John C Woolsey, LEED AP » Ministry

From Here to There

John — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:40:17 +0000

Reading the news this morning I see one article after another of the ‘recovery’ efforts all over the place.

California just passed a budget which included tax increases and spending cuts. From my chair in my office here in quaint Murrieta, CA I wonder how deep those spending cuts were. How much will continue to be wasted by a bloated system to serve social needs that would be met more efficiently by individuals and private organizations. In these hard times I have to cut my spending as deep as needed to make it work because I can’t expect to just ‘make’ more money. I wonder if those that voted for this budget remember the days of worrying about their personal budget.

Ray LaHood, our new Transportation Secretary says we need to “Think outside the box” by installing GPS devices in all vehicles on the road to charge a mileage tax because with more fuel efficient vehicles the federal government is getting less money from gasoline usage charge. Frankly – I don’t want anyone that says, ‘think outside the box’ to do any creative thinking on my behalf. The creative center of this guy’s brain has obviously been bashed out by years spent in a job that acts like a reality isolation chamber.

There are so many lessons. I offer this post to those working in full time ministry – be aware of fact that your job can create a reality isolation chamber. Work hard to understand the lives that those you serve live and work hard to not become disconnected from them in that way.

I also offer these thoughts to the every-day working people. We read the news and we feel like the government is day by day overstepping its bounds. We feel like they don’t understand us and don’t know what its like to live our lives. Remember that these representatives didn’t start out disconnected. They started out just like me – upset about the way of things and convinced they could do it better. It just takes so long to get into a place of influence that from here to there they loose touch.

But in the end its our fault what comes our way. Its not the overstepping authority, its not the loud activists that don’t seem to get us either. Its us. We must make our voices heard, the every day conservative minded American trying to get by.

If you live in the Murrieta than I give you this:

Your House Representative: Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack
Your State California State Senator: Senator Barbara Boxer
Your California State Senator: Senator Dianne Feinstein

If you DON’T live in Murrieta go HERE to find out who your House Representative is. You might be surprised to find that they represent part of your zip code. They will really know who you are!

Use your voice, do your best to be heard. Pray for these people. If it changes nothing you see unfolding at least you know you have done what you should and can sleep well. The rest is for God to sort out.

Seasons tend to turn

John — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:53:23 +0000

Around here the weather is warming as winter breaks and the seasons change. I look at my back yard on this February 4th afternoon and the wind is blowing a little as a response to weather patterns far away. Temperature and pressure changes hundreds of miles away are blowing leaves around in my yard. Some are being turned over and don’t go far. Others are picked up and are blown out of sight.

And so it is with our lives.

While the wind turned my family over but didn’t carry us far some dear friends of ours have got the wind rustling up beneath them and it just might carry them out of the back yard.

Vince and Tami are taking their first steps to planting a church. They have some people and some places in mind but are keeping it to the inner circle for now.

What they know now is the wind is blowing and its about to get under them. To see whats happening with them you can always check in on them HERE but if you want to help them get their start follow THIS LINK.

Everyone’s Favorite Time of Year

John — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:10:15 +0000

Papalote Perspective is coming around again. I don’t think I will be going this time but we are still sending a team down and this video will be viewed at Sunday worship at Impact Church to get the people’s spirits soaring…like eagles….

Wielding a Hammer…

John — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:21:54 +0000

Can be pretty intimidating when what you are hitting are things you are comfortable with. By nature I am a “get it all done myself kind of guy” because “at the end of the day no one will care enough to do it the way I think it should get done.” I have preached about handing off keys in ministry and have done so to an extent. God is making me do it for real now. Its good though, I can see how this is going to be a good thing for me and for the ministries of Impact Church. I am starting to see through the pressures in my own life how I have held onto keys for too long. I must admit, I am still slow to ask too much of people because I want to be sensitive to their lives and the work load they bear without me coming along. However, since my time is becoming more and more of a rare commodity I am going to start laying things before people and seeing what the leaders around me will take up. My job needs to be less about the work and more about the leaders that are carrying the burden for the work. I need to be an encourager and I need to be inspiring them to find meaning in what they are asking their teams to do. I need to be their pastor…God has been pushing me into this role faster than I had thought would happen 4 years ago and behold, here it is already.

So I confess here publicly that the systems that I have put into place are holding this ministry back. As I walk around breaking them I am praying that God will be moving in the lives of those that will be thrust into leadership. It happened for me as result of a need, its time to allow the Holy Spirit to move through me and into the lives of the emerging leaders around me so they can experience the same empowerment.

Pray for me…its not going to be easy.

Taking Measures to Grow the Grass

John — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:19:34 +0000

Tonight we had a heavy staff meeting (the force of gravity has increased here in the future) and we called it around 8pm and decided to hang out on the patio. As you are well aware, the yard is on the home stretch and looks complete at a glance. Jeff, Vince, Micah and Brent were standing on the walkway in the yard and looking at the grass and had observed the handfull of weeds that have developed in one are of the lawn. Vince commented that if he were I he would be pretty mad. I told them that the reasons the weeds got a foothold was because the grass there wasn’t very thick and full yet. Vince asked if I was going to get on my hands and knees and pull out every weed by hand. I explained to him that I would have to do that for now but my goal is to not go on hand weeding. I explained that the best way to prevent weeds is to do the things that strengthen the grass because the grass will choke out the weeds when it it thickens and grows deep roots. We all looked at each other and remarked that there is a Sunday message in that comment.

Once again, God demonstrates how he has every intention of speaking to me about ministry and my own spiritual life through my growing passion as a gardener.

Church Admin Series

John — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:05:36 +0000

Hey, I’m back! I have been thinking a lot about my role at Impact Church and how it is evolving and how God will use me in the way he needs me here. As a side effect of that thinking I have given a lot of thought to the tools that we use at Impact Church. Well the list is long and since lately I have been contacted by several pastors and administrators asking my opinion on things church admin I would put it all down here in a blog post mini series. So here is the outline, I will get started on it imediately but this is what you can look forward to reading, or just clicking ‘mark as read’ if this isn’t your thing.

1. Church Management Software
2. Church Calendars
3. Team Communication
4. Event Management
5. Assimilation Management
6. Ministries

Broomball

John — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:20:47 +0000

I got a call this afternoon that our high school youth group needed an extra driver for a field trip they were taking. Kyle had 30 kids there and they were going to the Escondido Iceoplex to play some broomball. The night was a success and there was only one broken nose. Doing good considering the potential for fractured skulls.

Thinking Inside the Weekend

John — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:35:49 +0000

This year Impact Church is going to the Colorado River for its summer family camp. We are working pretty hard to get the costs to something manageable so that lots more people can come. But sometimes manageable doesn’t just mean costs, sometimes its scheduling. Every modest sized church I have ever been a part of (including Impact up to this point) that does vacation stuff like going out to the river or desert or even fishing has done one thing that excludes so many. They go during the week! I don’t know why other churches have done that but I know we have always leaned toward going outside the weekend because we wanted to preserve the importance of Sunday worship. This year, we are switching gears and will be utilizing the talents of our ministry team differently by having trips like this on the weekend so that normal people with regular jobs can go.

Now the application here is this: we are going to have programming at the river Friday, Saturday & Sunday. We have a team ministry model at Impact Church so there are FOUR pastors! That means that we should be able to do this. Here is our plan. Friday and Saturday we will have all four pastors out and Saturday night Jeff & Travis will leave so that Church happens as scheduled and expected on Sunday at Thompson Middle School. Vince and I will remain at the river with some of our oversight and we will have church Sunday morning at the campground. This is a cool step for us because we are not a large church and usually we employ our entire ministry staff every Sunday. This is a step toward growth for this ministry and hopefully a step in our reach into our community.

If you live around Murrieta and would like to join us, you are welcome to come along – this is an open event. Go to the Impact Church website and click on the Soak 2008 image or you can click on the image in this post, it takes you to the same place.

Church Admin. | The Whiteboard

John — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:06:39 +0000

Many of my fellow associate pastors write a lot about their craft in the church and share their ideas in the blogosphere. So, to keep with the tradition of sharing ideas I thought I would introduce one of our organization tools.

We call it the Whiteboard. I know what you are thinking, ‘I have one of those!’ Well, its not what you think. We use Adobe Illustrator to create all of our publications and its installed on my computer as well. During our meetings we are usually in my house and I will hook my computer to the TV and put Illustrator up on that screen. I have a 24″x36″ page with pre-made discussion terms that can be moved freely about the workspace. As we discuss them the ideas are being put up on the screen just like a dry erase white board. Using Illustrator I have the freedom to move things around, easily edit or copy information and because its on the screen for all to see, its more dynamic. The best part is when we are done, it makes a handy PDF that gets sent to everyone to use as a reference for things to get done. It also serves as a legal document when we need to pass legal motions for the organization.

If you don’t happen to have a 50″ plasma in your living room, thats ok. Lots of you have projectors that you use on Sundays or even a regular TV. Get creative, but it beats the old fashioned dry erase board because at the end of the day, everyone gets their own copy.

Its a fantastic tool and I recommend you try it out. I have it available for download in my resource widget to the right. If you don’t have Illustrator there are a few open source options that you can use as well.

What is your church doing to keep things running smoothly?

Papalote | Christmas time

John — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:23:42 +0000

Impact Church has a December tradition called the Papalote Perspective. During the crazy Christmas season while we are all running around spending more money than we have on things that we don’t need, and for people that don’t need what we are buying them…there is this great thing happening about 7 hours south of here. In the town of El Papalote a church get hundreds of presents together from churches all over the place to distribute to children in their town. We have been blessed to be there two years in a row and be a part of this. I love taking teams down there because it gives everyone a chance to gain some perspective while being removed from the Christmas rush. How about you? Could you use some perspective next Christmas?