A great friend of mine named Joe Putting just listed a cool list on his blog. I need to see and hear this kind of stuff all of the time. Thanks Joe.

11 Observations of Bold, Godly Leadership for 21st Century Churches

1. They seek God’s will through His Word, prayer, and the Holy Spirit.
2. They have a spirit of fearlessness/boldness.
3. They have a desire to build the Kingdom, not please people.
4. They have a powerful sense of destiny, mixed with humility.
5. They have a personal commitment to observable ministry, missions, stewardship, and servitude.
6. Their leaders work together in unity.
7. They make bold decisions based on vision of God and need of culture.
8. Their decisions always involve faith, not sight; even more so when there is no money.
9. There is trust between elders and pastoral staff.
10. There is no micro-management at any level.
11. They dare to do the impossible daily, as the church did in the first

Sometimes I feel like having a blog is like having a dog.  You have to feed it to keep it alive.  Same with a blog I guess.  There never seems to be enough time to post all that is on your mind or what you’d like to write about therefore I find myself paralyzed to the point of doing nothing.  But since I enjoy this kind of communication I will prevail.  Actually the last couple of days has been a bit challenging for me as I was transitioning to a new laptop.  So don’t think I’m a total blog loser.  I’ve got some friends that post almost every day.  You’re my hero’s!

If you have been watching the news or a student of US History then you know that today is a very significant day in the life of our nation. Today is the 40th Anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Many people leave imprints on our lives but Dr. King has certainly left a legacy. Because of men like this, men who loved Jesus in amazing ways, we are a freer nation. I really believe that!

It’s Sunday afternoon.  Westbrook is in the midst of her 7th and final Easter Service.  Gente Unida is holding a service right now that I must get to.  What a weekend!  What a God we serve. Thank you Jesus for dying for us… more than that Thank You for rising again!

It’s been a few days since I was able to post a blog because I have been out of town for the last couple of days. This little trip took me to Denver for a really cool coaching opportunity. The 2.5 day event was hosted by the Church Development Fund (our great ministry partners) and Church Coaching Solutions. I wasn’t doing the coaching I was getting coached. Even more, I was able to rub shoulders with some amazing pastors from churches all over the country. Many of these churches were relative in size to Westbrook. Others of them were much larger… meaning they ranged from churches in attendance from 3,000-8,000. It was awesome. In addition I was blessed to be able to hang out with a few guys who share a similar passion to be intentionally multi-ethnic . God’s word is so “on.” Iron sharpening iron!

Do you have anyone in your life that sharpens you? Think about it!

This past Saturday Westbrook held her first Leadership Community for 2008. It was a great day of community building, ministry training and leadership development. It was also a great day for our corp of leaders to be together for mutual encouragement. They were pretty much all pumped to say the least. From a multi-cultural perspective, we worked very hard to make sure that our Gente Unida famimly were with us as well. Even though GUM has their own band, singers, techs, children’s workers, guest services people, etc… we made sure that they were included in our training sessions. We are not separate churches we are ONE church with multiple congregations. It was awesome to see people of every color coming together to hone their ministry and leadership skills as one body. Leadership Community was just another example of the commitment to being a true multi-cultural church. But make no mistake, it takes hard work to make sure no one is left out.

I got back a few days ago from an amazing trip to the Holy Land. I was blessed to join up with 20 other Pastors and church leaders from across the country for an enjoyable and truly life changing 14 day journey. Thanks to the CF Foundation out of Atlanta, GA and to Emmanuel School of Religion in east Tennessee we were able to walk and and experience the lands of the bible. One of the more amazing things about this trip however was that it was less about tourism and picture taking and more about reflection, rest and renewal as Pastors. For me, it was all about having my spiritual well filled up. I had to admit to myself that I was pretty worn out when it came to my ministry and to be honest I had been running on fumes for quite some time. This pilgrimage to the lands of Jesus, was just the ticket to fill me up.

We visited a lot of really cool places, but more than just seeing them we were able to experience them and experience Christ while being in them. At nearly every site, the leaders gave us 15-45 minutes to sit and reflect and journal and pray and worship. It was a very rich time. Several of the other travelers were church planting friends of mine and I was blessed to make many additional friendships. We laughed a lot as we experienced a lot. For a funny take on some of our antics take a moment to visit www.vinceantonucci.com. Vince is a total nut and kept most of us laughing way more than we could handle.

I can’t stop talking about it, and am planning on sharing some of my experiences and learnings this weekend at Westbrook. Right now, I have a few quiet moments at Westbrook in the midst of our first Leadership Community of 2008. We have pulled together all of our ministry leaders together for one day on vision casting, ministry training and leadership development. What a rush to see several hundred ministry leaders connecting with each other and growing in their service.

Gotta run… glad I’m home but I could have stayed for another week for sure.

The last two Sunday’s at Westbrook have been amazing! We’ve been talking about how to be a Simple church and how to be Simply Generous. God has led our church through some interesting challenges over the last several months, but it’s been quite clear that His presence has been with us recently more than ever. It’s been encouraging to say the least. To top it off, I was blessed to meet some guests at one of our morning services today that came to visit our church because we are a multi-cultural church. After the service was over I had a chance to meet them and when I asked how they connected at Westbrook that said that they typed in Multi-cultural churches in a search engine and Westbrook popped up. They were glad they came and it was yet another confirmation that God is blessing our efforts to model the diversity of our community and the diversity of God’s kingdom. If you have a passion to be a multi- cultural ministry, set the tone and hang in there.

Well I know that the big gist behind this blog is to perpetuate and encourage churches to become multi-cultural and for people to be encouraged to walk with Christ, but it’s still my blog and I like to dote on my family once in a while. After all, it’s because of their support and encouragement that I can do all of the ministry things that I do. So indulge me periodically. TODAY is our youngest son, Griffin’s birthday. Griffin is 8 today. I remember that Sunday he was born like it was just yesterday. We we’re just about 30 minutes from starting our first service at Oak View School. Christie called me and said… “It’s time.” In typical male fashion I replied… “Time for what?” “Time for this baby to be born you knucklehead!” was her response (or something like that). Pastor Amado took over and hours later God introduced us to a new dude. If you’ve met Grif, you know he is a great kid. He has a lot of my traits. Scarry!
Be sure to wish him a happy birthday the next time you see him. I love you Grif man!

If you are a resident of the United States of America then you know that the national Holiday that will be observed on Monday is a very serious one in the life of our nation. Of course I am referring to Martin Luther King Jr. day. This national holiday which is one of only four United States federal holidays to commemorate an individual person was began when President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King on November 2, 1983.
Since Westbrook Church is a multi-cultural church, made up of people with every skin color we think it very fitting to take a moment to honor this faithful Christ-follower, passionate preacher of the Gospel, humble servant of Jesus and civil rights activist.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the main leaders among many passionate leaders of the American civil rights movement. A Baptist minister by calling and education, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. Over time, his efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, raising public consciousness of the civil rights movement and establishing King as one of the greatest orators in American history. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee ending the life of a very focused and dedicated man of God. As our nation sets aside a day to remember him, Westbrook is going to take a moment to honor his life as well. Just as we honor and highlight servants like Jim Elliott (the martyred missionary in Ecuador) or Billy Graham (the tireless evangelist and national leader) we see it very fitting to honor this man who gave his life so that others might know the hope that can come not only in Christ but also in our great nation.
Interestingly, I find myself in Birmingham, Alabama today meeting a church planter that I will be coaching this year. On this trip I was able to visit some of the sites that are significant with the civil rights movement. I spent some time at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and then a visit to the 16th Street Baptist Church that you see pictured in this post. Birmingham was considered one of the most segregated cities in the nation and the church was the target of a racially motivated bombing in which four young girls were killed in September of 1963. I even stood in the very pulpit where Dr. King preached and had my picture taken. Without a doubt the day was emotionally charged. This Sunday as we worship our risen Lord and honor a faithful preacher let’s be sure to pray for the peace of our nation and our avid desire to be the kind of inclusive church that Christ died for. And then on Monday take some time to read more about Dr. King. if you’d like I could even give you a copy of Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
I pray your church is doing the same thing.