phillipmccart.com

Family Pastor?

I've been with North Rock Hill Church for almost a year and a half.  In that time we've seen a lot of transition pretty much in any and every area of our organization.  My job is no different. 

I came on staff as the Worship and Family Pastor.  It was always the plan that I would eventually let go of the Worship Pastor responsibilities and focus on our Family Ministry teams.  Of course that raises a question..."what is a Family Pastor and what does one do?"

An honest question considering that this kind of specialized position is rather new.  To put it simply, I oversee ministries that specifically work with children and students.  Sounds like a Minister of Children and Youth right?  Yep, except that it's considerably more than just that.

You see at North Rock Hill Church we adopted a philosophy of ministry called Orange.  This philosophy is purely methodological.  In doctrine and theology we strive to be as Gospel centered as possible leaning toward a more Southern Baptist/Reformed alignment.  Orange has to do with the way we carry out the Great Commision.

I do oversee  SafariLand (Preschool), KidsCamp (Elementary) and Student Ministry.  More acurately, I do whatever I can to support and encourage the incredible people that put these great environments together.  What is a little different in my job though is that I also oversee the College and Married ministries.  We're working hard to support the already ongoing ministry happening through the local college campus ministries.  We have also launched our Married Life Ministry and are pushing forward to provide training and encouragement to married couples here in Rock Hill.  We believe the first step to a great children or student ministry is a great marriage ministry.

So that's what I do.  A lot of meetings, email writing, hand shaking, coffee drinking, dreaming, encouraging, apologizing, visioncasting, supporting and whatever the people on my teams need me to do.  I am being challenged and streched more so than ever before.  I'm in over my head, unqualified and will probably make more mistakes than success stories.  In the end, I believe that there will be generations of believers who are stronger, more wise and more committed to Christ because of the work we do week after week.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

For more on "Orange" check out the video below.

Orange Strategy from Orange on Vimeo.

 

11/11/11 = 2

Mac,

I've had the unimaginable honor of being your dad for the last two years.  You've been more than I could have ever hoped for.  Over the next several decades we're going to laugh, argue, yell, prank, compete, pray, annoy, complain, misunderstand, worship, study, cry, travel and explore A LOT.  

I can promise you two things right now.  One, I am going to let you down.  Two, I will always, always, always love you.  I've told you so at least 2,190 times.  I have a not so secret plan to tell you that I love you at lease once a day for as long as I'm alive.  

I'm going to be a collosal embarrassment to you for at least the next twenty years, but I hope that after that, you'll be proud to call me "Dad."  

I have been, am and will continue to pray that God would open your heart and mind to the truth of the Gospel.  I'll be most proud when I get to call you my brother in Christ.

I love you son.  Happy Birthday.

  

Wanting To Be Wanted

Confession time, I want to be wanted.  Odds are, you do too.  

Nobody likes to be picked last.  If you're picked last, truth is, you weren't picked at all.  Someone got stuck with you.

There's a select few who've never experienced this and the rest of us secretly want to make that group cry.

Why am I talking about this?  Is my ego in a fragile place?  Always, I'm in a constant process of putting my ego to death.  But that's beside the point.  

We're in a major season of change and adjustment at North Rock Hill Church.  A lot is going on and needs attention.  The one thing that is heavy on my heart and mind is the people who serve on the Family Ministy and Worship teams at our church.

I want each of them to know that we want them.  We're not stuck with them; they weren't the last pick.  We love them and are very dependant on them.  Over the next few weeks and months I'm going to be trying my hardest to help each person on our teams understand just how valuable he or she is.  

Each one is wanted.  Each one is valuable.  Each one has the potential to do great things for the Kingdom.  I'm blessed to serve with them.

How are you making each member of your team feel wanted?

Orange Tour 2011 (Part 5)

Final Session:

"What in the world are you saying to change the way someone sees the world?"

"Say less more often so everyone will know what really matters."

"Be selective about WHAT you say."

"The average church only has on average 40 hours a year with an individual child."

"The average kid spends 400 hours a year playing video games."

"You either teach less for more impact, or you teach more for less impact."

"All Scripture is equally inspired."

"All Scripture is not equally important."

"Jesus prioritized what the most important commandment is."

Core Insights:

    1. Wonder: Design, Identitiy, Connection

    2. Discovery: Faith, Transformation, Truth

    3. Passion: Community, Compassion, Restoration

 "Be relevant about HOW you say it."

"It's presentation not information that engages the imagination."

"Relevance is using what is cultural to say what is timeless."

"All Scripture is not equally applicable for every stage of life."

"There are some things in the Bible that you might not want to talk about with Preschool children."

"Develop the skill of crafting WORDS."

 "Say ONE thing at a time."

"Don't disengage at high school graduation."

"Collaborate with other AGE GROUP ministries."

Be intentional about who else speaks vision into your people."

"Parents have 3,000 unstructured hours on average per year with their children."

" Organize ministry around relationships." SMALL GROUPS!

"You can't ever compete with the budgets of Disney, Mtv or city events. However, they can't compete with your relational potential."

"Are you giving your kids an option to live the better story?"

Orange Tour 2011 (Part 4)

Partnering with Parents Breakout:

"With what we do as church leaders, we unknowingly either give parents hope in the spiritual development of their children or we shut them out."

"Every parent wants to do a better job in the spiritual development of their children, but not all of them are equipped to do so."

"4/5 of parents connected in the local church say that their church has done little or nothing to help them with the spiritual development of their children."

"Most of us think it's our job to get an Involved Parent to be an Aware Parent and an Aware Parent to be an Invested Parent.  That's where we get in trouble."

"There is another level of Parent between the Aware Parent and the Invested Parent.  This is the Engaged Parent."

"Most of the time we have defined Spiritual Leadership in an impractical way and impossible scenario for parents to feel successful."

"The fifth grade kid who's dad starts praying with him will feel like a major change has happened."

"Are you leveraging the Sunday morning main service platform to cast vision of partnering with parents?"

"We need to help parents re-engage and transition the way they are parenting as their children move toward personal independance. "

"Pay attention to the rhythm of your church events and leverage those times to pour into your parents."

"Embrace the milestone moments (event based and issue based) to connect small group leaders and parents."

"Why aren't we making it EASY for parents to engage with their children on a spiritual level?"

 

Orange Tour 2011 (Part 3)

Session 3:

"We should be working to 'Inceite Wonder' in a child's spiritual life."

"Inciting Wonder can be done by helping children understand that they were DESIGNED by God and not just an accident."

"We need to help children realize that their IDENTITY is found in their Creator."

"What we do should be done so that children can easily CONNECT with God."

"Every person who works with your Preschool age children need to understand that they are the first impression of who God is and how He loves."

"The story of David and Mephibosheth shows us the power of living out the love God to others."

"As leaders we have to be comfortable and prepared for our students to wrestle with finding a FAITH of their own."

"If we don't allow kids to deal with their own doubt they'll never find their own FAITH."

"All of this is not about having great faith in God but putting whatever faith we have and placing it in Jesus."

"It's not about the amount of our faith.  It's about where we place our faith."

"We need to remember that our job is not the transform people but to be an instrument of God as He changes people."

"It's almost impossible to invite someone into the story we want them to be a part of if they don't understand the big picture."

"Instead of ramping up the Wonder and Discovery dials in Student Ministry, we should be focussing more on the Passion dial."

"Students are desperately seeking true COMMUNITY; both as a recipiant and a participant."

"Students need to understand COMPASSION and RESTORATION so they will feel the responsibility as the Church to reach out to the broken lives around us."

"We aren't inviting people to stop drinking, smoking or making poor choices but into a better life."

Orange Tour 2011 (Part 2)

More thoughts from Orange Tour....

"Every story you tell, song you sing, environment you create should be geared to usher people closer to and deeper in a relationship with God."

"There are three innate areas that we can effect in the life of people. Wonder, Discovery and Passion."

"You are instinctively drawn to what is supernatural, miraculous, or spiritual." - Wonder

"Turn the 'Wonder Dial' up for children so they can be amazed by a God who is bigger than their imagination."

"You are instinctively drawn to understand you own uniqueness and role in a bigger story." - Discovery

"We're wired to want to grow in who we are, in friendship, and in community." - Discovery

"You are intinctively drawn to connect relationally and to rescue those who are hurting or broken." - Passion

"You're either turning the 'Passion Dial' up or turning it down whether you realize it or not."

"The number of students attending is not an accurate metric for success in Student Ministry. A better measuring stick is how many students are plugged back in to DOING ministry." - Passion

"This is the reason people who don't know other people will go to another country to help those in need." - Passion

"If you don't ever give the next generation a chance to DO something then they will never understand what you're saying to them about BEING the Church."

 

Orange Tour 2011 (Part 1)

I'm excited to be at Orange Tour today.  I'm even more excited to be here with some of my staff and volunteers.  I believe the NRHC Family Ministries are on the verge of something truly amazing.  Here are some of the thoughts Reggie Joiner has been sharing with us this morning.

" Mission doesn't determine success.  Strategy does."

"You'll never have to work at being misaligned.  You will have to be dilligent to be synchronized."

"It doesn't take a leader to kill something that's already dead."

"A team can't be on the same page without regularly being in the same room."

Great stuff so far!  Think ORANGE!!!

Grace In Someone Else

There's a great Marc Broussard lyric that goes like this....

"It blows my mind to think that I've found grace in someone else."

On it's own it may not seem so profound but let me give you some context.

I've been married for twelve years.  We've had our ups and downs.  We've moved a ridiculous amount of times to be a non-military family.  We're rasing the three most amazing children on the planet.  But when you get to the real couple behind the kids, jobs, house, cars, friendships and hobbies, what is really there?  Well, two very imperfect people chasing after God and learning to love each other better in the process.  Hang on though because this post is just about to start.

The "earning factor" is what most of us struggle with in a relationship with Christ.  As humans we love to earn, deserve or prove ourselves worthy of what we're given.  This is impossible with God.  His grace is what makes life and relationship possible.  His giving of exactly what we aren't worthy of, we don't deserve and what we're incapable of earning.  He showers unfailing love, forgiveness and mercy on us.  I continually give God every reason in existance not to love me, to give up on me, to leave me on my own.  But He doesn't and He never will.

Now, back to Marc Broussard and my marriage. 

I may be slow on the uptake with this one but I was overwhelmed by just how much my wife Anita has shown me God's love.  In our twelve years together I've disappointed her, been selfish, lied to her, been unfaithful (mentally or emotionally is the same as physically in God's eyes), failed to provide for her, treated her as subordinate.  In other words, I've given her almost every reason stop loving me, to give up on me, leave me on my own.  But she hasn't and I believe she never will. 

I've found grace in someone else.  

She loves me and respects me not because I'm a great man.  I'm actually pretty terrible at that.  She loves God and honors Him by honoring me.  She loves Him by loving me.  She pushes me closer to Christ by showing His character and compassion to me.  

Thank you Anita.  I'm a better man because of you.  I'm a better dad because of you.  I'm a stronger and deeper Chist follower because of you.  Your love to me truly is His love to me.  

Perpetually Frustrated

As long as I can remember I've been a pusher.  Even as a kid I was always brainstorming ways to improve my bedroom (I still want the swimming pool room).  I'm almost never completely satisfied with how a room looks, a song went or a sermon was preached.  Even when I'm the only one making decisions I'm constantly rethinking plans hoping to improve what has been done.  

I once heard Andy Stanley say that this critical eye or thinking process is a part of my make up because I'm a leader.  I believe that to be true; however, I can't help but wonder if this has become a crutch.  Am I truly looking to lead into the unknown or am I just fostering an attitude of perpetual frustration?  Do I simply lack the ability to be happy?

I don't have an answer to this yet.  I'd really like to hear some of your thoughts.  So blog, facebook, twitter, google+ world...is this a visionary characteristic or simply immaturity?