Spur | Mac's Blog

Loyalty & Light (& Cockroaches!)

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:29:38 -0500

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

Continuing last week’s post on friends, one of the greatest gifts anyone will ever give you is loyalty. And it’s never revealed when things are going well, when the church is growing, your career is flourishing, or your kids are perfect little angels. Challenges, attacks, criticism, setbacks, losses—all these things act like a light switching on in a darkened room: they reveal the cockroaches running for cover.

Real friends aren’t just for you. They’re with you. They hurt when you hurt. They celebrate when you celebrate. In a word, they love you.

They don’t always agree with you, but they always tell the truth. They tell you what they’re really thinking, planning, and doing because they love you. Because you love them. And because they’re grown-ups.

Whatever you do, wherever you lead, whomever you serve…whatever it takes, turn on the lights. Celebrate the truth-tellers, the grownups in your life. Feed the fires of friendship with people you know you can trust, who have your back when no one else does.

Here’s to a cockroach-free existence!!

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K-I-D-S

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:31:09 -0500

Yesterday’s Grand Opening of the new LHCKids Building provided a unique my-life-flashed-before-my-eyes moment. As a church family, we took the opportunity to remember the vision that God has called us to realize here in Austin and beyond:

to grow the community of Christ one life at a time.

And nowhere is that vision more crucial than in the lives of the next generation. Children and students and the families they come from are the greatest investment we make as a church family because they are the clearest expression of our priorities. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says,

⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

What we do as a church family for kids is so important. But it’s secondary, supplemental, to what moms and dads are called to do every day. Our K-I-D-S can help us determine, protect, and fuel the vision and plan that God has for every single life.

Know your vision—in order to give our kids a vision for what God wants for them, we have to first have one ourselves.

Impress the vision—everything is a teachable moment. An awareness of vision and capacity to capture God’s vision is much more caught than taught. Look back at Deut. 6: Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. The things of God, the ways of God, aren’t just Sunday School fodder or something to be pulled out at daily devotional readings. It’s an everyday, all-the-the-time thing.

Drive the vision—by establishing priorities with time, money, relationships, travel, vacations, fun, marriage over kids. It’s one thing to establish the vision; it’s entirely another to protect it and keep the main thing the main thing.

Serve the vision—when kids see Mom & Dad serving the local church, orienting their calendar, their resources, their lives around the body of Christ, they learn the blessing and power of staying connected to the House for life. High school kids serve middle school and elementary kids, middle school kids serve and lead elementary kids—and through those experiences live the blessing of community, accountability, and leading/serving.

4 Kinds of Friends

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:51:00 -0500

This past weekend, the value of friendship hammered me repeatedly over a four-hour span of time. It’s funny how many people have said to me—and I have chimed in in agreement—that they won’t miss 2011. Or 2010. While God did some truly amazing things in my life, 2011 was the most difficult year I’ve ever experienced.

Cue the friends.

As I was driving to & from a marriage vow renewal ceremony a little ways out of town, I had four different phone calls with four different friends from different regions of my life: childhood, college, ministry, & recent. There were four different types of friends:

Lifelong—this is a friend who’s known me through all of my growing up, striking out, working through, and getting over. And he still stands by me. We talk almost every week, depending on travel/work/family—but he’s the big brother I never had.
Lifetime—I’ve known this guy since we were kids but we don’t talk nearly as often as we should. But when we do, we pick right back up where we left off. No small talk needed. The humor, sarcasm, & love flow effortlessly as do the insight (his) and questions (mine).
Lifegiving—this friend I’ve only known a few months but I love being around him. I always love what I do as a pastor more when I hang up the phone or after we’ve hung out. He ALWAYS speaks life into my life and affirms and encourages me. He’s not a pastor, so I love getting his perspective and picking his ample brain (he’s a neurosurgeon, so it doesn’t take long for me to get out of my depth!).
Lifesharing—these friends are guys who’s wives are also very close to Julie and we love doing life together. We trade and compare parenting/pastoring/church/marriage stories and love to laugh together. A lot.

It’s probably not an accident that the book of Proverbs—God’s wisdom poetry—speaks so frequently about the blessing, the necessity, of great friends:

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. (Proverbs 17:17)

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)

You Really Believe the Bible? Yesterday, we continued the...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:03:00 -0500

You Really Believe the Bible?

Yesterday, we continued the message series FAQ/Frequently AVOIDED Questions by answering the question, “How can we trust the Bible…?” You can see the whole message here.

Above is the chart that we used for the historical comparison of the Bible in relation to other ancient texts. Remember, we’re not about proving the Bible is God’s Word, but it is HIGHLY reliable in its historicity.

Staying Power

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:23:25 -0500

Momentum matters. Winning trumps losing. But God bless those who stay. Those who stick around and stick to it long enough to see momentum ebb and flow and keep coming back for more.

A few years ago, I was at a small gathering of pastors. And the topic du jour was the recent resignation of a big name pastor and author to follow God into the unknown of what would be next. The prevailing sentiment was that he was acting on deep, abiding faith in this leap into the unknown. But the host of this gathering said introducing that day’s guest speaker: “I know that our friend’s resignation is a true leap of faith. But I don’t want us to forget the faith that it takes to stay. To fight the good fight through years and decades.”

In an age of disposable marriages, church-shopping/hopping/bopping, fractured friendships, we’re missing out on the blessing of staying. Building. Persevering. Resolving. Reconciling. Healing. Growing. Knowing. Reflecting the heart of Christ. Who stayed. And stays.

Crossfit Lessons #3: How Many Can You Do When You're Tired

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:03:05 -0500

One of the bedrock principles of Crossfit is high intensity training over a short duration. Toward the end of one of my early workouts, I was doing pushups with a weighted vest on after flipping a tractor tire multiple times (Don’t ask—these people do some weird stuff). As I was nearing the last push of the session, I was hating life and Web, grinding through some pushups when he got on the floor and asked very directly but quietly,

C’mon, Mac…How many can you do when you’re tired?

Within the same week, I saw an ESPN special, All Access: Alabama that spotlighted Alabama Head Football Coach, Nick Saban. One day toward the end of practice, Saban was, um…encouraging his players to stay focused even though they were exhausted. And he told them that the first half of practice was just to get them to this point so they could learn to focus, execute, and perform when they were tired.

How many can you do when you’re tired? That’s really what separates average from excellent, good from great, and getting by to taking flight. It became such a mantra for me in Crossfit that it began seeping into other areas of my life:

When Julie needed help with something around the house, but I was “off the clock”
When I felt like I had done “enough” message prep
When my son wanted to play 1-on-1 in the driveway
When I needed to return phone calls/emails
When I wanted to sleep in instead of get up and get quality time with God
When my daughter wanted to download her day at 10:30 at night and I was falling asleep

So many areas of my life grew and improved because of that one question: How many can you do when you’re tired? So much of the good stuff lies just outside of my comfort zone. When I get tired, when I feel like “that’s enough,” is exactly the time to push through and keep going to see what God has just on the other side.

Because of Web Smith (@CrossfitChron) and what he taught me training, pushing, mocking (in love, I think!), mentoring, and teaching, I’ve got a deeper, clearer understanding of how God grows us. One day at a time. One step at a time.

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Crossfit Lessons #2: Monumental From Incremental

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:04:00 -0500

Once I started getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, I noticed something else was going on:

Incremental choices created monumental changes.

Certainly not in and of themselves. But, just the simple decision to train—no matter what—on days when I didn’t feel like it, when I was stressed or distracted, when it was too cold, or any other host of excuses led to noticeable and sustained changes. Some days, I’d come home and my bride Julie would ask, “How was your workout?” and all I could say was, “It wasn’t pretty, but it happened.”

The workouts themselves were so intense that I had to think about what I was eating the day of and the day before if I had any hope of finishing the session. And those incremental choices about what to eat, when to eat, and what not to eat led to monumental changes in how I viewed food—as fuel and setup for the workout to come (and how much I enjoyed my cheat day when it rolled around each week), as well as how I performed in the workouts.

Yet again, as in Crossfit, so in life: Incremental choices about setting aside time to pray, hacking a night out of our crazy schedule to date Julie, talking to my kids about their basketball games, spending another hour in message prep…all of these “little decisions” add up to the sum total of who I am and what I do with the life I’ve been given.

There is no such thing as a little choice.

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Crossfit Lessons #1: The Poison of Comfort

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:00:00 -0500

2011 will forever be remembered as the year I met Crossfit. Under the able coaching and frequent harangue of Web Smith (@CrossfitChron), who also redesigned my blog, I discovered a whole new world of training that I’d never known before. In discovering Crossfit, I also discovered some immutable laws of life that transcend working out and strengthen performance as a husband, a dad, a pastor, and life in general.

The first Crossfit Law I learned laid the foundation for all the others. After one of my first workouts, as I was huffing and puffing, thinking I had really worked hard, Web grinned his big gap-toothed grin and said,

I gotta get you comfortable with being uncomfortable.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t working. It was this: I wasn’t working hard enough at the right things. And, if it hadn’t been for his accountability, I never would’ve made the gains that I did.

Comfort crushes growth. Every time. Everywhere. In my faith, marriage, work, training, parenting—Comfort crushes growth and feeds mediocrity. When I broke through the comfort ceiling in working out, I started noticing little pockets of comfort I had allowed to sprout in other areas of my life. And I started rooting them out because mediocrity scares me more than failure. With failure, at least something is attempted.

MERRY NEW YEAR!!!

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:13:33 -0500

In the beginning, God created…

Gen. 1:1a

This is how God opens his love letter to humanity in the book of Genesis. But, what if we used it as a template to open our love letter to him in 2012? What if everyone who claims the label Christian began this year praying with everything we have to ask God how to create a year that reflects, proclaims, and honors him?

To be sure, we’ll encounter events, challenges, losses, and opportunities that are beyond our control. But, if we accept responsibility for the things we can control and influence—the gifts & talents, relationships & resources that have been entrusted to us—we can radically alter the trajectory of this year and our lives.

All creativity is born in the heart and character and personality of God. And as another expression of his love for us, he lets us participate in that creativity to honor him and make a difference in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, the marketplace, politics…you get the point.

Frequently AVOIDED Questions

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:29:00 -0500

I need your help! I want your help! Beginning Jan. 8, we are launching a highly interactive message series, FAQ/Frequently AVOIDED Questions. So many people I know have so many questions that they’re reluctant to ask, or they doubt whether or not church-folk will even address them.

Well, we’re going to address them. Head-on. Directly. Clearly. Biblically. AND…respectfully.

Here’s where I need your help: ASK YOUR QUESTION!!! Email your questions to FAQ@lhc.org.

Also, use this series to engage your friends, neighbors, co-workers, training partners, family who don’t yet know Christ and how extravagantly he loves them. Send them an email with the email address. Tell them we really want their input to honestly address the questions they have.

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The Church, Starving Artists, Sellouts, & Tweeners

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:30:00 -0400

When our church was interviewing architects for our building design, in trying to understand who we are, one group posed a fascinating question: If your church’s building were a car, what would it be? I LOVED that question because it allowed us to be so descriptive in a completely fresh way (our answer was a Suburban with leather seats, btw).

I thought about that question when I was looking at our church through a different lens this week: If we were a band, who would we be? Realizing that some bands and groups are starving artists who are hyper-talented but connect with very few people, some are complete sell-outs, and a precious few are great and connect with millions of people—it seems like a great question to ask of a church. For Lake Hills Church, the answers really don’t have anything to do with a musical style that we would or would not use in a worship service per se, but they reveal volumes about who we are:

U2—phenomenal artists, groundbreaking sounds, lyrics, and subject matter for a rock band. AND they touch hearts and stimulate minds through a phenomenal sense of poetry and aesthetic better than anyone alive. They’re not afraid to entertain and celebrate while also making you think. And they’ve almost singlehandedly made social activism that makes a difference cool.

Lyle Lovett—Texas to the bone because that’s who he genuinely is, but his intelligent lyrics transcend the Lone Star State and his comfortable-in-his-own-skin persona works in Carnegie Hall as easily as it does in Gruene Hall. Precious few people can pull off (custom-made) pointy-toe cowboy boots and Armani.

Hillsong Worship—as well as anyone around, they know who they are and why they do what they do, and they never stand pat. They are always evolving, growing, and breaking new ground lyrically and musically.

The Rolling Stones—the power of energy. There’s something undeniably powerful and compelling about Mick’s stage presence, Keith’s guitar and Charlie’s backbeat.

Who (in addition to Jesus!) would your church’s culture, personality and presence reflect and why?

Clarifying... Pt. 3: Voice & Responsibility

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:06:00 -0400

As you clarify and refine the vision for your team/staff/church/business/school/family, you also have to clarify and refine the VOICE. The voice of a team is the shared sense of mission, joy, urgency, passion, work ethic, philosophy, and responsibility that defines the culture of that team. I CANNOT overstate how mission-critical the voice of your team is. It is sink-or-swim, do-or-die, life-and-death critical.

Some people that you recruit/hire/bring on will just “get it,” almost from before day one. Some people don’t get it yet, but they will as you teach and share it. And, some won’t. For those who won’t or can’t, it means that you hired the wrong person. Not necessarily a bad person, but the wrong person for this team.

And, some people are just so wounded that they can’t get out of their own way emotionally and relationally and it doesn’t matter what you do—it will never be enough. We have to love these people, invite them to join us in the larger mission/vision of the team, and help them where we can (or help them find help where we can’t help them). But because of our responsibility to the larger team and mission or vision, we can’t allow an individual or small group of people to be a drag and drain on our overall culture, performance, and team.

Hopefully, we’re engaged in something so audacious, so monumental, and significant, that to allow that would be catastrophic to our cause. As the leader, we don’t have the luxury of settling for the catastrophe of mediocrity. We are responsible and accountable for the vision and the voice that are the vehicles for our vocation, our calling. Regardless of our leadership context or style, our personality, the benefits and rewards, or challenges and obstacles—responsibility is the defining characteristic of leadership. Accepting and embracing responsibility reveals a true leader.

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Clarifying Dreams & Vision, Pt. 2

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:00:00 -0400

Way back in Feb. I wrote Clarifying Dreams & Visions as a calm, almost academic reflection on Dr. Sam Chand’s observation: Leadership is like changing the fan belt on your car. While driving down the highway.

At the time, I didn’t intend it to be a multi-part posting. But, in the interim six months, God has changed not only the fan belts of our church and my life, but the oil, radiator fluid, all four tires, the transmission, and the very engine itself. All, while driving down the highway. And, sure enough, he has used this process to clarify and refine the vision that he has called us to realize.

The vehicle has changed. Significantly. But the destination, the object of our prayers, work, dreams, hopes, time, resources, pain, and joy remains the same as it ever was: TO GROW THE COMMUNITY OF CHRIST ONE LIFE AT A TIME.

Over the next few days, I’m going to share some of what we’ve learned and experienced and decided as a result of this crazy ride. Here’s the first thing: THE COMMITMENT TO TRAVEL TRUMPS THE MODE OF TRAVEL. If your car breaks down, don’t abandon the journey. Repair it or replace it, but whatever you do, keep moving!

If your team’s communication, passion, unity, joy, or effectiveness breaks down, the leader is responsible/accountable to repair/replace whatever or whomever needs to be repaired/replaced. The journey (mission, vision, purpose) is too important and the stakes are too high to abandon the journey.

The Exponential Power of Birthdays

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:00:00 -0400

If you can tell your story simply and beautifully, you’ve got a shot. That’s one of the reasons that I’m a big fan of charity: water, the NYC non-profit started by Scott Harrison <@scottharrison> to provide clean water to people in developing nations. The other reason is that they are changing the world by changing people’s lives right here, right now.

To celebrate their founding every September, charity: water launches a specifically targeted mission to raise funds for digging water wells in a particular region of the world. This year, they are targeting the Bayaka people of Central African Republic. Take 5 minutes and see their story and how you can simply and powerfully make a difference below. Then, go to the charity: water website (plus, you’ll see how well Scott’s wife Vik <@vikharrison> crafts their communications).

In four years, charity: water has gone from being a cool idea to a legitimate world-changer. I know these people and what they’re doing and I’m honored to call them friends. They’re making a difference and doing it for all the right reasons. They do what they do really, really well. And, above all else, they’re the real deal.

charity: water 2010 September Campaign: Clean Water for the Bayaka from charity: water on Vimeo.

Clarifying Dreams & Visions

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:45:00 -0500

At last week’s C3 Conference, Dr. Sam Chand likened leadership to changing a fan belt on your car while driving down the highway.

Just for the record, he’s right.

God is in the midst of changing some fan belts in me, in our family, and in Lake Hills Church—all while we continue screaming down the highway. It is an incredibly fun, somewhat scary, hugely faith-building time. It’s a time of praying, dreaming, seeking counsel, praying, planning, and praying.

I don’t know exactly what the next set of fan belts looks like yet, but I know they are bigger and able to sustain higher speeds, hotter temperatures, and greater loads. These dreams and visions that God is leading us into demand change. But, they are clarifying who we are, what we do, and who God wants to be a part of them.

Buckle up.

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Distractions

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:47:00 -0500

Good is the enemy of best.

When you woke up this morning, you had a choice: Invest yourself in the things that matter. Or, chase rabbits.

Rabbits are the distractions that vie for our time, attention, money, energy, and soul. Some people use email to further their purpose and reason for getting up in the morning. Most people use it to distract themselves from the banality of their job. Some people use Twitter to build a brand, communicate quickly and concisely with their audience, or drive people to their website. Most use it to distract themselves from the task at hand, whatever it may be.

Sometimes, chasing people down who’ve left your company, church, or team is a distraction. Or, chasing people down to try and change their mind or opinion is usually a distraction. When someone lobs a false accusation at you, defending yourself can be a distraction.

A good friend of mine was asked by the mayor of his small town to serve on his community’s school board. Taking his responsibility seriously, my friend proposed instituting higher accountability for the teachers in that system. In an effort to derail that direction, defenders of the status quo hurled accusations of racism at him. He listened to their charges, dismissed them as a desperate attempt to distract from the task at hand—he did not even respond to the charges, they were so ludicrous—and moved forward the work to serve the students of that system.

The word distraction tells us what it is: dis ~ away from; tract ~ to draw/carry. To draw or carry away from.

What distractions are drawing or carrying you away from what you GET to do today, this week? Get past them and get on with it.

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Discerning

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:15:00 -0500

¹⁴If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town…¹⁶I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
Matt. 10:14, 16

Judgmentalism and Discernment are like twin sisters: One is ugly as homemade sin and the other is a knockout beauty. Yesterday’s post looked at judgmentalism—and she’s still ugly. But, discernment is a beautiful thing in the life of someone who prays for it, exercises it, and reaps the benefits of it.

We have to be shrewd, even cunning, when it comes to choosing what streams we drink from, what spiritual/relational/intellectual food we ingest and metabolize, and what relationships we cultivate. But, the line between judgmental and discerning is hairline-thin. It’s a matter of the heart.

Judgmental

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:02:00 -0500

The army of God is the only one who shoots its own wounded.

That statement hits just a little too close to home. Not because of wrongs I’ve suffered or wounds I’ve received, though. It hits so close because of wrongs I’ve committed and wounds I’ve inflicted. I’ve done it: Judging another person by deciding in my own mind what their motives, insecurities, and intentions are based solely on what they do.

When God chose David as the second king of Israel, he told Samuel during the vetting process that it’s people who judge by appearances, but God examines the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Whenever I have judged exclusively by externals, I’ve noticed that I’m excluding several significant internal realities:

The actual heart condition of the other person. Jeremiah 17:9 says that no one can understand the heart. That’s God’s job.
Hurt people hurt people. Whenever someone lashes out or attacks someone else for no reason they are responding out of their own woundedness. MONSTER CAVEAT: Explaining their attack in NO WAY excuses it.
It’s possible—just possible—that I don’t have all the facts. Maybe, just maybe, that person has genuinely prayed and sought God’s heart and is following the leading God gave her. Maybe, there’s a calling on her life that I can’t or haven’t yet considered that would explain why she does what she does.
Judging others’ judgmentalism is…oh, what’s the word?…judgmental! I can get haughty in a hurry when I’ve been wronged or someone close to me has been wronged.
The task of judging others has already been assigned—and I didn’t get the gig. God promises that He will set everything to rights. He will account for every injustice, from the Holocaust to my haughtiness and everything in between.
Judging others wastes time that I will be held accountable for what I DO with it. A lot of people don’t yet know Jesus and the extravagance of his love. What in the world am I doing wasting a nano-second on a job that’s not mine? Lives are at stake.

Tomorrow, I’ll post about judgmentalism’s beautiful cousin that is separated by a very, very fine line: discernment.

Where do you see judgmentalism rear its hideously ugly, green head in your life?

Colt McCoy & the Cultivation of Character

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:35:00 -0500

When Colt McCoy was knocked out of the National Championship Game on the 6th play from scrimmage, he was eliminated from the most significant game of his career so far. No meter could measure his disappointment, frustration, anger, and loss.

Yet, his comments in the immediate aftermath of that experience reveal a character and faith that doesn’t just happen. You can’t create it on the spot in the moment. It has to be cultivated over years. Below is a clip from his post-game comments, but below that is an interview with Colt and his dad that we taped for Father’s Day last year that provides amazing insight into how he was “prepared for the path” he’s currently on.

Colt After-game Interview:

Brad & Colt McCoy LHC Interview:

Rev90 Checking In

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:44:00 -0500