Recently a well-known pastor came under fire from the media in his city. The news story placed this pastor in a very negative light. I have no clue what the truth is, but the Bible says, “not to take an accusation against an elder lest there be two or three witnesses.” I hope by now we believers should know not to trust the media.

The following weekend the pastor dealt with the story with his congregation. A friend of mine was there and we talked about the weekend. My friend that has been in the ministry made a great observation: “The structure of the church allowed the pastor to operate in his strengths.”

When he said this, flags started waving in my mind that this was a golden nugget I needed not miss! Structure is vitally important. Many times people like me that are only concerned with the move of God miss this important piece of the ministry.

How a church, group, or organization is structured will determine how far and fast the group can travel and down which roads it can traverse. Please do not overlook this strategic part of organization. I am praying over rewriting the constitution and bylaws at FPC since they are old and we are not following all that is prescribed in them.

In a fire fight the enemy will use the constitution and bylaws. Most pastors want to use the Bible, but in a battle or in the courtroom only the constitution matters.

Are you structured to see your vision accomplished and meet your mandates? This is a critical component to accomplishing all God wants us to do! Many in the ministry do not see this as important until it is too late. This is a weakness in me and boy, am I glad God has placed people around me smarter than I am!

Just a word to the wise…

Pastor Chris

Most of us hate failure with a passion and yet if you look back in your life, I’ll bet it has helped you many times. We learn so much from failure. I could list several things failure can and does show us, but better yet, let me tell you a story of failure with one of my great friends.

My friend will remain nameless since I did not ask his permission to share his story. He has been my friend for many years. Early in his young adult life he was fired from a job selling door-to-door. As he told me the story the emotions were still evident. He begged his boss for another chance and told him he would work harder.

The brave boss fired my friend because he was not wired to sell anything. He was in introvert and not great at confrontation. As he was leaving, the boss told him he he should go back to school and become an educator. This was the stupidest thing my friend had ever heard.

He did go to college and got a degree in education. He quickly was promoted due to his ability. He became a principle of an elementary school and has led that organization for years. It is an amazing school in which the kids get a great education and the teachers enjoy working. He is one of the best educators in the state and is highly respected and regarded.

He will tell you his failure early in his career catapulted him to greater heights than he ever dreamed.

Don’t fear failure – it is your friend for so many reasons! So try, leap, march out, and if you fail you will know how not to do it the next time! Remember Thomas Edison? It is how he invented many of the things we cherish.

Yours to count on,

Pastor Chris

Have you ever stopped to ask how much wealth is buried in a cemetery? I’ll bet it is one of the wealthiest places in the world! Not because people are buried with their jewels or money, but because we end up being buried with the bulk of our potential unrealized. I think this makes our Lord and Master sad.

He places potential and ability within us and because of ____________… well, you write in the reason or maybe the treason we never fulfill our potential. What is blocking you from achieving all God has placed in you? I know this is a common theme I blog about, but I believe it is paramount. God will judge us against our potential (gifts, abilities, resources…) that He gave us.  Matthew 25

How many books, songs, sermons, careers, relationships, and souls are lost because we died with our potential in us and not out of us? Do you think fear could be one of the reasons we restrict our attempts to use or do what God has given or says to us? I do! Fear is a great foe for the people of faith.

I face it daily. That is why we miss our potential – because of the fear of failure. We may fail so we don’t try. You will fail and it is O.K. Not trying is the real failure. 

Leading a ministry requires us to walk by faith and that is going where we can’t see! So we must trust God, the members on our teams, and the people we lead. We serve a big God and I believe His vision for each of us is greater than we can imagine. Ephesians 3:21 Check it out!

What is stopping you right now in taking the step of faith He is calling you into? Look back – has He come through before? Leap out there; it is part of the joy in your journey!

Just a thought,

Pastor Chris

This weekend at FPC is huge. It is so critical to our overall strategy and vision, I can’t overestimate the importance of this weekend. As many of you know, we at FPC are launching another campus this year. It will be our Blount County Campus.

We unveiled the plan last weekend and this weekend we are asking for 350 missionaries to help launch the location. Since we are running about 3,500 in worship, I thought we should offer to the Lord a FIRST FRUIT OFFERING of 10% of our family. If we can send 350 from our Pellissippi campus as an offering to our Lord I believe it would please Him greatly.

Over and over in the Bible it talks about bringing a First Fruit offering. As a matter of fact, God required the First Fruit of almost every kind. This is just another extension. God comes first and let’s give Him 10% of our family to help us reach more souls for the Savior.

Sound crazy? Not as crazy as one church and many locations. God has led us to start many other sites in the seven-county area to reach the 354,000 lost and separated from Him. Why us? Because when He moves, no one else will get the credit. We are like Gideon’s army and God wants to use us to change the way many do church.

Please pray for this weekend! I am fasting and praying for God to call at least 10% – His First Fruits for His Kingdom. Are you in?

Remember, “Whatever He says for you to do, do it.”

What is He calling you to do that may sound crazy? Follow Him and you can’t lose.

Yours to count on,

Pastor Chris

I recently went to Atlanta for a church planters conference called Velocity. It was great. It was the first time I had heard the very controversial pastor, Steven Furtick. I must say, he was anointed and preached a great message about the most important issue for success in the ministry: “Jesus told me to.”

Steven used the passage out of Mark 11:1-6 which is the story of Jesus telling his disciples to go and get the colt He would ride into Jerusalem. “What if they ask us why we are stealing the colt?” “Tell them I told you to.” At the end of the day, the secret to success is: JESUS TOLD ME TO!

That can be a cop out or it can be true. As leaders in the Kingdom of God I pray it is true of us all. Let me list some areas where this will manifest itself:

1. Big leaps of faith. If you are leading a church to take a leap of faith, then it needs to be in obedience to our Lord.

2. When you make a huge personal sacrifice as a leader. God has led Michele and I to give some big things and we did in obedience. Check out the book, The Blessed Life, by Robert Morris and you will see some of what I am talking about. “It is the things no one sees that produce the results everyone wants.” Steven Furtick

“We all want to hear about the blessings He gives instead of the price we pay.” Obeying Jesus will cost you. The calling costs. He gave it all.

3. Painful relational shifts that are required to obey Jesus. Not everyone will or wants to do what Jesus said. Not everyone wants to stay on the sacrifice train. Relational adjustments are hard.

“Provision will follow the vision when you’re in step with Jesus.” Steven Furtick

Has Jesus called you to do something? Do it and forget what everyone else says!

Got your back!

Pastor Chris

It is amazing that I am still writing blog posts from ideas I received while at an Equip Roundtable event. Some great leaders were there and it was mega-impactful for me. During a Q & A time, I asked John Maxwell a question: “How do you read a room and the activity of the Holy Spirit so well?” The question stumped him for a minute and I loved that.

Then John gave us all a great nugget: “I live in the moment!” Basically, he was saying that only today really counts. The Scripture is clear that none of us are promised tomorrow. “Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring.” “We are here today and gone tomorrow.” So live to the max right now!

One cool thing John said that he does is to prep for every day. He reviews his whole day’s schedule and then picks out what is most important – the place he feels he has to hit a home run. Since no one hits a home run at everything, he picks the most important part of each day and prepares for it and lives each day as if it were his last. Great advice!  

Today is Friday as I am writing this post. I am preparing for the upcoming weekend. What is the most important thing I will do this weekend? Preach five services. I need to prepare to hit a home run for and with Jesus.

Today, I am off and working at home. The most important thing I will do this day is go to dinner with my son, Zac. I want to hit a home run when I spend time with him. There is nothing more important I will do today.

Wherever you are, be there fully. Live today like it is your last and squeeze every drop out of it.

Where do you need to hit a home run today?

Here for you,

Pastor Chris

What trumps vision? “Without a vision the people perish.” We all know that vision verse, so what trumps vision? Leadership, that is what. Recently I played golf with Chris Hodges, the Senior Pastor of the Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2008, his was the fastest-growing church in America. He is a great leader and is becoming a good friend.

We were talking about multi-site churches when I asked him how many locations they have a vision to plant. He rocked and shocked my world with this reply: “You’re asking the wrong question Chris;

 NEVER LET YOUR VISION OUTPACE YOUR LEADERSHIP.”

As he began to elaborate, I told him that was crystal clear and needed no explanation. If we had a vision to plant ten locations and yet we had no leaders, they would all fail. It was a powerful point and a moment I will never forget. Thank you, Pastor Chris, for your insight and leadership. No wonder the Lord has blessed you to the point He has!

I know you have a vision. Do you have the leadership to accomplish what you believe the Lord is leading you to do??? You may not need to work on the vision, but the process by which you train, build, equip, and release leaders into the Kingdom of God. Do you have a plan? Where will you start?

The Kingdom must be built and God always uses a leader; it is where He starts. Every great move of God was led by a leader.

O Great God, we ask You for more leaders to transform our world for You.

Yours to count on,

Pastor Chris

A few weeks ago I heard a quote from my friend, John Maxwell, that I thought bears repeating: “The burden precedes the vision.” We live in a day when the vision seems to be all that matters. I love vision, yet there are some things of equal or greater weight than vision. One of those is burden. If you do not have a burden you will quit on the vision. If you have a great vision then something must urge you on and up the mountain.

We all know the vision verse in Habakkuk 2:2-3 that says, “Then the LORD answered me and said, ‘Record the vision, and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.’” I love that verse and use it often.

Yet, look in Habakkuk.1:2: “How long, O LORD, will I call for help, and You will not hear?” The prophet had a burden before he received the vision. A burden is so essential, for without it you will quit. Jesus went all the way to the cross because He had a burden – you and me!

What is your burden? Do you have one?

BURDEN – VISION = DRUDGERY

VISION – BURDEN = FANTASY

BURDEN + VISION = CREDIBILITY

Has the Lord given you a burden that presses down on your heart? God has placed on my heart the desire and burden to build the greatest church since Pentecost – to win the lost at any cost! I will do everything better in heaven than I do today except win the lost. There will be no more opportunity to do that in heaven.

That gets me out of bed in the morning…

Love ya,

Pastor Chris

Yesterday we talked about full surrender to the Spirit of the living God. Let me give you some illustrations to the fact. William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. At its inception it was all about evangelism. Booth had enormous success in his pursuit of souls and the Kingdom of God. He was asked the reason for his success:

“Booth remained silent for several moments. Finally, with tear-filled eyes, he said, ”There have been men with greater brains or opportunities than I, but I made up my mind that God would have all of William Booth there was.’”

“Several years later when General Booth’s daughter heard about her father’s comment regarding his full surrender to God, she said, “That wasn’t really his secret – his secret was that he never took it back.’”

Jim Cymbala wrote about surrender: “I discovered an astonishing truth; God is attracted to weakness. He can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need Him. The first step in any spiritual awakening is demolition. We cannot make headway in seeking God without first tearing down the accumulated junk in our souls. Rationalizing has to cease. We have to start seeing the sinful debris we hadn’t noticed before, which is what holds back the blessings of God. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit and quenches His power among us.”

We must cry out to God in total desperation. We can do nothing but He can do all things. Let us humble ourselves in prayer and fasting. Let us seek Him with all of our heart. He is the answer and He is what we must seek first.

What are you depending on? Who are you trusting? How are you seeking God? He really is attracted to weakness – it is a theme that runs throughout the Word.

Love Ya,

Pastor Chris

As you probably know by now, following Christ is a game of opposites. If you really want to win then you must raise the white flag of surrender! That is opposite to the world but not to God’s.

I know we would all agree that the Apostle Paul was a winner for the Lord. He saw his life as a living sacrifice – a drink offering – and not his own. As he surrendered to the Savior he won and won big. “For me, living is Christ, and dying is gain.”

We must deny self and let the Spirit of the living God take over and have His way. Lately in my quiet time I have been asking the Lord how to surrender more. How can we submit totally to the control of the Spirit in our lives? Is it possible?

Andrew Murry said: “What has God promised you, and what can God do to fill a vessel absolutely surrendered to Him? God wants to bless you in a way beyond what you expect. From the beginning, ear hath not heard, neither hath the eye seen what God hath prepared for them that wait for Him. God has prepared unheard of things you never can think of: blessings much more wonderful than you can imagine, more mighty than you can conceive. They are divine blessings.”

Part of our pursuit and passion in and for Him is learning how to raise the white flag and let Him have His way without hesitation and without reservation. Giving up to Him means going up with Him. Do you trust Him? Do you want Him? Is His plan the best?

Then raise the white flag, surrender to the Spirit of God and let Him take you wherever He wants. He can do it!

Yours to count on,

Pastor Chris