Every 7 Days Pastor Kevin Myers

Transcription

1 Every 7 Days Pastor Kevin Myers Note: This was written in 2003 for a Pastor s Coach Article on Many have asked for copies since it was published. When it was originally written, 12Stone had one campus and 3 services on a weekend (Sunday at 9am, 11am, and 6pm). As of 2014 we have 5 services (Saturday 6pm, Sunday 9am, 11am, 1pm, and 6pm) and we simulcast to the other 3 campuses. These thoughts are even more applicable now as when they were written. It s Sunday afternoon. The Atlanta Falcons deliver another interception. Ugh, whatever! I can t afford to get irritated. It s not like it s going to change my life. Besides, I have my own intensity to deliver at 6 p.m. (the third of three duplicate services). And that IS supposed to change someone s life. This is not to get your attention. This is to protect my focus. Even though it s my third time delivering this communication, it s the first time for the Sunday night attenders. Hence, one of the guiding principles God settled with me long ago: No B Sundays No B Deliveries (as opposed to an A level). This was huge in the early days (still is). I used to think that someday, when we are no longer worshipping in a temporary jazzercise with 50 people, I will craft and communicate A level. All I needed was an A size crowd with A type facility and an A worship experience. Therefore, the size of the crowd subtly determined the size of my preparation and passion. Worse than that, I used to feel better about my communication based upon the size of the crowd. I hope someone will own up to this with me: we all know that certain holiday weekends or weather down days can or crowd size can tempt us to relax a bit to reduce the intensity of prayer and press for the A delivery. Major mistake. The principle is simple every time I communicate: always A prayer, A preparation and A passion. Every Sunday is A no B Sundays.

2 FYI I m convinced that the B syndrome ranks higher than we confess as a dulling agent to our communication edge. A few Falcon players attend our church and I enjoy the art of intensity that arises in athletes who know how to center for game day. High level athletes possess (intuitively or trained) an intensity switch a game face with game focus. And it s just a game it doesn t change anything that lasts. We get to communicate for change that lasts. For us the purpose is communication with spiritual intensity. As a rule I ll never deliver a spiritual intensity greater than I lived during the seven days turnaround. What does a spiritually intense week look like every 7 days? I can only offer my journey. I m convinced that the principles parallel but the practices are unique to your particular profile as a communicator Monday - I use Monday s mornings for gratitude When possible, I love to jump on my motorcycle and cruise to a Starbucks where I won t meet many 12Stone people. I bring the computer and journey and reset my spirit in alignment with his. I love Monday s. So Father, what did we win this weekend? At one moment during the first service the Holy Spirit showed up like when you fell on Gideon and he blew the trumpet to call Israel to battle. That was a rich kindness. It was not in my notes, but it was in your heart Father. I am so grateful. Oh, and Sandra, the recently attending seeker spoke of a major break through. Father, you obviously tunneled to her thoughts and rest lings. Only a God like you can create a spiritual moment that alerts the soul to the reality that you are alive and at work. You are waking her up inside Well you get the point. Gratitude is one path to growing my communication. Through gratitude I connect with the Father on Mondays and discover where we won and of course where we did not win. I don t do much else on Monday in regards to communication. My faith is enlivened and I reaffirm that communication is an adventure in dependency. I ask the Father to continue to work in the hearts of

3 people to press the one thing from the weekend. By noon, Monday s loose their appeal as I step into the stuff of ministry FYI In my profile as a communicator; I process constantly. My mind rarely turns off I can be in the middle of a conversation and something sparks for the upcoming teaching. Communication is always on the burner it s just the way I m wired. More to the point, I see with communicators eyes and listen with communicator s ears. I am forever writing out a thought or new angle and stuffing it in the file. I m a study of people and patterns while I immerse myself in the why behind people s lives and God s ways (human nature and God s nature). I recognize that this informal element is irreplaceable in my journey of the 7 day turnaround. You might have recognized this is content and delivery in motion. Tuesday is my day (mostly about thoughts) is a preparation guide to each weekend communication. If for example just prior to teaching you interrupted and asked me to teach for 3 hours or 30 minutes or 3 minutes on the given outline, I am able to deliver. The 3 minute version is the concise communication of the one thing I want people to KNOW and the one thing I want them to DO. It has to carry compelling insight that captures the mind and engages the heart. It s one of the most difficult things I do as a communicator. And to keep it intense this usually connects to the God Moment of every communication (discussed below). How do you get to the 3 minute? In short, the 3 minute is the great thought. Most great thoughts emerge on the summit of many good thoughts. Therefore, Tuesday is the collection of the many good thoughts. From prayer leadings to scripture study to thoughts filed around the idea to books to chasing thoughts around the web I compile the many good thoughts. As I marinate in the pile of many good thoughts I look for what they all have in common. This is always

4 driven from the truth of God s Word with prayer and consistent with the issues of humanity. I walk into a 3 p.m. 5 p.m. meeting with our Director of Redemptive Arts (Pastor Dave Ronne). He comes to this meeting after a 2+ hour detailed review of the DVD from the weekend services and brings any of those issues to the table. Then we press through series. Illustration: Since it s November 4 we will discuss the broad ideas for the March series under the working title: The 6 skills of quality relationships ; we will touch on the broad packaging of the Finance/Money series for February; we will discuss the 4 week series on Prayer entitled ASK for January with each weeks summary direction, we will then detail the weekly target of each of the 4 weekends in December A Midnight Clear. 50% of our time will be devoted to processing future series. We will spend the other 50% on completing our November series. We will get into the detailed flow of the next 2 or 3 weeks. I will sign-off on the special music, elements and flow so that the 3 minute great thought is woven throughout the service. What Dave really wants to hear from me is the God Moment. Every weekend I ask God to give me a clear sense of what matters most on his heart. Where is he most passionate? Where/what is the one moment when he will show up with unusual presence and power? 30% of the time I know this on Tuesday, 50% of the time by Friday and 20% of the time by Saturday prayer time. Then, whenever God desires, he confirms or resets it during the communication. As long as I m in the vine God usually grants me the kindness of keeping me in the loop of what he is doing or allows me to recognize it when he steps in uniquely. Given my profile as a communicator, I land ideas by verbalizing. When Dave and I talk the subject the ideas gel and I take notes on my own verbiage. Some of you know exactly what I m talking about. It sounds weird to those of you who gain your best ideas in the quiet of serenity or writing. I like chaos and conversation. As I

5 speak it the thoughts unfold with curious clarity and concise genius. If this is you enjoy it and leverage it fully. If you are like me, you discover some of your best stuff while teaching /talking on Sunday (or whenever). Wednesday is about Spiritual Intensity (abiding and study) The morning is more about a deep abiding through worship and prayer. This is not centered on communication but often God grants leadings for the teaching in view of the flood of thoughts swimming around my head from Tuesday. Frequently this is a spiritual leadership experience that brings out the Warrior within. Sometime between Wednesday & Friday I am wielding my prayer sword (another subject) around the worship center as I pray over 12Stone. For me, leading and teaching are so intimately linked that it is difficult to separate. Nonetheless, it is rare for me to walk away without something defining for the upcoming teaching for this Sunday for the series. I journal heavily in this time and interwoven will be the leadings that I will use on Friday morning. Additionally, I will give 2 hours somewhere in Wednesday for concentrated organization of thought to the coming Sunday. If I do not know the 3 minute I ll endeavor to land it on Wednesday. By now I am well into the ability to speak for 3 hours, I have a sense of the 30 minutes in concept and I hope I know the 3 minute (with the God moment). Some communicators are far more administrative than I am in this process. They do not like pressure at the end of the week. I am wired for that kind of pressure. I prefer the intensity mounting Friday, then Saturday, peaking Saturday night with game face & game focus on Sunday. Thursday is my DAY OFF (We all need rest. I love to work and I love my day off).

6 Friday is when I Connect and Craft the Outline (conclude content) I arrive at our church prayer walk on the 70 acres adjacent to our facilities (Now the location of our Central Campus and we still have that prayer path). Someday, thousands more will come to know Christ and walk with him on this land. Until then, my prayer partner meets me and we do the walk. We pray for the hour and I close by sharing the 3 minute/god moment. He prays over me and 12Stone. This sends me into my prayer/study to craft the communication. What a way to be sent into crafting. By noon I have to deliver the teaching notes to my administrative assistant. Some of you might have to deliver an outline earlier, some not at all. What I have discovered is that the best communication occurs when it s driven by the communicator rather than the administrator. In other words, they would love to have my teaching notes on Tuesday but it s not going to happen. (Now in 2014, he delivers the notes by Wednesday) It s time for the final outline. It must achieve the one thing I want them to know and the one thing I want them to do. (3 minutes - this demands I honor the truth that less is more. I will teach less content over three weeks than I would teach in one week fifteen years ago) It must be consistent with the nature of God and the nature of people if it is to connect. (This is usually the intersection of the God moment with spiritual intensity the connection of head and heart). Saturday I Craft the final Communication (heavy on delivery) By now I already know how I intend to deliver. I am always processing and I usually know how to deliver with impact. My communication profile leads with heart and follows with humor. I set up with stories and then sting with the truth. My style is to talk-with rather than talk-

7 at people. I am open with my life and often illustrate with personal experiences. This is advantageous especially since I speak in the same church some weekends and have been doing so for 16 years. This way we do life together and authenticity keeps me a part of the human race vs. pedestal pastor. I use common illustrations to connect with common life. I move from intellect to insight. I take the complex and make it simple. I am to be fresh which is different from fad. Fad is the in thing whereas fresh is the thing God is doing in you. I will be as fresh in communication as God is fresh in me. As God is fresh in me he rightsizes his purpose in my life. I step up each weekend to right-size the purpose of God in their lives. All week the world has downsized Godthings and supersized world-things. I get to encourage them to rightsize as God delivers through me. Communication at 12Stone is to be a catalyst for change. By Saturday night I show up by 9:15pm for prayer time (our current schedule is to pray at 7:30am every Saturday). After sharing the 3 minute God moment, we (anyone who chooses to participate) pray for an hour over the people, the service, God s agenda and we seek His face. They join me in prayer over worship and then they pray over me. Sunday I show up at 7 a.m. and review the communication. Just before I step up to communicate I have been prayed over in the prayer room by treasured prayer partners. That team continues to pray throughout the service. Something of God within me confirms that it took all 7 days to remain in the vine with intense prayer, intense preparation, intense crafting, and intense memorization yet it all depends upon the power of God in the hands of intercessors. Who couldn t land a thought with people praying and God answering? (Note: After every service, Kevin meets with the Director of Redemptive Arts and/or the Executive Pastor to obtain feedback on his delivery. He makes adjustments for the next service)

8 After the morning services I ll go home and watch the Falcons and unless Vick comes back they ll throw another interception. Me, I ll have to keep my focus. I have my own to deliver and I d rather not throw an interception. Either way, I get to do this again. For me, it comes every 7 days. Notes and edits by Chris Huff