David Whiting Live

A Good Tired

After preaching three times on Sunday morning and leading worship Sunday night - I was tired. Often I'm tired because I've been up late watching a movie, playing a game, doing emails, or solving a problem. Those are all good things.

But it seems to me that...

• It is especially good to have a very tired voice on Sunday night and Monday morning because you sang so loud, long, and hard with God's people in worshiping Him.
• It is especially good to have tired arms from holding them up in worship of my Creator, Savior, Sustainer, Redeemer.
• It is especially good to be tired after working hard to communicate the continuity of the Bible as seen in the Divided Kingdom three times to a church I love.
• It is especially good to be tired after working hard with a group of great musicians to prepare to lead a church body in celebrating God. 
• It is especially good to be tired after preaching 13 Sundays in a row without a break (although I do look forward to being blessed by Scott's teaching this next Sunday).
• It is especially good to be tired nearing the finish line of a huge building project (almost four-years since the first investigative meeting)

How many professional football players were tired Sunday after playing football? How many in Rochester have been tired shoveling snow this month? How many have been exhausted after working on a difficult project at work and seeing it succeed? How many were tired after staying up until midnight with friends and family a couple of weeks ago? Being tired is a great thing!

Being tired after serving Christ with all of one's heart, soul, mind, and strength is a particular blessing - I think.

Why No Cantata on Sunday?

In the last week, I've been asked a couple of times why we don't do Christmas cantatas (although I'm not really sure what that word means - it 'feels' Spanish).

I've talked about this before, but thought it may be a good reminder.  The bottom line reason is that we want holiday Sundays to feel as much like a "normal" Sunday as possible. Here are some of the specific reasons we don't do cantatas at Northridge:

• We don't want someone to get invited to a special Sunday, be impressed, then come the next week and have it be TOTALLY different. It would feel like a "bait and switch."
• We think however a church "wins" people is how we best "keep" people.  If someone is attracted to God and His Gospel through our "normal" preaching and singing - then they will most likely stay around when the holiday is over.  But if someone is attracted to God and His Gospel through church softball, large outreach events, or cantatas - they rarely "stick" when it comes to long-term discipleship. We want to "win" people in the same way that we "keep" people. 
• Most church cantatas I've seen only impress "insiders." Especially on Sundays where more visitors will likely attend, we want to be sure that we are thinking about how "outsiders" may hear and see something (1 Corinthians 14:23 seems to indicate we should at least consider this). Our culture has Hollywood expectations, and often "insiders" can be as easily pleased as parents attending their elementary child's piano recital. It's only parents that love piano recitals. And it is only insiders who love cantatas.
• The amount of man-hours to pull of a quality cantata is huge... for a one-hour program. Just do the math. Imagine a choir of 50 with 15 practices that last 90 minutes each. That is a total of 1125 ministry hours to prepare for a program that is typical "insider" friendly and "outsider" unfriendly (unless the outsider grew up in church attending Christmas cantatas). Imagine what could be done with over a thousand extra ministry man-hours!

So - that is why Christmas Sunday felt like most every other Sunday. On holiday Sundays - the goal is the same. The target is the same. I have nothing against Easter or Christmas plays or cantatas. We just don't think they best serve our purposes at this point in our church's ministry.

News 13 - Baptism Footage

When we held our "Church at the Beach" in July - News 13 showed up, interviewed me and did a very brief segment on the 11:00 news.  In case you missed it - here it is... all 45 seconds of it...

News 13 Baptism Footage from David Whiting 

As always - if you receive this by email - click HERE or on "News 13 Baptism Footage" above to go to the video.

An Office Full of Notes

I walked into the office Tuesday and found notes posted all over.  I think it was about 60 notes posted on walls around my office.  Apparently, someone got some small groups involved to write me some encouragement notes.  I am slowly digesting them - rather than reading them all at once.  But, if you participated - thanks!!  I've been reading a few a day - and they are a HUGE blessing!!

And Zentz - don't think that I don't know who is behind this... (thank you)

Books I Throw Away...

I throw away a lot of books.  I don't have much room in my office for new books.  So about once a year, I try to go through my bookshelves and throw away books.  Here is my "standard":

• Have I opened this book in the last five years?
• Can I imagine a time that this book may be helpful in the next ten years?
• Is there someone who may want this book and am I comfortable with the content to give it away?

If all three answers are "no" - I throw it away...

Last week I threw away four books about becoming or being a "senior pastor."  When I accepted the position to move to Rochester, I bought five books on being a senior or lead pastor.  I read all five of them during the fall of 2000 before moving to Rochester.  Four of them gave similar advice: "Don't make ANY CHANGES for the first two years you are at a church. You need to know the people and the church before you make any changes." 

BUT one book said the opposite, "If you KNOW you need to make changes - MAKE them. Don't wait.  If you wait two years, the church could feel deceived. 'Why are you changing this NOW!?!?!' But if you KNOW something needs to change and you have the ability to make the change - make it. Don't wait."  I agreed with the later book - not the former ones.

So that is what I did.  I didn't know if it was the right decision or not at first, but I am convinced it is the right advice if the leader has the spiritual gift of leadership. So last week - I threw away the four books that advised no changes for at least two yeas. But I did keep "The Senior Minister" by Lyle Schaller.

An Unbelievable Story...

On Easter Sunday - we showed the video of Matt's story.  One year ago, Matt was homeless, hooked on drugs, and ready to be arrested... again.  And God has totally transformed his life.

Whether you weren't here on Easter, wanted to show the video to someone else, or if you just want to see it again yourself - here it is...

Matt's Story from David Whiting on Vimeo.

As always - if you receive this by email - click HERE to see the video.

Resurrection Sunday Update...

I've been wanting to update you about our Resurrection Sunday celebration.  Here are some brief updates:

• Can Mark lead worship or what?!?!  That was awesome!  Thanks, Mark! I LOVE working myself out of jobs.  Between Mark, Josh, and Nate - I actually have energy on Sunday afternoons again...
• Here's the best news of all: 11 people "believed in the Lord Jesus" (Acts 16:31) on Sunday morning.  Is that awesome or what?  I've got to tell you - that NEVER gets old... NEVER!!
• We had over 950 people here on Sunday!!  That is - by far - an all time record.  Wow!
• Thank you for living a Pi² life (Pray; Invest; Invite)!!  Thank you for entrusting those you love to us by "risking" an invitation to come to church.  THANK YOU!
• Thank you for putting up with the crowds.  WOW!  I heard the lobby and hallways were uncomfortably packed.  By God's grace - we will be in the new building well before next Easter.  Thanks for smiling while getting physically closer to people than you feel comfortable with... THANK YOU!
• Thank you for avoiding the 2nd service.  We asked you to - and you did.  It actually was our lowest attended service!!  That is amazing.  The nice part is - that was most comfortable for visitors.  It wasn't empty, by any means.  It was comfortable.  THANK YOU!

Wow! I'm still overwhelmed with what God has done here and continues to do!  Thank you for your prayers!

A Missionary or a Liberal?

I've been thinking recently about Cal & Carol Clark. They are missionaries from our church who serve in Brazil. I've been there to visit twice. 

North was part of sending them to Brazil many, many years ago. While there, they speak Portuguese, they dress like Brazilians, they eat like Brazilians, and - as much as possible - they become Brazilian by taking  on their culture. In fact, I would guess that their children are much more Brazilian than American in their culture and preferences.

When we went to visit them, they held their church services based on the time schedule that fit the culture best... 6:00 PM - not 11:00 AM.  In that city - the people they were trying to reach sleep in on Sunday mornings - even high-end executives.  It is part of the culture. To have church at a traditionally American hour wouldn't have worked. 

In every way they became Brazilian. And what do we call them? Most call them missionaries; I call them heroes! I remember the first time I attended a church service with them. I think there were approximately 150 or 200 there. I asked Cal how many of those at the meeting came to Christ through the ministry of that church. His answer... approximately 80%. That was SHOCKING to me!  I'd been part of very "churched" cultures all my life.  Every church I've ever been a part of was primarily made up of those who had grown up in Christianity.  So to see a church where the Great Commission was lived out and not just talked about was one of the most moving experiences of my life.  It was truly a ministry-changing moment for me.

We send people to Brazil to do that and we call them missionaries (heroes). It is cross-cultural missions.

Well, it seems to me that these days in America, there is a HUGE cultural divide between people who have grown up in church all their lives and those who haven't. It seems to me, more than any time in our nation's history, reaching people with the Gospel IS cross-cultural missions.

So the Clarks have gone to Brazil and have adopted as much of the Brazilian culture as possible that isn't sinful. They dress like them; speak like them; listen to Brazilian music.  As they planted the church - they used the instruments of the Brazilian culture. They sing songs at church using the language and words that Brazilians can understand. 

But what if they did this in the United States? It seems to me, if you want to be a Great Commission Church in the U.S. - you have to make some difficult, deliberate choices to span the cultural gap. When the Clarks do that in Brazil, they are called missionaries; if they did here - would they be called liberals?

Why are we SO generous with contextualization as long it happens somewhere else?  Just thinking...

I don't think she meant it as a compliment

We receive comments in our bulletin each week.  We ask for them.  Here is a comment we received a few weeks ago - during my series "The Christian and the Economy."  Small details have been changed to protect the guilty...

"My experience at North Baptist has been coming to North and Rochester on holidays for a few decades. I was raised in a God-fearing, God-worshiping church since infancy.  I have a family member who is a pastor of a Baptist Church.

I was disappointed in the beginning of your service. My children were shocked, stopped singing, looked at me for my reaction to your rock concert style music ("worship"). How was this heavy beat music supposed to focus me on worshiping God? I was distracted by trying NOT to notice the man dancing and wiggling six rows ahead of me. I will be searching for a more dignified (emphasis original) place of worship the next time I come to Rochester for a visit.

And the message... I need to think about this and pray before I tell you what i really thought. I'm disappointed in the lack of focus on God, Christ, salvation, sin, how we are sinners, and the exalted place God needs to hold in our life. Lots of reference to your money and 401K with little reference to the Scriptures. I could go to financial counseling class and get the same information."

To be honest, I don't always handle these kinds of things well.  I want to call them on the phone and tell them what I think... (I mean)... thank them for their comments.  I have a "defense" for everything we do, but what's the point?  I'm not sure what rock concert she's been to recently... I'm not sure why Dave Boehm was dancing... :) And I'm not sure how the sermon could have been more grounded in Matthew 6... BUT - all my defensiveness aside, Scott Bixby made a comment that will ring in my ears for a long time.

After reading the comment and sensing how discouraged I can get with these silly things, Scott said, "This is a huge compliment! If someone who has been in a traditional church all of their life came to North and was totally comfortable... we are not pushing it far enough."  Wow - did I need to hear that.  That is exactly right.  I really do hope that she finds a church to enjoy while she is in Rochester because that is not a purpose on our radar screen.  We don't exist for a person visiting from out of town looking for a traditional church. We exist to magnify God by making and developing increasingly devoted followers of Christ. We exist for the person who hasn't been in church in a long time. We exist to help connect people to the God who loves them. We aren't trying to make anyone 'comfortable.'

And the other great reminder from the comment was a reminder that many, many people at North have lived through a lot of changes over the past eight years or so - and for the sake of the Gospel "put up" with some things that don't line up with their preferences.  I don't know how many of them get my blog, but if you are one - THANK YOU for prioritizing those whom we are trying to reach over our own preferences!!  You are a joy for me, and I am SO thankful for you!

There have been two take-aways for me:

• The one thing I want to ring in my ears when people complain about things they don't like: "If someone has been in a traditional church all of their life came to North and was totally comfortable... we are not pushing it far enough."
• And I am SO thankful for those who have been in a traditional church who transitioned with us over these last eight years, and they have set aside their preferences so we can change what is cultural while maintaining truth that is eternal.  By doing so - we want to win as many as possible (1 Cor. 9:19)!  So if you've been at North longer than I have - from the bottom of my heart - THANK YOU!!!!

A Smile, Some Coffee, and Christ

I heard the most unbelievable story last Sunday (12/7/08) that I thought I'd share with you...  If I didn't hear the story myself - I probably wouldn't believe it.

A gentleman showed up at church on Sunday and happened to run into Scott. Scott asked him how he heard about North and his answer was such a blessing. He said that he was on his way to work on Sunday morning and stopped for a cup of coffee (I'm not sure where).  If I understood the story right - this man was a regular customer and the woman who served him was always smiling. Somehow, through previous conversations, he knew that she went to church. 

Last Sunday he decided that he needed more of God in his life (what he told Scott) so he talked to the smiling coffee server and asked her where she went to church. The woman answered, "North Baptist Church." So - instead of going to work - he drove straight to North and came to one of our services last Sunday.  How cool is that?

It is true that a fruit of the Spirit is JOY, and it seems to me that we see too little of that particular fruit.

And, by the way, I have NO IDEA who the woman is.  But I am thankful to God for her.