Kirk Bowman's blog

I would rather see our church go up in the flames of attempting to be extraordinary for the glory of God than sail placidly along in the calm waters of mediocrity

I dream of a church:

Accessible enough to people who haven’t embraced Jesus yet and spiritual enough to grow those who already know Him

Full of mystery and decidedly practical

Big enough to make a difference and small enough (connect groups) to provide intimacy and care

Great big sounds of worship (think U2 concert) and every person entering into an intimate personal worship experience

Lots of fun and laughing and enjoying the colors of life and enough character to not abuse those beautiful gifts from God

Positive, uplifting, encouraging, faith-filled, go for it, you can do it, God is on your side, everything works out for you, God is good, you are gifted, you are valuable and compassionate enough to be touched by people’s hurts

Non-judgmental of others and totally committed to a holy life that pleases God

Modern and ancient

Embracing all the promises of God and totally in touch with the reality of the world we live in

All about the presence of God and all about loving people

Fantastic, life-filled, inspirational, totally cool meetings at church and taking it all to the streets outside of the church meetings

I have a dream .....

Tammy Faye Messner died of cancer this past Friday.

When she and Jim Bakker were on TV together I didn't like her (their) style - at all. Everything about their show and their style of ministry sat wrong with me.

But then, a couple of years ago I saw her on a reality show on VH1. I started Tivoing the show because I was so impressed with how she was handling herself. She was on that show with a former porn star, a former rock star and several other odd and unique personalities.

She was the sweetest, most non-judgemental, loving person - by far - on the show. She never compromised her values but she totally loved everyone on the show. I was completely impressed with her.

I sat there many times thinking "I would hope I could handle myself as well she did"

I saw her in a restaurant in Charlotte. People were asking to take their picture with her. She was laughing and loving all of them. There was a party all around her. Totally sweet. Totally fun. Totally loving.

The hair. The makeup. The style. Definitely not for me.

She may have made more than a few mistakes along the way.

But her spirit. Loving, sweet, non-judgemental. Wow.

May she rest in peace.

One of the ideas that is swimming (or flying) around in me for a while now is: find out what you can be great at and develop that.

I called it "your thrive zone" in a message at our men's conference.

Fish swim well. Birds fly well. Birds will only be mediocre swimmers. So be a great bird if you are a bird. Because you are gifted to be great at that.

One of my pressures as a pastor is the expectation of lots of people to be what they want me to be. For them. But I'm not able to be great at everything. No one is. I can be great at a few things.

I bet many people face that same pressure in their world as well.

Focusing on your "thrive zone" is huge. Be great at your greatness.

One of the great concepts to go with this idea is called Zipf's law.

It basically recognizes that no. 1 in anything is categorically higher than no. 2,3, 4 and so on.

It was first discovered in relation to letters in the alphabet and their frequency of usage but it can be applied to almost everything. The no.1 movie of the week is categorically higher than no. 2,3, etc. The no. 1 golfer in the world (Tiger) is way above the rest of the field. No. 1 ice cream favorite (vanilla) is way above all the rest in popularity. And so on.

For us as Christians, it's not about competition with others. It's about being our very best at what we are gifted to do.

Gal. 6:4 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others.
Gal. 6:5 Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

Long post, sorry. These ideas fascinate me. More to come.

We just finished an amazing weekend with our men. Our annual Men's Conference is always a highlight.

It's such a great time to get a bunch of guys together. Team competitions, sanctified trash talk, inspiration, playing together, praying together - it's all good. Kevin Gerald brought it. 2 excellent messages. I love the sound and feel of a bunch of guys worshipping God - loudly - together. Lots of fun, lots of inspiration, lots of connecting.

Sunday afternoon saw us sending out yet another team to the nations. 3rd one this year. A team of 10 is going to Mali, Africa to work with our long time friend Bruce McDonald. Very strong team filled with great men and women. They are going to do a crusade and then help a church Bruce works with there. Pray for them. Should be an excellent trip.

Sunday service was superb. Great worship. Loved the videos of the guys telling what God is doing in their life. I'm totally enjoying teaching the Galatians series. 12 people responded for salvation or rededication.

In the midst of all that, there are a few people mad at me. And our church. Go figure!

Neh. 6:3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

One of the things we work really hard on in creating great services is making sure our transitions are thought through and coordinated well.

You can have a great song list and really be entering into worship but then lose it because of a poor transition between songs. The transition needs to be practiced as well as the song itself. This idea applies to all dimensions and aspects of a service.

Transition is a part of all of life. The page turns. Old chapters end. New chapters begin. God keeps writing the unfolding story.

Many church people seem unable to make graceful transitions. This may be true for all people in transition but most of my experience is with people coming and going into church.

It amazes me how people feel the need to demonize the church or the direction or the leadership in order to validate their need to move on. They seem to feel the need to throw mud (or worse!) around on their way out. Is that really necessary?

I think a new mindset is needed on this. How about being grateful for what you have received and then if a person feels God turning the page leave with blessing instead of cursing. Why do anything to damage the house of God? Why cast stones just to make your decision look right? If it's time to go, transition gracefully.

Sigh....

Change is like exercise. You don't have to do it now but you will pay the price for not doing it later on.

It's also like exercise in that I like "having exercised". We all like "having changed". But actually changing can be difficult. We like what change brings but it is hard to do.

All progress requires change but not all change means progress. So not all changes are good but the only way to find out is try. Everything is an experiment. If it's not immoral or unethical and nobody dies then you make the change, evaluate and then make the adjustment.

When we change things at church - yikes. It is amazing to see the different reactions. Change is easy to amen when preached but hard for some to actually accept when we do it.

My dog Leo barks with a nervous "woof" every time he sees something in a new place. Some people are like my Leo, "woofing" nervously at any change they see.

So we're changing a few things at our church. No more choir, giving our auditorium to our rapidly growing teen ministry on Wednesdays, soon expanding our children's ministry on Sundays to be better for our families and our kids, adjusting the way we receive offerings. It's just a go at improving things.

Pray for Leo. And his Dad.