I get asked a single question often: What ONE thing will help me when I am in a smaller town, with a smaller budget, with a smaller building and with a ________________ <—- fill your excuse in there.

I say it time and time again. the #1 thing is to EXPAND and GROW in your leadership and walk with JESUS! // OK…and how do I do that?  // YOU GET WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN THERE! I find it amazing that every team has a COACH. The best players can’t even see what is happening the way a COACH can.

He or she has BEEN THERE, they SEE what you don’t see in the heat of the battle! They calmly steer you to PERFORM, not tell you what to do! And sometimes they chew on you a little bit, to get the best out of you that is possible!

I am coached every week and it is the BEST thing I have ever done. Our church PAYS for it every month. It is the BEST investment I can make and has returned 1 million-fold. No joke.

I run THE STICKS coaching network and get calls all the time, and that is an awesome step 1. Then, I usually get the e-mail:

Dear Charles: I really want to do coaching, but we don’t want to invest in it right now. Our leadership doesn’t feel it is the best investment currently. Thanks, ____________.

So doing the same thing you keep doing with no success is the definition of insanity. There is NO GREATER investment you could make! That’s like starting a restaurant and not wanting to invest in cooking equipment, so your sales continue to plummet and you can’t figure out why. Everyone says that you have a great menu, a kind staff, a nice location, even the right dinner music and those cool faucets/sinks in the restrooms, but the food isn’t cooked [and this is not a sushi place:], and maybe you should by something to cook with. TO this you reply: “Well, we can’t afford it at this time…maybe one day.”

Or that is like not investing into your 401K plan just hoping something will happen! You have to INVEST!

For real…that is what it’s like. I don’t care if you use our network [I care about the KINGDOM!], GO GET A COACH! It will change everything. Mine will be calling me in exactly 25 minutes…and I can’t wait.

Want some help with coaching in our network or a recommendation to another one? e-mail me: chazzdaddy17@gmail.com

“Without wise leadership, a nation falls;  there is safety in having many advisers.” [Proverbs 11.14]

“Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.” [Proverbs 15.22]

This post has been percolating for quite some time. If we are going to SHUT HELL UP, we have to SHUT [the] HELL UP!

After 12 years of ministry, I have witnessed:

Worship Wars // Purpose-Mission Statement Focus-Leadership Focus // House Church-Cell Church Movements // The Emergent Movement // The Social Media Revolution // The “Missional” Movement // The “Attractional” Movement // Social Justice Revolution // Theological Re-immergence in the Reformed Movement. // Plus Many Others!

While I understand that everyone has a unique calling from God and wants to promote “their” way and the way that the church is supposedly going in their eyes [in the next decade with research to boot]…I still see a vast array of beauty called the BODY OF CHRIST. Glad we aren’t all kidneys or gall bladders or colons! [You figure out the colons].

So, please…SHUT [the] HELL UP! Stop telling us that YOU and YOUR group have the answers to where the church is going in America, the world, your backyard or on your screen, because you don’t know what Jesus is going to do! Stop throwing rocks at models that are bringing people to Jesus just because it isn’t exactly the way that you would do it!

I see missional, attractional, reformed, arminian, traditional, contemporary, house, bar, barn, field, social justice-oriented, build a building oriented, outreach focused, discipleship focused, liturgical, insense-swinging, candle-lighting, robe wearing, choir singing, KJV-only [well, kind of], rock and roll circus and lights show, video preachers, on-line campuses, multi-sites, barely 1 site, spirit-filled, spirit-killed, and blah, blah, blah…and I see JESUS being lifted up on high and the GOSPEL being presented and DISCIPLES being formed! WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH THAT?

The church of Jesus cannot be contained to one form, one book, one conference, one theology, one best-practice, or one anything. IT TAKES ALL OF US WORKING TOGETHER as the beautiful, different parts of the body and bride of Christ!

HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THE BODY OF CHRIST! How beautiful is the GOSPEL! How beautiful is the multitude of expressions that hold up the GLORY of God and HIS BRIDE! We need all the parts of the body! <— Take that to the bank, because it is Scripture!

So STOP TRYING TO TELL EVERYONE WHERE THE CHURCH IS GOING, and stop throwing rocks at the other models. THIS IS THE NEW “DENOMINATIONAL WARS of MY GENERATION!”  Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! S-H-U-T   U-P! [This is especially troubling in smaller communities, where everyone knows everyone and every ministry knows every ministry!]

I hear people discussing broadly one particular pastor/blogger who left his church to “find a better way of making disciples” than the seemingly 1,000 or so that sat before him every weekend. Talking about being stressed out, burned out, weekend-focused, etc. He and his family [whom I respect] are now embarking on a new venture where I assume it is easier and less stressful to make disciples?!?!?!?! Last time I checked, Jesus kind of died at a young age for His calling and had no where to lay His head. Had he not been the Son of God, I wonder how “stressed” out and “burned” out Jesus would have felt if He were not God? Maybe that is why Jesus OFTEN withdrew to lonely places to pray?

The problem isn’t the MODEL…welcome to ministry in the way God has wired you. Now go do it! AND DON’T WORRY, IT WILL CHANGE OVER YOUR LIFE-TIME! [It's OK!] You will get burned out and stressed out and not as passionate in several years of your new run too.

So drop the throwing rocks and publicly bashing what you built in the first place. Let God decide what to do with the church that I hope he called you to help build in the first place…did He change His mind or did you hear wrong in sin?

If a “model” or “move of God” isn’t for you, but it holds the gospel and Christ on high, then leave it alone! Drop your rocks, stop trying to sell books and conference tickets and do what God has called you to do and leave everyone else alone. I believe that when we do this, we will begin to shut down hell…when we shut [the] hell up and worry and pursue the way God has wired our part of HIS BODY! Leave the foot or hand or heart or eye to do it’s work and you keep doing yours!

Until then, write posts, books, conferences and other various matters that show you have it figured out. I’m sure that your theology is almost 100% on the money too, and there is no room for discussion there either.

Yes, the church must change! Yes, I have changed a lot and these voice need to be heard. But please, stop throwing rocks as you move to the passion God has for you. I prefer subtle shifts as the Spirit leads with emerging voices of truth [because all of them have aspects of truth in them! Some more than others, some you resonate more with, some you don't!] All models, visions, dream and pursuits have flaws, because we are flawed sinners!

But please…let’s build HIS kingdom together and take a cue from friends like Hugh and Tim. Can’t we all just get along and see disciples being formed and hell losing population? Denominations seem to be dying and our personal missions and our ministry/blog/conference/book groupies are quickly taking their place. [p.s. again, though I referenced one popular pastor/blogger, this was not intended for them alone].

LET’S BE THE BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION OF CHRIST TO THE WORLD AND SHUT HELL UP by SHUTTING [the] HELL UP unless we have something beneficial or at least critical in a unifying way!

Who feels the same?