This weekend is July 4th weekend.  I live in Massachusetts.

The big thing to do in Massachusetts on July 4th, and I mean really big, is go to Boston.  I’ve done this a few times now, and it is really big and really awesome.  The drawback is that millions of other people agree with you and will be there with you, making the ride to leave the city of Boston impossible to do at a decent hour.

A few years ago at Fellowship, we started a new “tradition” on the Sunday of July 4th weekend.  We began having an outdoor service and a party on our property that day.  Last year, the church surprised me by celebrating my 10th anniversary here at this church.  It’s amazing to be around the people you love.  To hang out and play games and talk and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation with your closest friends.

This year, the two events happen to coincide:  Boston’s July 4th, and the Party in the Park.

And if I had my choice (cause really I don’t this week), I’d go relational before I would experiential.

We love the experiential, don’t we?  To experience big things and huge events and the next great adventure.  But one thing I learned a long time ago is that if I had the choice to do experiential or relational, I should pick relational.  I should be where I know people love me and care about me.  I should pour into them and allow them to pour into me.  And I should wallow in the experience of being with my community.  This is why I’ve turned down free tickets to huge games and concerts to attend date night with my wife or small groups during the week.  Because I know at the end of the day, my wife, and the people I share life with, are going to be there with me long after the season ends or the newest tour is finished.

When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to travel on a trip to Mexico with my friends, classmates, and teachers.  It was kind of a missions trip and kind of a learning adventure to an area  of Mexico called Monterrey.  The trip had been planned and we were all pretty excited to go, when I received a call from my uncle Matt, telling me he had some tickets for me to see DC Talk at his church, and then he was sure I would be able to meet them.  I loved DC Talk!!!  It was going to be so epic, and I couldn’t wait, and it was right in the middle of my planned trip to Mexico.

Naturally, I begged my dad to let me go.  I told him it was only Mexico, like one country away, and I could save my traveling for going to a country farther away some day, and that this opportunity wouldn’t last forever, and that DC Talk’s Free at last was the best album ever.  My dad wasn’t feeling it though, and he calmly said I could go to any concert I wanted after I came back from Mexico.

I learned some big lessons on that trip.  I remember eating a jalapeno so hot that it made me vomit in the middle of the street.  I remember the exhilaration of having a high school crush to the experience of said crush taking my heart and crushing it in her cold bony fingers (that’s poetic more than literal, btw).  I remember the beauty of the mountains in Mexico, and the smell of the marketplace cooking in the towns.  But most of all, I remember the people I met there and the people with whom I traveled.  Amazing people.  People who poured into my life for years and helped make not only this experience, but most experiences in the early part of my life much better.

I’ve since gone to numerous DC Talk shows, and seen about 100 other incredible concerts since then, but the one thing I have since learned, that I believe helped change my life, was when it comes to making a decision – Should I do this or this? – Always make that decision with the people who love you the most in mind.

Experiences will come and go, but relationships will tell the world who you really were.

*By the way, this post isn’t even about how horrible July 4th in Boston is.  My friend Jay goes every year with his closest friends (minus me) and makes a day of it.

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I see 100 life groups happening all over Central Massachusetts.

I see people people living out their lives together and learning what it is to “be like Jesus”.

Different backgrounds.  Different stages of life.  Different living conditions.

But one God.

And one Savior.

100 Groups of people listening to the Father, much like the One who gave His life for all of us thousands of years ago.

Not judging, criticizing, or forcing one another into a mold.

For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And we were created for freedom.

And for Him.

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Listen, for a while I was really excited about Skype!  It was going to revolutionize the whole communication thing throught the internet phone and video conversations, but who wants to be cut off every 2 seconds right?  not me.

Then I went to Tokbox.com.  I’d like all my friends to try it out and begin communicating with me online as soon as possible.  I know this sounds like a commercial, but if you have a web cam and a microphone, you have got to check this site out.  I have talked to several of my friends at the same time visually without any kind of problem (please use headphones to stop the echo), and there are a lot of other cool features too, like easy video mail, connects to all the major instant messaging services, and my favorite, the YouTube connector.

The other day, Billy, Jay, and I were talking on Tokbox and the conversation moved to talking about the band “Five for Fighting” and we were trying to remember their first hit on the radio, and one of them said, “It was called ‘Superman’ or something like that”  I then youtubed “Superman by Five for Fighting“, the video came up, and I was able to paste the URL into my TokBox conversation with them, and together we watched the video we had just talked about.  It was a moment.  Possibly even one shining moment.

Another possible future sweetness we’ll have using Tokbox is the ability to have life groups online for our web campus at FC. I’m not sure how many people can use it at a time, but I would love to stretch its limits.  Look me up under the name MartyHolman.  So what do you think?

Wanna talk?

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I have yet to decode the reasons why some small groups grow and exceed my expectations and why some die, and never work out. But I love small groups more than any other part of the church, because I believe it’s actually the church in action.

So I’ll keep working on decoding this mystery.

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These would be a lot easier to start at Fellowship Church.

What do you think?

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There’s no doubt that what gets me going is ideas.  As I mentioned here, it’s my number one strength.
For some reason, because of my job or whatever, it would appear that the fall tends to be the time when I get the best ideas.  And they buzz around and pan out in my head at all times of the day,and at all times in the night.  It’s really nothing to find me going to bed at 12 or so and get up at 3:30 am trying to figure out how to work out an idea I have.

Only recently though have I not looked at it as a curse, but rather to use the time God has alotted me to really process all sides of the idea and begin to flush out the more negative, bonehead parts of the idea.  It was funny when my cousin Jake visited last week, that he mentioned to me sometimes he gets up at super early hours and writes music.  Maybe it’s a Holman thing.  I have another cousin who actually has 4 of my top 5 strengths on the Strength Finder test.

So here’s a few ideas I’m accomplishing right now:
*The consistent growth of those who attend FC.
*The finishing of the web site to which I previously linked.
*Make Sunday Mornings @ Fellowship an experience that burns in the minds of those that have attended.
*Redecoration of the stage.
*Preparing the trailer in the back of the church to be torn down.  It was home to me, now its home to skunks.
*Measuring the numerical effectiveness of our small groups based on the number of people regularly attending Sunday Morning @ Fellowship.  Then making the appropriate decisions concerning those small groups.  (This may not make sense, but it would if I felt like explaining more in this post)

Here are future ideas I’m mulling over now:
*The sale of land.
*The consistent growth of those who attend FC.
*Continuing to build a community and grow at the same time.
*The Construction of a new building.

So there you have it – the things that are in my mind these days.  I’m sure there are more, but that is a base list.

Feel free to share your ideas with me.

By the way, Jake released a new song on the web you should check out.

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I have this dream. It’s a simple dream really. It starts and ends with people just enjoying being together and growing together. Not under the false pretenses of being a part of a certain status like economic, family, or religious experience, but under something deeper. It doesn’t seem deeper, but it is. By the simple idea that they just really enjoy one anothers company.

To start off, they (the people) might not exactly understand why they would want to be in this community, but they take a chance. A chance to learn, grow, live, influence, and maybe even laugh with their newfound community. Over time they would even use the word “love” to describe their journey with the community they have take a chance on.

Now remember, there is no common sense or special commonality that brings these people together, except maybe a strong desire to love God more, though they might not really understand what that means, and may not even really ever understand fully. So they meet regularly and eventually grow to a place where they can take a chance and influence others in their journey too.

Obstacles (and in some cases tools) to this dream are technology, complacency, prejudice, pride, and comfort. Taking a step towards community can be hard when you have a preconceived notion of what your day looks like,and change is hard to come by, but my dream relies on people all across New England moving out of that notion and connecting with God and people.

My dream is authentic community, and I have a long way to go. But here are 4 ATOMic steps and prayers I’m taking and praying to reach my dream:

1. Authentic community – “God, help us to drop our walls and be authentic.”
2. Transormation – “Transform us as we move toward You together.”
3. Outward reaching – “Help us to not be focused on ourselves, but to make reaching out to others
    habit we’ll never take for granted.”
4. Multiplication – “And use us to influence others to move into this journey we’re on.”

Critics please?

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Yesterday I wrote here that there are 4 ways that the ever-changing world is changing my life, and focused on “Going Public” as the first way.  Today I want to focus on participating in “open sourcing”.
Currently this term is a buzz word for individuals and companies coming together to collaborate on projects and problems in order to hurdle each problem and situation that comes up in life’s arenas.
Open sourcing focuses on the idea that I do something well (I hope anyway) and I enjoy doing certain things, and by pooling my talents with others who enjoy that thing, we can move ahead faster than I could alone.

For instance, I love small groups.  It’s one of my favorite parts about being a part of this era of church.  I think I have a good grasp of how to effectively do small groups and have an interest in excelling in this arena.  But I don’t know everything, so I gladly share with other pastors or on this blog or in any number of ways what I do know about small groups, and do so in a way that is inexpensive (blogs are free, so is word of mouth), and easy to read or apply.  Then others do the same, and through this experience, my knowledge and understanding of the small group environment is enhanced.

Google, IBM, Sun, Firefox, Lifechurch.tv, and Wikipedia are just a few of the successful companies that have “open sourced” their organization, and enhanced our lives as people over the last few years. 

I’m no expert, but if I ever become one, even by default, I’d like to be able to say that as an expert, I still “open source” my expertise for the greater good of those who can take it and expand upon the work I’ve done.

My own mind is swimming right now after One Prayer about how the church can do this better.  I’ve been having these radical thoughts about how we can come together to out source and open source our expertise as we watch the body of Christ form into what He actually wanted it to be.  Like maybe if I’m an “expert” on small groups, and another church in our area is an “expert” musically or in their Sunday service or their work with the less fortunate, how can we utilize and link up with one another, for the purpose of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ?

Your feelings on open sourcing please?

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Today I’ve decided to take my morning of blogging off in order to give a platform to Dionne Kane, a woman in our church who leads this amazing ministry online called “Lotsahelpinghands.com” (LHH)
Enjoy her post and please give her a shining comment about your thoughts on this incredible use of technology.  And now…….Dionne.

When I first started going to church I was pretty much of the same mindset as other newbie attenders.  What is available for me?  What is available for my kids?  What can I learn?  I also thought, whenever I saw the requests for help in the nursery or other areas, “Well, I’m too new, I need to be learning more in the regular service.”  Besides, this was a “church”… didn’t they have staff to do the work? I had a job and this was my weekend, my time, my day of rest!

That was a long time ago though.  I’m now attending an intimate church full of authentic and wonderful people, and serving has become not just a joy, but a calling in my heart. 

One thing I realized as I grew into my small group is the sometimes limited ability of a small group to meet the needs of all members.  In larger churches there seems to be a specific team that heads up collecting money, food, gifts etc for their families in need.  You make a phone call, get your name on the list, and then suddenly there appears food, money for gas, a job offer, evidence of support. 

In our church, we ask everyone to be a part.  The whole “Body of Christ” meets “it takes a village” concept.  Within our small groups though, the lifeline of our church foundation, I was hearing about need after need… new babies, illness, loss of jobs, and it seemed overwhelming to communicate the needs, organize volunteers, and to do all that with a spirit of love and grace.  It was disheartening to see the needs, and not be able to meet them.  In one of my marathon web surfing moments, I happenstanced upon a website created to do just that:  communication and organization.

I jumped right into Lotsa Helping Hands and launched our church’s own webpage called Fellowship Outreach.  On this site, our church members can sign up by entering their email and a password of their choosing. 

That “helping hand” then gets automatic emails whenever a need is expressed.  When an email goes out, it describes the need (meals, transportation, other) and who it is for (includes address, map, etc).  LHH members can respond to the email by following the link and signing themselves up for whatever day they are available or for whatever task they are available for.  It is so incredibly simple!  New mom’s are getting food, medically needy families are getting childcare and household help, and everyone gets a chance to help out in the area they are gifted in.

Speaking of gifted areas, let’s think outside the box just a little bit.  LHH isn’t just about being able to cook a meal for someone, or to go cut someone’s lawn.  It’s about being (as an active verb) part of the body of Christ – being a hand, a foot, even just one finger.

Here are some of the many ways you can help out:  order a pizza or other meal  to be delivered to someone, buy some breakfast foods like croissants and tea and fruit and either deliver them, or have them delivered, cut someone’s lawn, offer up the use of your high powered lawn mower for someone else to go mow someone’s lawn, go along with a helper and pull weeds or sweep up after to make a job easier and shorter.  If you know someone who cooks a lot, bring them a supply of disposable freezer pans or a gift card to the grocery store so that THEY can better meet the needs of providing food.  No time? Swing by after work and wash someone’s car. Now, maybe that won’t meet their specific need, but think of how surprised and happy they’ll be!  Know that there is one helper who seems to be intimately involved and feel like there is nothing for you to do?  Slip a prepaid gas card into their car, a coupon for a free coffee or snack, or bring the helper a plate of cookies and a kind word to thank them for their efforts.  No time, no money, and no idea how else to help? Make a phone call just to leave a message saying that you were thinking of them, pray for them, write a note or card, email them… seek and ye will find!

If you attend Fellowship church, you should be on the LHH website, signed up and signed in, and ready to do your part in our church body.  (Or if you don’t attend Fellowship Church, then maybe you can start one at your church.)  There are, like in any other ministry, a select few who always seem to jump on board and give.  Let me tell you, the rewards in doing so are tenfold.  
You don’t want to miss out on rewards do you?

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This week, Fellowship Church continued the church (small c) wide series “One Prayer” with 1493 other churches and 849, 036 people (at last count).  We represent a small portion of that numerically, but I feel like our church is coming together to pray and to fellowship in ways that I could have never imagined.  I’m so excited about the direction of “the FC” and how our people are stepping to become part of the “One church” God wants us to be.

This week’s service is one I won’t forget for a long time, from beginning to end, as there just seemed to be a spirit of humility and unity in the entire room.  I can’t of course speak for everyone, but I’m just sharing my perception of the morning.  I spoke on my “one prayer” for the church-at-large – “God, make us lead.”  I thought I would share my outline with you in this post, in case you missed it or were interested.  Later I’ll share the podcast.

“Make us lead”

“Leadership is not reserved for those in position power. The leader is the one who cares most about the mission or endeavor.”- by someone.

Our mission – “To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

How do I make other people want to lead?  Dont teach them bullet points, or that it’s cool to lead, teach them to care with all their hearts about “Leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.”

As a church, what I want for us is to be successful at our mission, “to LEAD”

To lead is to care.  This is not about personality!

If you don’t “care” about your (Family, job, time, finances) someone will “care” (lead) for you.

My testimony – Good kid.  Went to Christian school, Christian college, bought Christian t-shirts, and I didn’t care.

The story of Samson, the judge who God had a purpose for, but didn’t care.

Hebrews 12:1a - 

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith,

Sexual sin
Pride
greed,
gossip

And then there are the things that probably aren’t sin, but just hold us up.  What are those things in your life?

“sin takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs more than you want to pay.”

 “And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

 Hupomones – “the characteristic of a person who is not swerved from his or her deliberate purpose and his or her loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.”

I’m afraid for some the hardships are too hard and the discipline it takes to follow Christ is too great, and so we’re not willing.

Hebrews 12:5-11
“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening!”
We have to be willing to overcome. Willing to go through adversity. (email 1)

Usually what we do is complain, gossip, and worry. 

“People become our heroes because they fight through things and overcome circumstances, not because they’re glorious.”

Become somebodys hero!

and here’s how we do that (run with endurance), the writer of Hebrews says,
“by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”

 So this is how the author finishes the thought in Hebrews 12:12,13

 12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those follow you, the weak and lame, will not fall but become strong.

Because what you do will be effects those people who follow you – your kids, your friends, your loved ones.

1.  Heroes seem to be in the right place at the right time.
2.  Heroes fight through adversity.
3.  Heroes don’t have to tell everyone what they did.
4.   Heroes work on it, or they stop becoming heroes

 Become somebodys hero!

 Here’s what this looks like for the church - creating environments for people that are relevant and focused for people to connect and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

How you can be a part:
Do what you can do.
Build real community in the life of your church.  (why I believe in small groups)
care about the mission.

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