Why Kids Matter at Carolina Community.

One of my passions in life is my kids. They are one of my greatest blessings and one of my greatest investments. I want them to go to a church that engages them and challenges them spiritually. As a parent that’s why my kids go to Carolina Community. I wanted a church whose kids’ mission was to captivate kids hearts with the greatness of God. Selfishly that was my desire for my own kids. Its something I am not willing to compromise on. So, because I was a pastor, I had the luxury to design and start the kind of church I wanted my kids to go to.

It’s sort of like taking kids to the store. The fact is that whatever store you take your kids to spend their allowance, they will spend their money choosing something in that store. They only buy what they see. The same is true with how kids choose life views. If a God-saturated life is not fleshed out in the church that you take them to, them it simply will not be a life view option for them to choose. That’s why a core message at Carolina Community is to enjoy God. It’s a 360º Christian vision of life that colors all we do and say. It’s the vision I want my kids to catch.

But most kids never hear what church is trying to say because it doesn’t speak their language. I grew up in churches where kids had to wear a three piece suit and the only thing interesting was doodling on the back of the offering envelopes in the pew in front of you. Its where I learned to draw—no lie. But when you make church fun for kids and engage them on their level through a missional message contextualized to their kid culture, a funny thing happens: they listen and they learn and they grow spiritually.

So even though Carolina Community is one of the most fun churches your kids will ever experience….and even though kids love our bouncies…the most important thing is the life transforming message they are taught about how to enjoy God in everything they do. When you get kids to smile and laugh, you slip in the spoon full of truth while their mouths are open. Kids matter to God. They matter to me. And they matter to the mission of Carolina Community Church.

A Folding Check-In Table

Another Church Plant Idea: Our Kid’s Check-In Table:

This “Folding Bar” found on the internet makes a great check-in table that’s just the right height for parents to register kids and fill out security name tags. They can also be used to direct traffic flow into your kids area. the great thing is that it folds flat for quick and light minimal storage. The black panels on the front add a crisp design look. It can be printed with your logo as well. It costs about $170.

A Cool Display (Cheap)

When people come in at Carolina Community, we communicate our vision with a simple but stylish display. 3 sheets of Galvanized Roofing. 3 lamps. Simple black foam board from Staples. 2 2 X 8′s cut in a semi-circle to give the bottom of the outside panels their undulating shape. Note our By-line: “Innovate church.”

The Mission Field of WorkLife

Probably Carolina Community’s most unique missional distinctive is our WorkLife DNA. Reaching and discipling people through their worklife part of our core mission. Everyone has a worklife, yet few churches have an intentional ministry strategy to address the field of people’s work lives. For more information read, WorkLife: Another Great Omission. Our WorkLife mission and vision shares much with the ministry His Church at Work whom I have worked alongside in various capacities for a number of years.

Million Dollar Kids Area for $5k

Want a “wow” Kids’ space without paying a million dollars? This is one of are our 2 inflatable bouncies for our “Carolina Kids” ministry area at Carolina Community Church. They cost us about $5000 total. We are a portable church and an elementary cafeteria is our kids space. The boucnies just unroll, plug in and….Walla!….an inflatble kids church area that kids are crying not to leave! Check them out at http://www.BouncyChurch.com. If you want more information Read what we have learned from “Church Meets Chuck E. Cheese” for the details.

Grow a Sequoia Sermon Idea

The challenge for our 2008 state of the church sermon at Carolina Community was “Ask God to plant a Sequoia in your life this year!” To drive the point home, we handed out packets of real Sequoia seeds. The point is that it takes a change in DNA to produce a different kind of tree. The emphasis was on organic growth, asking God to grow his kingdom in our lives and using us to seed the growth of His kingdom in the lives of others. The sermon was themed around 1 Corinthians 2:7-10, Proverbs 11:28 MSG, Mark 4:30-32 MSG and Isaiah 61:3. See my “Grow a Sequoia in Your Life” post. You can buy the Sequoia seeds from http://www.seedrack.com.

Grow a Sequoia in Your Life

This seedling isn’t very big. It doesn’t give any shade. It’s not the kind of tree that would impress the neighbors. It’s just not very tall. Frankly few would notice it growing there. Its branches are fragile. You can’t climb it. It really isn’t much to look at.

But this isn’t just any ordinary plant. Do you know why? Because it’s not just any tree. This is a Sequoia. It’s a Big Red Wood. It’s the mighty king of the whole wood. Even though its only a baby tree, this is a special tree. It has the potential to grow to be the tallest tree in the world. It is on its way to becoming a Sequoia.

General Sherman is the largest Sequoia alive. At 275 feet tall and 45 feet wide, its the worlds largest living organism. Its over 2000 years old and still growing. But it started one day as a small seedling.

What sets it apart is the special DNA God has built into it. God wants to grow a sequoia in your life. But to be a Sequoia you need to plant the seed of Sequoia DNA in your life.

The first DNA of s spiritual Sequoia is found in Isaiah 61:3. Here is how it describes God’s work in people’s lives: “They will be called oaks of righteousness, 
a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.” God wants you to be a mighty tree that stands as a living picture of how awesome He is. If you want to grow a sequoia in your life, your first DNA change is to Enjoy God. That’s Life Worship. A person who enjoys God in everything they do is a sequoia, because God saturates everything they do. His greatness shines through their life.

Second, you need to make the DNA commitment to love others by choosing to Do Life Together. Trees only grow in community. The need the eco-system of the forest. You will never find a Sequoia standing by itself. Becoming a Sequoia menas choosing the implant in your life the DNA of Life in Community.

Third, You need to choose to Follow Christ in Life Growth. Proverbs 11:28 says, “A life devoted to things is a dead stump; but a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.” A life built on the DNA of living for things will never produce a Sequoia. It only leaves a dead stump.

Fourth, Sequoia DNA means a commitment to seed the lives of others. To Give Back to Our World. That’s finding and fulfilling our Life Work. A Sequoia showers the ground around it with pine cones. Mark 4:30-32 says, “How can we picture God’s kingdom? … It’s like a pine nut. When it lands on the ground it is quite small as seeds go, yet once it is planted it grows into a huge pine tree with thick branches. Eagles nest in it” (The Message) God grows our lives so that we can help bless and grow the lives of others.

There are other species you can plant that will grow faster than a Sequoia. This is a Leyland cypress you can buy at Lowes for $20. This is what you plant in your back yard if your neighbor doesn’t mow his grass. Its one of the fastest growing plants there is. It grows a yard every year. Eventually it grows to be 60 feet tall.

But there is a problem with the Leyland cypress. It has a very weak root system. As a result its easily blown over. Their branches break easily with ice or heavy snow. It’s vulnerable to disease, so it often only lives to be 10 years old. So just when it gets mature is when it dies.

But the worst thing about a Leyland Cypress is that it’s ugly. No matter its size, it will never be pretty. People don’t make post cards of the Leyland Cypress. When they get tired of them, they just cut them down, grind ‘em up and make mulch out of them. It will never be a sequoia.

Let me ask you. Twnety years from now, which will you have wished you planted in your : a Leyland Cypress or a Sequoia? If you want to be a Sequoia, then it’s time to change the DNA you are living from. It all starts with planting a seed.

A New Word for a New Blog

I collect words. New words are hard to come by—especially ones that carry significant new ideas. Even rarer are words that already have history. One of my favorite discoveries is the word “instauration.”

def.: Instauration (in-ˌstȯ-ˈrā-shən), n. [L. instauratio] renewal or restoration from within.

If to “restore” means to renew something, to “instaur”—taken from Latin—means to renew from within. If a “restaurant” is a place of gastronomic replenishment, then an “instaurant” (notice the same root spelling) is an agent of change from the inside out.

The word orginally comes from the history of the church, specifically from the Second Reformation. The “instauration” or renewal of the church has always been the key to the church being the “instaurant” or renewer of culture, God’s calling for it to be as salt and light in society.

In fact the word “instauration” was at one time used as a byword or catch phrase of the church’s mission. The “Great Instauration” was a largely-forgotten Great Commission movement of spiritual renewal and societal transformation in the early 1600s. The phrase “Great Instauration” was taken from the title of Francis Bacon’s Instauratio Magna and looked toward the Daniel 12:4 end-time spiritual and cultural renewal of society. The “Great Instauration” was a international lay movement of the Second Reformation that developed among early seventeenth century Christians pushing for “further reform” of the church and society. Banding together their resources they helped start the modern missions movement, mobilized money and people committed to the Godly planting of churches and colonies in America, and the founding of higher education to teach the life view of a God-saturated life. Their vision was to grow God’s reign in North America by renewing his church. The reformulation of the church was seen as the key to better helping people reformulate their lives.

Now America is again a spiritual wildernesss—a de-Christianized continent overgrown with a post-Christian culture. Again it needs renewal from within. Just like 300 years ago the answer is the same. The key to instauring America is instauring the church. Re-forming culture requires a re-formed church.* And one of the keys for renewing the church is it recapturing the heritage of its mission to instaur culture. Thus, the imperative behind this blog: Innovate church!

*While many use the word “reformed” with a cpaital “R” to mean their lipthmus test of Calvinist orthodoxy, I use it here to refer to the New Testament imperative of the church to missionally innovate (1 Cor. 9:22, Eph. 4:12, 5:26).