Kirk Bowman's blog

This past weekend was an absolute blast!

Suzette and I went to Kansas City to celebrate with our great friends Phillip and Susan O’Reilly as they held their opening service in their brand new building. What a treat.

Their church began 5 years ago and now they have led their church into a great new facility. The place was packed. The energy was great. So happy for them.

The future is bright for the O’Reilly’s and their amazing church - The Rock of KC.

A special bonus to the weekend – Got to see Jim Gaffigan live. So funny. An hour and 20 minutes of non-stop hilarious comedy. Completely clean. Then he stood out in the foyer and greeted everyone who wanted to see him. Stayed until the last one left. For 2 shows!

Hot pockets…..

When I was a teenager, Johnny Carson was the star of The Tonight Show. In one of his monologues he made a joke about a coming toilet paper shortage.

At the same time, I was working my way through high school and the beginning of college at a grocery store. Sure enough, the day after his monologue we sold out of toilet paper. We then went weeks unable to keep toilet paper on the shelves. Just because of his monologue – not because their was actually any tp shortage at all.

Fear creates shortage.

A fearful reaction to anything never creates a good result.

When I drive by gas stations and see lines of people and the reaction of some as they worry about gas shortage issues, I am reminded of Johnny and toilet paper.

This too shall pass. Toilet paper shelves will be full again.

Love building a culture of generosity in our church. Living big enough to make a difference for God and others.

We have built the whole idea around the revelation that there is a river that flows from God's throne. You have to get a revelation of abundance to really go to generous in life.

If we think resources are limited we will be hesitant to be a giver.

Here's the video we showed this past weekend. Enjoy!

Larger Than Life - week 3 Rocks from Rock Church on Vimeo.

Really love the idea behind our “Larger Than Life” series. It’s all about buying into living way bigger than self maintenance.

This past week we showed this video to help illustrate the value of letting great things flow through you – or the downside of getting stagnant.


Larger Than Life - week 2 Pond from Rock Church on Vimeo.

Some people hate meetings. I love them. Not all of them for sure but some of them are indispensable.

This past weekend we had several meetings in the life of our church. Guest service leadership meeting. Children’s ministry leadership meeting. Church on Sunday morning meeting.

I think meetings are essential to doing life together. You get out of the loop of communication when you don’t meet. You don’t get to hear from other voices when you don’t meet. You don’t get to be face to face and feel the other person when you don’t meet.

Some meetings are terrible because no investment goes into making them a great meeting. So make sure you have worthwhile meetings.

Make sure you keep meeting with the people you’re doing life with. It does matter.

Got to go. Got a meeting to enjoy.

Just in case you haven't experienced the full glory of this. Enjoy!

We have a new Vision of The Rock class starting this Sunday. Pretty excited about the fact that we have 72 (and growing) people registered to attend.




On our journey of trying to simplify church we developed a 4 step process of how to get connected at The Rock:
1. Attend Sunday service on a regular basis
2. Join a Connect Group
3. Register for Vision Class
4. Volunteer to serve

We’ve always had a Vision (membership) class since way back in the day. But our new thinking really made us realize the vital importance of the Vision class in the process of connecting people.

So we went to work totally upgrading the experience.

We re-shot the video for the class with a great new set. Looks really cool. Employing hosts to connect and love on people. Completely redid the room the class is held in, in order to warm it up. Reworking a lot of little details that are all about helping people get connected.

After the class is over, we can debrief on what can be improved for next time.

If you're a part of our church and haven't gone through Vision class come on and get registered

Looking forward to a whole new group of people joining the family.

So, we’re in our series on “Larger Than Life” now. It’s about expanding our view of things to live and give bigger.

Here is a video we put together that we showed in church this past Sunday to help illustrate the idea:


Larger Than Life - week 1 Waterfall from Rock Church on Vimeo.

Hats off to our amazing video/creative team!

Today we shot video for our upcoming new series “Larger Than Life”.

We’re going to look at the idea of expanding our vision of God, ourselves, our capabilities and our resources so we can live a life larger than self maintenance.

Standing in front of a waterfall one day a thought hit me. Somebody was standing in this exact same spot 50 years ago and water was flowing over the edge of this waterfall. In 50 years from now someone will be standing in this same spot and see more water flowing. There is no shortage with God! He is a God of abundance and he has built abundance into the way all things operate. The blessings and resources of God have flowed from His throne for centuries and will continue to flow for centuries.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our 19th anniversary than to recommit ourselves to be big people who let a big God flow through us in a big way!

This Sunday we will be celebrating our 19th anniversary as a church. At times, it seems like yesterday we were rolling into Asheville with a dream and little else to start our church.

Over 19 years we have had the privilege to touch literally thousands of lives. It’s been an amazing journey.

19 years is a long time. A lot has happened in 19 years. Lots of people, lots of great ideas, a few really bad ideas, lots of amazing God moments, lots of heartache and lots of love have come and gone.

The dream, the passion, the fire, the strong desire for a beautiful, life-giving, God honoring, people lifting church still lives so strong in Suzette and my heart. We really are so excited about the future God has for us and our church.

When I was first saved there was a popular Christian music artist named Evie Tornquist. A phrase from one of her songs has stuck in my head for a long, long time.

“Friends and faces come and go like ashes in the wind,
Attitudes arise that I don’t fully understand,
Praise the Lord, He never changes”

Amen!

Had another amazing day in church yesterday. I was thinking we would be a ghost town because of the holiday and how many people I knew were going to be out of town. To my amazement (oh great man of faith that I am!) we had a great crowd. And a great service.

I’ve been watching the process of transition take place at The Rock Church in Wilmington. Ron and Norma McGee started and have pastored that church for the past 20 years. Ron and Norma are friends of ours. They gave us $1,000 to help start our church in a day when a thousand felt like a million. We sent help to them when their church building burned down and they began to rebuild.

This past Sunday they handed the senior pastor role to their son, Bryan.

I have communicated with the McGee’s through this process, read Bryan’s blog, run into them at different conferences and watched this transition emerge.

All I have to say is I feel like I’m watching a beautiful thing transpire. Bryan’s honor of his Dad. Ron and Norma’s courage to let go and pass the baton. The spirit of this whole thing has been such a joy to behold.

I know Bryan is bringing their church into a new day while building on and honoring the legacy of the past.

I just don’t know how a transition could happen any better.

Thanks guys for modeling something we are all so proud of.