David Whiting Live

16:5 Conference Coming Back to Northridge!

Last year we had our first 16:5 conference. We are having a second one this year! The conference is based on Acts 16:5 which says, "So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers."

The idea of the conference is that you don't have to choose between reaching people OR growing people. You can and must do both. It is all about more and better disciples. The conference is for pastors, church leaders and key volunteers.

Check out the website HERE to see a short video introducing the conference.  The dates are March 19-20, 2012. Send the link to a pastor or church leader and encourage them to attend the conference.

Also, like last year, we need a bunch of volunteers. If you are willing to help us (from about 11 AM on the 19th until about 2 PM on the 20th) - please let us know!

 

How to Provide Effective Correction

I get my share of letters and emails of disagreement and correction, and I've noticed that at times I'm more open to correction than others. Here are some of the patterns I've discovered that help me be most open to correction. I've discovered that following these tips allows me to be more effective when I need to confront someone else. Here are some things I've learned about correction that I best "hear": 

1. Be an encourager. Your correction will be better received if you are one who consistently and sincerely encourages.

The more often that someone encourages me, the more likely I will hear their correction. There are some people that I just know - when I receive an email from them, it will be to tell me something they don't like, and my mind is less likely open to their criticism. I'm not saying that is good on my part - it is just reality. But if someone encourages me regularly, I almost always am open to their correction.

The following is the beginning of an email I once received. Here is the first sentence:

I agreed with most of the sermon. I suppose I could write every week and say "I agreed with everything you said this week," but I try to save us both a little time and only write when I have a disagreement.

Although it made me smile, this person will always have a harder time correcting people if all they do is write when the disagree with someone.

2. Evalute your encouragement versus disagreement ratio to see if it is healthy.

Don't simply learn to encourage. Make sure your encouragement/correction ratio is balanced compared to what you see from the person. In other words, if your child does 90% of things right, and 10% of the time they drive you crazy - then 90% of the words you give them should be encouraging. Most of us don't do well with that ratio. Work on that to be effective in your correction.

As a general rule, try to encourage at least five times more than you correct. I've learned this with parenting in a huge way! If my daughters constantly are encouraged by me, they are much more open to occasional correction.

More tomorrow...

Politics, Protests and Boycotts - a GREAT video!

A couple of Sundays ago - I taught on FOUNDATIONAL POLITICS. (you can see or listen to it HERE). I spoke about my frustrations of Christian boycotts.

It is interesting that just recently the "boycotting" tool often misused by Christians was used by the pro-homosexual community to keep the CEO of Starbucks (Howard Shultz) from speaking at the Willow Creek Leadership Conference. Willow Creek is one of the largest churches in America and is pastored by Bill Hybels (who tends to draw a lot of criticism from those inside and outside the Church).

The pro-homosexual community had only 717 people sign a petition to boycott Starbucks if their CEO speaks at Willow Creek Church. The petition declared Willow Creek to be an anti-gay church. But the petition was enough to cause the CEO to cancel his speaking engagement at the Leadership Conference.

There is SO much I can say about it, but what I really wanted to point out is the great way that Willow Creek responded to Shultz and to the organizers of the petition. 

It would be worth 7 minutes of your time to watch how a godly leader responds to controversy from non-Christians.  Listen CLOSELY! What a great response! I love what he instructs the attenders of the conference to do!

 

As always, if you receive this by email - click on the title above to see the video, or click HERE.

 

Being Comfortable with Controversy

I don't love controversy, but I'm convinced that real leaders can't avoid it. Controversy is never pleasant, almost always painful, and certainly is personally hurtful and humbling. The humbling is a good thing for me. Pride must be my enemy and I must find a friend in humility. How I handle controversy is probably the best test of my pride and humility.

I came across a writing from a pastor in North Carolina and really encouraged me quite a while ago and thought you might enjoy it too:

One of the greatest things preventing many pastors and churches from reaching their optimal level of impact is their fear of controversy.

Over how they approach ministry compared to other churches.
Over an unpopular stance they take.
Over their dedication to the truth.

They’re so afraid of upsetting anyone that they compromise their message and the unique calling God has placed on them. They avoid criticism, which no one likes to receive. But they forfeit something far greater:

Influence. You can’t have influence if you are not willing to be controversial.

Just ask Jesus. People in Jesus’ day sharply differed on their opinions of Him. Wherever He went, people loved Him. And loved to hate Him. They flocked to Him to hear Him preach and see Him heal. But also to argue with Him and accuse Him of being the devil.

Jesus was controversial. And for that reason, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that His message spread and made the impact it did. Nor is it a coincidence that He went to the cross. They didn’t kill Jesus because He was nice. They killed Him because He was a threat.

If Jesus’ ministry was controversial, why do we expect that ours should be any different? They hated Jesus. What made us think they’d be cheering us on?

If you want to be like Christ, expect controversy. If you’re faithful to what God has called you to do, you are going to be misunderstood. Criticized. Maybe even hated.

But don’t worry when people are criticizing you. Worry when they’re not criticizing you. Because at that point you’ve blended in too much to be worth noticing. Personally, I’d rather be misunderstood than ignored.

You’ve got to become comfortable with controversy.
Controversy is a sign of progress. Controversy is a sign of impact.

And that makes it worth some of the baggage that might come along with it.

You can read the original post HERE.

That's a Problem

Just a random thought...

When someone is more committed to a single MINISTRY of the church than the overall MISSION of the church - that's a problem.

16:5 - A Couple More Notes and Photos

I wanted to send one last batch of notes and photos so those who prayed can enjoy some of the blessings from the 16:5 conference.

Here is part of one note:

I was blessed to the core of my being by the conference at Northridge. It scratched right where many of us are itching. Thanks for being willing to be a voice in the wilderness and a pioneer on a front that desperately needs exploration...

Here is another:

I recently attended the 16:5 conference at Northridge Church. Thank you for putting together this conference to help others see how we can becomes churches that are fulfilling the purpose of the church. We as a deacon board are listening to your series Northridge Exposed to get our thinking process stimulated.

... I fear we are one of the churches that will be gone in the next 20 years if we don't change soon. While I am older than you, I see us needing desperately to move in a different direction... The conference was a fantastic tool to stimulate how we might turn outward instead of inward...

Here is one of my favorites (from one of our own volunteers):

Thanks for bringing into the light things that I was grieved about for so long but couldn't always put into worlds. As you were speaking at the last session on Monday, my heart was just burning within me, and I just wanted to scream, "AMEN!!!" Guess I should of but that's not me. :) I can so easily identify with the 'expecting unbelievers to act like believers,' or the 'self-righteous judgmentalism,' (glaring down the ladder at others' shortcoming), or just writing the world off like they all have 'gone to pot.' As if we didn't need mercy when we were unsaved, or just starting out! Things that would just burn me up and confused me as a young Christian, and you just nailed so many of those things and I learned a whole lot more as well.

... God changed my heart Monday night and I'm so excited about it because I saw another glimpse of the heart of God and I know He wants to do that in me! I'll always have my ladder on my desk to remind me...

And a few final pictures:

One of our MVP volunteers. Every pastor I know wishes they had a "Jeff" like our Jeff!

Just another cool pictures by Michele...

A children's ministry discussion before Tuesday AM's first breakout.

Thanks for your prayers, volunteering, and participation in 16:5!!

16:5 - A Couple of Notes and Photos

Since you prayed for 16:5 - I wanted to let you rejoice in some of what God did. With small changes (to keep anonymous) - here are some notes we received from 16:5:

... I wanted to thank you again for all the work you, your staff, and the volunteers put in. Besides the content, discussions, and speakers being very relevant, the timing of teh event was perfect. You know what issues exist at ______________ and where we are at... It is discouraging to see a church you love stagnate. There is such a great potential in our area for an exciting, vibrant church and I see that we are supposed to fulfill that role. It is a difficult time for our church.

Thank you again... It's a breath of fresh air to see what God can do with a congregation committed to Him!

Here is another note:

We wanted to give you and Northridge a big THANK YOU for the Acts 16:5 conference. From the volunteers... to the quality of the breakouts and passion of the general sessions, to the delicious food and helpful, free resources - you treated us like royalty! We came home with so many ideas and have already had our first brainstorming meeting!

We also wanted you to know specifically how your sacrifice helped us. (We did get the hint about life-change stories, see?!!!) The timing of this conference was so ideal for our church. That Tuesday night we had a scheduled meeting with our Elders, Deacons, Building Expansion Team, and Finance Research Team to discuss our path forward... Your conference changed our path! We obviously have a lot to lear! We want to honor God by doing this right. Thanks to the exposure to ideas and people at your conference. I am much more confident that we are on the right path.

So let me epxress clearly from all of us at our church, and all those who are not yet part of this church... (but will be): "Thank you for the tremendous energy, time, and resources you poured in the 16:5 Conference. it was just what we needed!!!"

That is just a sample of two of the letters.  It is SO encouraging! Here are a few more photos:

I took text message questions at the end of each general session. If you can't read the screen, this question was: "Where does cultural relevance end and sin begin?"

We talk a lot about cultural relevance, but seeing how many use electronic Bibles reminds me of just how old I am. I still actually like to hold a book... :)

Seems like Gretchen might be getting in trouble from her home church pastor...

 

16:5 - More Photos

Here are a few more photos from 16:5

16:5...

One of the breakout rooms.

A rare time of relaxation Tuesday AM before the people start arriving.

Jason, our intern, did a great job planning and overseeing the entire conference! He is a guy with amazing gifts!

Courtney and Scott - teaching the First Impressions breakout.

Breakout gifts...

Mark, teaching a youth ministry breakout.

The biggest response we had (most CDs sold and emails written) were about Monday night's talk on "MAKING IT HARD" from Acts 15:19.

 

16:5 - Thanks For Your Prayers

It has been a couple of weeks since 16:5, and I had asked for prayers from the group that reads this blog - so I wanted to write a brief report of praise.

The conference went great! Although we didn't break even, a generous donor in the church is covering the extra expenses (of a few hundred dollars). The responses we are getting (through emails, phone calls, and letters) have been SO encouraging. 

Here are a few photo highlights:

The banner in front of the building.

Volunteers get ready to register those who came (about 180 people).

I appreciate our volunteers SO MUCH, and found that they enjoyed volunteering as much as I appreciated their sacrifice. We had a fun two days!

Cool programs designed in house.

Michele Doerr takes great artistic photos.  All of these photos are from her.

The music was a "push" for some of the attenders, but I appreciated their willingness to consider preference versus convictions in these areas.

Michele's artistic eye amazes me.  What a great photo!

Registration table...

Thanks again for your prayers. More later...

 

Arguing About the HOW... Agreeing on the WHAT and the WHY

I'm not afraid of tension. I don't like, seek it, or desire it, but I'm not afraid of it. Tension is good. Tension helps maintain balance. Tension clarifies vision. Tension keeps us humble. Tension helps us know we don't have all the answers. Tension keeps us grounded. Tension keeps us from moving too fast in an unhealthy direction.

Every day, I get to work with a great group of people. I'm getting ready to walk into a regular Monday morning evaluation meeting with these people (Scott, Mark, Jason, Dave, and Courtney).  We also meet for a couple of hours every Wednesday morning, as well as five minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays to pray.

We know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and we can often finish each other's sentences.  If we'd laugh less, our meetings would be shorter.

BUT - here is what I'm thankful for today: I'm thankful that we can disagree about the HOW.  We don't see it all the same way. We recently have spent hours disagreeing/arguing about a certain program and what we ought to do. It has been good, healthy, and even fun.

I don't mind disagreeing on the HOW because we agree on the WHAT (more and better disciples) and the WHY (because lost people matter to God).  I would think if a staff struggles with the WHAT or the WHY - it would be discouraging and exhausting.

But I'll dialouge, even intensely, about the HOW... as long as we can agree on the WHAT and the WHY. Gotta run to my evaluation meeting... (I hope they liked the sermon)...