I write this on an Amtrak train returning from a 4th of July weekend with my young adult son in New York City.  We are headed to DC for fireworks tonight before he flies home tomorrow.  He and I had great fun in New York.  I had never seen Times Square at 2 am, but when you travel with a 21-year old, you shift into a slightly different time zone.  Yesterday, after we watched the Yankees toast the Toronto Blue Jays (in about 97 degrees), we noticed that our subway train back to Manhattan was headed ultimately to Coney Island.  Neither he nor I had ever been to Coney Island, but we had read all kinds of stories and seen movies about it - so we said, “Let’s just stay on the train all the way to the beach,” About ninety minutes later (we were riding the local) we arrived in this large railway terminal on the lower coast of Brooklyn, with thousands of people pouring out of trains onto the beach and into the amusement parks of Coney Island. 

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Another Path 1 staff member and I recently spent a week traveling through parts of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference which includes Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Among the hundreds of well established churches there I learned of a couple new and innovative church starts that really captured my attention.

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Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  Dr. Leo Marvin (“What About Bob” fame) said, “Baby steps, baby steps…”

On a cold weekend in January eighty-plus people took many steps from around the country braving threats of snow and ice to participate in our inaugural Coaching Forum in Nashville, TN. The evaluations we received from attendees were encouraging and educational. We did many things right and many right things! Overall 99% of participants said the event “exceeded their expectations.” That’s pretty amazing.  Baby steps…

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It’s been one of the most frequently quoted scriptures, “Without a vision the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:19) As church planters we have been well schooled in the virtues of casting a compelling vision. Wise planters do this well…and often! But there’s another side of this that requires equal diligence. I phrase it like this, “Without adequate funding the vision perishes.” Many a church plant has shriveled up and withered away because of a severe case of financial dehydration. Casting vision is easy. Gathering folks around that vision is exciting. Asking for money to support that vision is neither easy nor exciting (for many of us).

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I had the privilege of facilitating one of the ministry tracks at our recent School of Congregational Development in Evanston, IL.  The Advance Strategy Questions track welcomed thirty annual conference leaders across the connection including bishops, superintendents, and development directors. For six hours we presented and debated critical issues facing those responsible for new church development.

One of the nearly dozen topics we tackled over two days was identifying the qualities and characteristics of effective second pastors of new church starts. We agreed we have not focused enough on this topic.

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The word “coach” immediately conjures up negative memories for me. I was a pencil thin 6’5” gawky teenager with two left feet when I decided to join the high school basketball team. The coach was, at first, thrilled with the prospects of having another towering dude on his team. His enthusiasm, however, gave way to disappointment when he watched me in action. I moved like a spider with seven broken legs. Painful! My “coach” let out a string of obscenities, threw the ball at my head, and told me to get my act together. I managed to dodge the ball hurling at my head but I could not dodge the humiliation I felt. I left the court and never went back. I don’t care much for basketball even to this day. (more…)

I was twelve years old and glued to our television set as grainy images were beamed onto the screen of humanity’s first step onto the surface of the moon. It was 1969 and the crew of Apollo 11, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin, had me pinned to the edge of my seat. I was hooked! From that moment on I wanted to be an astronaut. As a kid I built model rockets (remember Estes?) and launched them high into the air. I infected my two sons with this “space bug.” Every now and then we’ll dust off the stuff and send another rocket skyward. Living in central Florida has afforded me many opportunities to watch the space shuttle leave and return to earth. There is nothing like being just a few miles away from the launch pad—the roar of liftoff. Goose bumps just like when I was twelve. (more…)