This is a sample graph comparing linear growth to exponential.  Notice the Linear growth happens steady and starts above the exponential, but there is a tipping point where the Exponential not only overtakes the Linear, but climbs at a rate that can only be described as Exponential.  

The idea behind Extension Gatherings is to remove some of  the bottlenecks that slow the rapid spread of God’s kingdom and house.  Often, those bottlenecks are people.  By releasing people to be leaders, not just followers, EG’s have shot in every direction all over the globe, and continue to grow by scores daily. 

Craig Groeschel said it last month, and it’s worth repeating here: 

There is weakness in simply ‘utilizing the giftedness’ of volunteers.    The bottom line is we’ve been recruiting volunteers in American churches.  Delegating tasks.  The challenge with this is we create followers.  Instead delegate authority.  Let a volunteer Create something great.  This develops leaders.

Extension Gatherings provide believers to take church services to people who cannot normally attend one.  People in nursing homes, rehabs, jails, orphanages.  Also to people in other cities and countries who want to stay connected to their local church which is hundreds or thousands of miles away. 

The Exponential Potential is not adding to your 100%.  That will be linear growth.   It will not happen.  If you are a leader, the exponential is moving beyond addition and multiplication…. adding something to the 2nd or 3rd power.  This is where the growth is beyond your control (aka, limitations).  If you are looking for story and impact in your life, consider taking you and your family on such an adventure…. to reach 10-50 people weekly who would not normally make it to a service.  You will not believe the impact it will have on you.

I find myself in a good spot.  After an 8 day trip to Russia and back, I’m headed to visit our Columbus Extension Service and team this weekend….and on 9/9/09, I found out about TheNines:  over 70 church leaders from across America giving 9 minute talks online to pastors, staffs, and volunteers about leadership.  

We have a lot of wood to chop….but today is about stopping and sharpening the Leadership Ax. 

Below you’ll find several lessons I learned from my ax sharpening session… and believe, me, the 60 or so of you and the 1000+ people you minister to monthly were on my mind the entire time..

Here are some great 1 liners.  Don’t miss Craig Groeschel’s expanded words below.  

• Find a public zone that agrees with  your private life…this is the mark of a good leader.  
• To reach people no one is reaching, we must do things no one is doing!  YOU GUYS!

• Don’t be best church in your community…be the best FOR it.  This is Inconvenient, dirty, and purely Service. Create relationships.  Engage your community. 
• The key to dealing with a big head is…..a BIG heart.   Psalm 51.  We can Do all things,  but the only acceptable sacrifice is a broken heart and contrite spirit. 
• Pressure reveals who you are.  It is the progress report on your spiritual development. 
• The antidote to fear is a spirit of faith.  For Moses and the children of Israel, looking back at Pharaoh and ahead at the Red Sea, the only thing that worked was to step out.
• The peace of God is not dependent on my environment, the people around me, it’s independently real and true.
•  Worry has been called temporary atheism. 

Craig Groeschel- Lifechurch.tv

1- We must create a deeper climate and culture of innovation coming from within our churches.  The best innovation in ministry is coming from the bottom up.  The whole organization must be spiritual innovators.

2-There is weakness in simply ‘utilizing the giftedness’ of volunteers.    The bottom line is we’ve been recruiting volunteers in American churches.  Delegating tasks.  The challenge with this is we create followers.  Instead delegate authority.  Let a volunteer Create something great.  This develops leaders. 

 Release and empower leaders.  Instead.  

 3- minister out of the overflow of the passionate prayer and spiritual life I have, not out of the natural can-do I have. 

He picked up a discipline of journaling again.   Out of a daily overflow out of what God

I took a break from blogging this spring, rarely getting out what’s been going on here in NE Florida.  One side affect from it was that I didn’t keep up with some of my friends and peers blogs as often as I’d like.   With some travel time this week, I was able to catch up with several.  Here are just a few of the blogs I love to read…

Friends:

Marla Saunders:  CoffeeshopJournal.com I have a passion for Christ and Coffee…so Marla’s blog about unique connections, observations, and thoughts over coffee and in coffeeshops are a real hit for me.  A Favorite Quote:  “Life happens over coffee.”

Jacqueline Sweet: Jacque is assistant to Lisa Bevere, and has a real gift for writing as well.  She is also my only friend to ever be mistaken for an X-Men Character….  Jean Grey.  You go Jacque!

Becca and Josh Turner:  www.rileyturner.com Riley was born about a year and a half ago with multiple medical complications.   This blog really pulls at my heart everytime it’s updated…especially dealing with the ups and downs along with the Turner family.

Alex Tran:  ‘Shrug’ .  Alex is our Internet Campus Pastor and runs our church website…amongst 1000 other things. I love his transparency.  And that he and I were both up  at 12 a.m. the night Facebook gave out url’s.

Duncan McFadzean: Fourthspace.  Scotlands finest…”Discussions and stories of kingdom living and missional praxis”.  He especially gives great insight into conferences he’s attended…incredibly thorough, and is doing innovative kingdom work with micro financing and missional business.

Thinkers and World Shifters

These people have even more of a global stage and stretch my brain often.  It’s often painful but necessary to embrace some thoughts they share.

Stovall Weems:  www.stovallweems.com.    Yes, I am an associate pastor working under him…which completely explains 1 obvious reaons why he stretches my brain.   In an age where ‘attractional church’ has become a buzzword amongst megachurch critics, he unapologetically believes that a church service including worship that doesn’t apologize for the presence of God and preaching that accentuates the principles of prayer and fasting not only ‘work’, but are necessary. He also makes no qualms about leadership…once twittering, “Embrace the difficult and painful decision of being a leader.”

Charles Lee:  www.charlestlee.com.  Charles takes social justice operating from the church body and gives it arms and legs.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he up and moves to the poorest or most oppressed place on the planet, radically changes the landscape spiritual, economically, and socially,  and meets the pope before he dies.

Dave Gibbons:  http://davegibbons.tv.  “Third culture is the mindset and will to love, learn and serve in any culture even in the midst of pain and discomfort. In short, 3rdCulture is PAINFUL ADAPTATION.”

Today, George Lawson had $60, a bus ticket home to Indiana, some khaki pants, a t-shirt, and a blue mesh bag.  Back near Indianapolis, his wife and 3 kids are waiting on him right now…he’s probably asleep on the bus from Atlanta right about now.

George and I were both at the back of the line of 14 people in Lake City, Florida this afternoon at the Greyhound Station.   Neither George nor I felt compelled to be rude…and both let an older lady go in front of us and chose to go on the bus last,  then we ended up sitting together for the 1 hour trek to Jacksonville on the front seat.

I was finishing the edits on a guest blog for our senior pastor’s blog today, and George introduced himself.  He said, “I just got out of prison.”

I’d just got out of Valdosta, Georgia.  It was my first trip on a Greyhound bus…the most economical way to catch a ride home after a couple of days with some old friends, but they had car troubles.  So Greyhound it was.

Sitting next to George, I couldn’t help but notice he had some impressive tattoos.   That should have tipped me off right?  Or maybe the fact that a law enforcement officer had chaperoned him at the bus stop until he got on the bus….. sometimes I just don’t pay attention too well..

More than huge biceps and massive tatts, George had even more impressive stories…..  How his oldest son, 21 years old… was in college working on being a lawyer.  How his 2 teenage daughters were eagerly awaiting him with his wife.  How he and his wife had been together since senior year of high school in 1989- and had endured almost 2000 days apart, with only 2 live visits in between.   And how he’d found Christ in a dark prison, at the end of his rope- but finally ready to put God first in his life.

I told George I goto jails for a living.  Taking church to people who don’t get to go…he took this moment to shake my hand.   I felt like I had street cred…

We spent the next hour talking on and off….I wanted to give him time to soak in the sights and nature…he hadn’t been outside the prison walls in 31 months.  I asked him questions about life on the inside.   He said he’s had problems being thankful and content earlier in his life…and that led him to stealing.   And it hit him…he thought was stealing for himself, but it all came full circle, and what he really stole and lost forever over 5 years from his own life.

I told George he was blessed.  He’d get to see his son graduate law school.  His daughters get married.   His grandbabies come into the world….and he’d savor every moment.  I told him that if anyone ever had a problem with thankfulness, they just needed to spend 6 months…heck, 6 nights..on lockdown.

George is content to be fully present in the life of his family, friends…and ultimately, his own life.  We have a way of checking out on those we love…even on ourselves.   It took checking out literally for almost 2000 days for George to weight it all out.  He said it came to him laying on his bunk one night.  That God must really love him for his family to stick with him through everything.  It changed this tough guy forever.

So George took the ride home.  And I’m sure of one thing….he’s relishing his moments like never before.   Me, I got off the bus thankful for another God moment.   A chance to meet a total stranger but get real insight into the lives God has ordained for me to intersect.   God is way smart.

With recent transitions, our blog was down a few days.  You’ll see a noticeably different tone in the months to come…. very outreach oriented…  I’ve spent the last 3 weeks getting to know my new ministry team….the 25+ people at Celebration Church who are Extension Service Hosts.   Last week I had the time of my life with a bunch of them…preached down at the Homeless ministry our church does on Sunday nights near the end of Beach BLVD and A1A.  It was truly amazing. I’ve got some good stuff to share in the days to come….we hit Costa Rica on Friday and it will be ON!   Expect guest blogs, updates, and more.

It’s great to be back!  Check our guest blog today over at our Senior Pastor Stovall Weems blog.

-John

We are at a place now where doors are opening at several detention centers in the Jacksonville area to bring the Celebration services and volunteers in.   I’d like to ask my subscribers to pray that we not only get in, but have a consistent lasting presence in as many of these places as possible.   What has happened at the St. Johns County Jail has been exceptional….now running 4 services a week there with around 50 inmates attending…. but it took 2 years to build the relationships and earn the trust to get in there.   We are currently in that ‘building trust’ stage with several facilities.

If you have relationship with a jail, rehab center, homeless shelter, etc, I’d love to hear from you.  We’d also like to hear from you if you are interested in joining our team of over 50 volunteers that visits these facilities- either weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.  We currently have a total combined ministry to some 400 people a month in places like this throughout Jacksonville, but I feel we are just scratching the surface.

I read this quote today, “to journey and not be changed is to be a nomad.  To change without journeying is to be chameleon.  To journey and be transformed is to be a pilgrim.”

I can think of 4 distinct journeys in my life, and in every one, I encountered a cast of characters who all had one big thing in common…. a love for the movie, “The Princess Bride” .   I always get  good buzz when thinking of it.  Amongst other things, it was the movie Rachel and I were watched on our second date.

So throw me your favorite quotes or/and Princess Bride Stories….I’ll begin…

“You’ve been mostly dead all day.”- Fesik

I spoke 2 weeks back to our college crew at “College Life”, wrapping up the ‘Practical Atheist’ series.  As always, it was a great time, and I made some great connections afterward with several passionate students….a couple who wanted to get involved in the prison ministry, several who were interested in bringing extension services to places like FSU and Valdosta…

So check out the podcast here.   And next time I invite you to College Life, give it a try!

10 months ago at the end of a 10 day fast, our lead pastor, Pastor Stovall Weems, launched an initiative known as Multi-Gatherings/ Extension Services.  Today, we announced to Celebration St. Johns Campus that we have accepted his invitation to take the lead staff positions over all the Extension Services and Hosts of Celebration Church. It’s a great honor and an exciting time, as this movement promises to be an incredible venue for God to reach people in rehab centers, hospitals, military bases/vessels, jails, prisons, colleges, schools, and more.

The beginning of this season signals an end to our season as campus pastors in the St. Johns community.  Rachel and I will continue to attend St. Johns Campus as our ‘home campus’, but will also be rotating to our other campuses and extensions on weekends to oversee and provide support to our extension services and hosts.

Our church is bringing new leadership to St. Johns with our great friends Pastors Dennis and Debbie Heald.  Amongst other endeavors, Dennis has long played a leading role in men’s ministries at Celebration, specifically overseeing the parking/ushers/security teams at multiple campuses – all the while gathering men, discipling them, and bringing unparallelled strength to the church men’s ministry.   Debbie has been on staff for over 5 years, with concentrations in women’s ministry (Shine), youth ministry, and college ministry.  She’s been the fuel that kept the youth motor running at all campuses, and she’s equally excited to take on this new role.  They will be great representatives of our Pastors Stovall and Kerri at the campus.

So we can’t wait to take the church to the 4 corners of creation!  It’s been a strong desire in my heart that God planted in me during 1 Prayer last year that God would multiply the number of churches/plants out of the special work He is doing at Celebration.   The Extension Services are a large part of that dream, as they are the first step in a community group becoming a ‘campus’.  The idea of an extension service is to take the church to people rather than trying to get people to church…a ‘reverse bus ministry’ so to speak.   So far, we’ve had 2 extension services morph into full fledged campuses.   Here’s a description of Extension Services from www.stovallweems.com.

Rachel and I started an extension service in the St. Johns County jail the first week the dvd’s of the weekend service were duplicated.   I was touched by how the prisoners loved the worship music, sang along, closed their eyes, and authentically connected to God.   The message portion by Pastor Stovall was also crucial, because the temptation in jails is to focus exclusively on heaven/hell….but rarely on how to follow Jesus in your family, marriage, friendships, career, etc.

That one service with 8 boys has grown to over 100 inmates spanning 4 facilities and 6 services… in our ‘free time’ -outside of working in the day to day campus operations.    We believe that in this next season, God will really stir up and equip people in the Extension Service/multi-gathering movement going on here.   Already in the past 2 weeks, we’ve had numerous inquiries about Orlando, UCF, FSU, Valdosta, Palm Coast, Palatka, Starke, and Tampa.  Rachel and I will be following up on these as this transition occurs.

Rachel and I have been at the St. Johns Campus of Celebration Church since it’s launch in 2005.   The friendships/relationships and family we have gained over this time are a real treasure to us, which we will continue as we are ‘one church, with many campuses’.   We are very grateful to serve with you.   For those involved in extension services/gatherings, we cannot wait to meet you all, encourage you, and grow the kingdom together.

-John and Rachel

I hit the Monday wall and caved yesterday after the craziest school year I can remember.  I went to Blockbuster and rented Gladiator.  This one liner came back to me almost immediately…

“What we do in life echoes in eternity”-Maximus

What are some of your favorite one liners?