  He reminds me that what I do is not about me but it’s about Him working through me, and as I hide my face, He offers more grace.

And that is something I don’t deserve.

One of my greatest enemies is the little things.

The little things bother me in a way that so very few other things do.  They adjust my attitude in a not so subtle way and make me madder than a hatter in wonderland.  They cause me to scowl at the nicest of people and beep at the loveliest of elderly ladies on the road.

The little things cause me to be quite ineffective for at least an hour while I wait to cool myself down and remind myself that it was just a little thing in the first place. After all, “it’s not even a big thing” I try to say over and over again.

The truth is that it’s not the big things that render me useless for much of a regular week in Martyville, but the little things.  It’s not my enemies that normally make me mad and bitter, but my friends who mistreat me or someone I respect that disagrees with me.  Normally, It’s not the passing of a loved one or a major financial struggle that really gets me down, but when I’m slowed by a cold or forget to pay a bill that irritates me and causes me to lose my cool.  Its not a major problem at Fellowship that will suck up the majority of my week, but a whole bunch of little time stealers (i.e. facebook, “hi phone calls”, and excessive blog reading) that will cause me to say, “Where did all the time go?” and if I’m not careful today…

The little things will crush my entire day.