• Sacred Storm & The Mystery of the Empty Tomb (March 25-28). Then, Easter. We’ll see over 12,000 people worship at Faith Promise over those two weekends!

• Finalizing the new entrance at FPC (hoping to have it finished for Easter). Check out the plan: FPC – Roadway Improvements.

• Our All-staff Retreat, April 18-21 at The Cove in Asheville, NC. We’ve asked two other churches to join us: Graystone Church and The River Community Church. It’s going to be an awesome time led by Jenni Catron, Dan Novak, Pastor Chris and me.

• The LIT Conference, April 29 at Faith Promise. 4 awesome leaders, 1 awesome price – $89. You can register HERE.

What are you looking forward to?

A few years ago we had that problem. There were 411 parking spots on campus, and we knew that our attendance was being limited by our amount of parking. So, we decided to build a “Black Friday” parking lot (we added 364 parking spots for a total of 775 spots). Everyone knows that Black Friday is the largest shopping day of the year. Stores like Wal-Mart build their parking lot for Black Friday (the parking lot will never be full at any other time of the year). As a church, your Black Friday is Easter (or your largest weekend each year). As you approach Easter weekend, do you have enough parking? Consider this:

Total Service Attendance (kids & adults on campus) / # Cars in Parking Lot = Average Attendees per Car

So, at Faith Promise, we have found that our Average Attendees per Car is 2. With 775 parking spots, we can never exceed 1500 in total worship attendance per service. However, you should tithe your total parking for transitions between services. So, with 700 parking spots, we can never exceed 1400 in total worship attendance at a service. And guess what: we have never exceeded 1400 in a service (we have 1,050 seats in our main worship center).

Here’s your action: next weekend, count people and cars! Then, create a plan for more parking on Easter Weekend and add spaces BEFORE next Easter!

Wayne, Angie and their family have been at FPC for several years. They have served faithfully in our ministries and last fall when I told Wayne that we believed he may be God’s person for the next FPC campus, he almost passed out! They sought God as a family and yesterday he started as the Blount Campus Pastor. Check out the video intro from this past weekend.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Welcome to the team, Wayne. It is going to be awesome serving together!

However, I have learned one thing over and over again: I can trust my pastor. Chris Stephens, the Senior Pastor of Faith Promise, is a great friend and confidant. Yesterday, he shared with the church that I often push him and challenge him in areas, and I do. But, I want you to see another perspective: he allows me to push him and challenge him. Several years ago I was sharing with another Senior Pastor about Chris’ willingness to let me challenge him. That pastor’s reply: if someone on my staff challenges me, they will probably not be on my staff for very long. What a leadership tragedy.

So my question for you pastor’s: can your staff trust you? Here are a few ways that Chris has earned my trust.

• He has always held Scripture as the highest authority. One time I worked for a Pastor who quoted from the “1st Book of Momma” more than the Bible. My pastor has never shied away from issues confronted by the Bible. He always deals with things from God’s perspective.
• He has allowed me to read his journal. A few years ago God was telling us to do something as a church. It became obvious of the direction and as we looked to make the necessary changes, Chris handed me his journal. For months he had journaled daily that God would reveal Himself in the situation. He showed me in his journal (after we made the decision) where God had spoken to him days before we made the decision about the direction. What a huge trust builder!
• He shares his God-moments, publicly. My pastor is always talking to me about what God taught him in his quiet time. This past weekend, he shared with with the church an area where God had convicted him. He had already shared that area with me, but he didn’t stop there. He told everyone. Do you have God-moments to share? Do you share them?
• He NEVER publicly contradicts my leadership. NEVER. He has talked to me behind closed doors about things that he would do differently. We have agreed to disagree about things he would change that we have not changed. He has wanted to hire staff that we did not hire because I did not feel like they were the right people. BUT, he has never publicly contradicted me in an area where I am leading. WOW – this is huge!

The list could go on, but the real question is: Are you a pastor who can be trusted? My pastor has proven to be trustworthy. He has my back, he supports my leadership, and most importantly, he is a spiritual leader in my life.

This really hit home recently as I thought about the org chart. I love the org chart. It is so much fun to look at it and see the people and positions and the utter beauty of such order. It is an administrative person’s dream! Everything fits together so nicely, but everything aligns to the top. Everyone wants to get to the top, but very few people consider the journey or cost to get there.

Let me be honest: I’m first from the top. Yep – one below the exalted head of the org chart (even though he doesn’t view it that way at all). But it hit me the other day – I don’t want to be at the top. I’m not sure my giftings put me at the top. And that is okay because I get to work in my area of gifting at my spot on the chart and receive some amazing fulfillment there.

Where do you fall on the “chart”? Is your focus on getting to the top or is your focus on understanding your gifts and abilities and serving best where God has placed you? Honestly, the hype about the top is really just hype. Here’s some insider trading for you from the top: everything is harder at the top.

It’s okay to desire more and to look up to God for your potential, BUT don’t let your potential be limited to a chart. Some of the most influential people are at the bottom of a piece of paper but at the top of the Kingdom. Jesus said:

So the last will be first, and the first will be last. Matthew 20:16

Don’t let your potential be limited to your position on a chart.

We start a new series this weekend at Faith Promise to celebrate the church’s 15 years of ministry. It’s amazing to consider that 15 years ago God placed the vision that we live today into the hearts of 250 people. God used so many people in amazing ways, but I want to say a big thanks to Terry DuPont. Terry started FPC as an Executive Pastor (shout out to all XP’s) and led the church for 18 months until Chris came as Senior Pastor.

God has done amazing things through the people of FPC. Thousands have trusted Christ as their Savior, over 1800 have been baptized, over $2.5 million dollars have been given to local and global missions – all for one purpose: to impact the unchurched of the world for God.

It’s going to be awesome to see what God does in the next 15 years. It is a great church with an awesome vision serving an incredible God.

God, thanks for what you have allowed each of us to be a part of!

• Staffing: I never had a class on identifying church staff, but MinisterSearch can do that for you and save you lots of time and heartache from bad decisions.
• Human Resources: when you are letting someone go, HR is important. Although you have probably never had a class in HR, someone like The Church Law Group can help you.
• Church Buildings: how many pastors constructed a building before they entered ministry? My guess – not many! Even though you haven’t built a building, people like the folks at MG&A can help you overcome the building obstacles.
• Church Calendar Management: although I never created a program to schedule church calendars and resources, I found a simple, great program that did. The folks at ServiceU can help you do that and so much more.
• Database Administration: I have a love/hate relationship with computers. When I was in Seminary, computers were just coming into existence on the “personal” level. So, I was never taught a way to keep up with the people and their giving that came to my church. However, the people at Fellowship Technologies can help you with that.
• Finances: most people stink at this area! But, Intacct can help you take your church finances to a whole new level.

There are tons of other resources that we used each day in areas that Seminary never prepared me for. If you have a question about an area not mentioned, let me know.

On April 29th, he will host the LIT Conference – a one day leadership experience for church leaders. The speaker line-up includes: Pat Summitt, Coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, Pete Wilson, Pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, Johnny Hunt, Pastor of FBC Woodstock, GA, and Chris. It is going to be an amazing day – you do not want to miss it!

You can register for $89 by clicking HERE. If you are in the Knoxville area, don’t miss this day of learning from some of the greatest leaders in our area!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’re starting a new series this weekend at Faith Promise based on Colossians 3:12-14. It should be an awesome opportunity for you to discover what you should be “wearing” as a part of your life and what you need to get rid of.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14

We’ll be back on the normal schedule: Saturday at 5:30 & 7pm and Sunday at 8:30, 10 & 11:45am or you can catch the iCampus: Sunday at 10, 11:45am & 9pm.

Can’t wait to start the New Year with this series!

• 2004-2005 – Student worship & staff office building
• 2006 – One year of peace
• 2007 – Parking Lot Expansion & Balcony Addition
• 2008 – Lobby renovation, Preschool Modulars & Purchased 35 acres
• 2009 – Office Renovations & Entrance Expansion (see some PDF’s here: FPC – Roadway Improvements 10-07-09 & Faith Promise One Way Entrance – for the nerds that like to see this stuff)

Confession: I love building projects. They are challenging and time consuming but give some amazing feelings of accomplishment. If your church plans on building something, let me know if I can help. Or, at least make sure that you find an architect that builds to church standards, not to code standards (the two are very different).