Congregation Report - ICU's, Ministry Reports, and Council

In our church, we call our home groups ICU's (Intra-Congregational Units). Church isn't a place to attend... it's a network of relationships. It's a chance to be known, loved, cheered, taught, challenged, and launched. That stuff doesn't happen in our weekend services. It happens in face-to-face interactions. That's why this chart holds some of the most important numbers for our church, in my mind.

The green line represents the percentage of our ICU vs. weekend service attendance (actual attendance figures). I look forward to the day that we have more people in cell groups than our weekend services, but for now, I celebrate that we're averaging about 60%. As great as my sermons are (*smile*), I'm not fooling myself. Nothing can compare the the power of getting involved in each others' lives on a practical and personal level.

On a fun note, you'll notice that in December that we actually achieved that 100%+ vision for the first time! Instead of having a big Christmas outreach program, I encouraged all of our ICU's to host a "Christmas Something." A party, a movie-night, serving with a community-organization... whatever. Each of our 25+ groups did something different. The stories that came out were so amazing and fun!

My hypothesis (I don't have years of experience to prove it yet) is that ICU's are a more comfortable environment to invite friends to join than the church service. That's my own story. I never would have come to the Coastlands. I was sleeping on my brother's couch when all these guys showed up for a small-group meeting. I was so annoyed... But obviously the story is progressing nicely. :)

Below are some stats from several different ministry-areas in our church:

"The Nation," as we affectionately call it, is our youth group. Included is Foundation 45 (for 4th & 5th graders), Jr. & Sr. High, and College (I'm not sure if they have a name for their group yet).

One of the great honors that we enjoy as a church family is having friends and "extended family" around the world. Our goal for these trips is not so much to do projects or events, but to grow friendships that will be mutually encouraging. Some thoughts (and pics) from a trip I got to be a part of last fall here, here, and here.

If you're a ministry leader, I highly encourage you to check out ctw.coastlands.org. You will be so encouraged, so helped, and so supported (if you decide to develop a relationship with Daniel and his team).

One of our missions-strategies is to host rising young leaders at our church for a one-year training program. We invest in them by allowing them to shadow our staff members in their assignments. Not only do they learn some ministry skills, but perhaps most importantly, they learn ministry-heart. Through the 20+ years we've been at this, we've seen hundreds of church leaders developed and released.

It was an honor to get to partner with a couple different churches over this previous year. These churches are both pastored by young guys that I've met through a Field Ministry Academy that Daniel has been hosting. As the Lord has continued to miraculously provide a home for our church family, it's felt especially near to my heart to help take care of other churchs' needs.

The Clowsers, Schaffers and Peixotos will continue serving on our Council. They each have one year left of a two year term of service.

And I asked the church to ratify Susan Valli and Don & Yolanda Miller as their representatives on the Council. I love our Council... It's really one of my favorite nights of the month (except date night). I feel believed in, supported, covered, and, yes, counciled (pun intended).

Hope you enjoyed this year's report. I so look forward to the future that we'll share...

Congregation Report - Salvations

On any given day, if your life is like mine, it can seem like we're not accomplishing much. But one of the reasons that I enjoy moments like this is that we get a glimpse of some of what's accumulated over time. "In due time we will reap if we do not grow weary..." (Gal. 6:9).

We can celebrate that our collective efforts helped to bring 118 people to know Jesus Christ! All the little points of obedience... serving, giving, and praying add up to something eternally significant. Thanks for contributing your part...

2008 Congregation Report - Finances

As you can see from the chart above, our income as a church enjoyed a fairly steady increase over its lifetime... until the last couple years. The red line (which tracks our monthly expenses) shows how the Council and I have worked hard at tightening up our budget. While the belt-cinching action has not necessarily been comfortable, I have been very grateful for how it is forcing us to clarify our values. When there is more than enough, it's easy to get sloppy. I know that these years of tightness are a gift from the Lord to me and to our church family.

Our approach to finances as a church family is to teach and encourage one another in the blessings of tithing and giving. And then we cheerfully live within the boundaries of whatever God provides (Psalm 16:6). I'm determined not to fall into a trap that some ministries have fallen into: getting committed to expenses and then pressuring the church to ante up.
This chart zooms in on just the last year's worth of giving and expenses. As you can see, there were several months this past year that gave the Council and I some reasons for thinking, praying, and prioritizing. When / where are we supposed to continue forward in faith, believing God to provide even when it seems impossible? When / where are supposed to cut back, being faithful stewards? Faith and faithfulness... It's been a wonderful, growing, stretching process.

More later about salvations, ICU's, and other ministry reports from '08...

2008 Congregation Report - Attendance

This past weekend I presented our annual Congregation Report. Below are some facts and figures... and (of course) some of my thoughts (you can also watch the video from this past weekend here).
The chart above shows the attendance trendline for our church family from its inception back in 1985 (in my father-in-law's living room) to today.
This chart zooms in on just the last four years' attendance. For '04-'06, we included a fantastic mid-week ministry called "God Rocks" in our attendance figures. I've added the green line above to show the trendline of our weekends-only attendance (the decline doesn't look quite as precipitous when the mid-week numbers are left out).

Overall, since Hilary and I stepped into leading the Coastlands back in December '06, we've seen about a 10% decline in attendance (from about 600 to 550 average). While attendance is important to track, it doesn't tell the whole story. The size of a family doesn't correlate much with its relative health or dysfunction. People are the same way, there's a size at which our bodies function well, and beyond that is actually unhealthy. I certainly don't have anything against large churches... Rather, my thought is that the size of the church should never become a primary focus. Growing healthy leaders (including the pastor) should be.

Tomorrow I'll post some charts & thoughts about our church finances from 2008...

A Bit of My Story

I was brought up in a Christian home and came to know the Lord at an early age. My first concept of God was as this really huge, powerful person that could balance the whole world on His pinky-finger if He wanted to. I didn’t have much concept of Him being involved in my life, except that I knew He didn’t want me to do bad things.

I first became aware of God’s desire to relate with me personally (and even use me in His Kingdom) as I grew up in a small Pentecostal church in Southern California. I remember sitting on the gritty floor of a cabin at our church summer camp with a group of awkward teenage boys as our (not much older) youth pastor prayed for each of us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I was amazed to experience what was called “speaking in tongues”—praying to God in a language I had never learned. Not knowing how little I knew about leadership or life in God’s Kingdom, I entered high school ready to turn the world upside-down for Jesus.

Despite my enthusiasm, in those early days of pursuing the Lord, there were seeds in my heart that would one day grow into a threatening menace to my spiritual life. These were the seeds of legalism. As I grew older, the excitement of that summer camp experience faded, and in its place grew a religious set of do’s and don’ts. Where I once was exuberant about what God had done for me, my “faith” became a religious exercise of things I did for Him (to prove that I was “good”). This effort left me spiritually dry and worn out.

In college, frustrated and weary of my “holy” life, I decided to give it a break and have “fun” like everyone else. Five years later, I was depressed, lonely, and frustrated with life. Everything felt empty. Friendships were shallow, church felt hypocritical, family was distant, and my only thought about God was fear of His punishment. Suicide was an almost daily thought as a possible solution to my pain.

In 1998 I began attending The Coastlands. I didn’t like it at first because people were too happy and intrusive. They’d ask lots of questions and “pretend to care” (as I thought at the time). It drove me nuts, but I was really lonely (I’d recently moved to town) so I kept coming back. As people proved their love by consistently pursuing me, my heart began to melt and I began to feel God’s love for me through their kind words.

In those dark years of not walking with Jesus, I had let go of the belief that God could deliver any of the beauty and fulfillment that I longed for. I would often pray something to the effect of, “God, if You are so powerful, why don’t You ever show up and do anything?” After several years of frustration, I sort of gave up. My prayer changed to, “God I’m finished trying to find You, so if You really want me, You come find me.” I believe that God has answered that prayer in my life. But I have to admit, His answer did not resemble anything that I was looking for.

I was hoping He would do something fantastic to shatter the agonizing dreariness that filled my life. I wanted Him to break into my world with a crash of thunder, startling me out of my depression and fixing my world with a rush of power and a flood of emotion. If I was going to serve this God for the rest of my life, I wanted some definite proof that He had some rockin’ power. I wanted to experience something completely out of the ordinary. However, what He did never looked anything like what I expected. What He did was simple and gentle. There was no thunder.

In 1 Kings 19 God shows Himself to Elijah. This passage describes how God created a great wind that tore apart mountains. But God chose not to manifest Himself in that violent wind. In the same way, He created an earthquake and fire, but God was not in either of those. The way in which God chose to speak to Elijah was through a “gentle blowing”—a quiet, peaceful breeze.

This is such a great picture of how God worked in my life. He used little things here and there to heal my broken heart. He used people to come alongside and love me for who I am (and not what I do). He reassured me with promises from His Word. He quietly and gently showed me more of Himself—teaching me about his loving-kindness and mercy. This has been miraculous, but again, nothing like what I expected. Nothing paranormal. Nothing that would interest Siegfried & Roy. Like the miracle of a flower blooming, my healing was quiet.

Since then, I’ve given myself to God and His purposes for my life. Where I once tried to prove I was good enough (by following a long list of rules), God has shown me He’s good enough to cover and forgive all my mistakes. He’s not interested in making me be good (because He’s so disgusted with how bad I am); rather, He wants to make my life good by blessing me beyond anything I could ask or imagine.

My passion for ministry stems from my desire to see people’s lives revitalized and transformed by God’s love as mine has been. Understanding that God isn’t the angry punisher I imagined Him to be and feeling His love for me personally has changed me forever. A huge part of what holds people back from God is misconceptions about what He is like. As many people did for me when I was hurting, I want to pass along the truth of who He is to others. My passion is to help people see the truth, let it transform their lives, and then pass along what they have learned to others.