It is a BIG part of my job – to constantly challenge the process as well as examine what we do and why we do it. Culture is progressing faster than ever. We need to be progressing too.

I don’t ever want to be stuck with sacred cows in our ministry at Revolution. Instead, I want to challenge things and push forward.

At the heart of all of this I have a passionate conviction that every human is created in the image and likeness of God. I believe that we are all broken images and that it is our job to call out of every person the greatness that lies within. It’s time to “mess peoples’ lives up” by calling out the greatness that God has placed inside of them.

And this week, God messed me up big time. Get ready Revolution Church…I’m about to MESS some stuff up!

I think goals are important for everyone. I just refuse to drift through life. Most people spend more time planning a 3 day summer vacation than they do planning their life out.

I think that’s a tragedy.

These are not resolutions. Resolutions stink. These are GOALS. These are not all of my 2011 goals, I am not including all of the details, and they are not in any order. I did pretty good knocking out most of my 2010 goals. Here is my 2011 goal list scorecard, followed by my comments in red as to how I did. These are just the goals I felt comfortable sharing about:

Take Amber out every week! This is a goal EVERY week! Took her out almost every week. We love switching off every other week with our friends and sneaking in a mini lunch date every other week while Couper is in school!

Spend good, quality time with Couper every day. Some days it might be 10 minutes; others it could be 10 hours. I refuse to miss my son grow up. I spent a lot of time building stuff in the garage with my little Pard. Loved it!

Be more focused and work harder than I ever have in my life but also REST harder than I ever have! We worked HARD in 2011. I mean HARD. But we rested HARD too. I took 10 days off in the summer to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. I took a week off to go to Montana. I had lots of guest speakers come in. It was a great year of hard work and hard rest!

Memorize an entire chapter of the Bible and mucho other Scripture. I memorized a lot of Scripture this year, but not an entire chapter of the Bible.

Read 20 books. I never reach my reading goals!

Continue to pray a LOT. My knees are sore.

Visit an orphanage in Haiti that I’d like to see Revolution adopt or a place in Belize that I am interested in. I want to begin the process of having a regular place for us to minister and pour in to. We are going global baby! I did not get to do this, but Amber did! And, we took our first step towards this by providing Christmas for over 300 orphans in 5 different orphanages in Haiti through C3 Global.

Take my wife on a crazy cool trip to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary! EPIC! Check! We hit Miami and the Keys for 10 days.

Send more personal, handwritten notes to people. Check. My handwriting has gotten better!

Lead our church to an average weekly attendance of 1,000 people…this goal has a HUGE sub-list of smaller goals. We did not average 1,000 people, but we saw TONS of people accept Christ and get baptized and the church doubled in size.

Lead our church to be financially strong. I feel like we are financially strong, but this goal is ALWAYS being worked!

Throw an OFF the HOOK one year Birthday party for Revolution! We had a blast at our one year birthday…balloons galore!

Knock out some more marathons and my first triathalon or bike race. Did lots of races, but no triathalons or biking.

Wakeboard more and / or save up to buy a dirtbike. I want to learn to JUMP like PASTRANA. I wakeboarded more, but did not save a penny for a dirtbike. I did get a cool X-games hat…

Get in the gym for weight training 3 days a week (only did 2 days a week in 2010). Check.

3 words: DAILY. DANCE. PARTY. Ashamed and happy to say, check!

Convince a total stranger to make a goal list of their own. Check. Fun. Happened at Starbucks.

Hang my hammock in the backyard and chill for once in my life. Well, I never hung up the hammock, so…

Start some new family traditions. Check.

Buy an old rusted pickup for Couper and I to work on and drive on man day. Fail. We gave more money than we ever thought we could to Revolution this year, especially for Illuminate, that the pickup went to the backburner. And we don’t regret it one bit.

Back in December we went on location and shot a lot of video! I can’t wait to share with you this Sunday what God has put on my heart for Revolution Church in 2012.

The vision of Revolution Church is to love God, love people and start a revolution in one life at a time. If we really are ALL about loving God and loving people, then EVERYTHING we do will be FOR HIM AND FOR THEM.

I hope that you will join us for this special on location video message. We will be having two services this Sunday – 10:00 and 11:30am only. Don’t miss it!

C3 Global is a partnership of churches and leaders from around the world dedicated to reaching beyond their own potential and intent on striving toward God’s dreams. We work with this group year round to make a difference all over the world! We are honored to be a part of C3 Global because it is built on passion, dedication and hope for the local church and for those who lead the charge of advancing it!

Check out the full length video below. If you are viewing in email or on a mobile device click here for the video.

Recently at Revolution, I had to force us to draw up an organizational chart to help us understand how we organize and how we get stuff done. I was just getting covered up week after week with problems that, for the most part, other team members and staff could have solved on their own.

Whether you are on staff, a volunteer leader or an attender at your church, here is what you may not realize when it comes to your pastor: every problem your bring him makes a demand on his faith to believe God.

As the pastor, its my calling to constantly say it, spray it, wheel it and deal it when it comes to the vision that God has for our church.

A strong diet of problems weakens my faith. When my intake is primarily problem centered my focus starts to narrow to wondering and worrying about everything that could go wrong.

As a pastor, when you deal with the funk and the junk all day every day, it really starts chopping at your ability to have faith and believe God for big things. After all, its hard to believe for the BIG stuff when even the little junk is not being taken care of. Example: its tough to believe God for a new building or a great outreach initiative when your team keeps you involved in things like how to keep toilet paper in the bathroom stalls.

I want to encourage you to protect your pastor’s faith and empower you to bring solutions! Guard your pastor and his optimism! Let him dream about the vision and where God wants the church to go instead of bringing him all the junk that is keeping it from getting there.

NOTE: Do not keep your pastor completely in the dark – He needs to know what is going on, but he also needs to know it is covered! Make yourself extremely valuable and even irreplaceable by bringing solutions, not just problems.

This week I threw a dinner for 32 of the most revolutionary people on the planet…the staff and volunteer leaders at Revolution!

We celebrated all that God has done this year over dinner and then we talked about the next six months at Revolution. I shared with the team about “getting big into your heart” – something that I believe will make all of the difference in our church in the coming months. My friend and mentor Bil Cornelius taught me much of this.

We serve a BIG God and have a BIG vision to reach our lost, hurting, broken world. God’s BIGNESS needs to be burned on our hearts!

So whether you serve with a REV Team at Revolution Church or serve at another church, we decided to post it here in hopes that it might help your team as well. Take it and use it. You can listen using the play button below or click to download the mp3 right here.

Listen and then comment below. If this is helpful let us know and we will post future leadership talks too. CHEERS!

“You just don’t know my people.” The bottom line is that while your church has a unique mission and culture, people everywhere share some of the same hopes, dreams and fears.

“We’re not in a wealthy area.” Pastors in urban churches say that people in the city don’t have any money. Pastors in rural areas talk about how hard it is to get people to give. Suburban pastors complain about how overextended their people are.

“But my church is just different.” Sure it is…just like mine and every other church out there. While it may be true that your church has a focused mission, God has called you to love him and reach people. That bottom-line mission is for churches of all shapes, sizes and styles. Stop using your unique calling as an excuse for low funding and bad teaching on generosity.

Listen pastor, ditch the pride and check out this free online conference on how to fund your church. If you are sick of having to say no to the vision God has given you for your ministry because of lack of funds, this event is for you.

Revolution Church is proof that this stuff works.

Go get full details and register today for free by clicking here.

I will see you there…October 20th…online!

A UK site recently reported that the word “Facebook” alone appeared in 20% of its divorce cases last year. That ought to be an indicator that its necessary to set some social networking guidelines to protect our marriages.

Here are some guidelines that married couples ought to follow when using facebook:

1. Never hide anything from your spouse on Facebook…or online at all for that matter. Share your Facebook, email, and other online passwords with your spouse. This builds trust and communicates to your spouse that they are welcome to see what you are doing anytime.

2. Befriending an old boyfriend or girlfriend should NEVER be done. Don’t even go looking for people you dated in the past.

3. Never “connect” with anyone of the opposite sex. This means don’t chat, surf their photo galleries, or leave comments.

4. Remove anyone who crosses normal boundaries. Use your head…if a comment makes you uncomfortable or sets off that little voice in your head, drop them like its hot.

5. Facebook has a cool feature where you can put that you are married and even who you are married to. Announce it to the world with great PRIDE.

6. Don’t spend more time on Facebook than you do with your spouse. Communicate with your spouse and ask them, “Am I spending too much time online?” You want to make sure your spouse is your number 1 relationship, not your buddies on Facebook.

6. Use a picture of you and your spouse as your profile picture or post a few in your photos.

7. Never use Facebook or Twitter to complain about your spouse. Praise publicly all the time!!!

8. Don’t leave comments on people’s pages that may come across as suggestive. Use your head and think before you type.

Heinz has been making great Ketchup in the SAME little packages for over 40 years. The new “Dip & Squeeze” packets can be opened in two ways. Check out the video below.

After four decades, Heinz finally decided to change.

Well…sort of.

Here’s the thing…Heinz did not change anything about what they really do. The part that REALLY matters, the ketchup that comes out, whether you squeeze or dip, is still the same.

When things around us change, we have to learn new systems and alter the way we work. Sometimes its extremely tough to change.

Revolution Church is about to be “re-packaged.” Sure…it will look different and feel different and operate different.

But the bottom line is that when you squeeze, the vison of our church will still ooze out! Our mission in this world never changes:

Love God. Love People. Start a Revolution!

If we are going to see the local church become a creative, compassionate and powerful force in our communities we need to continue to innovate, re-package, create new systems and change the way we do things. But the vision always remains.

We are having to be pretty innovative and creative right now to make the vision of moving into our new place a reality! There have been some big obstacles along the way.

One of my core values is to embrace obstacles, never to run from them. In my mind, every setback is an opportunity, every limitation is a chance.

Where others see a wall, I do my best to see a doorway.

That is how I define innovation.

Innovation has no limits. Or does it? Really the only limit is your imagination.

People always say “it’s time to think outside of the box.” I used to buy that. But not anymore.

The fact is there is a box. We have a limited budget, limited resources, limited number of parking spaces and chairs…there are all kinds of limitations.

The true path to creativity lies inside the box and limitations. I’m finding that we can only really begin to innovate when we are confronted with boundaries. That confrontation allows us to unleash the full force of our creative potential.

Maybe we need to start innovating inside of the box.

• Pastor, are you tired of just breaking even all the time?
• Are you sick of saying no to the God-given dream because of a lack of finances?
• Are you tired of cutting the outreach budget because it’s too expensive?
• Are you stressed because you can’t hire the next staff position you desperately need?
• Are you frustrated that you can start that facility project because there’s no margin in the budget?

Broke or break-even ministry is built on a belief system that has spread like the plague among church leaders. You keep telling yourself that when the economy picks up, when you get ahead, or when that big gift comes in, you’ll launch that ministry.

Here’s the good news is that you can take intentional, practical steps to eliminate the funding barriers. Trust me. Revolution Church is living proof!

What would happen in your church if you DID hire the right person to fill that ministry position? How would your community respond if you really DID open that food pantry or renovate the children’s area. What would happen if you quit breaking even and broke through to the next level.

STEP ONE to making all that happen: ATTEND THE FREE “FUND YOUR CHURCH NOW” Conference online.

At this event, you will learn principles that I have seen work in hundreds of churches. You will walk away with a framework to move people’s giving from one level to the next. You will learn easy-to-implement ideas and strategies that call people to action.

This is NOT about getting more money. It’s about doing more ministry.

This is NOT about launching a high-pressure capital campaign. It’s about increasing operational revenue.

This is NOT about breaking even or balancing the budget. It’s about breaking through.

These 180 minutes could change the culture and direction of your church, and free you up to do more ministry.

Don’t miss it!

Most people are paid to ensure that everything is in its place. Sure, there are random events called problems that pop up that we deal with; but most people try to extinguish these things as soon as possible.

I see my job as the opposite. My job is to create a ruckus, to insert the random, to yell ‘fire’ and to shake things up spiritually.

Its actually a little more “tame” than I am making it out to be when it comes to leading the entire church. I think the greatest pastors are good at dancing with chaos, not creating it necessarily (though sometimes they do).

When the random ruckus of life hits, pastors and leaders have to take it, sort through it, leverage it and then improvise to make something great out of it.

My life goal has nothing to do with everything being “alright.” I want to cause a ruckus and shake things up just enough that you experience a spiritual revolution and come out on the other side looking more like Jesus.

And as a leader, I want to dance with the chaos that life will bring. I want to mix up the Rubik’s Cubes of life!

There is no one harder to lead on this Earth than yourself.  It’s easy to talk about what you should do or tell others what they should do, but doing it yourself is an entirely different endeavor.

This presents a problem because people will never follow your talk. But they will follow your example. If it is hard for you to be an example, chances are you won’t be leading many people.

I lead with this core conviction (among many others): People don’t want to follow someone yelling from the sidelines.

Want to lead? You have to lead yourself first!

Here are some good ways to know if you are leading yourself:

1. You have a daily lineup card

Jim Rohn said “Never begin the day until it is finished on paper.”

I did not want to use the word schedule here, because I realize, not everyone operates on a strict calendar. But, at the same time, if you are leading yourself, you will at least know what you are doing on any given day when you wake up.

I have noticed that many young leaders don’t know what is in store for the day…even by lunch time. Don’t tell me you are leadership material if you don’t even know what you are doing today. That’s just simple discipline.

2. You have some goals and are actively working to achieve them.

Zig Ziglar said “If you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

Don’t tell me you are leadership material if you don’t have any goals that you are working on knocking out. They could be simple goals like “pay off my debt” or they could be complex like “become the CEO of Starbucks.”

Show me some initiative and that you are serious about the trajectory of your life and impact your life will have on this world. Read more on goals here, here and here.

3. You read regularly

Jim Rohn said “The book you don’t read, won’t help… Most homes valued at over $250,000 have a library.  That should tell us something…”

Leaders are learners. They learn. They improve. They are actively moving forward in their thinking, knowledge and challenging themselves with the ideas of others’.

I think the library quote above is awesome, though with Kindles and iPads it might be more metaphorical. If you spend more time watching television and playing video games than you do learning, then maybe you aren’t leading yourself.

4. You don’t whine and complain

Anthony J. D’Angelo said “If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.”

I am tired of whiny “leaders.” Please, for the sake of everyone you want to lead, stop whining and make it happen. Learn to accept the minor aggravations that life will bring and move forward. Don’t cover everyone with your dust of complaints.

Just a few things I have learned about leading yourself first!

Google’s idea of circles makes it easy to put your friends in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself – just like real life.

Leaders, we have circles too. Or at least we should.

Here is an idea:

Make a list called, “Five People Whose Circle I Want To Sit In.”

Now make it happen.

Get an hour meeting for coffee or a phone conference call with each person on your list. Don’t give me that “it would never happen” bologna. MAKE it happen.

It took me 2 years but I finally made all five on my list happen this year. Now I am going to make another list…

(I get accused of being a fanboy all the time but I don’t care because I have gotten to sit and learn from some of the leading church planters and pastors in the U.S. because of this idea!)

Before meeting with them write down the three or four qualities that you admire most in that person. When you meet with them, dig in to those qualities. Ask good questions and take good notes.

Oh, and let me ask you this:

Who wants to sit in your circle?

Before I return, I just wanted to say that you are an amazing church!!! Here is why:

You pray big prayers with faith in God!

You serve unselfishly!

You give generously!

You invite others all the time!

And as we continue to do these things over time, this community will be transformed right before our eyes. We will literally see a spiritual revolution IGNITED!

I love this church…and I love the fact that so many of you are passionate about church OWNERSHIP and not just showing up, sitting down, turning around and coming back every couple of weeks.

Let’s keep up the great work and I promise to continue to try my best to pace myself so that the upcoming years are the most amazing years that we’ve ever seen!

Get ready for this Sunday, July 3rd! Bring a friend and I’ll see you then!