Kirk Bowman's blog

Christmas For Kids - our effort to help disadvantaged kids have Christmas - is in full swing for 2009. As of right now, we have sponsorships for well over 300 children. That’s at $75 per child. Do the math. Complete awesomeness.

One of the great things about this year has been the ingenuity of our so very generous church in raising money to help kids out.

One of our ladies, realizing she would not have any “extra” money this year, raised over $400 by selling candy.

Just got a note from one of our members who works in a beauty salon. From friends, family, and clients, they have raised over $1,000 and are asking for as many wish lists as we can give them.

Just love it when people get creative about blessing others.

Suzette and I went to see U2 in Atlanta last Tuesday night. What an amazing and powerful show these guys put on. Sold out Georgia Dome and they completely owned the place.

This was my second time to see them. Amazing both times.

It really is a spiritual experience to go to their concerts. They “do church” in a powerful way.

Great big sound. Songs that matter. Inspiration to make a difference. Pull everyone in to connect. Amazing atmosphere. Lots of great ideas to put into practice to make church great.

I love concerts. The whole experience of live music, all the people, the vibe, the feel, the atmosphere.

Last night – Family Force 5 and Flyleaf at The Orange Peel.

There was an opening band even before FF5. They were good enough but it is tough to be an opener. Anyway….

FF5 is a fun band. That’s all. They are Christians but they are not trying to do “Christian” music. They are just fun.

My big thought from watching them: Confidence is a very cool thing.

They are totally comfortable with who they are and what they do. Confidence exudes something amazing.

I heard someone say once that actors need to get over needing to have the approval of their audience. That “need” puts something in the atmosphere that is counterproductive to their performance.

I think it’s important to be confident – in God, in your calling and in who you are. It helps everyone around you relax. It helps you fulfill your call.

“Don’t throw away your confidence. It has great reward” Hebrews 10:35

Just finished an amazing weekend and I’m toast today.

Incredible Men’s Conference. Stellar Worship. Fantastic Videos. Hilarious Competitions. Lots of Food. Powerful Messages. Incredible God Moments.

All so good!

Thanks to all the volunteers and our staff who put their whole heart into making Men’s Conference a complete success.

Hopefully I’ll have some pics for later in the week.

Church yesterday. Amazing!!

Church is growing like crazy right now. In numbers and in health.

What can I say? Too many great things to elaborate on.

Certainly a highlight for the day was watching everyone write the names of friends and loved ones they want to see get saved on the prayer wall. A powerful moment. I just wanted to hang around in that moment for a long time.

I’m reading the reports of so many churches from this past Easter Sunday:

Church of the Highlands – Birmingham - 8 years old – 19,404 attendance
Elevation Church – Charlotte - 3 years old – 7,800 attendance
Newspring Church – Anderson – 10 years old - 15,000 attendance
7 Hills Church - Kentucky – 4,500 attendance
Oasis Church – Nashville – 1,465 attendance
City of Grace – Scottsdale – 7,000 attendance
The Rock Church – Asheville – 1,017 attendance (I feel puny!)

These are just a handful of reports. And there are so many other circles of ministry I'm not even in touch with.

And people are predicting the demise of the church in America? Come on. I’m just sayin……

The Masters – a tradition like no other …..

I went to the practice round yesterday with my brother in law. Thanks to my great friend, Andy Banfield, who always helps me out with tickets. Always a treat to see Augusta National and all the great players of the game. Looking forward to watching every bit of The Masters I can this weekend.

For golfers – Spring begins at The Masters

Easter Commercial 2009 from Rock Church on Vimeo.


Easter is one of our very best opportunities to reach people for Christ. We are going all out this year to invite people to our Easter Services.

Here’s our plan:
1. Billboards covering our whole city
2. Over 400 commercials on Fox news. MTV, ESPN, ABC family, USA prime time and even the Golf Channel (it is Master’s week!)
3. An 18,000 piece mailer going out to our area
4. And thousands of personal invite cards

All of this is taking place the 2 week period leading up to Easter

We’re reaching and believing for God to do great things in people’s lives this Easter.

Our creative team is hard at work on making Easter absolutely fantastic. Should be an awesome day!

Pray with us!

JER 29:7 'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.'

Our church has always been highly spiritual in approach. Not more spiritual than anyone else, mind you. But, we have really focused on worship, prayer, the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in church life.

A few years ago, God started speaking to my heart about making Asheville a better place by serving. More practical, hands on, get out there and help with some stuff.

We have not abandoned our emphasis on prayer and worship – but we have added a dimension of practical serving.

I’m glad we have – our church is loving it and doing it. Some people only seem to talk about it. Our guys do it - and I'm so proud of them.

A few weeks back 135 of us spent a Saturday helping out at a school right down the road from us. It was fun. I think it made God happy. That’s always a good thing.

Crazy week last week – will try to post a few thoughts this week on everything that went on. It was all good!

I had a first 2 Sundays back.

I am about ready to celebrate 35 Years (!) of walking with Jesus. I started in ministry almost immediately after I got saved. So, I’ve got 34 and a half years of experience preaching, teaching, singing, leading worship, etc. I’ve been on the platform doing all that and more for over 34 years.

So we’re having a great service on Sunday. Awesome worship. Presence of God. People giving their heart to Christ. Great day! I just finished preaching my heart out. One of those messages where I felt like I nailed it. They don’t all feel that way, I promise you.

I’m walking off the platform, feeling great about the whole day and one of my guys walks up to me and says “I’m not sure, but I think your zipper is down.”

Sure enough – I had preached my entire message with my zipper down!

Oh well…. Hopefully, I've got another 34 years till that happens again.

Just wanted to give a shout out to our incredibly generous church.

We had Chims Phiri from Zimbabwe in this past weekend. Our church gave almost $10,000 in an offering to help sponsor the education of kids who have been orphaned by AIDS.

Way to go Rock Church!

This Saturday is a Big Serve Saturday and we’re going to bless Sand Hill Venable Elementary school right down the road. As of right now, we have 97 people registered to serve. Anyone else who wants to jump in and get involved, just register online.

Awesome!

So looking forward to continuing our Fearless series this Sunday.

I went through a bunch of scripture this past Sunday and wanted to put them all in declaration form. I am a big believer in declaring the word over our lives. So here ya go:

God has not given me a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Because I am righteous, I am as bold as a lion.

In this world I will face pressures from time to time, but I will take courage and cheer up; for Jesus has overcome the world.

I am a child of God and I have the spirit of an overcomer; because greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.

Whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-- my faith.

God has granted to me His precious and magnificent promises, by them I am a partaker of the divine nature,

I am building my life on the promises of God, not on the pressures of the world

Thanks be to God, who gives me the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God, who always leads me in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through me the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

I will not be overcome by evil, but I will overcome evil with good.

I will humble myself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt me at the proper time,

I will cast all my cares on Him because He cares for me. I will live carefree before God; because He is most careful with me.

No weapon formed against me will prosper in any way. This is my heritage as a servant of God

God will cause all things to work together for my good. Everything always works out for me because God causes it to do so.

Today is my wife's birthday. She is such an incredible person who is so easy to love. This is a little video our team put together for her. We showed it Sunday in church and everybody gave her 2 (two!) standing ovations. She totally deserves it. And more!!


PS Birthday Video 2009 from Rock Church on Vimeo.

Yesterday was one of the most moving and powerful services we’ve ever had in our church. No hype. It was amazing.

We started our new “Fearless” series and I was encouraging people to have the spirit of an overcomer. Choose faith to run your life, not fear.

At the end of our service, we had people write the greatest fear they are facing on a “fearless” card and nail it to the cross. We thought a few people would respond. We were wrong. Everyone seemed to want to nail their fear to the cross. People were streaming to the cross, crying and so moved by the Holy Spirit. It was a moment. The room was so thick with God’s presence.

Can’t wait to hear the testimonies of God’s power and love helping people.


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Pretty darn excited about our new series starting this Sunday - Fearless

I've got a great feeling about this one. Bring a friend!! This will be powerful.


Fearless Series Trailer from Rock Church on Vimeo.

I'm a little late with this, but these are definitely my two favorite Superbowl ads.



What, I can't flex the golden pipes?!




Why don't you try reading the rules?, Shankapottomus

Two new phrases that will proably enter my vocabulary
And annoy everyone around me :)

I just had the privilege of attending a great round table with Christine Caine from Hillsong Church. It was hosted by Matt Fry of C3 Church right outside of Raleigh. Matt leads an amazing church. 10 years old and already running 4,000 on Sundays. He and his wife, Martha, are so real and down to earth. We enjoyed a great dinner at their home – Daniel Fast friendly! They are a great couple leading a great church.

Thought I’d share my notes from Christine’s talk – and our discussions - on what makes Hillsong Church work:

Hillsong is not trying to be a worship movement
Mainly focused on reaching the lost in their city
Bigger church - bigger issues

1. Ownership
Because it's our church
Don’t come because of great programs
It has to be your vision - not just get behind my vision

2. Relationship
Close friends with the Houston’s but always keep them as senior pastors
Doing life on the run
Make the adjustments
Change and transition are not the same thing

3. Loyalty
Presencing the senior pastor well at every level
Absalom drew people to himself
This is especially needed with multiple campuses
Loyalty does not come by being paid
Christine has never been on paid staff at Hillsong

4. Flexibility
“The world of the moving goal posts”
So needed at high levels of leadership
Has to be present in Holy Spirit led church
Systems are to serve us - not us serve them
Spontaneity essential

5. Longevity
Hillsong doesn't grow overnight
She is least at 20 years of being on the team
Senior leader has to provide the right umbrella for this
90% of their leaders come out of the youth ministry

6. Submission
Come under the mission of the church
Matt. 8 - under authority

7. Passionate
No bureaucracy
Don't institutionalize
Nothing slick about them
Stay Undignified
Vision is as strong as the cause it's attached to

8. Empowerment
Especially the next generation
Absalom built a monument to himself because he had no sons
Not built around a man

The prize is always home
Not - the prize is out

Their Leadership pipeline is through Connect Groups
99.9 per cent unstructured leadership development

Back in the day, I saw a lot of abuses and problems with the typical “elected deacon” approach to church government.

Authority was given to deacons – who were not called to full time ministry - and responsibility was given to pastors – to pretty much carry out the deacons wishes. This meant the church was not being led by the vision and calling of the ministry but by people who were not really called to ministry.

The first time I saw a church led by the ministry, I was amazed at the positive difference it produced.

Since then, I have been completely committed to the “elders” of the church being comprised of people called to full time ministry.

In my reaction to all this, I do think I went a little overboard in the past in trying to insure only the ministry was leading the church.

Now – our church has an amazing advisory team built out of some phenomenal leaders in our church. The primary leadership and direction for our church still flows out of the ministry leadership. Our advisory team serves as eyes and ears for our church – as well as sharing the load of creating amazing church. We invite their unfiltered input on everything but ultimate authority for direction still resides with the elders.

We just met with our advisory team last night and they are the best! What a great time - eating, praying, sharing ideas and laughing together. The healthiest leadership team we have ever had in our church.

Matthew 12:15 – The Message
Jesus, knowing they were out to get Him, moved on. A lot of people followed Him, and He healed them all.

Interesting – There were people who didn’t want to follow Jesus. They were even antagonistic toward Him. Out to get Him.

Jesus moved on.

A lot of people followed Him – they all got healed.

Leadership Lesson:
Move on from those who don’t want to follow your leadership.
Bless those "lot of people" who do follow you. Enjoy them.

I love all the celebration revolving around the inauguration of our president. It is important to make an event out of things that really matter.

Too often, we let birthdays or anniversaries or other special moments of life pass us by without making a big deal about. I think we should – make a big deal about it.

Don’t let the big moments of life pass you by without some kind of recognition.

Just for fun. Candler Jones on prayer. From our CORE series



Candler jones 2 from Rock Church on Vimeo.

For you locals - don't miss this Sunday - it's going to be great - CORE continues

We just had an incredible prayer meeting last Saturday night. 225 people were there, giving themselves wholeheartedly to worship, praying and seeking the face of God for 90 minutes. Together. It rocked! It seemed like 15 minutes.

Our whole church is fasting and praying for 21 days. I know of dozens of other churches that are doing the same thing. The Jentezen Franklin tribe. The Awakening tribe. There are probably other tribes doing the same thing.

I think there are hundreds of people fasting and praying in our church right now. I don’t think it would be over-estimating (misoverestimating. grin.) to say hundreds of churches are fasting and praying right now. Do the math. Hundreds of churches times hundreds of Christians. That would mean at least a million Christians fasting and praying. Maybe multiple millions.

Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah and God agreed to spare the city if they could locate 10 righteous people. Unfortunately, they couldn’t even locate 10 – and you know the rest of the story.

When people put down the church in America it totally baffles me. American church is not perfect – because it’s full of people who are not perfect. There will always be room for improvement, no question. But there are some things that are really right about church. This Prayer & Fasting movement is one of them.

If God would save a city if He could find 10 righteous and now we can find millions of people fasting and praying, I think this postions us for something amazing from heaven.

Something Big is Up!

Suzette and I watched American Idol last night. The whole thing – 2 hours long. It seems it’s going to work again as a major show for the 8th season in a row.

Lots of “copy cat” types of shows have come out since Idol. But none of them seem to reach the audience Idol does.

Makes me think. And wonder why.

One reason American Idol seems to work comes to me – they connect you to people and their story. There are weirdos, talented people, heart tugging stories and not so nice people. You see all kinds of people and are given a chance to connect with their story.

We all want to connect with people’s story. I think this is the draw Facebook has on me right now. I get a daily glimpse of what people are thinking and doing. I’m drawn to it. It even feels a little bit voyeuristic.

People are interesting. We are all drawn to connect with their story.

I have a strong commitment to living a life of excellence. God is a God of excellence and I want to be like Him.

My hearts cry for many years has been for the church to walk in a level of excellence that would bring glory to God. No more second rate for God. He deserves our very best.

I’m reading a new book, “Talent Is Over-Rated” by Geoff Colvin. His premise is: It isn’t really talent that separates super achievers, it’s disciplined practice in areas that stretch you. It’s an interesting theory and he makes a great case for it.

He says – Most people settle into mediocrity in life or sport or business or whatever because they will not practice in areas that stretch them. The “stretch zone” is the only place growth occurs. And the stretch zone is not fun. It’s hard. Really hard.

So – the path to a life of excellence is developed in a “no fun” zone. That’s why there are so few world class achievers.

Interesting

For the creative element in our CORE message series we are doing a series of videos on “Candler Jones and the Mall of Doom”. FYI to those not in our church – our church building is in Candler, NC. Check out this opening video. We’ll have a new one every week built around our CORE themes. Lots of fun.


Candler Jones 1 from Rock Church on Vimeo.


Invite a friend and be in church this weekend.

Two churches across the street from each other having it out!

Sunday I talked about reading your Bible on a regular basis. I’m convinced that regular, consistent Bible reading and prayer are the two “big rocks” we have to get in our schedule. They will make all the difference in our lives.

It’s not rocket science and it’s not new. But it works!!

I also encouraged our church to read a translation of the Bible they can understand.

Check out his verse in KJV:
1Sam. 25:34 For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

I mean, honestly, who talks like that anymore.

I’m just sayin ….

When you get the first button right on your shirt, it’s easier to get the other buttons right. If you miss on the first button, all the other buttons are always off.

This is one of the long standing axioms in our church: Get the first button right!

Looking forward to an amazing 2009 and we are trying to get the first button right.

1. Our whole church is on a Daniel Fast from Jan. 5-25. Lots of prayer times included. Cafe open with worship music Mon.-Thurs. from 11-2. Mega worship night Jan. 10 from 6:00 to 7:30.

2. We are encouraging our church to read through their Bible in 2009. Here is an online version of our guide. We also have print versions available.

3. New series – Core. Practical basic core practices that will take you to another level with God. Greatness in any arena always requires mastery of fundamentals. We’re covering: Read your Bible, prayer, church attendance, the right friends, giving/serving.

Had a blast yesterday talking about reading our Bibles - and "he who pisseth against the wall". You had to be there ....

2009 – Let’s make it great!