I'm moving

Well, not me... not yet anyway...

My blog is moving to http://patricksievert.wordpress.com

Much love,
P

A shout out for a shout out

I'm really down with Craig Groeschel giving a shout out to Andy Stanley before the start of Lifechurch.tv's How to Be Rich series.

I think it's pretty tight that he pretty much just straight up said, "I stole this from Andy." I love that honesty.

P.S. - the original "How to Be Rich" series at NPCC was pretty dominant.

Profiles of mediocrity!

Ben Arment made a post about fitting volunteers to needs rather than fitting needs to volunteers.

I think that a lot of times in the church world, we're so happy when someone volunteers at all that we'll stick them wherever our most glaring need is, regardless of how capable or gifted they are in that area. What ends up happening most times when we simply put a body into a need is we fill a whole bunch of needs with mediocrity.

I would rather have some needs go unfilled, but use volunteers in areas where they are gifted than simply have a need and stick the next person who volunteers to help out into it.

Here's why:

I don't think mediocrity invokes change in its surroundings. Mediocrity doesn't invoke passion. Greatness does. I would rather, as a church and as a person, be great at a few
things and lousy (or negligent) at some others than be mediocre across the board.

(here comes the prototypical starbucks example)

Take Starbucks, for example. Starbucks makes great coffee. They don't really do anything else that great. But (almost) nobody complains about how their food isn't that great. And, although it's lame to charge for the internet at a coffee shop, that doesn't really hurt their business that much. Starbucks is wildly popular because they do one thing and do it well.

I'd rather the church do one thing (or a few things) and do them well than to do a bunch of things very very average.

I love the guys I work with...

I just heard this one:

"If I'd a known he was gonna do that to you, I'd have called Moses so he could build an ark...

or was that Jonah?"

Conferences

As an aspiring church-planter (hopefully launching by this fall), I'd like to attend two conferences this year. I've got a few places in mind, but I'd like to hear your opinions.


What conferences do I absolutely need to attend?

Going to F-Ville

I talked to one of my friends who lives in NW Arkansas last night to make some arrangements. I'm heading to Fayetteville, AR at the end of February to see if that's where God is leading me. I'm kind of thinking it might be.

I'll spend a few days in the town meeting people, driving around, praying around the town, maybe visit a couple of churches already there. Hopefully God will make His plan for the vision he's birthed in me clear then.

It's really scary and really exciting.

I'm praying that God will lead me to a man (or woman) who shares the vision that I have.

oops

Scott Williams alerted me that my blog hasn't been allowing comments from non-blogspot users. This has been corrected. I am sorry.