Great Shot at Winning

We are working really hard to finish our building. Our Grand Opening should happen in around 75 days. But we have some money to raise to have the final funds we need to finish. One way we're doing that is by raffling off a Browing Silver 3 1/2" Shotgun with Camo Dura-Touch stock and 3 choke tubes. It's brand new and I'm told it retails for about $1,400.

Get each ticket for a $5 donation to the PCC Building Fund. Only 1200 tickets will be sold! The winner will be drawn on Sunday, December 13th. You can get tickets any Sunday or by calling the church office. 804.598.1174.

Need some ideas...

I'm preparing for some training I'm doing in a few days with some PCC folks who want to gain greater proficiency at hospital visitation. I'm really excited about it and I'm drawing on a lot of resources. We'll do case studies, some role playing, and share some good information and questions. We have such an exceptional care team, and I love being around them and I'm so grateful for what they do.

What I'm looking for are a couple of movie clips. Can you think of a scene from a movie where someone visits someone who is sick or going through a crisis or in trouble, etc. Examples of both positive and negative experiences (how to or how NOT to) are welcome. If you have any ideas, you can post them here or email them to me at brian at powhatancommunitychurch dot org.

Thanks for your help.

Coaching Training

There is a new discipline called coaching. I say it's new, but it has actually been around for a few years. It's a rather interesting relationship that is somewhere between mentor and supervisor. Coaching is described in these ways:

• “Coaching is the hands-on process of helping someone to succeed.”
• “It’s the art of helping someone to do what they don’t want to do so they can accomplish what they do want to accomplish.”
• “A coach is an unreasonable friend.”

I spent all day today in my second training event for coaches. The more I learn about it, the more I see the benefits of it. It can help me as I oversee and lead our staff, other leaders in the church, and a team of campus pastors as we become a multi-site church.

As we expand with facilities and new locations, my ability to coach, lead, and manage our staff will increase. This kind of training will prove invaluable in the days to come. It's a skill set I have long needed to better develop. There are others at our church who would also benefit from this kind of training, too. I hope to be able to have a coaching training for some of our leaders in 2010.

First Steps Food Drive

PCC's First Steps team is led by Kim Meza and an incredible team of servants. Each Sunday they provide not only outstanding, safe child care for PCC kids, but also great learning opportunities for infants and pre-school aged children.

Keeping with the overall PCC commitment to impact our community through service, the First Steps team is taking steps designed to aid and assist Powhatan county in a way that truly matters.

We hope you'll participate in the First Steps Food Drive by bringing in non-perishable food items to the First Steps check-in table on Sunday morning! Items will be collected through December 20th.

More thoughts on God is Safe

Yesterday, I said I would put the scriptures I referred to on this blog. I also have a few questions you might consider:

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being completely trusting of everyone, how trusting are you:

• with your parents?
• with your spouse?
• with your small group?
• with your closest friends?

Do you view God as trustworthy? If so, what do you believe He is trustworthy to do or not to do?

Is God safe?

Is there any area of your life or thoughts that you wouldn't talk to Him about or that you don't want Him to know?

John 10:1-15 What do you think it means that Jesus is the Shepherd? Does it offend you that He says that He is the 'gate' and that all who enter through Him will be saved?

If you keep reading, Jesus says that he has other sheep that aren't currently a part of the flock and that he's got to go get them. What does he mean by that?

Here are the other scriptures I used:

Ps. 23 “The Lord is my shepherd…I shall not want”
Psalms 79:13 (NIV) Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever;
Psalms 80:1 (NIV) Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead [us] like a flock;
Isaiah 40:11 (NIV) He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
Ezekiel 34:11-12 (NIV) "'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

I also referred to Jeremiah 29:11, John 8, Acts 8 and Romans 8.

Hope this helps.

A Unique Intern Opportunity

There is an exciting opportunity for anyone interested in possibly interning in an innovative ministry setting in South Africa for 3 months during the Soccer World Cup in the summer of 2010. (June through August)

Riaan Niemand, Senior Pastor from Eastside Community Church in Pretoria, South Africa, will be here to talk about it during the next week and will be staying with me for a couple of days. Each intern would have to raise their own support, but would be exposed to a variety of ministry settings in South Africa, working with some very high impact leaders and getting exposure to many different cultures. This is a very rare opportunity!

I know of at least two college students who are interested, but I'm guessing that there may be others. If you would like to be a part of this conversation, please let me know via email or by calling the PCC office.

Some GREAT news about our building.

Well, I can finally deliver some fantastic news concerning our building: The dispute with our former builder is behind us. For good.

We have negotiated for months, hoping for some way out of the stalemate. It wasn't without cost, but we had to weigh that against the cost of battling out the dispute for an undetermined amount of time into the future. The bottom line is that we really needed to put the dispute behind us. It was no longer a matter of us being right. It was clearly hurting the church in many ways to remain in the stalemate.

Ultimately, I had to come to terms with God's role and my role as a leader (and leadership in general). Specifically, I deeply wanted to see justice done. But I had to realize that justice is God's domain. My responsibility was to do what was in the best interest of the Church and our Mission. Continuing the dispute was hurting us.

But it's over now! And we are free to move ahead. There are no liens, no claims, no baggage.

What everyone wants to know now is: How long? When will we move in? Well, we should complete construction some time in early February. We will need some help and will have to do some of the final work ourselves (painting, planting shrubs, etc.). So keep your ears open for those opportunities.

And...we are going to need some money at the end in order to finish construction. I'll have more to say about that soon, but just to put a bug in your ear about it. If you haven't seriously given to the Reach Campaign or contributed to the building fund, now is the time.

Thank you for praying for PCC during this ordeal. I can't tell you how good it feels to have it behind us.