Three Weeks That Feels Like Three Days!

In this post:
1.  How I survived 15 meetings without gaining 15 pounds.
2.  Our upcoming offsite retreat.
3.  My 100 Day plan.
4.  An incredible lunch meeting.
5.  Comments turned on and Facebook available.

I thought I'd give you a quick update on my first three weeks in the office and tell you about one of the most remarkable, amazing lunch meetings I've ever had.  My first day in the office was Monday, August 4.  Since most of my stuff was still in boxes at home (and I really didn't want to spend the first week setting up my office), I decided to go with a very sparse office setup.  I've got a few books on my bookshelf to give people snooping around an idea of what topics interest me and I hung a few photos of some recent vacations hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

My first meeting was lunch with Dr. Youssef (notice that unlike my email from earlier this week, I spelled his name correctly this time...thanks Brenda!).  Agenda item #1 for me was "Thanks for bringing me here!"  It has been a wonderful experience to pray with Dr. Youssef, talk with many of you and dream about the future of COTA.  Reviewing my calendar I have has 15 meal meetings with staff, Vestry members and other church members and 18 other meetings.  I had the privilege of speaking at our August staff chapel and got to share a homily based on Jesus words, "I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly" at Hour of Power.  Everyone has been very gracious and kind to me, and I am grateful.

I'm really excited about the upcoming off-site retreat on Friday, September 12.  We learned that the fields at the Youssef's farm have recently been plowed and that site might not be as conducive for our event as we thought, so the location has been moved to a site west of town.  Here's a link to the location.  

 This will be a convenient location for many people, and I'm going to put tents in my backyard for Connie, Mark and others who make the long commute from the other side of the state so they have a place to spend the night.  It will be a fun day together (pray for good weather!) and I'm taking the "team effort" approach to planning: Amy will get the food together, Boyd's folks will work out logistics, some of the youth team will put together some games, I'll get my new golfing buddies to gather putters and balls for putt-putt (see the "mini-golf" course in the picture, above right) and others of you will soon be asked to help plan the event.  If you have ideas of group games or things you've seen done at family reunions in the past (hey! we're a family!), please send me your thoughts.

My initial meetings with people have been very helpful to me understanding the history and culture of COTA.  God has done amazing things here in a very short time and I believe we are standing at the brink of a season of unparalleled blessing and favor.  We have a lot of work to do to get ready for what God wants to do in us and through us.  In my next round of meetings I'm asking the following questions:

1.  What are the character traits and practices of the church that we should be sure to maintain?
2.  What are the practices that are keeping us from being as effective as we should be?
3.  What do you hope I am able to do?
4.  What are the obstacles I will face?
5.  What would you do first if you were me?

I won't get to have one-on-one conversations with everyone on staff, but I'd be very happy to get anyone's responses to these questions...really!  Drop me an email or stop by my office anytime.  I gave Dr. Youssef my "100 Day Plan" on my first day in the office and the plan starts with lots of listening and learning on my part.  The listening phase will be followed by everyone joining in the process by praying, talking, planning and then executing our plan.  Measurable progress will come, but it will come as the result of a team-based process.

Okay, here's what happened at one of the most remarkable lunch meetings I've ever had.  You know that the church has just hired Aaron Keyes to be our worship leader.  As a former worship leader, I was very impressed with what Aaron had written about worship on his website and intrigued to learn that he had graduated from Furman University in Greenville, SC., my wife Charlene's hometown.

  Aaron and I finally had a chance to meet for lunch on Tuesday.  We were both introduced to the congregation on the same Sunday.  He knows I have a background in worship, so we were eager to meet.

I drove across town and met him at a burger place ("Farm Burger" in Decatur...mmmmm!).  We sat down and started chatting.  At one point, he mentioned the name of the pastor of his home church, Pastor Walter Handford.  When my jaw dropped, Aaron asked, "Do you know him?"

"Know him?" I replied, "He married Charlene and me!!"

Within a few minutes, both of us had pushed away from the table and kept saying, "No way! ... Really?  No way!!!"

Turns out Aaron Keyes was born in the campus hospital at Bob Jones University where Charlene and I met.  His father, Steve Keyes was Charlene's youth pastor at Southside Baptist Church in Greenville.  Charlene's mom, Pearl taught Aaron high school science at Southside Christian School.  As a youth, Aaron spent time at The Wilds, a Christian camp where Charlene and I first met.  Just too many coincidences to be coincidences!

There's about 15 years difference between us, but after hearing Aaron talk about his theology of worship at a meeting last week, I quipped, "Man, you and I are twins separated at birth!!"  Turns out that actually wasn't far from the truth.  I bet God does this kind of stuff all the time in his spare time and only lets us know about it occasionally.  Amazing!

FINALLY, I fixed the comments part of this blog so you can now post comments without going through a CIA background investigation, and I adjusted my Facebook settings so you can view or friend me at www.facebook.com/billp2000.

God bless!

Introductions

I’d love to use the blog as a place for us to interact virtually and track our progress together.  I’m thrilled for the opportunity to work with you at COTA, and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next.  Let me begin with an introduction. 

I’m grateful for the warm greeting I’ve received since arriving at COTA.  Charlene and I initially arrived on Thursday, July 17.  We met the moving trucks, took two days to get the boxes into the house and the furniture roughly into the right place, then we headed off on vacation.  Our last three weeks in Minnesota were filled with getting the house ready for the movers, saying goodbye to many friends and anticipating the move to Atlanta.  As you know, there are a thousand details involved in moving and a thousand places where things can go wrong. 

So after saying goodbye, taking a few days to drive the 1100 miles from Rochester to Atlanta and unloading into our new home, we were pretty exhausted and ready for a break.  We drove to visit my family in Virginia Beach and had a very restful visit.  For the last 15 years we’ve only been able to visit our family about once a year and have seen Charlene’s family even less.  We’re hoping those visits might be a bit more frequent now that we live closer.  After a few days in Virginia Beach we drove south down the coast to spend time with some close friends who live on Kure Beach near Wilmington, NC.  We drove back across South Carolina and met all of Charlene’s family for breakfast in Greenville, her hometown.  Charlene’s mom passed away a few years ago, but her dad, two younger brothers and their families all live in Greenville.  When Charlene and I married, her brothers were concerned about me taking their sister “up north” to live in Virginia.  I reminded them that the capitol of the Confederacy was in Richmond.  Now that we live in Atlanta, I’m very happy to be able to refer to them as “our northern relatives.”

I thought I’d tell you a little bit about where I’ve been and what I’ve done in my previous ministry.  I became a Christian at the age of 10, and through the influence of the youth/music minister of my home church felt a call to ministry during my high school years.  One of my spiritual gifts is teaching (the other is administration), and I considered becoming an elementary school teacher.  I finally decided that since I had a love for music and many years of study already behind me, I would pursue a degree in music education.  I received my undergraduate degree from a Christian college in Greenville, SC (where Charlene and I met) and taught music, Bible and psychology in a Christian high school in Chesapeake, VA.  I graduated mid-year and didn’t have a job waiting for me until I received a call from a school where I had interviewed.  One of their most beloved teachers had been killed in an automobile accident during the Christmas holidays and I was invited to take her place.  This was my first experience teaching and my first experience stepping into a situation where the emotional pain was very real.  I quickly learned pastoral skills and teaching skills as I built relationships with the students, many of whom are now my closest Facebook friends.  I was able to continue my studies and received a Master of Music Education degree while there. 

After teaching for seven years, I felt a desire to transition to a career in church worship ministry.  I briefly served a church in eastern NC before being hired by a SBC church in metro Washington, D.C.  We had a wonderful experience there for another seven years in a growing church.  While developing a comprehensive worship ministry in the early years of the modern worship renewal movement, I also gained valuable experience serving on the Senior Leadership Team of the church and was deeply involved in several building projects.  Unfortunately, unresolved conflicts in the staff and other systemic problems caused my last two years in DC to be rather traumatic.  Looking back, I learned a lot about myself and about ministry during that difficult time and I am grateful for the experience.  There has since been reconciliation and healing in that church and it was my joy to be invited back to the church a few years ago for their 30^th anniversary.

In 1999, I accepted a position as Worship Pastor at what was then called First Baptist Church of Rochester, MN.  The church was founded in Minnesota Territory in 1857, prior to Minnesota statehood.  This was a wonderful time of healing for me and my family, and “FirstB” became one of the greatest learning opportunities in my life.  The worship ministry eventually grew to a volunteer-based ministry with multiple worship styles guided by a common set of theological core values of worship.  At one point we were at four weekend services, one on Saturday night and three on Sunday morning, in two different styles.  We had clearly outgrown our property and felt led by the Lord to venture into an unknown future that would test our faith.  We sold our 14-acre property, purchased a new 60-acre campus and developed plans for a new church.  We held three back-to-back fundraising campaigns with each raising more funds than had been pledged (the professional fundraisers will tell you that just doesn’t happen!)  I learned a lot about planning, design, project management, publicity, vision, values and staff development during this time.  I also spent three years in post-graduate work during this time and earned a Doctorate of Worship Studies degree in 2003.

Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester Minnesota

Once we made the move to the new campus and changed our name to Autumn Ridge Church (the denominational label “Baptist” having been identified as a cultural barricade that was preventing people from coming to know Christ), we experienced what many growing organizations experience.  We hit the stall speed of the organizational structure that had gotten us this far and recognized the need to reorganize our staff.  A consultant recommended freeing up the senior pastor to leverage his skills of preaching and pastoral care and hiring an executive pastor to lead the stall and manage the day to day operations of the church.  The “silo approach” had taken us as far as it could; we needed to integrate the ministries and create a culture of teamwork to fully realize our potential for Christ’s kingdom.

We conducted a two-year search for an executive pastor and came very close to hiring a successful businessman who felt called to ministry.  At the last minute, we asked a few questions that gave him pause and he asked a few questions that gave us pause, and we unexpectedly parted ways.  Initially, we wondered why God would allow us to go that far into the process only for it to end in “failure” (in our eyes).  We later came to realize that the process of self-examination was essential to our future success.  Because I had been on staff for seven years by that time and had great working relationships with the staff and senior pastor, I had naturally gravitated to a leadership position in anticipation of the hiring of the executive pastor.  When the interview process ended abruptly, the board of elders approached me with an invitation to become the church’s first XP (executive pastor).  I accepted that position in 2006 and hired a new full-time worship pastor.  I continued to lead the “Adoration Service” (what we called our service led by choir and orchestra) while serving as XP. 

Our son, Blair (1992) is a graduate student
at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School

Blaine (1987) has a degree in architecture and
works in web development in VA Beach

Charlene and I have wanted to move closer to family and have been open to the possibility of relocating for a few years.  We’ve been surprised when various other ministry opportunities didn’t materialize in the past, but since we’ve been praying earnestly for God’s will and guidance we had to take even the closed doors as an answer to prayer.  From the time I first learned about the ministry of Apostles, I felt a spiritual connection to the ministry.  I’m very grateful that Dr. Youssef, the search firm and consultants have been very honest about the challenges we face.  It was especially confirming for me to be here in June when Dr. Lawless presented the results of his research to the staff.  I sat there for five hours hearing a description of my church in Rochester in 2006.  While there was clearly frustration in the room that day and a fear to openly and honestly discuss the critical issues, I did not sense hopelessness.  On the contrary, I sensed a deep love for the church and a commitment to the future of this ministry.

Okay, if you’ve endured this long you get rewarded with a link.  I’d love to keep up with you on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/billp2000.

I'd love for this to be an interactive blog that will facilitate conversations, questions and answers.  Please feel free to comment!  Next week I plan to blog my strategic values for moving forward on our leadership journey.  This won't be a statement of what we're going to do in the future but it will outline my values for the way we're going to do things in the future.

The Church of The Apostles is the Body of Christ.  It is God’s church; it belongs to him.  Jesus said, “I will build my church.”  God wants us to be unified, focused, fruitful, Spirit-filled, enthusiastic and personally fulfilled.  I don’t have the answers but I think I do know the right questions and I love the process.  I’m excited about the journey that is before us and I am eager to see God answer our prayer, “May your kingdom come; may your will be done among us as it is in heaven.” 


PS.  By the way, you might have received an incorrect cell number for me.  I'm at 770-688-6164.