Wednesday Recap, 5/19/2010

Each Wednesday, I'll try to recap some of the highlights from the previous Sunday night gathering. On Thursdays, I'll share with you some of the "overflow" from my message that I didn't get to on Sunday night. Fridays will be used to make some posts about family and life in general.

This past Sunday night brought more milestones for The Overflow as we transitioned our Sunday night gathering to a new location. Outgrowing the house was not a problem, but a blessing. At the same time, we are so thankful we had people willing to open their home for us and basically give up their entire Sunday afternoon and evening for The Overflow. However, this new space gives us room to grow and more resources to expand the quality of our worship times.

We also had the most adults we've ever had this past Sunday night, which was 19. We had 21 total counting the kids. Our core continues to grow as well since we had more people commit to the vision of The Overflow. God is bringing together a great mix of people from a diverse set of backgrounds!

Other than our first night when several people gave initial gifts, The Overflow gave it's largest amount to date, nearly $1400. Maybe I should teach on generosity more often :) Seriously though, The Overflow is practicing generosity at a per person rate that's 3x greater than the typical average in a church. Thank you for embracing the vision and practicing generosity!

The core values we discussed Sunday night were Generosity and Excellence. Here are some thoughts from the message.

• Generous people and generous churches are able to do ministry with excellence.
• Generosity is not...simply giving money. It's giving your time, abilities, and money.
• Generosity is not...measured by what you give, but instead by what you keep.
• Excellence is not...perfection; it's removing the barriers that keep people from clearly worshiping and hearing about Jesus.
• Excellence is not...a goal, it's our expectation for the quality of ministry we'll have.

Why practice generosity and excellence as a church?
1) Jesus modeled them both
2) God is our audience and He deserves it
3) We'll reap what we sow

• Generosity allows God's love to be clearly demonstrated and communicated

If we aren't fully committed to God and the vision He has given us, then how can we expect anyone else to embrace it?

• Generosity is an expression of thanks back to God for all that He's provided

God is the source of all things and when we keep it all to ourselves, we are ripping God off and taking all the credit!

• Doing ministry with excellence means we'll do more with less

We won't seek to spread ourselves thin by doing many different ministries. The problem with offering everything for everybody within the church is that nothing gets done it to its full potential and most of the resources are spent within the church body instead of on the people outside the church. Therefore, we'll do community groups, worship experiences, and volunteer/partnership opportunities, and that's about it because we believe that by focusing on these three avenues of ministry, we'll keep our church united, our generosity outwardly focused, and keep excellence as our standard.

• A culture of generosity and excellence will allow people to use their gifts and abilities

This church won't leave all the ministry up to the paid "professionals/staff" because that's not a biblical approach. Check out Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 as some examples. If I'm trying to have my hand in everything as the pastor, I'm keeping someone from reaching their potential and using their gifts from God.

At the same time, if you are a volunteer with The Overflow, we want to see you not only succeed, but also excel. Therefore, we'll encourage you, train you, and equip you with what you need to fulfill your role. At the same time, we'll hold you accountable and support you to make sure you fulfill your responsibilities.

Passages from the message: 1 Timothy 6:18-19, Ephesians 5:1-2, Colossians, 3:23-24, Galatians 6:7, 2 Corinthians 9:11-13, 8:7, Ephesians 4:15-16