Hot Chocolate @ A Coffee Shop?!?!?

Since we are on the subject of coffee this week, let me share a story from my college days:

Roseann and I were getting to know each other, not doing the typical dating thing, not doing the full courting thing yet. But we decided to go to Columbia, MO and hit up a hip, trendy, and super cool coffee shop there. I was excited. I thought to myself, "YES! I found me a girl would likes coffee!" So we got there and there is this natural color/bamboo motif to the place. (sweet) We walked up to the counter, and I ordered some kind of mixed drink. (mixed COFFEE drink, people!) And then my wife ordered a hot chocolate! WHAT?!?!? We are in a COFFEE house, not a HOT CHOCOLATE HOUSE!?!?! And then the bombshell was dropped. I found out she was one of THEM! You know them. Those crazy people who like the SMELL of coffee, but hate the taste! I was crushed. I knew I had to call it off that very night! (We got married 18 months later.) She still loves when I make coffee at home.

This story though got me thinking about the purpose and mission of churches. Too many churches are serving hot chocolate at a coffee house. It might be good, but it is not what the coffee house is there for!! Some churches are serving up a political agenda. Some churches are serving up a social agenda exclusively. Those things might be 'good', but they don't belong in Jesus' church. His church is ALL about making disciples. End of story.

Goals and Strategies for Year 1!

So, I just had a sweet meeting with the ECEF guidance team! We talked business, of course. (YUCK!) But then I got to present some of the strategies and goals we are going to be using at Denton throughout the next year. (SWEET!!) I told them what we are going to try and accomplish, and goal dates to accomplish them. So here they are: (drum roll please):

Strategy:

• Develop, Communicate and Implement (DCI) Statement of Purpose

• DCI Mission Statement

• DCI Vision Statement

• DCI Core Values, Core Beliefs

• DCI Purposeful Name

• DCI Strategic, Purposeful Programming

• DCI Assimilation Process (from 1^st time visitor to regular attender)

• DCI Discipleship Process (from regular attender to fully devoted Christ follower)

• DCI Ministry Involvement Process (getting followers into service)

• DCI Compassion and Outreach Strategy

• DCI Marketing Strategy

• DCI Launch Day Strategy

Goals:

• Launch Day- October 4, 2009

• Purpose, Vision, Mission, Values, Beliefs and Name In Place by November 30

• Programming Reformatted to Match Above by December 31

• Assimilation, Discipleship and Ministry Involvement Processes In Place by January 31

• Compassion, Outreach, Marketing, and Launch Day Strategy In Place by March 31

• 10 % Growth per month prior to Launch Day (Starting with 35)

I will try to explain all our terms, and get you familiar with what I mean by all of it on the evening of Sept 28. SO BE THERE!!!!

We are in for a wild adventure serving Jesus and this community! Hang on to your seats!

Strategy Planning

Hey Friends!

I wanted to give you an idea of where the process is. So, here is the working plan for the next couple of weeks:

Next week I am going to be at an ECEF meeting. At that meeting I am going to present to the ECEF men a general strategy and plan for year 1 of the Denton Project. They will work with me to help correct and tweak any issues there might be with the strategy. When all the corrections and advising is through, I will have a working strategy to guide help guide us. This won't be all the details, but a general overview of the goals and direction we will be heading in Year 1. You (the Denton crew) and I will work through the details and do all that together later!

Once we have an approved and affirmed strategy, we will be ready for me to start at Denton on September 28. (DONT FORGET VICTORY DAY ON THE 27th AT 5:30 PM)

On September 28, I would like to take the evening time to share the strategy with you all, so we can begin working together and fillling in the blanks as to how we are going to get where we want to go. No, not all questions are going to get answered at that meeting, because we are going to work through all of this together over the next few months. But that night, we are going to make sure most of the questions that we want to get answered are asked! It will be an awesome night of dreaming and planning. Plan to be there. (with bells on!)

Brothers and Sisters, God has been writing a grand story of redemption since the beginning of time. He began the story with people He loved, who sinned and needed a Savior. So, He began a plan to bring that Savior into the world, and did so through the Jewish people. That Savior, Jesus, through his death and resurrection, began a new kind of kingdom that would be the focus of this 2nd to last act in His great story. That kingdom was to hijack the culture around them and bring the salt and light of Jesus into a world of darkness. We are a part of that story. It is so grand, it is humbling, and so personal and local, that it should be motivating. We, here at Denton, are vital players in God's epic story of redemption, and we have a vital role to play. When we do, the world around us will never be the same!

Yours for the Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends,

Billy

The Denton Project

Hey Friends!

What are we going to do? I have got that question a few times over the last few days, and I hope I didn't seem like a mindless idiot when I really didn't give you an answer. I am developing plans and intentions for this project, but didn't want to commit to anything before I knew it was going to happen. Let me explain some of my thought processes so that you can understand how I am thinking.

ECEF's Denton Project is a restart project. We are going to totally revamp and restart the ministry of the church in Denton. This will mean building a vision and mission for the church, and building our programming and events to facilitate our mission and accomplish our vision. This means that some things may change over the next couple of months:

- Our name may change. We may want to reflect our vision/mission in the most visible aspect of us.
- Some old programs may stop and new ones begin. We are going to build our programs from our mission/vision, not our mission/vision from our programs.
- Some things we currently do may be put on hold to focus on more important aspects of our ministry so that they can be done to the best of our ability.

But I am not going to make these decisions on my own. I want all of you to be a part of this process. So please be ready to contribute to the discussion and open-minded about how to proceed forward in faith!

When all is said and done, we will be a church who is serving Jesus, loving others, and growing in numbers and discipleship! Join me on this journey!

Yours for the Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends,
Billy Johnson

Moving Day

So it is 9 PM, and my house is empty. All my "stuff" is in the Penske truck outside waiting to be driven a thousand miles to a new "stuff" keeping place. My real treasures left this morning before we threw a loading party (think positive, think positive) and are getting ready to leave from St. Joe in the morning.

We are looking forward to the future. God is going to do great things in Denton. As we serve Jesus together, as we touch our community with His love, and as we grasp His vision for His church, we are going to see things happen we may have never seen before. So, hang on Denton, big things are coming. Just let me unload my stuff first.

God's Power

I have been studying from Acts 2 lately, and preached there this morning. One of the things I talked about was how the church was born with power.

Why don't we see the power of God anymore? This question has eaten at my soul for almost four years! I still remember when one of my professors asked us that in class. I have read through the book of Acts and have seen that people were attracted to the church because the church was full of boldness and power. Why don't we see it anymore?

This is the best answer I can come up with: Perhaps it is because we don't need God's power! Everything we try to do, every program we run, every idea we develop, WE can do in our own strength and wisdom and power! We don't need God's power to accomplish the things we are trying to do. We are strong enough on our own!

We need to dream bigger! We need to set goals higher! We need to set out to do things that can only happen if God's power is flowing through it!

Denton, hold on to your seats! We are not only going to to Dare to Dream big, we are going to dream HUGE! And we are going to try and do things that will most certainly fall on their face if God is not a part of it! But we know that we serve a God with whom "all things are possible" and who can "do more than we can even ask or imagine!" So, get ready for an adventure of faith, as we seek God's power and prescence to accomplish God's mission in our community!

Billy's Thoughts 8-19-08

[So, after I met some of the people in my new church, I began to send out emails to let them get to know me and my family better! I am going to post a few of them!]

Let me share with you the Big Four. These are the big four questions of vision and mission that we MUST answer and live out in order to be effective in our community. As I come to Denton, know that I will be asking these questions over and over and over again. You will get tired of hearing, but hopefully we will all get to a place where we know and are sold out to the answers. Here they are:

1. Who are we as a church? (Identity)
2. Why are we here? (Mission)
3. Where are we going? (Vision)
4. How are we going to get there? (Boundaries)

We are going to take a lot of time answering these questions. Chew on them for a while. Post 'em above your computer. Tape them to your dashboard. Write them in lipstick on your bathroom mirror. (Ok, maybe not!) Gotta run. Blessings!

(disclaimer: I think I read about these questions in "Church Planting From the Ground Up")