Kirk Bowman's blog

Today I am at a pastors’ roundtable at an amazing church.

Chris Hodges started Church at the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama 7 years ago. Now their attendance on a Sunday is 8,500 in 4 different locations.

Chris is part of an incredible church planting group called Association of Related Churches (ARC).

Over the past 7 years they have planted 53 churches. 50 of those churches are thriving now. An incredible success rate for church planting where the normal success rate is around 10%. Last year alone they gave $7.5 million to missions.

I love the entrepreneurial nature of church planting and multi-site ministry.

Today is going to be a blast! Sharing ideas and building friendships. Already meeting some great guys building great churches.

Church is a verb, not a noun. Church isn’t something we go to – a noun. Church is something we are, and do – a verb.

So this Sunday we’re going to have a Volunteer Fair. It’s an opportunity for our church to see all the areas they can participate in and just sort of scan all that’s going on. It helps people know where they can plug in to involvement.

We decided a few years ago to upgrade our whole volunteer culture. This Volunteer Fair is one part of that upgrade.

We also started to define a length of service – one year at a time (called Full Serve). Then people can re-enlist or change areas of serving after their year if they want. This helps people from feeling like they have to commit to a lifetime of being in the 2 year old class.

We also instituted a First Serve idea- letting people check things out without an upfront commitment.

If you are a part of our church family, I want to invite you to check out our Volunteer Fair this Sunday.

The best way to feel like you are a part of a church family is to get involved – and be an active part.

This weekend is going to be awesome! We are having a special guest in – Chims Phiri from Zimbabwe, Africa.

I met Chims last fall when I taught at a leadership conference in Ghana. He was another minister on the line up with me. There is an obvious touch of God on His life. He’s young (35ish) but carries an apostolic mantle that is very impressive.

God is using him to raise up a great church, to minister to high schoolers orphaned by AIDS and to empower leaders to fulfill the great commission.

He shared his story of starting in the ministry. He was out in the remote regions of Africa. His only possessions were a cup, a spoon, a blanket and a couple of changes of clothes. He would dream of God using him one day to make a big difference. You'd never know that was his starting point when you meet him now. Now his dream is being fulfilled. He is traveling around the world for the cause of the great commission.

I love new friends and new connections. They make our world a better and bigger place.

Let me encourage you to make every effort to be here this weekend. And invite a friend. God is doing something great!

Last night we had another great Business Breakthrough meeting. We were finishing up our study of E-Myth – a book I highly recommended to business and church leaders.

The concept that grabbed my attention the most was the thought Michael Gerber has about marketing.

He says all customers have their antennas up when they walk into our business, church – even personal space. That antenna is connected to their conscious and sub-conscious mind. Their sub-conscious mind makes a decision based on all kinds of variables. It’s not even a conscious decision. Then their conscious mind goes to work validating the unconscious decision they have just made.

People decide to buy or not, go to our church or not, trust us or not, based more on unconscious rationale than anything else.

He says – “I doubt if anyone has ever purchased anything based on an entirely rational, conscious decision”.

I think this idea is fascinating and absolutely true.

I’ve watched people who loved our church and thought we were the best thing since sliced bread all of a sudden turn their perspective completely. No amount of rationale seems to appease their new perspective. Now they hate sliced bread!

Thankfully, whatever signal we are sending now is resonating with a lot of new people.

In business, church, ministry, friendships and family consider the signals you’re sending. And know there is a lot of unseen processing going on inside of all of us.

Yesterday was another great day in church. So much fun!

Suzette and I closed out our series on marriage relationships with a message on “Delete The Divorce Option”. It was all about the heart matter of covenant breaking.

Our society doesn’t really seem to understand covenant. Covenant is different from contract. And very different from convenience.

People leave marriages, churches, jobs and friendships way too easily.

We sang “I Got You Babe”. You know, the Sonny & Cher song. We were both pretty nervous about how it would go over. We got a standing ovation. That was the most cotton mouth I’ve had in a long time.

All the creative was great on this series – all the songs, videos, pictures, Suzette and I getting to teach together. Our creative team is rolling!

We’re praying for fun, healthy, loving and lasting marriages.

Tomorrow evening a big group of us are going to see this. Looking forward to it.

I had the awesome experience of seeing U2 live in Chicago - on Bono's birthday. We didn't know it at the time, but those were the nights they recorded for their DVD of that tour.

U2 is an experience. Going to see U2, even if it's in 3D film, with friends is an experience.

Shared experiences make life a beautiful thing.

Just got back late last night from the Evolve conference in Atlanta.

Really enjoyed the diversity of guys speaking there.

Some were flashy, some were super serious, some were just unassuming. God is using all of them. It’s pretty cool.

Also loved the diversity of attendants: Baptist, Methodist, Spirit-filled, etc.

The “new generation” Baptist guys are doing a great job. I think it’s time for a “new generation” group of spirit filled guys to rise up as well.

Lots of great churches being planted right now. The future of the church looks great!

This was a great weekend.

We had a “Tacky Prom” birthday party for Suzette at our house on Saturday. We love having people over. Having 50 plus people in our house was a blast. Just fun to hang with everybody. Lots of food and laughter and people we love.

Had another great Sunday. Church feels so good right now.

Tackled the sometimes sticky concept of submission and leadership in marriage today. It went well. I think….

Met with a great group of Connect Group Leaders for a big lunch. Lots of great, healthy groups right now. Planning for next semester that begins on May 4.

Labeled a huge mailing campaign that will be reaching out to new people in our area. First mailing goes out this week.

Going with a great group of guys to the Evolve Conference in Atlanta. Should be fun.

Life is good.

I’ve been thinking about thinking.

Not every thought that comes into your head has to be owned or pursued.

In some ways, we become the sum total of our thoughts. Yet the paradox of it all is, we are not our thoughts. Just because a thought enters my brain doesn’t mean it’s really in line with me – or who I want to be.

A train of thought will take you somewhere. We just want to be sure what trains we’re getting on. Truth is, a lot of thoughts that start up in our brain are not going to take us to a great place.

I’m back in the gym after a too long hiatus. One of the things I’m enjoying about this go round is my Ipod nano with my own playlist. I’m not required to listen to the noise in the gym. I get to choose my own soundtrack. And I like it.

Create your own playlist of sounds, thoughts and ideas.

Think about it.

Next Monday I’m taking 7 of my best guys with me to this conference.

I’m looking forward to the experience. This group is not really my “tribe” but God is doing some great things through a bunch of these guys. They are building great churches and reaching a lot of people for Christ.

In the past, I have been a part of groups or movements who had the idea that they had a corner on “what God is really doing”. It was all locked into their way of doing things.

I am so done with that attitude. There are so many great things happening throughout different tribes of the church today. It’s healthy to cross pollinate and get a look and feel for what God is doing in other places.

Exposure is one of the best ways to grow your outlook and perspective.

I know we all have to wear our own armor but I think it’s pretty healthy to see how someone else does things. Just might learn something.

One of the best practices we have instituted for over a year now is having Creative Team meetings on a weekly basis.

We meet in our café every Tuesday from 10:00 to 12:30. Then we bring in lunch and all eat together.

In this meeting we debrief on the last Sunday and/or last event. We pick the whole thing apart – from sound, to lights, to message, to transitions, etc. Then we start looking ahead.

It’s really a lot of fun to sit with 8 – 10 people and all pour ideas into how to make Sundays and events the best they can be.

We laugh a lot. Some ideas are great. Some are not. Some moments get a little tense as we strive to get better. But everyone owns the fact that we are trying to do the best we can for God and people.

It’s pushed us into planning way ahead on what we are going to cover on Sundays. This is pretty new territory for me. I have usually just started a series with a word from God and then let it go as long as the Holy Spirit keeps giving me stuff.

Right now we have a pretty good idea on what we are going to cover through the beginning of September.

It’s all open to change should we get a “God interrupt”. We haven’t nailed it all down as an exact science but it’s really been a good move for us.

Life is better as a team sport.

BTW, this Sunday will be a blast. Suzette and I are continuing in the “More Than A Feeling” series. We’re going to do something this Sunday we’ve never done before. Hope it works! Be at church on time, seats are getting hard to find!

Today is the birthday of my absolute favorite person on the planet. Suzette.

Outside of salvation, there is no greater thing God has blessed me with than giving me Suzette to share life with.

She is fun, loves God, loves people and loves life. She is absolutely gorgeous - both inside and out. She is totally sincere and authentic. There is not a mean bone in her body.

I have been enamored with her for 30 years. I can't imagine my life without her.

We sat at a sidewalk cafe in Paris celebrating our 20th anniversary a few years ago. I told her "I've never met another woman that comes close to you. Ever."

All the best to my amazing wife on her birthday!

Today was another amazing day at church.

I'm not sure what's happening but I really like it. We were more packed than last week. The ushers are begging me to ask people to squeeze together so we can get everyone in. If we stay even close to this track we will be going to back to 2 services soon. Like real soon.

Totally loving teaching this series with Suzette. Our church is loving it, too.

It's fun to even prepare for this with Suzette. A woman's perespective is so valuable. This is one of the reasons we believe leadership in the church should not be just male. A male perspective is limited by itself. As is a female's.

Met tons of new people in the cafe today. We are attracting a new breed. It's interesting.

18 people responded today to accept Jesus or recommit to Him. Yeah!

This would be a great time to invite your friends to church. God is touching people in a beautiful way.

My home computer died the other day. They say it was a power supply issue. At any rate, it became time to buy a replacement.

I wanted to go all Mac (I already have a Macbook pro) and Pastor Chris (Stapleton) has been dangling his Ipod touch in front of me as a new PDA. I used to be all Mac way back in the day.

When I started to dive into transfering all my data over to Mac it was turning into a nightmare. If I went Quicken for Mac, I was going to have to send all my Quicken data to Quicken to get it reformatted. But then, Quicken for Mac gets terrible reviews, so I was probably going to have to buy Windows anyway. And on and on. Transferring pictures and music and all my docs. It just was not working out.

So I bought another little PC. It has Windows Vista on it. Everything is transfering over pretty well. It's functional. But only that. It feels so clunky compared to the Mac. The Mac I was looking at was gorgeous, worked like a charm (on it's own) and was actually quite a bit more sexy. If a computer can be that.

Sexy or practical. Sigh....

I was rooting for the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. I'm not really a Patriots fan but I wanted to see a team pull off a perfect season. They were so close.

I love to see great achivement in anyone and can have respect for the Patriots even though they are not "my team".

I understand the guys pulling for the underdog Giants and certainly have to tip my hat to them for playing a great game and winning.

In Australia, there is a term called the "tall poppy syndrome". Whenever anyone rises above the crowd there is a tendency to want to pull them back down to size. Like crabs in a basket. No one gets out because the others always pull them back down.

I remember watching a guy so gleeful when Tiger Woods made a double bogey in the 2000 US Open. I was there at Pebble Beach watching that event which Tiger went on to win. It was strange to watch a guy delight in the mistake of a champion.

I like underdogs as well as the next guy. But I also like champions who rise above the crowd and do something special.

Yesterday was an amazing day in church! It was absolutely a blast.

Worship was off the hook. Always love communion times. The worship band was totally on. Loved the roar of worship.

The place was packed and we had to start asking people to scoot in. The parking lot guys are starting to ask when we are going to go back to 2 services because they had so many cars to park.

Ashley and the band totally owned "More Than A Feeling". Everyone on their feet shouting and laughing and just enjoying it.

Really enjoyed teaching with Suzette. Got tons of positive feedback.

Lots of teary eyes leaving as we called on people to "be nice" to their spouses.

These next few weeks are going to be great as we explore building amazing marriages. Don't miss it!