The past four years have been very rewarding, but not without challenges. I spent almost a year as a Children’s Pastor managing vacant positions at two campuses while we looked for just the right person. We made great strides during that time, but it was long and hard. The last year I’ve managed a vacant student ministry position which has been really hard. Very few weeks went by when I wasn’t gripped by the fear that this might be the week where all the leaders and students decide that they’re done and no longer want to come. But they never did and we’ve actually gained some momentum in some key areas while we’ve been on the pastor search. At a much slower pace than I would have liked, we’ve began building a ministry philosophy where parents are engaged much more intentionally. We’ve got a long way to go, but what we do offer is really good and the team pulling this stuff off really gets it.

Gateway Church has been a such a wonderful home. It’s not been perfect by any means. I’ve been frustrated at time and felt lost at other times. Sometimes I’ve doubted my place on the overall team, but I think that those are just the challenges that any leader faces. What I’ve truly loved about my church is how the mission of the church is being carried out in every aspect of the church and staff. We’re not just creating an environment where people can experience God through the services and programs we create. 30-40% of the staff came to faith at Gateway. I saw significant spiritual growth in my own life because of my involvement on staff. There may be a lot of churches that do certain things a lot better than Gateway, but the things that Gateway does get right, they’re probably some of the most important things of all!

So, here’s to four years! It’s not been easy, but it has been an adventure. I think we’ve laid the groundwork for some really powerful stuff that we’ll get to experience in the next 4-5 years. I’ve never been more proud to serve at a church than I am to serve here at Gateway.

There’s something amazing when you get to be on staff at a church that you’d certainly attend if you weren’t ministry. I’m about to celebrate my 4th year at Gateway and I’m so proud to be at this church.

Two of Gateway’s core values is to be a church for those who are far from God and to place a high value stories. Both of those values were carried out at our Easter services this year.

First of all, the Easter story was told from the perspective of Isaiah. Why Isaiah? Because the prophet foretold the coming of the messiah and the great sacrifice he would make to redeem humanity. This wasn’t done just to offer a fresh and creative Easter story, but because Gateway is a place for doubters and skeptics. A common argument against Christ and his sacrifice is the theory that all the prophecies were written after Jesus’ death in order to validate him. However, the copy of Isaiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls is scientifically carbon dated to be centuries older than the events in the first century. It’s a great way to introduce the story of Christ’s sacrifice in a way that could be relevant to skeptics and doubters.

Second of all, the Easter story was accompanied by the stories of three people who attend Gateway. There was a story of a man who grew up without a father, was pulled into a lifestyle of anger and violence. There was a story of a woman who struggled with bitterness and anger for years after her mother was murdered by an unknown person. There was a story of a woman who left her family of faith to pursue men, drugs and a lifestyle of dealing and crime. All three stories went the same way, to a place of brokenness and emptiness. However, all three saw that their stories also tied into a greater story that involved Christ and his great sacrifice to bring people back to God.

It was a powerful service of music, art and stories intersecting with God’s Great Story. Below is the promo trailer, I’ll post the video of the service once it’s online.

Easter Promo 2012 from g8waypro on Vimeo.

I’m excited to say that Illuminate has year two behind it now with just finishing the second event in Austin, TX. Although we had a very high retention of churches come back again (in addition to many new churches), I was amazed by how many people were brand new this year. It felt like the whole room.

I’m incredibly blessed because everything went so exceedingly well. Other than the little tweak here and the adjustment there, there isn’t much of anything that I would change. It was a fantastic second year event. I’ll be sending out email evaluations later this week, but that hasn’t stopped the emails from coming in already. Here are what some people are saying:

“Again I wanted to say great job!  My team was buzzing like crazy the whole way back home. We had a great time and learned so much!  Thank you for dreaming up a conference that truly blesses volunteers.”

“Thank you for all of the work, time, heart, and prayer that you all put into today’s program. We walked away encouraged and inspired!”

“I was so very blessed to attend this conference.  God is working in so many different areas of our ministry here, due to the conference. I just can’t fully describe in words how this conference has changed my thinking and how God was making plans last spring and summer!!  What a blessing you and Illuminate has been to me and will be to our church from birth to college aged.”

I’ll be honest, there have been times this year when I’ve questioned whether I really needed to do this. As great of an idea as it has been, it’s been a lot of hard work and at times very frustrating. But seeing it happen and hearing how much it impacted people make ever bit worth it. I’ll write more posts this week about what happened at the event.

Today is Wednesday and the Austin Illuminate begins in three days. I’m so excited!!! We have over 50 churches from all over the state of Texas (and even one from Oregon) gathering at my home church this Saturday. Although the registration are not exactly where I had initially hoped, we have experienced very healthy growth this year over last year and I think we’re going to have a great crowd with some dynamic energy for this little event. So, let me tell you why I’m so stoked about this weekend.

1. Connecting with people who I love and respect – I’ll be perfectly honest. There is some selfish motivation behind me starting the Illuminate Conference. There are several people who lead in the local church that I have gotten very close to over the years. They’ve impacted my life and I can’t imagine doing ministry without them in my world. They’ve become dear friends and I’ve invited them to speak at this event for two reasons. First, because I believe that they’re some of  the best of the best and I want these people speaking into my volunteers and the people who lead kidmin in my city and state. Secondly, I brought them here because I love any time I can get with these people!
2. Building up the church – I believe that Illuminate has the potential to be a game-changer within the local church. Once a volunteer gets “fired up” there’s no telling what they’re going to do. There are precious few resources out there that exist to “fire up” volunteers. My hope is that volunteers will get a better glimpse of what they’ve been called to and as a result of this weekend, churches will never be the same.
3. Equipping my volunteers – So this whole Illuminate thing came about over a year ago as a method to better equip our own volunteers. Even though it is super exciting that hundreds of kidmin staff and volunteers will come and grow, I’m most excited about the 75 volunteers and leaders that serve the kids at Gateway week in and week out. This has always been about them and I’m excited about what they’re going to get out of this event.
4. Making new connections – If you read any of my posts from the last week or two, you’ll see that I’m passionate about connecting with others, especially those who serve kids locally. It wasn’t always this way, but I’m really on mission to find others who do what I do in my city. I’m excited because there are a lot of people coming to Illuminate that I’ve never met that serve right down the road from me. I hope that Saturday is the the beginning of many new relationships.

It’s been a few months since I’ve posted anything about Illuminate, so I thought I’d catch everyone up. It’s truly been a wild and exciting ride this year.

The Austin event is just 11 days away. I’m expecting about 500 kidmin folks to converge on the Gateway Church campus on November 12th and it’s going to be amazing. I’ve got a stellar line-up of speakers. Check it out:

• Jim Wideman
• Sam Luce
• Michael Chanley
• Gina McClain
• Dan Scott
• Amy Fenton Lee
• Jonathan Cliff
• Matt McKee

You know, I totally get it that there are many who really aren’t going to network a lot online. Some people are going to lurk and read and not really connect online. However, there really isn’t any excuse for not networking with others in your city. It’s way too easy.

So, here are some questions:

• When was the last time you had lunch or coffee with a kidmin leader at another church?
• If you run into a complication, do you have the names of numbers of other local children’s pastors you can call?
• When was the last time you implemented an idea that you got from what another church was doing locally?

If you answered never, or it’s been more than a year or something like that to the three questions above… I dont’ need to say it, do I? I don’t want to shame anyone. However, I do want to say this. You should NEVER do ministry alone. Whether you’re a church with 10 kids and no staff or a church of 1000 kids and 10 staff… don’t do ministry alone. For both big and small, not networking, sharing and getting help from others is a mark of arrogance, selfishness and a bunch of other unfriendly words I’d like to write down.

What do you think would honor Jesus? I think that working in unity blesses him. I think that helping the church down the road that doesn’t have all the resources you do blesses him. I think that calling that bigger church and asking for the tour and asking questions blesses him. It builds the church, the body of Christ.

Okay, I’m done with my rant. Don’t do ministry alone!

Almost a month ago, I announced the second year for the Illuminate Conference and with the special announcement of an event in Birmingham, AL. Today I announce that registration for the Austin event is now open! Woo hoo!

In case you missed it, Illuminate is the premier #kidmin conference targeted toward volunteers. It’s an affordable and local conference that you can bring your whole team to. Oh, and your volunteers will be treated well as they get to learn from some of the top #kidmin leaders in the country. Check out the lineup for the Austin event.

• Jim Wideman
• Gina McClain
• Dan Scott
• Matt McKee
• Jonathan Cliff
• Sam Luce
• Amy Fenton Lee
• Michael Chanley
• And more to be announced…

Yeah, this is huge. If you live anywhere near Austin (or not… we had a handful of people travel 6 hours or more), make plans to attend this year’s conference! Click here for more info!

Last year my team and I created a new volunteer conference called Illuminate. You can read about what we did here, here and here. Essentially, the idea was to create an incredible experience for our volunteers at Gateway. Many times I’ve walked out of an incredible breakout at a national conference and said, “Wow! I wish all my volunteers had experienced that!” Unfortunately, most churches can’t provide a “national conference” experience for all the volunteers… unless that church brought the national conference to their volunteers. That’s what Illuminate is.

On Saturday, November 12, 2011, Gateway Church in Austin, TX will host Illuminate for the second time. I’m expecting 600-800 kidmin volunteers/staff for this incredible experience. The breakout and speaker lineup is amazing!

But wait… there’s more!

Last year when doing Illuminate in Austin, I had a thought. Illuminate is a huge blessing for kidmin volunteers in Central Texas. Why limit it to just Central Texas? Once all the content and program is developed, doing it again in a new location isn’t really that much work, right?

So on Saturday, August 27, 2011, Westwood Church in Birmingham, AL will host the first Illuminate Conference outside the great state of Texas. How exciting is that? We’ll pack in the same great stuff that made Illuminate successful in Texas, but serve it up Southern Style.

But wait… there’s even more!

Last year I recorded every session and breakout of Illuminate. I intend to record every session and breakout from Birmingham and Austin in 2011 as well. So, what am I going to do with all this great video content? You guessed it. Illuminate is going online. I don’t have specific dates and details yet, but plans are underway and concrete dates will be set this summer. I truly believe in what is happening with Illuminate. I don’t know of any other experience of this magnitude focused at equipping volunteers. Not everyone can get to Austin or Birmingham… but this video content can help anyone, regardless of where they’re coming from.

This year for Illuminate, I’ve gathered some of the greatest minds in Kidmin: Jim Wideman, Sam Luce, Jonathan Cliff, Gina McClain, Dan Scott, Matt McKee, Amy Fenton Lee, Michael Chanley and more to be announced. That’s a Kidmin Powerhouse!

So, whether you live in Texas or Alabama (or within a couple ours of the locations) or whether you have a computer with high speed internet, plan to connect with Illuminate this Fall. It could be exactly what you’re volunteers need most. Stay tuned for more details soon.

Don’t hesitate. Click here to visit the illuminateconference.tv

Click here to follow Illuminate on twitter
Click here to visit Illuminate on facebook

When I first saw it, I didn’t get it? Huh? “Sorry, I’m a Mirage.”  What is that supposed to mean? Oh, a mirage is typically when you think you see water but it really isn’t there. Kind of like this broken water fountain. Someone could have easily made a “sorry, I’m broken sign” or even just a simple “out of order.” No, they went with the snarky way of communicating that you weren’t getting any water from this fountain. It was fun and memorable, something that signs should be, right Matt? The only problem with this sign is that plenty of people won’t get it at first glance. It requires just a little bit of thought. Maybe after someone tries to take a drink, they’ll get it. But again, that kind of fits into Austin’s culture… where the sign is almost mocking the person who doesn’t use their brain and tries to take a drink. Maybe I’m thinking too much into this sign, but I loved it.

Here’s a better close up!