Sun
May
2nd
2010
0

Leadership

I had a great morning today. Although I was unable to be at Southbridge, I heard things went well people making decisions for Jesus and Jesus was exalted. I was at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock Arkansas, the church that sent us out to plant Southbridge. Today, we celebrated their ten year anniversary of planting churches through their residency program at Fellowship Associates. In ten years they have planted over forty churches, from LA to Dubai. Praise the Lord.

One of the big reminders for me was a definition of leadership that was shared. Leadership is taking the initiative for the benefit of others. What a biblical definition of leadership. Jesus Christ took the initiative for our benefit (Phil 2:5-11), and that is the call on those of us who lead, to take the initiative for the benefit of others.

categories: Church planting, Leadership, Southbridge

Tue
Jul
7th
2009
0

Freedom and the Church

I am on vacation with my family sitting out on the deck listening to the ocean. It is awesome. Shanna said it was ok to blog so everyone who likes to give me a hard time about working too much this is a relaxing blog.

Last weekend was the Fourth of July weekend when as American we celebrate our freedom as a country. I am incredibly thankful to live in America and enjoy the freedoms we have. We had a talk with our girls on our way here as we passed camp Lejeune on Sunday about the men and women who fight for our freedom as a country.

As I thought through our freedoms I was reflecting not on our country but on the Church.  I am incredibly grateful for the freedom there is in the Church. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ so we have a freedom from sin (that is huge). There is also a freedom to passionately pursue a Christ centered, God given vision for each local church.

I was told by one seminary professor that I should consider planting a church because in an existing church it takes about 5 years before you can begin to lead. I don’t think planting solves that problem because every church has people come along who want to distract you from a God given vision (even Peter tried to distract Jesus from going to the cross and had to be rebuked). I praise God for giving us a vision to reach a city for His glory.

Regardless if you have planted, are thinking about planting, or lead in an existing church we all minister in a given context and should think through the best strategy to reach the people in that given context, but we must keep in mind the incredible freedoms we have in leading the church. Our guides are the Bible and the Holy Spirit. Too often I think we can feel guided by people and really our desire to please people. I am in no way condoning intentionally offending people or creating controversy for the sake of controversy, but spirit led leaders in the church have an incredible freedom to pursue God given visions. For that I am thankful!

categories: Church planting, Leadership, Southbridge

Fri
Jul
3rd
2009
0

Muffins and God’s glory

This is a note that I was given by one of the members of Southbridge. It was a blessing so I thought I would share it.

On Sunday while I was standing with Anne, I was surprised to see a very familiar face pop up in my vision. One of my coworkers from work (like that wasn’t obvious) had decided to visit Southbridge with his family. So after giving him a popcorn box, and chatting with him, he left. Well today he walked into my cubicle toting a muffin in a baggie. He dropped the muffin on my desk and asked me what I knew about it. I was confused to say the least but began describing the physical attributes of his muffin to him. He stopped me and then told me that He was blessed to find two muffins and an information booklet on Southbridge at his house this week. He was so very excited about his muffin, but even more so he also said in all the Churches they have visited so far they have never felt so welcomed and wanted. So thank you so much. I know it blessed him and his family but his story definitely blessed my heart as well.

My heart just swells and bursts with knowing how much you guys are allowing God to move and breathe through you. It’s been amazing to watch and be a part of in the last year…People are being affected by the Glory of Christ through Southbridge, which is such an incredible thought. So basically I wanted you all to know that you are very loved and appreciated and prayed for.

Jesse, please keep praying for lives to be changed by Jesus Christ and for God to continue to use Southbridge and the people of Southbridge (like you)to do it.

categories: Church planting, Southbridge

Sun
Jun
7th
2009
0

Someone robbed the church

This weekend was one of those weekends I don’t think we will forget anytime soon. We have had some special weekends at Southbridge. I think of the week we did cardboard testimonies, the week people left without their shoes, weeks where multiple people made decisions for Christ, and now this weekend. What happened this weekend? The church got robbed. No this is not a blog about people failing to tithe. We literally got robbed. Here is my version of the story:

It was Saturday night, I had just finished the final touches on Sunday mornings message. At about 8:30pm, I called our worship leader for that Sunday morning. We talked through the service and we were about to pray together, when I saw someone beeping in. It was Jon Cullen, our Family Pastor. I ignored the call. Then he called my cell. Then he called the home line again. I knew something serious was going on if he called that many times. I also knew his wife was out of town, so perhaps he had burned his house down, that or he was hanging out with John Piper after the conference he attended this weekend. Either way I called him back without knowing why he had called.

When Jon answered, I said, “Jon this is Scott.” To which he replied, “Hold on, I am talking to the police.” POLICE! What is going on? Where are you at? I could not ask those questions because he stopped talking to me. Then after what seemed like a long time he said, “Scott, let me call you back.” I said, “Wait. What is going on?” He said, “I am standing out here by our trailer (we are a portable church), and someone broke in. It looks like they cleaned it out.”

Sure enough someone had broken into the trailer where we keep most of our audio visual equipment for Sunday mornings. At this point it was almost 9:00pm on Saturday night. What happened then was truly amazing. People from Southbridge jumped on this situation and went to work so the hundreds of people who would come to Southbridge this morning would have an unhindered worship experience. Did we have the television in the lobby, cameras for the video venue, or all of the technical bells and whistles we have grown accustom to? No. But the troops were united and at work. The worship team prepared a new worship set (that was pretty much all acoustic in case the tech team could not get anything worked out). However, the tech team (whose leaders worked past midnight), went to one of our elders (Allin Foulkrod’s) office to assemble a temporary sound system and get a projector to show the words (from one of the guys laptops). If you were there in the second service we missed a slide on one song (I think because his battery was dying. Sorry, but one slide was not bad after all that had happened). People work hard every week at Southbridge, setting up, tearing down, etc. However, this week they were working extra hard and I am super thankful for all of them.

I reminded everyone this morning of a verse from Genesis: Genesis 50:20 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

What man intended for bad, God intended for good. God united people so that the gospel could still go forth. We were reminded about what we really NEED (the technical aids are nice, but it was nice today taking a few steps back technically). We desire to connect people to Jesus for life change. Today we were reminded that all we need to be able to do that is:

1. Jesus.

2. People.

One of the ironic things about today was that I was already planning on speaking about generosity from 1 Timothy 6:17-19. The challenge was to hold all of our material stuff with open hands. God has a funny way of making sure we apply the truths He desires for us to learn.

 

categories: Church planting, Core Values, Generosity, Leadership, Life Change, Southbridge