Mark Clement

Sex Slaves in America

Over the last year there has FINALLY begun to be some consistent buzz/chatter about the booming sex slave industry. Not only the one overseas, but the one right here in America. As Tammy and I have learned more we have been overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of it. The fact is that Americans are the #1 consumers of the sex slave trade worldwide. Not only are Americans traveling to international locations solely for this purpose, but now they can get it right here at home. Did you know that Atlanta, GA was the number one sex slave destination in North America? Not New York, or Los Angeles or Las Vegas. Atlanta. I know, it's hard to believe.

To learn more about this unbelievable situation, check out this trailer for the upcoming movie, The Playground Project. I want to encourage you to spread the word about this film and more importantly about this issue. We need to start talking about it, giving to organizations that fight it, and doing what we can individually, as families and as churches to stop it.

3 Signs of a Healthy/Unhealthy Church

Having spent 15  years on various church staffs and time with hundreds of church clients over the past six years, I've developed a bit of a sixth sense when it comes to the health of a church. Fact is it's not rocket science. The signs are everywhere and pretty easy to spot. But when we're in the middle of it, when it's OUR church, it suddenly gets complicated. Sometimes we're so busy we just don't see the signs. Other times we see them but ignore them in hopes that they will just go away. Finally, and this may be the worst of them all, we see them very clearly but we are quick to excuse or justify. This list is by no means exhaustive, but will help you to start asking the right questions. So let's take a quick look at three of the biggest signs we should all be watching out for.

Sign #1 - GROWTH AND FRUIT

Bottom line a healthy anything (person, church, animal, plant, organization) grows. Some grow faster or different than others, but all healthy things grow. And they can grow numerically, or by reproducing, or in strength/effectiveness. Healthy things are full of energy and life, and they produce fruit of some kind. In a church that fruit should be things like salvation, life change, spiritual maturity, giving, serving and sending. No growth, no fruit = no health.

Sign #2 - INNOVATION/ADAPTABILITY

Healthy things stay that way because they learn to adapt to their changing environments through innovation. This isn't a contemporary vs. traditional issue, it applies to all. You have to remember that the degree of innovation is determined not by the innovation itself, but by the point of origin. You have to measure your church's innovation against itself, not other churches. All points of origin are different. It's also important that we don't change for change's sake, but because it's necessary for growth. Bottom line, if your organization looks exactly the same as it did a year, two years, five years ago, your health is definitely in question.

SIGN #3 - LONG TERM MEMBERS (AND STAFF)

This sign goes hand in hand with #1 (Growth). One without the other is not good, but as you grow, if you tend to keep people a long time, that is a great sign of health. The fact is that healthy people can not and will not stay at an unhealthy church for very long. The biggest test for this is among leadership. These are the people who get to see behind the curtain, who work directly with the staff. Sooner or later they will get a true picture of the health of the church. If there is constant turnover among people in leadership, you have a serious problem. And no amount of new people coming in the front door will fix it. Longevity = health.

Life Lessons In The Middle Of The Night

Yesterday was a big one. Had a lot to do including an extremely important meeting. As usual on an occasion like this, I did not sleep well the night before. Too excited. I woke up, probably around 4:30 (I never look at the time as it only makes things worse), wide awake, mind racing. I felt compelled to pray but resisted the urge. After all I was all prayed up, fully prepared for the day. I didn't need to pray anymore. I stubbornly fought through it and eventually fell back asleep.

Later that morning while getting ready the thought hit me: why did I feel that my only option was to pray for myself? Why didn't I think of others around me, close friends and family who need prayer? I was flooded with thoughts of specific people who really needed lifting up. I was immediately embarrassed by my lack of thoughtfulness.

The truth is I can't answer that question. I'm not really sure what it is. I do think that sometimes we slip into that mode where prayer becomes a self serving, self protecting kind of thing. Not so much a wish list, but just make my life better, help my things go smoother, etc... And to be clear it's not simply that we're just that selfish, but we get into survival mode and our view becomes extremely narrow, only seeing what's right in front of us. I don't think it's bad to petition God for strength and support, but we really need to think more about others and less about ourselves. Maybe it's just me, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not. I'll pray that you do better, and hopefully you'll do the same for me. Promise.

Control or Growth: A Cautionary Tale

"Every pastor has to decide what he wants most: Control or Growth. You can't have both.The bottleneck is always at the top." - Rick Warren

Wow, what a great statement. Yet while we hear these types of things a lot, I often wonder if we really get it. To that end a couple of brief, real life examples that may shed some light on what this actually looks like. Sadly, these are true stories.

Many years ago I worked with a booming church running well over 2000 each weekend. I've worked with hundreds of church staffs over the years and I can say without hesitation, this particular group was the most talented I've ever seen in one place. Passionate, motivated, visionary. But the more success they had, the tighter the senior pastor squeezed. He was scared to death of things getting beyond his control. He loved the fact that he had a stable full of thoroughbreds, but he would never let them loose to run. Eventually those types of horses are going to kick the door down and run free, like they were meant to do. After 3-4 years of the grip tightening, and after many opportunities to course correct, the dam burst. Within about 18 months, 8 of the 12 senior staff left and over the next year after that 2 of the 4 remaining left. Almost all of the lay leadership moved on and the church dwindled about 50%. It has never fully recovered. Incredibly sad. 

On the other end of the spectrum is a young church plant I consulted with a few years back. About 2.5 years old they were doing great, running close to 300 with potential all over the place. But after just a few meetings, it became painfully clear that their biggest obstacle was the pastor. They had 2 or 3 talented young staff guys and some phenomenal volunteer leaders, but no one could make a move without the pastor. Every decision, every new idea no matter how small, had to go through him and it would often take him weeks to make a decision. These guys had the longest staff meetings I've ever seen, longer than most mega-churches I've worked with. So essentially they hit a wall. It's been about 2 years since then and last I heard they are still stuck. No significant growth whatsoever. What a waste.

Pastors/leaders, you can be your organizations greatest asset or greatest hindrance. Self awareness is crucial and you need people in your life who are free to speak truth to you. If your organization is stuck, quit looking outside for who or what's to blame, and start with yourself. More often than not, there is where you'll find the answer. The good news is once the issue is identified, YOU have the power to change it and get things back on track. Let go and enjoy the ride!

Going Deep: The Key to Just About Everything

"Having impact spread wide and having impact that resonates deeply are two very different things. They are not mutually exclusive, but more often than not, we settle for a season of brief popularity." unknown

Often times when we build organizations, churches, small groups...anything built on relationships...we want to grow them as quickly as possible. It seems natural that more is better. Why impact only 5 people when you can impact 10, right? That's all well and good, but the key is not how many you reach, rather HOW you reach them. Without really thinking about it, our tendency is to go out and reach as many people as WE can. So WE invite OUR friends, and OUR family, and OUR neighbors, and OUR coworkers, and if WE work hard at it then pretty soon WE have a group that looks something like this:

 You may have 5, or 10, or 100, but this is the basic structure, lots of people connected to one thing: YOU. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with this...at first. It's a great start and you've got some momentum and everyone is excited, but how long can it last? The answer is not long. Because eventually YOU are going to get tired, or sick, or complacent, and as soon as YOU stop doing what YOU did to get the thing started, it will die. Now if you're a super duper hard worker you can keep it up for a while, but sooner or later the ball will be dropped. You can only spin so many plates for so long. This is why so many small groups die young. 

Have you ever taken a good look at the roots of a tree that has been blown over in a storm? If you have you probably noticed that the root system was very shallow. It may be super wide, but shallow nonetheless. The key to strength and health and sustainability is going deep. 

Now the truth is that going deep is a bit harder, and may take a little bit longer on the front end. But long term your job gets easier and easier, because once you have a strong, deep root system in place, growth is virtually unlimited. The key is to not just connect new people to yourself, but to dive down deep through the people you are already connected to. Find 2 or 3 in your group with the most leadership potential and help them make some new connections. Then help them identify a potential leader under them and repeat the process over and over until it starts to look like this:

You are leading and training by example. After you go down 2-3 levels then you can step back and the guy next to you keeps diving and then he hands it off to the next guy, etc...  Now which model do you think is stronger? You get 2 or 3 legs going like this and you are set. And think of the benefits: You're identifying leaders at every level. You're modeling true Biblical discipleship. You can easily break off one of these legs and let it become a new group unto itself, duplicating the process infinitely. This works in church, in small groups, in business, in networking.

Bottom line: if you want longevity, strength, sustainability, duplication, health...you've got to go deep. 

What Grace Looks Like

This past Sunday, Steven Furtick and Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC invited Ted Haggard and his wife to be their guests, sharing their story, etc...  This raised a lot of eyebrows throughout the Christian world, people asking 'why would you do that?'  From the Elevation Church web site:

» Here's how it happened...

- Pastor Steven attended New Life Church (Ted Haggard's former church) while he was in college, and at the time it was the largest church he'd ever been to. The visit was inspiring and had a profound impact on his life.

- As the saga of Ted Haggard received national media attention over the last couple years, Pastor Steven followed the story and recently saw the HBO documentary chronicling the life of Ted Haggard. It really tore Pastor Steven apart to see the effects of sin on the Haggard family.

- Consequently, Pastor Steven contacted Ted Haggard to share how his life had been impacted and encourage him to remember that God could and would still use his life. He wanted to honor Ted Haggard for the work he had done. And, ultimately, invited Ted Haggard and his wife to come share his story at Elevation Church.

» And here's why it happened...

- Many of us are in a position that if we don't receive God's healing in our lives, we're headed for some of the same calamity Ted Haggard and his family experienced. We all need a vivid reminder of what's at stake when we flirt with sin and don't receive God's healing power in our life.

- Pastor Steven is inspired by Ted Haggard's wife, Gayle, and why she decided to stand by him through all the allegations. Elevation wouldn't bring Ted Haggard in if his wife didn't come with him to share her part of the story too.

- We're not promoting a man. We're not reinstating him back into the ministry. We're not hiring him at Elevation church. We're simply allowing Ted Haggard to tell his story.

- We're not going to condemn Ted Haggard for what he's done. We're not going to bash homosexuality. - We're not endorsing homosexuality. We're not endorsing anything. We're frankly going to let the story speak for itself.

- We want people to see what it looks like when a man deceives and lies, then his sin is found out. And what it looks like when a family stands by and forgives.

- We're committed to being a church that can talk about everything.

The real question that believers should be asking is not 'why would you do that?', but 'why WOULDN'T you do that?'  Kudos to Furtick and Elevation for showing the world what grace looks like. 

Economic Challenge or Economic Opportunity?

Obviously there's a lot of talk going on about the economy, the financial crisis in America.  And there should be.  But as with every situation, there is another side to the coin.  For those of us who serve the church or are in direct church leadership, we need to see this as less of a crisis and more of an opportunity.  Christianity always shines brightest in crisis. 

An Associated Press item entitled “Americans Still Giving, Despite Economic Meltdown,” reports that, widespread economic woes notwithstanding, charitable contributions in the U.S. this year may prove even stronger than usual.

This should come as no surprise, says AP writer Donna Gordon Blankenship. According to Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, “historically, charitable giving has been recession-proof.” A Harris Interactive telephone survey conducted a few weeks ago found that while seven in ten adults expect to spend less on presents this holiday season, “about half say they are more likely to give a charitable gift.”

Turns out, even when people are hurting, they keep giving — and often give more, not less.

I along with many others have said for years that people don't give to building campaigns or programs.  People give, and give big, to VISION.  They give to things that are bigger than themselves.  Things that are perceived to be life-changing and more importantly, eternal. 

Case in point: President-elect Obama raised more money than any presidential candidate ever, including $150 million in October alone.  People will give to causes they believe in and to big vision.  What cause is greater and what vision is grander than what God is doing to redeem His creation?

None.

(Thanks to Matt Evans and John David Mann for their input)

Mark Who?

Tonight I caught some of a show called 'Samantha Who'.  Only vaguely familiar, but in short it's a sitcom about a girl who was a horrible person, then through an accident got amnesia and now is trying to be a nice person.  In this episode she decides to do something selfless and sets out to go to Africa to serve.  Only she doesn't end up going, just pretending to go.  The 10 vaccinations, the travel, the danger, are too much so she stays home, hiding out from everyone who thinks she went.  She's too embarrassed to admit she's afraid and that ultimately she doesn't really care THAT much.

On some level I identified with her.  Intentions are great, but altogether meaningless, worthless, without action.  Shoulda woulda coulda.  If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts...  But they aren't.  They are just small words used by small people to justify small lives. 

I need a better answer to the question 'Mark who?'. 
MC

Sunday Mind Dump

Sunday afternoon, Pittsburgh airport.  Waiting for my flight, first chance I've had to breathe since I got here on Friday morning.  We've had a great weekend filming at Victory Family Church here.  But each day has been jam packed with stuff to get done.  I'm wiped.

Now it's about 3 hours later and I'm in Cincinnati.  I stared at the screen for about 30 min, unable to focus, then packed it up and headed to my gate where I proceeded to fall asleep (I've never done that) only to be awakened by my flight being announced.  Very weird feeling. 

Anyway a great weekend.  I was particularly moved by the Saturday night service at Victory.  The church has  a very loving, accepting atmosphere, everyone welcome, etc...  A lot of churches tout this type of message but few in my opinion really mean it.  These guys do.  As I moved among the people in the seats I was struck more than once by the smell of alcohol, the smell of heavy cigarettes and so forth.  I loved it.  It said to me that these were imperfect people, maybe struggling with some issues, but they still felt safe to come and listen to God's word being preached.  It made me think "this is Jesus' " crowd'.  The sick.  The hurting.  The empty.  There were plenty of nice looking, great smelling people too, but they were just as real and sincere.  As I interviewed a great cross section of their people for the project, I was struck by the stories of life change.  Some from great darkness into light.  Others who already believed but were disillusioned with church and found restoration here. 

I was also moved by the fact that this church sees many people come to know Christ almost every single week.  I think this is a key measuring stick that too many churches choose to ignore or dismiss.  It's not complicated.  Are people being believing in God for the first time in our churches or not?  Are people who need to make this decision even coming to our churches?  Does this mean that people who already believe shouldn't come?  Of course not.  Does it mean that discipleship isn't important, only salvations?  No, the Great Commission is pretty clear on this.  Some may argue that it is not our job to 'save' people, that this is solely the work of the Holy Spirit.  I agree that we aren't responsible to 'make this happen', only God can do that.  But that being said I do believe that often times He isn't going to waste time bringing these people to a place where the gospel is rarely presented and/or opportunities to ask the right questions are few and far between.  There is a reason that some churches see great numbers of people coming to faith and others rarely or never do.  Either way, it is their choice. 

airports are big.
mc

What I Learned From Delta

I’ve been flying a lot lately.  In fact I’m sitting on the tarmac in Cincinnati waiting to be de-iced right now.  One thing I don’t mind waiting on. 

Before I get into the thing I’m actually writing about a quick side note.  There is a college kid sitting a few seats over from me asleep.  You know how your dog will sleep up against a piece of furniture with his head up against it all twisted and his face mashed into the side of it?  Your dog has nothing on this girl.  Her face is into that window so hard I don’t know how she’s breathing let alone sleeping.  All I can think about is how bad her neck is going to hurt when she wakes up.   

Anyway, like I said, been flying a lot. Has anyone else noticed the vast discrepancies between flight attendances based on the airline or even from one flight to the next?  I have to say that probably over the last couple of years I have been noticing this but tonight it really struck me. The fist flight was a small plane from Birmingham to Cincinnati, crammed full of people like sardines, your basic bus with wings.  The flight from Ohio to DC is a big 737, spacious seats, very comfortable, etc…  The flying bus had flight attendants to match.  Sloppy uniforms, messy hair…just all around homely (I don’t know how else to say it).  The 737 (same airline) is completely different.  They are all (guy and girls) tall and thin, fashionable haircuts, immaculately dressed…your basic J. Crew catalog in the sky.  And the ones who work first class are even more that way.  I must say this is pretty consistent across the industry. 

Now why is that?  It has no bearing on a person buying a ticket from one airline to the next.  When you go on-line to buy your tix there are no pictures of the flight crews or anything.  Even though it’s probably not in writing anywhere, you and I both know that some executive in an office somewhere decided that the more expensive the ticket (bigger plane, first class, whatever) the better looking your flight attendant should be.  He/she decided that ‘those people’ would expect better accommodations, better service…IE a better looking flight attendant. 

It’s bad enough when this kind of thinking permeates our culture, but it is altogether unacceptable when it gets into our churches.  I’ve seen it happen a few times and it is not pretty.  I once had a pastor who told a worship leader that he could not wear short sleeves (even in the heat of summer) because his arms were too hairy and it would distract people.  Another time he (same guy) had numerous meetings with the worship staff regarding what to do about an overweight praise team member who (he thought) wore his shirts too tight.  “I can see the indentation of his navel” was the quote that haunts me to this day.  He would not let the issue go and eventually that praise team member and his family left over this.  Never mind that they were faithful members who had served for years in numerous ways.  That wasn’t important.  It was all about appearances. 

As ridiculous as these stories are, they are true nonetheless.  I have more but I'll keep it short for now.  They may sound far-fetched to those of us who are still small, still struggling to make it.  But the real danger comes when we start having some success.  When we get big and more polished.  We start worrying about the things that really don’t matter and forget about why we started in the first place.  We start worrying about people’s expectations and begin to try and please them instead of lead them. 

I am reminded of Rick Warren’s Saddleback church that met for years in rented facilities, something like 80 different places in 10 years.  We all know how that turned out.  I also think about Rob Bell’s Mars Hill in Michigan that meets in a big non-descript box.  They seem to be doing OK. 

Remember to value content over convenience, authenticity over appearances and humility over pride.  Let's keep our eye on the ball people.