Pastor Appreciation Month

October is Pastor Appreciation Month! During this month, we take time to acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of our Pastors.

Sometimes pastors are taken for granted.  They are expected to preach a home-run message every weekend, move the congregation with an amazing worship time, teach children about Jesus, help keep teens from going astray, offer counsel through marriage or financial difficulties, visit loved ones in the hospital....and much more.

Often, a Pastor's personal needs are pushed to the back burner while they tend to the needs of the church.

We encourage you to stop and think about the pastoral staff at your church and what a day in their lives must look like.  Take some time out to let them know how much they mean to you and your family.  Encourage them.  Lift them up in prayer.  Thank them for the Kingdom impact they have.

We would encourage you to visit Christianity Today for specific ideas on ways you can honor your Pastor. 

Who will Lead your Building Project?

By Jim Smith, Pre-Construction Manager

So your church is ready to embark on a building project...it’s going to require significant time and attention from a church representative to serve as the primary “go-to” person on the project.  Who is the right person to lead the church through the process? 

We often refer to this point person from the church as the “owner’s rep.” This role works best when the following attributes are present:

• Authority — The owner’s rep should be given the authority to make final decisions on behalf of the church (within the church’s governing rules).  Make sure that everyone involved understands the importance and centrality of this role.  It is necessary for all decisions to flow through one person to minimize the risk of confusion and costly mistakes.

• Continuity — The owner’s rep should be involved in the project from the very early stages of visioning all the way through the end of construction.  We must emphasize this point!  Other team members may come and go, but the Owner’s Rep should be consistent.

• Communication — this person will be the “face of the project” and can influence how church members view the entire process.  Through staff updates and frequent communications to the congregation, this person must maintain a positive confidence to keep everyone engaged.

• Construction Experience – This is an important and useful attribute, but not critical.  It is much more important that this person is deeply aligned with the ministry, a team player, and has a “win-win” attitude.

Owner's Reps Bob Horn and Bruce Smith (College Park Church), at weekly meeting with Aspen

Some churches choose a staff member to fill this role.  Others select a lay member of the Building Committee.  When the attributes above are present in the role, we find that it can work well either way.  In fact, it is often a very rewarding experience for the Owner’s Rep to use his/her God-given strengths to help make this vision become reality.

Who will be your Owner’s Rep?

Sparking the Flame

Written By Kristin Ruther, Aspen Group Customer Relations Coordinator

I have often been taken off-guard by Dave Ferguson.  He is so unassuming and personable that you forget how many wonderful ministries he has fashioned; from Verge, Exponential, New Thing Network, and Community Christian Church, to co-authoring two books.  If you follow him on Twitter @daveferguson, you’ll see a man who has seasons of frequent travel, yet saves time to coach to his son’s sports teams.  So when he took time to speak with a group of over 80 leaders last week for the Aspen Group Pastors lunch, I knew it would be enlightening.  He didn’t disappoint.  Dave is a fire starter.

His first spark was challenging us to think differently.  Could we start something for people who won’t come to church?  This is the calling of every pastor, yet this Missional impulse is inside all lovers of God.  Dave stressed we need to recover the fact that we are a going and sending people.  But how do you accomplish this task?  Dave shared four practical ways: 

1. Find a way to ordain every Christ follower.  I Peter 2:9 talks about us as a chosen people.  Ask if there are a particular people or a particular place that they feel called.  Send them with your blessing.  Commission them to that ministry where God is leading.  Then follow up.
2. Lead with a ‘yes.’  Develop a culture with a yes reflex if you want a movement, not just a one-and-done ministry.
3. Teach people to ‘go’ not just ‘bring.’  Start with loving people and planting the gospel.  How do you plant the good news before you decide what the church program is?
4. Finally, be incarnational and apostolic, both deepening and sending.  Always bring people along side you.  Reproduction is important in any movement. 

I hope you have an opportunity to cross paths with Dave Ferguson.  You will see a spark from the Holy Spirit.  He loves God.  Until then, you can read his book, Exponential:  How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement.  It will change the way you think.

Giving HOPE: A report from the Exponential Conference

Written By Kristin Ruther, Aspen Group Customer Relations Coordinator

The theme of Exponential 2010 was "Transformation starts in the Heart of One".  You can download the podcasts for Exponential at http://www.exponentialconference.org/subscriptions/ and I would highly recommend it, but if I could take you behind the scenes you will see that there is a movement of giving hope stirring in hearts.  Aspen likes to send us to conferences to learn and interact with leaders.  We like to stay on the “bleeding-edge” of ministry and bring that knowledge to you and, as we design spaces, impart all we learn from those smarter than us to reach the unchurched, dechurched and rechurched in your community, all to the glory of God. 

After Day One of the conference I was working out on the treadmill at the Orlando hotel and in walks an older man.  I ask if I can continue playing my Pandora music station.  He climbs on the treadmill next to me and we are off talking about all things.  He travels 151 days out of the year and will be speaking tomorrow at Exponential…hmm, this is really interesting.  I don’t know who he is, but we continue to talk and share about what we see in the younger generation.  We both agree that these Millennials are a breath of fresh air.  They are doers, living out their faith and not content to just talk about faith.  The papers report disparaging antidotes about this generation, but I see what my new friend sees and am filled with hope.  Yes, hope.  We finish our work out, say goodbye, and I race upstairs to look him up online.  It’s Reggie McNeal. 

The next morning, Reggie is up front giving a very humorous and challenging talk.  He asks us, the church, to practice looking in the mirror and saying, “How can we help?” There are two practical ways you can give hope to your community.  Hope shows at-risk public elementary school children God’s love by spending an hour a week in a one-on-one relationship mentoring them. Look up Kids Hope USA. It began in 1993 and has helped 530 churches in 29 states engage members of their church in the lives of over 8,000 at-risk children.  Reggie doesn’t mince words; he says “Get off the children’s cruise ship at our churches.”  Another terrific ministry that you could learn from is Titus County Cares.  This ministerial association is determined to wipe out hunger in their county.  Kids are hungry and have a hard time learning.  Do you think a child that receives a free lunch from school goes home to a delicious meal at night and over the weekend?  The backpack program from TCC brings in 3 tons of food to provide for the weekend meals.  The majority of these backpacks are packed by kids; teaching the kids that there is someone always worse off than you, how to live out their faith and that there are truths and Jesus wasn’t just making up scripture.  

If you go to Exponential 2011, I hope to see you there.  But I was told not to come back if I haven’t adopted a school.  Prepare to be challenged, prepare to give others hope and know that Jesus is the hope of the world.  Now please excuse me for I need to make a call to my pastor about our local school. 

                    

Exponential 2010

Written By Lynn Noe, Aspen Group Customer Relations Coordinator

It all begins with transformation in the heart of one.  Think about it. Each of us can be a part of it.  And that is what the Exponential Conference is all about. Over 3000 pastors and ministry leaders from around the globe will be in Orlando beginning April 19^th to hear how they can work as a group of transformed leaders to transform our churches and our cities. 

Exponential is the National New Church Conference.  You can’t even begin to imagine the speakers who will be there and I won’t try to select a few to highlight here, but you can check out the list at http://www.exponentialconference.org/. They are the thought leaders with heart, passion, experience and ideas who won’t accept status quo for the church.  They will be leading sessions to challenge ministry leaders to lead churches and ministries that aren’t accepting of just saving souls, but those that both expect and experience real life transformation.

Aspen Group’s CEO Ed Bahler will be there along with several from our Business/Project Development team.  It will be a remarkable opportunity for us to hear from these leaders so our team can be a part of this transformation as we work with church leaders on aligning culture, ministry, leadership and facilities. 

If you are on Twitter, be sure to follow the conversation at #Exponential.