Deep Thought: When shops post a sign that says, “Guide dogs only”, who is supposed to read it? The dog?
The are a lot of things that businesses do that I don’t understand. For instance, we had lunch yesterday at a pretty well known restaurant in Jenson Beach called Conchy Joe’s. I have had lunch there before and dinner at the one in Melbourne and have had pretty enjoyable experiences. Instead of having normal lunch entrees, we ordered things to share like fish fingers, conch fritters, gator bits, etc. Well, the fish comes and Harbor takes a bite and his face goes white. Right away, my powers of deductions kick in and I deduce that the fish is bad. One whiff confirms that they must have accidently cooked the bait that was sitting in the bucket on the back porch.
Now everything we are eating becomes extremely suspect. So we tell the waitress and she confirms that it is bad and says she will take it off the bill. I ask, can we have some more conch fritters instead. Later when we get the bill, she of course has taken off the fish but went ahead and charged us for more conch fritters.
Here is my thoughts on this; as far as the bill is concerned everything is even. She took the fish off and charged us for the fritters. What we paid for is what we ate. As far as our experience went though, it was far from even. Why would the manager not make up for the fact that we now have had a negative experience at the restaurant. What could they have done to make the experience positive instead of negative? They could have comped the fritters, bought a round of drinks or even given a gift card for dinner at a future date. But not doing anything, caused us to leave with a negative experience meaning we will probably never be back again.
The question I have for me and all four people who read this blog is how many times as a church has this happened at Shoreline? Somebody has a negative experience and for whatever reason, we don’t recognize it or we don’t care, they never come back. Or even worse, never go to any church again.
Too many times, churches do things that make no sense, equivalent to putting a sign up that says “Guide dogs only” and create a negative experience.
That, my friends, is like eating stinky fish.
(I wrote this post originally on Shoreline Insider but it doesn’t seem to be working so I thought I would repost it here on Deep Thoughts)
Shoreline is now at an age in its existence where other church planters are making the trip to see us. Just last week there was a church planter from New Orleans in our McGuires service. (BTW - I am actually posting from California right at the very moment that the McGuires service is happening. Spooky isn’t it. But I digress; that is why I put parenthesis around this thought.)
Anyway, Brian and I had lunch with a couple of church planters 2 weeks ago. One of them, James, just planted Mosaic Church in Crestview. Their website is www.mosaiccrestview.com. We have decided to support them financially as Crestview needs a new life-giving church.
The other planter, who is still in bible college up in Graceville, Trip would like to eventually plant in south Walton. I suggested to him to intern some where first. He e-mailed me back with 2 good questions. First, he mentioned about how difficult it would be to intern at Shoreline with a 2 hour drive from Graceville, a wife and the price of gas. Then he closed with 2 very good questions;
- What is the wise thing to do?
- What would I do if I were in his shoes?
So, I thought I would share my answers to those questions with the readers of this blog.
Trip,
Those were good questions and here are some thoughts;
What do you think that the wise thing is for me to do & If you were in my shoes what would you do??
The wise thing for you to do is if you KNOW that you are called to plant a church, besides an education, get as much experience as possible in the type of church you are desiring as possible.
I think, as I look back, the 20’s were the most difficult time for me as minister and I have seen it in the lives of others as well. That was the time when through a series of events, I became a broken man. I have seen though, that God only uses broken men so it is kind of His bible college whether you attend man’s institution or not, you will go through this. Now I have met a few men, that had a heart of brokenness and humility when they were young, but as I got to know them discovered that it came from early on in their lives from something in their families and how they were raised and what happened to them as a child, etc.
I say this because, as I look back, I would have liked to plant in my 30’s but I wasn’t ready and I think this community wasn’t ready. But there is no way, I would have wanted to plant in my 20’s, because too many people would have been hurt.
So get as much experience as you can. Look & listen a lot. Learn as much from other people’s mistakes and success as you can. I didn’t mean for this to be a lecture on brokenness, but the question is what is the wise thing for me to do? Get as much experience as possible any way possible because your life may depend on it. ON a side note, when you are getting the experience, never quit looking at the big picture and remembering why you are there. Even the most mundane tasks assigned to you are part of the process but you can’t lose sight of the big picture.
Secondly, what would I do if I were in your shoes? I once counseled someone to empty out there 401K to come up with the funds to help finance their own church plant. It is worth the investment. Same for you. For you it may not be money but time and relationship. If I were you, I would find any way to put myself in the position to not only get experience but to glean from somebody who has done this before and is making the opportunity for me to do this. As Paul said, you have many teachers but not many fathers.
I have had the opportunity to mentor guys like you before, mostly in youth ministry. The first thing I tell them, is show up. I don’t go out of my way in the beginning to make it happen. I wait for their desire to make it happen. Some came a few times and left. Others are still with me at this church after 10 years. Others are ministering somewhere else. So, if I were you, I would find a way to be in a position that was available to me. High gas prices, 2 hour drives are just hoops that stop some people but at the same time bring the cream to the top.
I say all this, not just concerning you and Shoreline, this is good advice for you and pursuing the call on your life. If this is part of God’s plan for you to intern, then there is a way to make it happen. While I am telling you this, I have no idea of what your schedule is, whether you are attending classes this summer, whether you have a job, etc. That is stuff we should talk about.
Bottom line: Get as much experience and mentoring as possible any way possible.
It is an investment in your future and in the lives of people you don’t even know yet.
I hope this helps.
Eric
PS - the reason I am in California is I am doing the same thing. I am out here to learn from a pastor that has opened that door to me. So, I am going through that door at great expense.
Comments and questions are welcome.
In case you missed it, Shoreline Church made the newspaper twice this week.
Today: The Destin Log
Wednesday: The DeFuniak Herald
I missed Brian Houston last night as I had to fly back to Destin from the ARC conference in Birmingham to speak at McGuires. Which by the way, there were 107 people there.
Now, I am back at Church of the Highlands and Brian is speaking. Here are some of the highlights of his talk:
- God asks Moses, “What’s in your hand?” Answer: “A shepherd stick”. God took it and turned it into the rod of God. God will take what you have and use it for powerful ministry.
- We can underestimate of what is our hand.
- To the widow it was, “What’s in your house?” Her response was nothing. We are quick in ministry to say we don’t have when what we need when all the time we have exactly what we need right in our house.
- Believe for God to open your eyes to show you what you have in your house. Often, leaders are blinded by what they think they don’t have. Blinded to see what God wants to do.
- So often the oil is in our own house. What do you have in your house?
- Great churches are not built on the gifts and talents of few but are built on the sacrifices of many.
- Sometimes we can’t see the elephant if we are too big in the frame. (On safari, he tried to snap a self -picture with an elephant behind him. But his head took up the whole frame) We have to get out of the frame if we want to see the talent in our house.
- What do you have in your head? What do you have in your house?
What is there; who is there in our church that we don’t see that God wants to use in a might way. Step and use what you have in your hand, in your house, in your sphere to make a difference in Destin.
Flying High at Church of the Highlands
I know it has been a long time since I have written. Believe me I hear about it from Sam almost everyday. We entered a very busy season in life; moving our home; moving our offices; starting a campus at McGuire’s. All that has added to putting this blog on the back burner. But apparently according to Darlene and Sam, people want to hear what I have to say.
So, I have decided to try and start this back up but instead of trying to make sure I have something witty and creative to say, I am going to just write what is on my heart.
We have 8 minutes before we leave the hotel for the morning session of the annual ARC conference in Birmingham. We brought 11 people up here from Shoreline. Of course there is Darlene and me; Brent and Judy Hoogewerf (it is spelled just the way it sounds). Brent is our volunteer coordinator and Judy is the young lady who did such a great job singing Sunday morning.
There is also Joe, our youth intern, and Brian, the Creative Arts Director for Shoreline. For them this is their 1st ARC conference. Next, we have a room full of girls, Esther, Christen (she works with the youth and runs the Real Info area and talks like she is from Mississippi or Baker), and Sandi Metcalfe.
Kelly Reynolds and Jeremy (Jeremy is doing a fabulous job in Shorebreak Kids) are sharing a room. Kelly has such a servants heart. He got up at 5 this morning and got everybody coffee and fruit.
Then the group is rounded out by Pastor Sam. Sam and I will be flying back this afternoon on someone’s private plane for McGuires.
This conference is always a great time for us. It is like a family reunion of Shoreline type churches from all over the country.
So, I gotta head out. See you tonight if you attend the McGuire’s campus.
Eric, the Know it all
Scientists believe they have worked out the secret to winning at rock, paper, scissors.
While most people are aware that rock beats scissors, scissors cut paper and paper covers rock, there is a psychological element to the game which many players may have missed.
According to New Scientist magazine, the way to win is to start with scissors.
Research shows that rock is the most popular of the three possible moves in the game.
That means that your opponent is likely to choose paper, because they will expect to you to start the game with rock.
By going with scissors, you achieve an early victory. The scissors strategy has proven very successful in the past
Deep Thought: As I sit here and listen to the sound of fresh rain run-off splashing from the roof on this cold Christmas morn, it reminds me of the sound of urine splashing into a filthy Texaco latrine.
It is memories like this that make me love Christmas. I hope your Christmas is filled with like-so memories.
- We had a couple of great services on Sunday as we had a Dysfunctional Hollywood Christmas. If you missed it, you can watch it @ www.shorelinechurch.net.
- If you attended the 1st service, you might want to watch it again because the 2nd service was better. I didn’t do that on purpose. In fact, I hate it when one service is better than the other. Especially when it happens on the Christmas service. They say that Easter is the Superbowl Sunday of church services. So I guess that would make Christmas the BCS College Bowl Championship of church services and who wants to choke on the big day. Sometimes I just don’t get into the flow until the 10:30 service.
- This Sunday is our last service of the year and we are calling it Open Invitation. This would be a great service to re-invite someone who might have come to Shoreline before, especially if it was the Christmas service. This message is about the heart of one of our core values - grace. It will be a great message for someone to see why we do what we do as a church.
- On the 6th of January we start a 5 week series called Boundaries; we all need boundaries in our lives. The first 2 are also great invite services. This time of the year people start talking about going back to church and the first 2 topics, alcohol and sex are good services to invite people who don’t go to church. Here is the web site for it, www.sexandbooze.com.
- You can go onto the site and listen to the ad that we will be running on 99 Rock.
- We gave out invite cards for the first 2 messages. Here is what they look like. If you didn’t get any Sunday, you can pick some up this Sunday.
Until then, enjoy the cold frosty morn and the wonderful sight of some moron in his bath robe dumping raw sewage into the water run off on your street.
Merry Christmas,
Pastor Eric
Deep Thought: I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then, after you camped at night, you could eat him. How about it science?
You might think that would be a big mistake, but let me tell you something about mistakes.
Historically, making mistakes has been a leading cause of creative breakthroughs.
So, if you want to motivate YOUR melon and increase your innovative prowess, check out this list of 10 mistakes that changed the world.
1. One morning in 1930, Ruth Wakefield ran out of baker’s chocolate. So, she brought home semi-sweet chocolate, broke it into pieces and threw it into the dough. And the very first chocolate chip cookie was born!
2. In 1886 while concocting a form of medicine, John Pemberton accidentally added carbonated water instead of plain water to his recipe. When he tasted it, this new drink was so delicious and refreshing, it was later popularized as Coca-Cola.
3. Centuries ago, a Chinese emperor named Shen Nung was boiling water outside when leaves from a nearby tree fell into the pot. He tasted it, enjoyed it, thus creating the very first cup of tea!
4. At the 1904 World’s Fair, waffle maker Ernest Hamwi noticed a fellow vendor’s booth ran out of dishes to serve ice cream. Just to be helpful, he rolled up one of his waffles into a cone and made an instant hit!
5. One morning, centuries ago, Iroquois Chief Woksis threw his tomahawk into a nearby tree. When he returned the next day, he pulled the tool from the bark only to notice sap furiously dripping onto the ground! If only pancakes had been invented yet…
6. In 1928, Alexander Fleming accidentally left a loaf of bread on his windowsill for too long. When he returned and noticed mold, instead of throwing it away, he reexamined the bread and discovered something called staphylococci. That substance eventually created penicillin!
7. In the 1870’s at a soap factory, a workman went to lunch and left the machine running. When he returned, he noticed that air had been worked into the mixture, thus hardening the soap! He later poured into frames and began selling it by the bar and made Ivory a FORTUNE.
8. In 1905, a young student named Frank Epperson was mixing soda-water powder and water one day. He then accidentally left the mixture on his back porch overnight with the stirring stick still in it, only to return to find the very first Popsicle!
9. Harry Brearly was a metal worker who threw his old scraps into a junk pile. On day in 1913, he noticed that certain old pieces rusted quicker than others. After analyzing the metal, he found the element that helped produce stainless steel!
10. In 1907, Arthur Scott, head of Scott Paper Company, had a shipment of paper returned to him by a customer. They complained it was “too hard and wrinkly,” so instead of throwing it away, he cut it into individual sheets and began selling it as “paper towels.”
So you see, you might think my idea is crazy but you never know what you might get out of it. After all, is a mistake that works, really a mistake?
Riding my shrimp,
Pastor Eric
I don’t normally do this, but here goes.
I wasn’t around for my birthday so I know a lot of people wanted to get me something and couldn’t because I wasn’t here. Plus, my family would ask me what I wanted and I couldn’t tell them anything that I needed or wanted. When you get to be my age, when you want something, you buy it.
Well… this came out yesterday. The Kindle
This is what I want for a late birthday/Christmas present. Some of you might say, “Well if you just buy what you want, why don’t you buy this?” My answer would be “…because it is $400.”
You can e-mail me if you need to hear some of my justifications why it is necessary for me to have something that wasn’t even around last week and why now I can’t live without. Reasons, like my book shelves are overflowing with books and now I can eliminate that or how many trees I can save (I have read 5 books in the last 3 weeks alone) or how I know Pastor Sam is going to want one and I need to get if before he does. If you need more reasons than that, I will try to come up with some.
I don’t ask for much, please don’t deny this one pleasure. If that doesn’t work, do it for the children.
I have got to go. I have to go find a band aid for the paper cut I just got from turning a page on a book.
Until then, I’ll be readin’ it old school,
Pastor Eric
After coming off the Shipwrecked series on finances, I thought you might enjoy this little jewel by Janice Revell, Money Magazine senior writer. I’m not even going to start off with Deep Thought because Britney Spears is a Deep Thought.
In case you missed it, some bombshell news came out of the personal finance arena last week. No, I’m not referring to the Federal Reserve’s rate cut or the record-breaking price of oil.
I’m talking about Britney Spears: She isn’t saving for retirement.
Though the 25-year old pop star is hauling in some $737,000 a month (yes, per month), the Associated Press reported last Thursday that according to court documents, she’s not saving or investing a penny of it.
More than $100,000 each month is going to entertainment, gifts and vacations alone.
While most of us may be shocked by this excess, Ms. Spears’ saving habits are actually pretty normal.
The truth is, the overwhelming majority of American 20-somethings aren’t saving anything for retirement, either. Research from Vanguard shows that two-thirds of all 25-year-olds who have access to a 401(k) plan aren’t contributing.
And the worst part is, they aren’t taking advantage of their biggest asset: time.
Let’s go back to Ms. Spears’ retirement plan for a minute. Now I know that she’s richer than you and I, worth in the neighborhood of $100 million from her previous sales and touring (she didn’t always spend it all). But let’s say she was forced to start from scratch, like any other 25-year-old. She could still maintain her lavish lifestyle in retirement.
Assuming she could scrape by on 70% to 80% of her pre-retirement income in retirement - or about $590,000 a month in today’s dollars - Ms. Spears would have to accumulate a nest egg of just over $300 million by age 65.
Sound daunting? Nah. All she has to do is keep working and put away 8% or so of her monthly $737,000 income until she retires and she’ll hit that goal.
So what’s the point of this exercise? Well, the very same strategy can work for you too.
Being sure to set aside just a little each month can help you maintain your lifestyle in perpetuity.
A 25-yr old making $30,000 a year, for instance, and putting away the same 8% of his pay into a 401(k) plan annually for the rest of his career is virtually guaranteed a comfortable retirement by time he hits his 60s.
Assuming average historic rates of inflation and investment returns, and a typical company matching contribution in his 401(k), he would wind up with a nest egg of nearly $2 million by age 65, enough to replace more than 90% of his working income.
I realize that, unlike Ms. Spears, you may also have student loans to pay back at this point in your life. But unless it’s a private loan, don’t sacrifice your 401(k) contribution to make extra payments on the loan. If it’s a federal loan, and you’ve consolidated it, you likely have a fixed after-tax rate of 5% or less. Over the longer haul, you will handily beat that return in your 401(k); if you get a company matching contribution, you’ll trounce it.
And you don’t need to hire a team of people to handle your investments. Just put your 8% in a so-called target-date retirement fund - every major fund company offers them, including Fidelity, Vanguard, and T. Rowe Price.
Here, you make your fund choice based on the expected year of your retirement. For instance, if you were planning to retire in 40 years’ time, you might pick the T. Rowe Price Retirement 2050 fund. Right now, it has an 88% allocation to stocks, 10% to bonds and the rest in cash.
As time passes, and you get closer to retirement, the fund will automatically adjust that mix of stocks and bonds to more conservative levels. The best part with these funds is that you do nothing.
And that means you’ll never have to say, ‘Oops! I did it again’ when it comes to your retirement.
Questions or comments about retirement? Send e-mails to jrevell@moneymail.com.
