Category Archives: purpose driven

Kingdom-Minded

13 Tuesday Apr 2021

Posted by in Church, Church Leadership, Church Planting, Decisions For Christ, purpose driven

≈ 5 Comments

What does it mean to be Kindom-minded? Simply stated: We are all on the same team! The goal is to help people find and follow Jesus. And it’s going to take more workers to harvest the billions of people out there who have not experienced a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Our Philosophy in helping staff plant a NEW church.

… the more the merrier! Last month, I visited our Skyline Church Kansas location. It was great to see the work that God is doing there. And while we love our Skyline Church Kansas location, we know it takes many different kinds of churches to reach many different kinds of people. That’s why we have helped others plant different kinds of churches. All of these churches teach the relevance of scripture like Skyline, but each approaches how they do it in slightly different ways. For example, we’ve sent out three church planters and a campus pastor in the last three years.

We’ve come alongside Pastor David Ordaz with One Church, who specializes in bilingual, Spanish and English services. We also sent Pastor Weston Stutz to launch Captivate Church, who focuses on doing life together in a community. More recently, we’ve helped Pastor Scotty James plant The Village Church, who is rooted in simplicity and scripture. Others, like Pastor Jason Sneddon in Kansas, relocated from Skyline Church Lakeside to build the same kind of church … Skyline Church Kansas. Whether people leave the current body to build a new church or the same church, we continue to expand the Kingdom of God!

Am I really Kingdom-minded?

Over time, I’ve seen certain churches with an unsaid (or said) philosophy that says “Keep ‘em and if they want to leave guilt ’em, coerce ’em, or threaten ’em if you have to, but they better not leave!”  This philosophy just doesn’t work. Everyone says they’re “kingdom-minded” … until … they’re tested… And we’re ALL going to be tested in that! Because God is never concerned with building our kingdom. His focus is on building the Kingdom. If we try to compete with His Kingdom building we’re going to lose every time.

If someone is called by God to plant a church, they’re called BY GOD! You might as well support that person because they’re going to go if God is the one telling them to go. We have to remember that it’s all about GOD’S work, not our work. When you let people go to do God’s will, THAT says you are Kingdom-minded. I truly believe that at the end of the day we get Kingdom credit, not Skyline Church credit. I’ve learned that when you have your hands open, God can get a lot more to you than when your hands are closed.

Church Planting Is Brutal

We need to be asking ourselves, “How are we advancing the Kingdom of God?” I want to see people experience the freedom of Christ. THAT is my passion! And the reality is, Church planting is brutal. I’ve been there! You are LITERALLY face-to-face with Satan because he does NOT want new churches being planted. 

By deciding to plant a church, you enter a strategic war. Your heart has to be in the right place. Your process also has to be right. I’ve seen hundreds of church plants die. And, I’ve also seen hundreds of churches succeed! That’s why I lay out a church planting formula for those who feel called to navigate those difficult waters. It fires me up and I’m ready to jump in with you. Still … some people want to do their own thing, and that’s okay. But when someone wants to plant a church, there are some key strategies that can help a new church have the best chance to succeed. I love helping people do that! 

Why Are You Planting A Church?

When I hear someone say they think God wants them to plant a church, my goal is to help that person figure out EXACTLY what God is leading them to do. With that being said, one of the first things I ask a potential church planter is … “Why?” The reason I ask this is because their answer says a lot about God’s calling and their motivation.

The number one reason that you plant a church is to reach new people. Your primary motivation should not be because it’s a beautiful area or because you can pull people from another big church nearby. Your mindset should always be to seek and save the lost. That means we need many different kinds of churches (all grounded in the Word of God) to reach many different kinds of people.

Lastly, I want to know from the church planter what God has specifically been putting on their heart. I want to help them get to the bottom of their motivation. Some may think that they can do it better than their current church. While that may be true, it’s never good to plant something with an attitude of strife and division. If you’re not called to plant the church, you won’t last in planting the church. You want to plant a church with good intentions, a good heart, and a Kingdom-mindset. It’s not about building your own little kingdom or wanting to speak more or be the guy upfront or call the shots or anything other than having a heart for lost people. I like to get to the bottom of the church planter’s motivation to give them their best chance at making a difference for the Kingdom. 

The More The Merrier!

We recognize there are many different ways to do church and that ultimately, we are called to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, not a building. At Skyline, we have a very specific way we believe church should be done because we’re intentionally zoned in on our purpose statement. It’s not how every church does it, but we believe in giving you practical ways to apply the Bible on Sunday so you can use it SEVEN days a week. We’re going give you something on Sunday you can use on Monday. We believe that growing people change, you can’t do life alone, saved people serve people, you can’t out-give God, and found people find people! We believe that being Kingdom-minded means helping people plant churches in order to expand the kingdom. The bottom line is this … we serve a BIG God. To be Kingdom-minded, you have to wholeheartedly believe … the more the merrier!

New Year’s Goals and Resolutions

04 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in Christian Habits, Holiday, mission, purpose driven, vision

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“Happy New Year”

I love the new year. I love new beginnings. I love setting new goals for the new year and making resolutions to reach them. According to StatisticBrain.com[1] The top resolutions made are

1 Lose Weight / Healthier Eating 21.4%
2 Life / Self Improvements 12.3%
3 Better Financial Decisions 8.5%
4 Quit Smoking 7.1%
5 Do more exciting things 6.3%
6 Spend More Time with Family / Close Friends 6.2%
7 Work out more often 5.5%
8 Learn something new on my own 5.3%
9 Do more good deeds for others 5.2%
10 Find the love of my life 4.3
11 Find a better job 4.1%
12 Stop being a Raider fan 13.8%

Ok, I added the last one, that category is actually “other.” I find it interesting that only about 9% of people who make resolutions actually attain success with the resolution.

Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions 41 %
Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions 17 %
Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year’s Resolutions 42 %
Percent of people who felt they were successful in achieving their resolution 9.2 %
Percent who have infrequent success 48.4%
Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year 42.4%
People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions

I believe resolutions have POTENTIAL for greatness. Goals are important in attaining success in any resolution. Every resolution needs a process. Every goal needs incremental steps. No resolution can be accomplished without the PROCESS. Committing to a goal is great. But, if the goal is committed to but there is not a clear process of how to achieve that goal, well, a 9% success rate is actually surprisingly high. In that case, it’s more luck than anything I suppose. However, when one takes a goal and puts a step by step process to it, they are much more likely to achieve your goal. According to mindtools.com[2] you need to set goals to be successful in life, but you also need well defined steps to help you accomplish those goals.

As a Pastor, I know many people make a resolution to read the Bible in a year. Using this as an example; There are 1,188 chapters in the Bible. If someone were to resolve to read all 1,188 then they need a clear plan to get them there. And, there are a number of ways they can do this. If you take 1,188 and divide it by 365 you will see that you get 3.25 chapters per day. If someone were to read about 3 chapters a day they would read the entire Bible in a year. Reading about 3 chapters a day is a plan and a step by step process to complete the goal of reading the entire Bible. Whether it’s a spiritual goal or a physical goal or any other goal, it must have a clear step by step process and even smaller goals within the bigger goal to be realistically accomplished.

In our new series, Re-Wired I will be talking about the different areas of our lives and how we can be changed for the better in the areas of our spiritual, relational, emotional, financial, vocational, and other areas of our lives. But, it takes more than a resolution, it takes a step by step plan to get you there. Thankfully, the Bible has laid it out for us. God’s Word doesn’t just tell us, “Get better!” It shows us how on a step by step basis we can grow in each of the areas God has called us to grow. I hope you’ll join us as we kick off the series on January 7. If you can’t be here in person, join us online, live every Sunday at 8:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am. If you miss a message, you can always grab them on our app or on our website at www.7sd.org.

Join me, in Resolving to Change in 2018! With Jesus at the helm of your life, this year will be different!

[1] https://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/

[2] https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_90.htm

A Great Week

20 Tuesday May 2008

Posted by in Church, jeremy, mcgarity, PD, purpose driven, seven sd

≈ 6 Comments

It’s been a great week. We had Sagemont Church from Houston Texas in town for the week helping us with missions work in the Chula Vista community. This is a college group of 22 people that gave up a week of their vacation to make a difference in our community. They are such a great group…what a blessing to have them out here. All their hard work in the community paid off. On Sunday we had our largest attendance since we’ve moved to the theater. It’s exciting seeing what God is doing in such a young church.

Sagemont helped us survey our community and continue to get the heartbeat and pulse of Otay Ranch. Questions that were asked on the survey included: 1. Do you go to church (if yes, we said thank you and moved on). 2. If not, why not. 3. What would a church need to pique your interest to go? 4. Any suggestions for a brand new church starting in your community? After they completed the survey we asked if there was anything we could help them with, i.e., yardwork, etc. We are compiling the information and looking forward to seeing the results so we can better serve the people God has placed in our lives.

Now, I just drove up to Saddleback Church with Koby Orr (our worship leader at Seven SD). We’re at the Purpose Driven Network conference in Lake Forest, CA. It’s great visiting with friends and meeting with National Leaders, learning and growing. I am a learner (according to “Now Discover Your Strengths”..Marcus Buckingham) so an environment like this really fires me up. Just heard a great comment, “the mind can only absorb as much as the seat can endure.” my seat is a hurtin’ man but mind is absorbin’….been here about 10 hours now…lots going on…all good.