At our elder retreat last fall, we spent considerable time studying, discussing, and praying about our mission as a church. For many years we had a mission statement common to many churches of the Willow Creek era: "To help unchurched people become fully-devoted followers of Jesus." A mission statement does not have to be unique to be effective. At the end of the day, God will judge individuals and churches based on the outcome of their lives not on how many trademarks or copyrights they hold. As we wrestled with what the Bible described as the mission of the church and how that is to be lived out on the local level, we came up with the following statement. If you've been around Mountainview, then hopefully you already know it. "Mountainview exists to Glorify God, Grow in Jesus, and Go into the World." That's our mission statement, or as we…
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At Opportunity Camp, several of the little campers would come up to me and ask, "Kensley, do you get nervous up on stage?" Standing in front of 140 kids ranging in age from 7-14 does not make me nervous. Afraid, terrified but not nervous. Just kidding ... I'm not all that terrified except when they are holding objects that can be thrown at the stage. But that's not I told them. Instead, I told them that I'm comfortable from having down it so much that I don't get all that nervous any more. "How did you get comfortable?" By doing it. That's the advice I give to any young person contemplating public speaking. Just start doing it. I have found that the only way to get comfortable in front of a crowd is to start standing in front of a crowd. If you're still breathing when it's all over, that…
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Every year at Opportunity Camp I am blessed to work with a 100+ of God's most precious children. This year, our 45th year in existence, we are serving almost 140 children who are in the social services system. Many of them are in foster or group homes, but not all of them. Some come from single parent or low income homes. One camper has been with us for the past eight years. Often this would mean he has been in foster care for the past eight years, but not in this case. This young man was adopted when he was six months old, having been born to a mother addicted to drugs. He is one of the fortunate ones. Too many of the kids who enter foster care never get out of the system. That's not to say they may not have good, loving foster parents. There are many good,…
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Over the past few weeks, I've flown from Denver to Nashville and most recently from Denver to San Jose. On each flight I praised God for the invention of noise-cancelling head phones and asked him to bless the person who donated their's to Goodwill. As one who has flown quite a bit, I don't really pay much attention to the flight itself. It's one reason I love watching little kids look through the window in amazement as the plane takes off or lands. In reality, it is quite incredible to think about the logistics and mechanics of modern flight. When it comes to preaching and public speaking, I have noticed that many speakers don't pay much attention to take offs or landings either. The temptation is to spend all your time and energy focused on the cruising altitude - the body of your message. It is at cruising altitude that our…
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The Christian life is a collaborative effort between a person, the triune God, and the Christian community. God never intended a person to slug through life alone. Jesus promised us we would not be orphans (John 14:18) and the New Testament writers often referred to the church in relational terms (family of God, the body of Christ, etc). The collaborative nature of the church is important when it comes to helping people find their way back to God. Years ago I heard Andy Stanley use the phrase "invest and invite" to describe how North Point Church builds a culture of evangelism. It basically boils down to two things: Invest in a relationship with a non-Christian. As I wrote earlier this week, the best form of evangelism will always be friendship. If you are serious about seeing people enter a relationship with Jesus, it will cost you time, energy, and possibly…
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