Bard Letsinger

It’s the End of the World As We Know It…It’s the End…oh wait, it’s not. Or False Prophet 0-2 / Bard 4-0

We were having fun this past week with the Harold Camping prediction of the rapture on May 21st. People were talking about the rapture like there was no tomorrow.  However, I am not sure why anyone thought Mr. Camping’s prediction would come to pass. Come on, the man is the head of a Non-Prophet organization after all.

Best joke of the whole week was played on me. I changed that weekends message in my “Fearless” series so on Saturday, May 21st, I texted Skip, my worship guy, “I'm calling an audible changing tomorrow's message at Renegade Church to "Fear of the Rapture"...that is if we are still here tomorrow LOL.” A few minutes later I got a text back saying “This isnt Skip. I found this phone on a pile of his clothes.” I about died laughing

Now that May 21 has come and gone people want to know where all the money people gave to Mr. Camping went. He is not saying but one look at the guy and you know none of it was spent on plastic surgery, ant-ageing creams or new suits.

Monday evening I was sitting on my porch pondering what Harold Camping’s next move would be. Guys like this never just lick their wounds and fade away, they always spin what happened and come up with a new prediction. I thought about what Camping might say and I jokingly posted on my Facebook page:

“Waiting for Camping (the Rapture is May 21 guy) to come out and say something along the lines of "Oops, forgot to carry the 1, so May is 5th month, double number 5 you get 10 so the end of the world is actually happening October 21, my bad". Or "It was a silent/invisible coming only true believers could sense". These guys can't keep their heads buried long.”

Darn if I did not wake up Tuesday morning to friends sending me links to news stories saying that Camping said he was off by five months and that the new date of the end of the world is….wait for it…. October 21st!!! And that what happened “May 21 had instead been a "spiritual" Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ's judgment.”  You have to admit that I was more accurate in predicting what Camping was going to say than Camping was in his predictions of the rapture and the end of the world.

How did I know Camping was wrong? The Bible. Apparently he missed Matt 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” So if you want to follow a true prophet follow me. Based on that verse I have predicted that every end of the world prediction since 1988 was wrong and I am like 8-0. And right now I am going out on a limb and predicting that Mr. Camping’s October 21st date, as well as the Dec. 21 2012 Myan end of the world date will come and pass without incident and that I will be celebrating Christmas with my Renegade Church on December 25, 2012.

Looking forward to being 10-0.

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.

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.

Renegade Church's First Meeting

For the past month everywhere I have been I have cast the vision of Renegade Church. I even spoke with several local pastors who have been an encouragement to us and support Renegade’s vision. Since we launched the Renegade Church Facebook Fan Page people have been approaching us and asking questions about this new community launching in Victoria. Let me tell you, I have been overwhelmed at the initial response to Renegade Church. God keeps surprising us each day.

Now, the first question everyone asks is “Where are you meeting”. A legitimate question, but also a bit premature. Renegade is not a split off of another church so we are not starting with a “built in, ready made” congregation. Nor are we calling random acquaintances to try to persuade them to leave their current church and join us. That may work in the short term, but in the long run God will not bless it. Right now we are talking with close friends, like minded ministry partners, and people who come to us asking questions. It is from those people that we know God will bring together a core group that will become Renegade Church and it will be that group that puts on our first service sometime in the near future.

If God brings us the right mix of people, with the right gifts, and provides us a place to meet, then Renegade may launch preview services as soon as this Spring. For now, Renegade Church’s core group will meet as a Small Group in our home starting late February. In fact, on Saturday, February 27 at 6:30 PM, we will have our first small group meeting. We will kill the fatted brisket (along with beans, potato salad and drinks), talk about the vision of Renegade Church and answer any questions you may have. If you want to be part of this meeting e-mail us at renegadechurch@hotmail.com and I will send you directions. If you are interested in Renegade Church this would be a great opportunity to come “kick the tires”, hear our hearts and find out what this new work is all about.

Who is in this group? We don’t know yet, but you could be. If you would like to be part of something bigger than yourself, that will not only change your life but impact our community in ways that you cannot imagine, I challenge you to join us on February, 27.

Are you on Facebook? To keep up with what is going on with Renegade Church follow this link and join the Renegade Church Facebook Fan Page.

God is up to some big things, are you going to join Him and be part of it?

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Great Sunday filling in for Jeff Jud at 2nd Baptist Church in Victoria, TX. After being on staff at large (1000+ people a weekend) and mega (10,000+ people a weekend) churches it has been a nice change of pace to fill in at a few small churches.

The message was “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Many people I talk to say they have a hard time understanding how a loving God could let good people get cancer, be hit and killed by drunk drivers, let infants be born with birth defects or even allow things like tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes.  It is a legitimate question. I have developed a five week series to look at the biblical answers as to “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.”, however most churches who ask me to come in and speak only give me one Sunday… so here is the whole series condensed down into one message.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People from Bard Letsinger on Vimeo.

Easter: It Is A Contest and It Is All About The Numbers.

I follow a lot of fellow pastors on Twitter and on Sunday I was pumped. Over and over tweets were celebrating the numbers of people that were coming for Easter services and the number of people who were making decisions for Christ.  Can I get a “Yeah God!!!”…anyone… you the pastor moving from Florida to Canada, thank you, knew I could count on a “Yeah God!!!” from you. Awesome day!!! 

One church I love is NewSpring in SC. They don't just think outside the box, they blew up the box for a sermon illustration years ago. I made a twitter comment (copied to Facebook) about how I thought it was awesome they played AC/DC’s Highway to Hell for their Easter service... and immediately started catching some flak. Some people were well meaning but mostly it came from people at stagnant, dead and dying churches.

Now I have no problem with any “model” of church. Music, teaching style, etc. are all a matter of personal preference. What reaches one person pushes away another. Different is not wrong, just different. Every body (of believers)  has to choose their bent and go with their leading and their personality to do what it takes to reach their community for Christ. Traditional music..fine, expository teaching with indept Greek and Hebrew word studies…great, Suit and tie…ok, not my preference but for many it works. I know great, growing, thriving churches using those models, and the ones who are doing those things who are thriving and spiritually healthy don’t have an issue with other churches using contemporary methods, seeker sensitive ideas, modern music, life application teaching and themed series. Healthy churches (and believers for that matter) celebrate all other like minded (theologically speaking) churches successes regardless of their methodological bent.

One of the tweets I posted read “ @NewSpring& @PerryNoble had 100’s, yes 100's!!, of people make decisions of faith and accept Christ today. How many did your church have?” I was asking for a good report, but apparently some took it as an attack. Talk about gas on the fire. Of the responses I received the theme seemed to be “God does not care about numbers”, Church is “not a contest”. OH BUT IT IS...IT IS!!!!

Church Is All About Numbers.

It is about the numbers. Each number represents a person. Each person represents a soul, a soul that will be lost and spend eternity in Hell apart from God…unless…unless someone gets out of their comfort zone and does everything in their power, with all the methods at their disposal, to communicate the Good News of Christ to the lost in their neighborhood, their city, their county and so on. If you say that your church is big enough, if you are not focused on growth, you are ignoring half the Great Commission, literally telling the rest of your community to “go to hell”. It is all about the numbers.

It Is A Contest

It is a contest. Not between churches, but with an enemy that comes “…like a roaring lion, seeking anyone he can to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Our team, the church, verses Satan’s team. So the question you have to ask yourself, “Is my local church pulling its weight on the team, or is it just sitting on the bench griping that it does not like the way others on the team are playing and putting them down whenever they score?”

Perry Noble is right, “When you move to a new community & are trying to find a church--go to the one that all of the "churched" people hate and speak out against, because it is in that place you are most likely to actually meet Jesus and have your life radically transformed by Him!” 

Easter weekend, 2009, was incredible for many churches all across the United States and around the world. However, for many churches it was just another Sunday where all the believers heard a message surrounded by the same people they sit with every Sunday. I hope your church was the former, I hope your numbers blew away your expectations and I hope you ran up the score!!!

Girl Scouts Acting Like the Church (and not in a good way).

Anyone else having trouble finding Girl Scout Cookies this year? Even with the peanut butter scare I would chance a box of Do-si-dos, but this year I have not had any girls knock on my door or come across a single cookie table set up outside a store. You would figure with the economy and cookie sales down 19% they would encourage the girls to use every avenue available to sell cookies…but apparently not.

I Just read a news story from Ashville, North Carolina about an 8 year-old girl named Wild Freeborn (and I thought the name Bard Letsinger was different) who set a lofty goal of selling 12,000 boxes of cookies.Talk about an ambitious goal. First Wild made a You-Tube video promoting Girl Scout cookies, then she ask her dad if she could use what he did at work (web page design and development) to sell cookies. They created a webpage and networked through Facebook and Twitter. Soon she had 700 orders…and people crying foul. Apparently people in the community, some who do not even have girls in the Girl Scouts, felt threatened by little Wild’s “unconventional efforts” and that she was “suck(ing) the opportunity (for sales) from other girls”. The critics even contacted the local Girl Scout office who told the Freeborn’s to take down the You-Tube video and reiterated the ban on internet sales. Wow!!

Sound familiar? A church starts using new "unconventional efforts" to reach people... like modern music, video, creative teaching techniques, billboards promoting a series on “sex”, etc.. The result, a growing church, people applying biblical principles Monday thru Saturday, marriages healed and people coming to Christ. And do other churches respond with praise and celebrate what God is doing? No, they respond like a bunch of Girl Scout parents who are mad that some other little girl thinking outside the box sold cookies to a bunch of people who they never had a shot of selling cookies to in the first place.

If you are a member of one of those forward thinking churches I applaud you. If you are fulfilling both parts of the Great Commission then you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. Do not let people who are not make you feel that you are the one doing something wrong. Keep it up. Only worry about the status quo churches griping if they ever quit. When they think you are back on the right track, or coming back into the fold, that is when you need to worry. 

As for little Wild, they kept the website up because they were only taking orders on line, which does not violate the Girl Scouts prohibition of "selling" the cookies on-line since the delivery and monetary transation took place in person. If they would let her sell cookies over the net I would buy a box of Do-si-dos from her. I am one of those people that the rest of the girls in Wild’s area do not have a chance of reaching. I would risk a little salmonella to help out little Wild reach her goal of 12,000 boxes. Heck I’d even pay for shipping.

What Did Not Make The Paper

Yesterday the Victoria Advocate ran an article on “Blogging Pastors” of which I was one of the interviewees. It was a good article, however because of space limitations much of the interview did not make it into print. Here are some excerpts that did not make the paper. 

Advocate: Do people of faith feel they better connect with spiritual leaders who blog?”

Bard: I think blogging is a great channel to communicate with church members, especially in a large church. In a large church people can feel disconnected from the pastor and the staff but a blog can help bridge that gap. Blogging, if done correctly, can give people a look into your everyday life. If you blog about your wife, your kids, your everyday experiences, your struggles and triumphs and how you are working to apply the lesions you teach on Sunday to your life Monday thru Saturday people will see that you are just like them and feel like they know you…even if they have never met you face to face. That is important because one of the reasons many people give for leaving a church is that they do not feel connected to the pastor.

Advocate: How does blogging relate to your spiritual life?

Bard: If you are a Christ follower everything you do in life is spiritual so for me blogging is just another aspect of it. Like most pastors I read and study for insight and application for my personal life and then share what God is teaching me with the people at church. Blogging has helped me focus even more on scripture application and teaching it to others. Blogging forces you to take the stories and situations in your mind and put them into print, and as you put them in print them become more real.

Advocate: How much time do you spend preparing and writing blogs in comparison to your sermons?

Bard: Being a former associate pastor at Parkway I only got to teach the main service a few times a year, so blogging became my creative outlet. Illustrations and life events that would usually be the basis of a sermon were turned into blog post. This keeps my mind sharp and focused between teaching opportunities.

Advocate: What's one of your best posts in your opinion?

Bard: The post that I get the biggest response on are not the ones I would expect. Sometimes you write something that you think is impactful and life changing and not a single person writes back or comments. Then you put something out there that is simple and off the cuff, like feeding your kids cookies and popcorn for lunch, and people tweet and Facebook about it for days.

My favorite post include “Getting a Mandle for Father’s Day” which is a Man-Candle that smelled like Chuck Norris Sweat, “Death’s Salty Hand Comes a Knocking” detailing my middle of the night allergic reaction to the seasoning on a tortilla chip, and  “Rules for the Road, Rules for My Marriage” where I compared the rules I live by to keep me safe when riding my motorcycle and the rules I will not violate to keep my marriage safe.

One of my recent post “Out of Work Pastor will Preach for Food” was an explanation of why I stepped down as staff pastor at Parkway Church. People who were not at church the weekend we announcement my resignation could go to my blog and read in my own words what God was doing in my life and ministry. I posted it right after the service and in 48 hours had over 300 hits. Kept me from having to tell the same story over and over again and kept the rumor mill from running wild.

It was a good article and I was privliged to be part of it. My hope is that pastors will start using the communication tools on the net to connect with their members. The truth is that many churches are dying…literally…their members are growing old and dying. We cannot continue to do church the way our grandparents did church and expect to reach the next generation. Blogs, Facebook, Tweeter and technology in general are tools to connect people and create community. The Great Commission tells us what we are suppose to do, but it is up to us to use the creativity God put in us to figure out how to do it.

Out of Work Pastor. Will Preach for Food.

Today (January 25, 2009) was my last Sunday as a member of the staff at Parkway Church.

Not my last day as a member of Parkway Church. Parkway is home and until God calls me somewhere else you can find me there for at least one service every weekend.

Not my last day as a Pastor. Being a pastor/teacher is a gift and a calling (Eph. 4:11, Jer. 3:15) and for many people at Parkway I will always be their pastor, I did not realize how many until today.

Today was just my last Sunday as a Pastor on staff at Parkway Church. 

For some time God has instilled in me what one of my mentors calls a “holy discontent”, a feeling that comes over you when are not doing what God created you to do. For the past year I have been, for lack of a better title, the Pastor of Graphics at Parkway, handling the bulletin, advertising and creating graphics for Parkway ministries and sermon series. But God did not call me back home to Victoria to sit in front of a computer working in Photoshop all day.  I am in my element when I am on stage, developing sermons and series, coming up with new creative ways to teach Gods word and helping people apply it to their everyday lives.  My best weekends the past year were the two that I gave the weekend message (Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People & Compartmentalized Christianity). That is what I was created to do and I have to find a place where I can do that on a regular basis.

The great thing is that Mike Hurt, my friend and Parkway’s Senior Pastor, understands what I am feeling. He was in a similar circumstance before coming to Parkway. Last week I had some good conversations with Mike and we in essence came to the same conclusion. It would be sometime before Parkway grew to the size where I would have the opportunity to do what God has called me to do. In the mean time I would just become more frustrated than I already am at not being able to use my gifts. 

The only logical thing to do was start praying and looking for my next calling. And since it is impossible to do my weekend duties at Parkway while at the same time visiting and interviewing with other churches and ministries, I needed to step down as a member of the Parkway staff. I am thankful that Parkway is not letting me take this step alone by taking care of me and the family while I actively seek what God has for next for us. So for the short term my full time job with be finding my next full time ministry.

So those of you who are of the praying persuasion, pray for us. And, let me know if you have a progressive, modern church in your area looking for a creative pastor to take them to the next level. The resume is typed and ready to go.

Life is an adveture, I am looking forward to this next ride.

Fireproof Movie Premier

Tonight Mollie and I are going to see the new movie “Fireproof” from the producers of “Facing the Giants”. Click on Watch Trailer below for a preview of the move. I saw a special advanced showing of the movie about a month ago and it was great. It won't win any Academy Awards but it is a great story with a great message. Fireproof is about a firefighter named Caleb, his wife and their marriage that is falling apart and their journey to put it back together. You will laugh, you will cry and you might even come out with a stronger marriage that when you went in.