Bard Letsinger

Every Day is a Good Day When You Are Not in a Coma - Nate Lytle

A cool part of leading a great church is that you get to hang out with some great people, like my friend Nate Lytle. In a departure from our normal Sunday message…well not much at Renegade Church is normal…but in a departure from what we usually do on a Sunday morning we did an interview with Nate as a kick off to Renegade’s Extraordinary series.

Back in 2007 Nate fell of a ladder at work and was struck in the head by a hunk of pipe that crushed his skull and caused severe brain trauma. At first Nate was not expected to live, and then when he did survive doctors said that he would never walk and talk or have any type of normal life. The only thing anyone was right about is that Nate would not live a normal life because, from his speaking engagements, to leading surf camps for disabled kids, to ministering to others who have suffered traumatic head injuries, to being named TIRR Survivor of the Year for 2011, and now promoting a book about his life and experiences, Nate’s life is anything but “normal.”

When interviewing Nate one verse kept coming to mind, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

The NBV (New Bard Version) translation is “God never waste a hurt.” 

We all have physical, relational and emotional hurts in our lives. Scripture makes it clear that God allows life’s trials to not only to teach us something about ourselves and build our character but also to equip us so He can work through us help others when they go through the same thing. Something that seems like it is preventing us from doing ministry can actually be the launching pad for a new ministry to others.

My friend Nate is living this out today. Where others see failure God see opportunities for ministry greater than you could ever imagine on your own. My challenge to you is what area of your life have you experienced your greatest hurt and how are you using it to help others around you. Unless you are doing that then your hurt and pain really were all for naught.

 

Wasting Time Well

A movie debuted the summer before my senior year of high school that was destined become a classic, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. At the time I had all these decisions in front of me to make as well as the pressure I felt from  coaches, teachers, parents as well as myself to succeed and accomplish all the goals that were set before me. But then one line from the movie changed my whole perspective. 

This week at Renegade Church I did a message called “Time Well Wasted” in our series “Life Lessons from Brad Paisley”. The song and the clip go together well. Life does move pretty fast….and then unexpectedly, poof, it’s gone, and we look around wondering "What just happned?!?" Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 9:9 “Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity;” The Hebrew word for  “vain/vanity” means breath or vapor. Simply, life is like the soap bubbles kids play with, existing for a brief moment... then gone, poof, with little evidence that it was ever there. So when we think about all the things we stress ourselves out trying to accomplish, what good are they if they cause us to speed through life and miss out on all the relationships and moments that truly make life rich?

Take a minute to listen to the advice of Brad Paisley, then figure out where you need to stop, look around and stop letting life pass you by.

 

Games People Play - Trivial Pursuits

Been too busy to write like I use to, but going to try to at least get into the habit of doing a M3D (Monday Morning Mind Dump) tossing out anything that was left in my head on Sunday morning but just did not make it into the message.

We wrapped up Renegade Churche's current "Games People Play" series Thanksgiving weekend with Trivial Pursuits. Here are the two main points I wanted everyone to walk away with.

First: Remember being “Thankful” and “Other-Centered” is a choice.

We can choose to be self-centered, spending our time looking at what other people have, wondering why other seem to work less and make more, have the house/car/clothes/spouse/kids we don’t, don’t have health problems we have, or just seem to be luckier. If we do that we wind up discouraged, resentful, negative and miserable. Not someone people want to be around.

OR…

We can choose to focus on those around us who are in need, those who have truly hit hard times, those who are really struggling in life and when we do we find ourselves counting our blessings and being thankful for what we do have.

Which one of these attitudes did you have over Thanksgiving?

The choice is yours. That’s right… you choose consciously or unconsciously which one of those attitudes you carry with you each day. Make a conscious choice to be other-centered.

Second: How do you know if something is a Trivial Pursuit?

A "Trivial Pursuit" is something that you feel once you have it/accomplish it you will be truly happy, everything will be great, that life will be complete, that all your problems will be solved.

Finding the right spouse, getting your degree, the right job, having kids, getting a promotion, getting a new car or your own home are all good things, but if we are not carful we can base our happiness on obtaining them. And when we do get them we are happy…for a short time, but then they let us down and we go after another one thinking that the “next thing” will make us happy.

The simple truth is that anything we chase after to fill that God shaped hole in our life with to make us happy and fulfilled is a Trivial Pursuit.

 

 

Throw them a Curve Every Now and Then

I love/hate movie trailers. They always show the best/funniest scenes or show you the whole movie (beginning, turning point, end) in three minutes. Most of the time I find you can just skip the movie, watch the trailer and save $8 bucks.   

Took my wife to the movies a few weeks ago and saw the trailer for the new movie "Green With Envy" staring Jasion Segal and Amy Adams. 30 seconds into the trailer and I thought “here we go again, crediting the actors, check, so next they will show Ryan working to make it up to Amy, show the kid/place/item that connects them, show Amy coming around, the two comming back together, show the final make up kiss…” then WHAM….WAIT, WHAT!?! Totally blindsided. Most creative movie trailer in the past decade.  

In the church the weekly service can be like a movie trailer. Everyone comes in and knows what to expect. Song, Welcome, Two more songs, offering speach and prayer, offering song, message, conclusion/alter call, final song, announcments, dismissal, lunch.  Take a lesson from the few creative people left in Hollywood and change things up, mess with the order, do something unexpected. That is what people remember.

Here is an example from our F-Word series on Forgivness at Renegade Church where our Creative Pastor Skip Mozisek came out with a spontainous interuption of the service that had eveyone talking for weeks.

 

So, what are you going to do this week to mix it up, help people remember the message and start talking about your service?  

Leveraging Social Media thru Rebecca Black “Friday” Parody

As a new church still in the planting stage Renegade Church does not have much of an advertising budget, and by not much I mean we have as Larry the Cucumber would say, “Zero, Zip, NA-DA!!!” So we have to use the best advertising every good church has, and that is word of mouth. If your people are not inviting people, excited about what they are doing as a body, then all the advertising dollars in the world won’t mean squat.

One way to leverage your congregation is to leverage social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Now, you can tell them to post something about what you are doing but many will not. Not because they don’t love the church or what it is doing (if they don’t love what you are doing then leveraging social media is the least of your concerns) but because many don’t know what to write or share other than “Another great Sunday at 5th United Fellowship of Yourtown”.  So help them out, give them something to Tweet about or on Facebook “share” with their friends.

This being Easter week that is what we did at Renegade Church. My Worship/Media guy, Skip Mozisek, and I went current and put together a parody of the Rebecca Black song…err, video….err, viral sensation "Friday"   (If you don't know what that is I am amazed you found this blog...no offense. Follow the previous link but warning it contains earworms.) Then at the end of the service we debut the video and and posted it to YouTube encouraging all our people to post/share/tweet/e-mail it to their friends. Here it is:

So far the response has been great, with key people reposting and sharing it with their friends and family and having it lead to conversations about our church, service times, and what we are doing for Easter. Members have even reported their elementary school kids walking around singing the chorus. All this is having the desired effect of people learning about who we are and what we are doing.

We have even had request to make it into a ringtone.

We always could use some new ideas as our advertising budget looks to be doubling from zilch to “jack squat” over the summer. So what is your church doing to provide content for your congregation that encourages them to “Share” your church with friends and family on social media? Love to hear about it.

Out of the Blog-o-spear for a while

Can't remember the last time I had a chance to blog. Way too busy working on planting Renegade Church and getting thigns off the ground. For awhile I did not think I could aford to blog but now I am thinking I can't aford not to. For so long it was a creative outlet and a way to keep my sanity. Now that I am teaching on a weekly basis and the lead guy at Renegade there are a lot of things that eat up my time, but it is time to start making time again...wait.... I guess we can't make time, we just rearange our time, or is it our scheadule, and did I even come close to spelling that corectly, well I know I spelled "that" corectly...choo choo this is how my train of thought goes off the tracks sometimes. O.K. back to blogging. Where has my time gone? A lot of it into our messages at Renegade, here is the latest, the start to our 3G series on the trinity.

Importance of “Making the Ask” at Christmas

One of the pastors who’s blogs I follow is Perry Noble, pastor of New Spring Church  in Anderson, SC.  His church is dedicated to reaching the unchurched, dechurched and spiritual seekers. They have made it their mission  to constantly challenge their people to “Make the Ask” and invite their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. Here are some facts Perry published on his blog this week that might surprise you about asking someone to church.

Top Five Times People Are Open To Considering Matters Of Faith…
• #5 – After the birth of a baby (28%)
• #4 – After a natural disaster (34%)
• #3 – After a major national crisis i.e. 9/11 (38%)
• #2 – During the Easter season (38%)
• #1 – During the Christmas season (47%)

Renegades…my prayer is that we will EMBRACE this opportunity (because found people find people) and do EVERYTHING we can to BRING people to a service during Christmas!!!  Research ALSO shows that the #1 way a person will receive information about a church is through the PERSONAL INVITE from a friend or family member.  Let’s pursue them like Jesus pursued us!!! Make the ask and invite someone to Renegade this weekend and to our special Renegade Christmas Event Wednesday, December 22 at 6:30 PM.

Can I punch one of the “Worthwhile” in the throat…no?…o.k.

While doing research on the web this one church’s web page caught my eye. The site itself was nothing special, but it was the churches catch phrase that took me aback. It read, and I quote: “WHERE THE WORTHWHILE WORSHIP. “UNSAVED ARE NOT WELCOME (AS JESUS COMMANDED)” All I can say is “seriously?!?” Where the “WORTHWHILE WORSHIP”?!? As WHO commanded?!? What version of the bible are these people reading?  Just when I think “churchy” people can’t surprise me anymore, they do.

Think about it. Can you just see a doctor at the door of the hospital emergency room shouting “Hey, hey, HEY….YOU!!! Yeah, the guy in pain with the bone sticking out of his calf, when you stop bleeding all over the floor, get that leg fixed and can walk in here without us having to carry you, THEN come back and we will admit you…until then SCRAM!!!” Yet that is the exact attitude that goes on in many churches. However, making it your slogan takes it to a whole new level of spiritual arrogance…but hay, at least they are honest. If they act like jerks toward you, you can’t say they did not warn you. 

I know I should not say this, but it about takes everything in me to keep from punching “churchy” people like that in the throat. I heard a little kid say one time “Mean people suck”. They are right. As l like to say “Mean churches suck” too. But I guess the elite churchy people have a point.  As we clearly see in the bible Jesus drove away from Himself all the sinners who were far away from God and people that were looked down on by the religious elite…oh, wait a minute…NO, it was ACTUALY just the OPPOSITE!!! Jesus opened his arms, embraced, sought out and spent time with the people who were far away from God, the sinners (John 4:6-43, Luke 19:1-10), the ones who the spiritual elites thought were not “worthwhile” and Jesus railed against the Pharisees and other religious elites, even going so far as to call them a “brood of vipers” (Matt 3:7, 12:34, 23:33, Luke 3:7)  and “whitewashed tombs” (Matt 23:27).

People matter to God and there for matter to us, especially the ones that many churches don’t think are “worthwhile”. One of the reasons for God putting in on my heart to launch Renegade Church was to create a place where people who have a negative view of the church, or have been burned by churchy people in the past, can come and have a safe place to hear the dangerous message, without being judged or looked down upon because they do not look right, dress right, have the right color hair, listen to the right music, or have the right spiritual background. If you are one of those people who think church is boring, full of stuck up elite people, come check out Renegade Church where everyone one is worthwhile and the only people who are not tolerated are the churchy elites… with a name like Renegade Church they can't say they have not been warned...and no I won't really punch them in the throat, no matter how much they deserve it.

Kerry and Chris Shook's New Book

 
I am SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!  I was one of a select group of pastors and bloggers chosen to read and review Kerry & Chris Shook’s new book “Love At Last Sight – 30 Days to Grow and Deepen Your Closest Relationships”. I love Kerry and Chris. I had the privilege of serving on Kerry’s staff at Fellowship of The Woodlands, now Woodlands Church, as the Couples Pastor and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

For years I had a vision of a creative, cutting edge church that would incorporate music, drama, video and do whatever it took to reach it’s community for Christ with people who were on board and got it, I mean REALLY caught the vision and “GOT IT”. I saw that vision put into action at Fellowship of The Woodlands, and now I am launching Renegade, a church with that same DNA, in Victoria Texas.

Kerry brings his life application style of teaching to his writing as well and I am so looking forward to reading Kerry and Chris’ new book and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Is Fear of Failure Keeping You from Being Crazy for God?

This year at our anniversary dinner I shared with Mollie a God sized vision for a new church that had been bouncing around in my head for several years. A church that non-church people love to attend and is more focused on helping non-church people who did not grow up in the church feel welcome than creating a place where church people feel comfortable.  A church willing to do anything short of sin to reach people so any idea is on the table. A church that allows creative people an outlet to use their gifts, and on and on I went.

When I was finished my wife ask “It is obvious God gave you this vision, what would keeping your from doing it?”

Great question. What would keep me from doing…or better yet what HAD kept me from starting it? The only thing was my fear of failure.

Fear of failure can be paralyzing. It is one of the biggest fears most people have. It can be so strong that it keeps us from trying new things, starting a business, applying for job openings and accepting promotions, trying to make our dreams a reality or moving forward when God calls us to do something great for Him. It is so prevalent that the fear of failure even has a scientific name – Atychiphobia.

The thing that motivates me more than fear of failure is another fear… fear of the “what if…”. What I fear more than failing is NOT attempting something and then two, three, five years down the road looking back and saying “Man, what if I had just done that!” I would much rather try something for God and fail than look back years later and wonder "what if...”

The only things worse for me than starting Renegade Church and having it fail would be to never attempt to start this work that God has called me to do.

If you don’t meet certain expectations that some people have they will call what you do a failure, and that is o.k. because the world has a different definition of success than God. Whatever you attempt for God, if you give it everything you have, is never a failue, no matter the outcome. Even if it does fail by the worlds standards it is not a failure in God’s eyes. God will use it to teach you something, equip you for what He has for you next, and use it to move you from where you currently are to where He wants you to be.

Be more scared of failing to try and missing out on something great, even if it does not meet the worlds or your expectations, than you are scared of failing. Now, go get crazy.

Next post "He who never makes mistakes, never makes anything."