C3 Three Thoughts

Here's the final installment of C3 Three Thoughts. Ch-ch-check it out:

Jentzen Franklin – Second Session

1. You don’t know if you have a servant’s heart until you see how you act when you are treated like one.
2. We need to be addicted to the ministry of the saints. Are we addicted to what Jesus died for?
3. God blesses where His reputation is safe.

Tommy Barnett

1. If you don’t have some cigarette butts around your church, you don’t have much of a church.
2. For far too long the church has been a club where you have to believe the values and rules before you belong.
3. We need churches where belonging leads to believing.

Steven Furtick

1. Jesus is not our homeboy. He is the ruling, reigning, enthroned King of Kings and He deserves our honor.
2. Jesus didn’t die on a brutal cross so that we could shop and hop from church to church like we’re sampling a party platter.
3. As this younger generation of church leaders does more and does better than those who went before us, we need to remember that we stand on their shoulders and that they took the shots that we didn’t have to take. They deserve our honor.

Craig Groeshel

1. Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about you.
2. When you have the approval of God you don’t need the approval of men.
3. There is a bigger church in you when you get over what they think.

C3 Three Thoughts - Ed Young & Bil Corneilus

Here's some more highlights of last week's C3 Conference:

Ed Young – Second Session

1. Being a preacher is like giving birth on Sunday, only to turn around and find out your pregnant again on Monday.
2. When we try to be responsible for people’s response we are guaranteed to end up despondent and depressed.
3. One of the best ways to get out of a funk is to focus on others and help someone in need.

Bil Cornelius

1. The lack of prayer in the pastoral leadership of the church is an epidemic.
2. Someone has been dealt worse cards than you in life and in ministry, and they’re winning with them.
3. The problem with our ministries is that we’re so focused on people showing up for our services that we’re not showing up before the Father on behalf of the people.

C3 Three Thoughts - Caine & Young

Here’s my C3 Three Thoughts from the first sessions of both Christine Caine & Ed Young. Check it out.

Christine Caine’s First Session:

• God calls us to be passionate about what He’s passionate about. And God is consumed and obsessed with a lost, broken, and dying world.
  
• It’s not just the world that’s lost. The church is lost. We’ve lost our passion, our mission, and our purpose.
  
• No wonder the world is full of darkness. We’ve taken all the light out. It’s hard to reach a world you’re not in. Jesus said “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” If we’re not becoming fishers of men, I’m not sure who we’re following.

Ed Young’s First Session:

• There is a difference in people who are “for you” and those who are “with you.”
  
• When pride walks on the stage, God walks off.
  
• When it comes to dealing with people acting crazy in the church, as a leader you’ve got to be willing to confront them, cope with them, and cut them from the herd if necessary.

C3 "Three Thoughts" - Jentzen Franklin...

I had the incredible opportunity to attend the C3 Creative Church Conference the latter part of last week at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. I got tons out of the two and a half days we were there and am still chewing on much of what was shared. Someone at the conference accurately described the conference as drinking out of a fire hydrant. That's definitely how I felt. If you follow me on Twitter, you've already seen tons of highlights from the conference. But I thought I'd do a series this week here on the blog called "C3 Three Thoughts" where I'd share just three main thoughts from each session that have challenged and stretched me. Each day this week I'll post a blog with three thoughts from the various speakers at C3. The first session began with Jentzen Franklin, so here's his Three Thoughts:

1. Mercy is when God looks down from the grandstand of heaven and yells, "Give 'em another chance! Give 'em another chance!"
2. You want the blessings of God? Be merciful. Show mercy to people. Take the limits off of God's mercy. God's mercy is greater than our failure.
3. You're never closer to God than when you are showing someone mercy.

Conference Time...

Tomorrow myself, our Lead Pastor Cole, our Executive Pastor Zak, and Cole's wife Pam are heading to the DFW metroplex for C3: Creative Church Conference. I've never been to C3 but I am pumped about the conference based on what I've heard from others. I know it's going to be a great chance to connect with other leaders, as well providing some challenging and stretching thoughts from some great leaders within God's church. If you think about it this week, pray for me and for our team. Ask God to grow us, stretch us, and renew us. If you want to know what's going on during the conference, I'll be twittering live from there for sure. You can check out my twitter feed on the right of this blog or even better, go here to sign up for your own account and then follow me here.

The Weekend Update - Love Edition...

This past weekend was all about Valentine's Day, dubbing this weekend update as "The Love Edition." Here's the recap:

• Johanna and I spent Friday morning consumed with all things baby. First, we had our last monthly check-up. Everything looks great at this point. And I say last "monthly" checkup because since Jo is now less than 10 weeks from the due date, she now has check-ups with her doctor every other week. After the check-up, we did some baby shopping and think we may have finally found a crib!
• Friday night myself, Zak, our executive Pastor, and Bryan, one of our worship leaders & my right hand man in our Student Ministry, all surprised our wives with a night out at The Melting Pot in Austin. The food was incredible. The experience was amazing. And the people we shared it with were even better than that. And talk about three guys who married way out of their leagues...
• Saturday was a pretty lazy day. Hung out around the house and did some stuff there. Then Johanna made me a Valentine's meal on Saturday night that was absolutely fantastic. She is an amazing cook and really outdid herself this time.
• Sunday we continued our series Rock of Love at TCC. Cole talked about purity and I'll say this about the message: Anytime the pastor models a pole dance, you know it's a good sermon. My favorite quote from the sermon came when Cole was talking about how there is no such thing as safe sex, because "you can't put a condom on your hear." Priceless.
• That about wraps up our weekend. As you can see, the weekend involved lots-o-love.

Skills of A Gracious Loser...

My brother wanted some audiobooks for Christmas for his daily commute to work. To oblige his request, one of the things Johanna and I got him was the audiobook The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching by Dean Smith. To say that our family are Tarheel fans would be an understatement. We bleed Carolina Blue. So I knew my brother would love this book. Over the Christmas break I rode with my brother from family gathering to family gathering and got to hear a little of the leadership lessons in The Carolina Way. One of the things that Dean Smith talks about is that every good leader has to learn to be a gracious loser. He says that good leaders don't want to lose, but they're also not afraid to fail. Here is how he recommends handling loss as a leader.

1. Recognize loss when it occurs. Admit it. Don't hide it.
2. Move to correct mistakes as quickly as possible.
3. Meet with everyone on the team involved in making the mistake. Ask this question: How can we learn from this?
4. Give everyone involved tasks to do to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again. Don't just talk about it - Implement these things.
5. Forgive yourself and others involved. It's over. It's in the past.
6. After you've learned everything possible from the loss or failure, vow never to think about it again. Move on and take more risks.

What do you think? How do you handle loss or deal with failure? At work? In ministry? At home?

Books I'm Thinking Of Reading...Or Maybe Not...

I've been looking for some books to read. But none of these made the list and you'll quickly see why. These are actual book titles. If you don't believe they're real, just click the title of each book and it will take you straight to the Amazon.com page where they are being sold. This just proves that absolutely anyone and anything can get published these days. But on second thought, maybe we could get one of our youth small groups to practice awesomeness...

Whose Bottom Is This? (Whose? Animal Series)

Anybody Can Be Cool-- But Awesome Takes Practice (Devotionals for Teens)

Vi Agra Falls: A Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery

I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard

Does This Cape Make Me Look Fat?: Pop Psychology for Superheroes

Need A Laugh...

I ran across these videos on Youtube earlier this week. They're from a guy named Tim Hawkins, who I hadn't heard of before, but seems to be a pretty funny guy. They made me chuckle a ittle bit. And I thought to my self, "Self, whose day doesn't need a little laughter?" and so I passed them along to you. Check it out: