Doug’s Foggiest Ideas

I just thought that I would post a couple of things that are on my mind regarding last weekend at Plum Creek.

-First of all I am honored and blessed to be doing what I am doing.  I love what I do, I love being a pastor, my team rocks and our volunteers are the best!

-I can’t believe all the hard work that goes into turning a movie theater into a place of worship every week.  But it is worth the effort!

-It is hard to believe that we have been doing this weekly for 3 years now.  As I said on Sunday sometimes it feels like we started yesterday and sometimes it feels like 10 years ago.  It has been a lot of hard work but it has also been a blast.

-As we head into the planning and development of our new 4 service format I am trusting that many of the Plum Creekers that haven’t yet stepped up to serve will do so now!  We just need everyone to do a little instead of a few doing a lot.

-I know it will be tough to jump back-and-forth between two theaters every Sunday but right now we don’t really have any other options.  4 services (8:45, 9:15, 10:00 & 10:30) in less than 3 hours.  That is nuts but we will have fun doing it!!

-We need to begin to explore the possibilities of utilizing the video venue model so that we can simulcast into the other theaters.  We will probably have to do this at Easter.

-I thank God for the management at the theater.  Len is amazing and has been a blessing to us as a church!

-I am pleased at how many men have told me they want in on the first 100 to be part of our meeting for men that will be coming soon.  I think the ladies are as excited as the men!!  Men leading themselves is God’s plan for us BUT IT CAN’T BE DONE ALONE!!  I have a ton of ideas related to this…again I know the “what” God is going to take care of the “how”!

-I am also excited about the prayer training that we are going to do this year.  I talk every week about praying and really feel like this year is a year where we will up the stakes in our prayer lives.  Get ready, this is going to be awesome!

-We need a ton more Journey Group leaders to facilitate what God is doing at our church.  My prayer is that every person that calls them-self a Plum Creeker will be in a Journey Group!

-I am so proud of our church for the way they got behind our Special Christmas Offering.  I know that God will continue to use the resources that we collectively contribute to impact our world!

-2010 is going to be an incredible year.  We have a lot to celebrate but also know that we can’t let memory overtake our imagination of what God wants to do in and through us!  We are all going to have to work together, pray together, serve together & contribute together like we never have before.  God will be faithful!  So lets work like it depends on us and pray like it depends on God!

Throughout the course of our short history as a church I have made a commitment to take 2 weekends a year to pause and give a “State of the Church Address”.

There are two reasons for this.

First of all we continue to grow like crazy.  As a matter of fact this week I took some time to look at some Plum Creek statistics.  I don’t usually take much time to look at these things with much depth but in preparation for this weekend’s message I did.  The reality is that from one year ago on this same weekend we have been blessed with a 44% increase in our weekly average.  There are a lot of new people that need to know more about the history, heart and vision for our church.

The second reason comes from a leadership truth that I learned years ago.  It is pretty simple, “vision leaks”.  I know that this is true for me and for those that call Plum Creek home.  We need to work hard to intentionally keep our focus as a church.

When we don’t take the time to calibrate we can get off track fast.  I hope that you will be able to join us this weekend as we do this together.  These, “State of the Church” weekends are a lot of fun.  Knowing where we have been, where we are and where we are heading is VERY IMPORTANT!!  I look forward to seeing you on Sunday at the theater.

A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of having two awesome guests with us at Plum Creek.  These men were Paul Tedesco and Jim Ladd.  Paul is the previous pastor at Grace Community (our mother church) and Jim is the current pastor.

Both of these men are responsible for helping Plum Creek be where it is today.  They are great men.  Paul was the one who initiated the idea of planting a church in Castle Rock.  What a great vision.  I trust that his time with us a couple of weeks ago was a blessing.  We are honored as a church to have the history that we have.

Long story short he sent me an email and asked me a great question, “If you have time, would you mind dropping me an email and telling me, in your opinion, the top 5 key factors as to why Plum Creek has progressed so rapidly in such a short time.”

I have spent some time thinking and praying about this and I wanted to share the answer that I emailed to him.  Here is my answer:

Your question is a tough one.  Truthfully I don’t know if I have the absolute answers but I will do my best:

1~ I have to start by acknowledging that this has been a TOTAL GOD THING!!

Lots of prayer and effort to follow God’s lead! (From the vision you got started, to Jim’s influence, to the partnership with Grace & Timberline, to the timing and the receptivity in C.R. it has been a God thing)

2~ Jim Ladd and the Grace family.

We couldn’t have done what we have done without Jim, his leadership and our relationship with Grace!!

3~ An undisputed, totally confident call of God on my, Beth and the kids’ lives to head to C.R. and start this church.

I couldn’t have done this without absolute certainty that my baby was behind me!!  Castle Rock fits Beth & I to a “T”.  We know we are supposed to be here!!

4~ Opportunities along the way in my ministry career that prepared me in my walk with God, my leadership, my experience, my gifts, my relationships, my marriage, my family and just about in every other way to prepare me for this, “such a time as this” season that we have been living out in C.R.

5~ God’s favor & amazing people that God had provided for us!!

We have an incredible team that are as fired up and committed to Plum Creek as much as we are!!  We could never have done this without the team that God has blessed us with!  My gifts, talents and abilities pale in comparison to the collective energy and efforts of our team!

I’m sure there is much more but these are the things that I would say in response to your question.

Thanks again for blessing us as you have!!

On The Journey Together

I have been slowly reading through Acts for my devotions in the mornings. I thought I would share a couple of thoughts from my reading today.

In Acts chapter 5 we learn about some opposition that the apostles have met as they have worked diligently to communicate the gospel message. They are brought before an angry high council.  These guys are ticked with the apostles for talking about Jesus. In Acts 5:33 we learn that this council had decided to kill them.  Right before they are to make their final death sentence decision there is a Pharisee named Gameliel who stands up, provides a history lesson and ultimately gives all of us a challenge.

You can read the first part of what he says in Acts 5:35-37.

He basically shares that there have been many individuals that have prioritized making themselves great rather than making God great. According to his history lesson the results are always the same. These individuals ended up dead and all of their followers scatter.

Here is what the Lord challenged me with today.

It really doesn’t matter what you are doing for a living, or what platform of leadership God has given you.

If you make it about you it will not last.

If you make it about God, it will last forever.

Most of you that know me know how passionate I am about the local church and church planting.  I would like to challenge all the pastors and church planters that read this blog to think about how important it is to calibrate all we do with the goal of making God great.

I want to include verses 38-39 of this passage of scripture to conclude my thoughts,

“So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go.  If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”

So for all of us today let’s make sure that what we do, what we lead, and what we dream about are not about making anything other than God great!!  How awesome it would be that our opposition would find themselves not resisting or attempting to thwart us, but rather “fighting against God”!

Have a wonderful day, know that I’m praying for you and and counting on you to be praying for me.

Well it is Wednesday morning and I have had a chance to rest and process all that happened this weekend.  It was absolutely incredible.  This past Easter weekend was one that I will never forget.

I have to start with the amazing turnout for what I am sure will become an annual Plum Creek, Good Friday tradition.  We met at the “rock” here in Castle Rock and hiked up to the top.

I wasn’t sure how many people would attend that early in the morning but we had nearly 100 people show up at 6:30am to hike the rock and spend a few minutes praying over the Plum Creek Valley.

It was a wonderful way to kick off our Good Friday.

On Saturday we kicked off the day with our Egg Drop.  It was incredible and you can see pictures below in a previous post.  I am so impressed with the way the Egg Drop went.  There were about 2000 people in attendance and it went well.  The helicopter was amazing.  I so appreciate all of the volunteers that helped make this a special event for our community.

Then on Saturday night a crew of nearly 40 people showed up at the theater to begin our “set-up” for Easter Sunday services.  Unbelievable!! What I love is that we ask for help and Plum Creekers show up in mass to get the job done!  There were many that stayed until 1:00am and several that were there until 3:00am.  What dedication and passion for what we are doing!  It is exciting to be part of a team like we have!  I am blessed!!

Next of course was our Easter Sunday service extravaganza!  It started off as a crazy idea months ago as we were trying to figure out how to accommodate all the people that we knew would be coming.  We decided to try something we had never done before.  We held 5 services that were staggered starting interval.  Each service was 60min. long and had the exact same elements lead by the same worship team and communicators.  IT WAS CRAZY!!

So there was an 8:00, 8:30, 9:15, 9:45 & 10:30.  I didn’t realize that this meant that Pastor Stephen, the worship team, Emilie, Gary and I would be rolling for nearly 4 hours straight without a break.  I have never done anything like this before and right now am not sure that we ever need to do this again.  Here is the even crazier thing, we ended up needing to add an additional service.  So we ended up doing 6 (60min.) services from 8:00 to about 12:30 or so.  UNBELIEVABLE.  That has to be some kind of record.  We also blew our previous Easter Sunday attendance record away by over 400 people.  God is good.

What must be said is this.  As I reflect on the weekend, as awesome as it was to have that many people attending Easter Sunday services at Plum Creek, I am even more proud of the Plum Creek faithful that provided the volunteer force that we needed to do all that we did.  It is literally an ARMY of Volunteers.  I get emotional when I think about the sheer number of hours that were given this past weekend.  There is no way that I could ever express my gratitude to each of you for all you have done!  I have been praying that God would bless you as much as you have blessed me.  God is so good and it is an honor to serve with each of you!! As exhausted as we all were it was a very fulfilled exhaustion.

I love what I do and am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to lead such an amazing church.  So from the bottom of my heart THANKS to my amazing staff, it is an honor to serve with you! I can’t imagine doing this without you.  And THANKS to all of our amazing volunteers that were the force behind everything that we did.  You guys have all blessed me more than I can express.

I would love to read some of your thoughts from this historical weekend.  Post a comment!

I close with this:

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 21 May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.

Last week Rob Cowles called and invited Beth & I to head up to Timberline Church to speak at their midweek service.  I haven’t been back to a service at Timberline in a couple of years.  I was on staff there for eight amazing years.  We have a ton of great friends in Fort Collins.  It was a lot of fun to be able to share some of what God has been doing at Plum Creek.

I also briefly shared a challenge from Philippians 1:6.

“And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you,

will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.”

Everyone is looking for a “sure thing” in their life.  This verse communicates that we can be “sure” that God is at work within each of us.  Pretty exciting!  I am praying that each of us will see this “good work” in ourselves and also in those that we are praying for.

It has been a week of training for me.  I am in Florida being trained to “coach” pastors.  I am honored to have been asked to participate and excited about the opportunity to invest in the lives of pastors.

If you are a pastor and are looking for a way to tune up and lead yourself in creative ways this might be for you.  We will begin the coaching sessions soon.  I did this when we were first beginning Plum Creek.  It was SO HELPFUL!!

We have just opened up the registration and I am sure that it will fill quickly.  If you are a pastor and want to get more info you can check us out at our site NEXTNetworks.

I will be home tonight.

This weekend is our 2 year anniversary.  It is so hard to believe that two years have gone by as quickly as they have.

Every year we celebrate two anniversaries.  One in Aug when we began our monthly preview services and then again on the second week of January when we officially began weekly services as a church.

This is an important weekend for many reasons.  First of all I think that the “church” doesn’t celebrate enough!  God is doing so many wonderful things and we need to pause long enough to remember and thank Him for all He is doing!

It was Winston Churchill that said, “The further backwards you look the further forward you are likely to see!”  This is a great quote.  We only have 2 years to look back on but they are very full years.  God has done an amazing work that only He can take the credit for.  It is exciting for me to have the opportunity to share this weekend some of what He has done!  I want to be sure that when we communicate these things that He gets the glory!

Churchill also shares that our history, if evaluated well, will help us look forward into the future.  I know that we have a long way to go and this is a vital year for us as a church.  We have several areas that demand our attention and effort in 2009 if we are going to increase in our effectiveness.  However, God has given us a very clear vision for this New Year.  I am honored to share some of this vision!

I anticipate the challenges that lie ahead and thank God every day for the opportunity I have to lead this amazing church and our amazing staff!  I am blessed and can’t imagine doing anything else than what I am doing now!

I would love to read some of your memories as well.  Take some time to post a comment about your experience at Plum Creek!

See You Tomorrow!!

Just wanted to give some props to a good friend of mine. I have for years used the services of an accountant that specializes in pastors, tax and law. They have been a serious help to Beth & I and have also been instrumental in helping us at Plum Creek.

If you are a pastor or are part of a non-profit entity these guys are the real deal. Their knowledge is amazing and what they do is a huge blessing! They study all the implications of the annual changes to the tax laws and help churches, non-profits and pastors understand how this impacts what we do.

We HIGHLY RECOMMEND Steve and his crew!!

Here is their website…be sure to tell them that I sent ya!

http://www.clergysupport.com/

Several times throughout the year I like to to a series on a particular book of the Bible.  This Sunday, I am going to kick off and introduce our new series that will last for the next several weeks.  

We are going to be taking a close look at the New Testament book of Philippians.

As many of you know I can get pretty fired up when it comes to church planting.  It is because of this that I love to read the books that the Apostle Paul wrote.  

During Paul’s second missionary journey he planted a church in a town called Philippi.  It became a great church and the book that we are going to be studying is really a letter that Paul wrote to this church that he loved deeply.

In preparation for this weekend you should read Philippians.  

Here is a link if you would like to read it online.

It is going to be a great series.  I hope you will make plans to join us as we jump in and apply the truths that Paul presents in this amazing letter.

Remember we are starting our new 3 service format on Sunday.  8am, 9:15am & 10:30.  

See you at the theater!