My Trip to Texas

This trip to Houston was an excellent experience. I had never been to Texas before and it was overwhelming. First off, everything is bigger in Texas: the restaurants, the city, and the churches.

I must say Dr. Jim Jackson, our host and leader in Houston (The big guy in the center seen above) did an excellent job of setting up this trip.As you saw from my earlier post, we met with some big dogs. IThe picture above shows the sanctuary of his church. In the post I want to expose you to what I saw and what I learned.

The first day we flew to Houston, got in the vans and traveled to a church coffee house, where we had presentations from two presenters on cell churches and house churches. Both of these guys who lead these ministries are going about making disciples in different ways. The cell church planter believed that most of our churches do not effectively make disciples but get church attendees. They have small groups that meet together to worship. Each small group or cell group is independent and self – sustaining. I appreciated some of their insights.


That night we met with United Methodist church planters. After dinner (seen above, This is their youth room), each planter shared some of their story. Some of these churches were huge and some were just getting off the ground. Rev. Dr. Ken Werlein started Faithbridge after he left the Beeson Program in 1998. Based off of his personal experience with his lack of prayer, he made prayer the central focus of this church. His church over time grew and just 9 months ago moved into their new facility.

Ken said something that was helpful for me as a pastor. One time he was having problems with someone on his staff. This person felt Ken was not as pastoral as he needed to be. He told his staff that he wears three hats: 1) Pastor hat, 2) Leader hat and 3) the Finance hat. He explained that sometimes he will be putting on the pastor hat and talk about how everybody is doing, but other times he has to put on the leader hat to see how they are doing as a church in meeting goals and looking forward to the future. The final hat is how well they are doing with finances so that hats one and two can happen. This was helpful because sometimes I had difficulty being the leader I needed to be in my last church because I was concerned on wearing the pastor hat. This was a simple way to explain it and wrap my head around this issue.

Jim Legget of Grace Fellowship Church asked us what the ten largest churches in the world have in common. The answer is prayer. That is why I am excited to go to Korea to see these churches and be challenged in my prayer life.

Another common denominator with all of the leaders we met was that they were positive people and who believed completely what they were saying. There was no hedging. Their conviction was compelling, even if their message disagreed with one another. This was challenging for me as a leader because I need to raise the level of my conviction.

Friday we met with Dave Peterson, Presbyterian minister at Memorial Drive Pres. He adapted a model of men’s ministry and called it Men’s Life. It has impacted the lives of thousands of guys. He believes that manhood in our culture is in a state of confusion. This is due to a lack of role models and understanding about manhood. This has led to emotional wounding. He finds that men tend to be passive, avoid responsibility, do not lead, and seek their own rewards. He uses Genesis 1-3 to teach that God created men to be active, to accept responsibility, to lead courageously and seek eternal rewards. He said you can find more info on this at www.fellowshipassociates.com or at Lifeway. He also said that every church should grow in three areas: Numerically, In Discipleship, and in Impact on their community. That was helpful way of looking at it.

Later that morning we met with Dr. Ed Young at Second Baptist Church of Houston.

Their website is http://www.second.org/global/default.aspx. This is the second largest church in America with over 31,000 attending. He was a compelling influential leader and he spent an hour with us. It started out at 250 people 27 years ago. They now have 13 worship services on 5 campuses. The picture below shows their main campus and on the wall their other campuses. They are in the midst of a building campaign for over 86 Million dollars.

He shared two things I had not thought of. He believed in Sunday school and not small groups. He felt our primary job was to teach the Bible and that most small groups do not teach the Bible, instead they facilitate the teaching and therefore the meaning is lost. He also believed that we should preach Doctrine in our sermons, because doctrine is vanishing in our churches. It was a special time. I am told he is pretty competitive but God is using his ministry in powerful ways.

Next we met with Kirby Jon Caldwell, pastor of Windsor Village. He leads the largest United Methodist church in the USA, with over 11,000 attending. Part of their facility is shown above.

He told us the pastor’s job is to do two things: 1) to be led by the Holy Spirit, and 2) to lead his people. He made a decision early on in his ministry to move from being a shepherd to a sheepherder. He couldn’t keep up with everyone and so he trained others to do it.

He took us to his Kingdom Center he is building (seen above). It will cost $173 Million. It has nice low income housing for people, a charter school, a new worship facility, room for kids and youth. It is quite a site. I further respect him because every Friday night he takes his wife out on a date night and has made his family a priority.

That night we met with Randy Hageman, pastor of Gateway UMC (seen below).

Gateway is a new church start about 9 years old. Currently they have about 1000 attending. The picture above shows their gathering space which also doubles as a coffeshop and fellowship area.

We met with him because he followed the founding pastor about three years ago. The founding pastor had an affair with a married woman in the church for 7 years. When the woman’s husband found out he confronted the pastor. The pastor was removed from his position. This was devastating to the church. Contrary to the advice of lawyers, they handled the situation in a healthy way. They called an open meeting of the church that Friday night. The executive pastor was present, the staff and District Superintendent was also there. About 350 people came. The executive pastor told everyone what happened without identifying the woman’s name. People were hurt but appreciated the honesty. After a Q and A, the executive pastor stood up and asked people who were touched by this church and their lives were changed to stand up. Much of the congregation stood up. HE then said, "I believe this will be our finest hour." The next Sunday they received their largest offering to date and got out into the black. The executive pastor led the church for six months before their new pastor arrived. The church had counseling for members and staff during that time, as well as the pastor.

During this time the church actually grew in attendance from 750 to 800 people. This was the opposite of what normally happens. It teaches us in leadership that the health of the church is just as important as the health of the pastor.

Saturday morning we met with a pastor who left the Beeson Program in 1999 and started a church. His church went ok but it took a large toll on his family. Apparently his two teenage boys are in psychotherapy and he is on medication for depression. He is still in ministry but is still dealing with the emotional toll it took on him. Ministry is hard and we need to support our ministers who deal with tough stuff.

Next we had lunch in the African American community with a ministry that reaches the Hip-Hop Generation (seen below). Hip Hop is not for African Americans only. In fact, it is a culture regardless of race. One of the most popular artists is Enimen, a white dude. They reach their culture through relationships, street preaching, starting house churches, and through media such as movies and their own TV show. You can check them out at www.streetlifeworldwide.tv

That night we went to Mercy Street at Chappelwood UMC, our host church. This ministry was started 9 years ago with some folks who were in recovery. Now about 300-400 people call Mercy Street their church. About 65% of people who attend are in recovery. It meets Saturday nights and it was excellent. Former Asbury student Sean Gladding leads the ministry. They attract people who wouldn’t normally be in church. For example, one guy who shared his testimony one time said, "This is the most nervous I’ve been since the first time I committed armed robbery." This is an extremely labor intensive ministry with people who need healing. It is very authentic and real and was very moving. you can check them out at www.mercystreet.org

Our last day was a full day, Sunday. We would go to 3 worship services today. It started out with Joel Osteen. Perhaps you have heard about him. He is pastor of the largest church in America with about 40,000 attending almost every week.

There are people who love him and hate him. His church is about 33% white, 33% black, and 33% Hispanic. Joel knows our host Jim Jackson and got us seats on the third row. Joel is about 40 years old and has a smile that never ends. The music was great. It was praise and worship, gospel, pump you up kind of music. They had a full band, horn section, and about a hundred person choir. It was like being at any other megachurch or concert.
The View from our seats of the pulpit. Security is high around this area.The bookstore and children's area below.
I was pretty skeptical of him before I went. This is what I believe. I believe Joel has a gift for communicating with everyday people. He talks simple with people, doesn’t make it too complicated. He talks about every problems and issues people face and that is great. His theology of hope and that God can help you overcome every problem is inspiring. If you have problems or are down on your luck, there is no way you can leave his church and be down. From the music to the preaching, it is inspiring. While I believe he presents only part of the gospel and doesn’t talk about sacrifice much, he has a place in the kingdom and is helping people. Interestingly Sean Gladding reported that many people from Mercy Street attend Lakewood Church on Sundays and I know why. They need hope and if you’re an addict of something, you will find hope here. We did get to meet with him and pray for him privately, for perhaps three or four minutes. We got a group picture but it is on one of my colleague’s cameras and I will have to get it later.

At 12pm we went to St Johns UMC in downtown Houston. It had about 20 people in it till Rudy and Juanita Rasmus came 15 years ago. Now they have about 7000 members meet the needs of a diverse crowd. For example they had 10,000 members but 3000 had no addresses because they have moved on. Their web site is www.stjohnsdowntown.org

It is mostly African American and the music was great. This was my favorite church I visited. The Reason – Rudy and Juanita are themselves and they are real, even a little raw at times.

In having lunch with them after church, they said that everybody has pain. The difference is that you can cover up your pain when you have money. You can go shopping and buy stuff to mask it. The real question people have is who am I. They feel that most people need unconditional acceptance and love and therefore they accept everybody. Ministry is challenging. They don’t just offer services but do much community service in providing meals, childcare, schools etc. Their lives and ministry testify to the power of God reaching people at risk.

I must comment that it was amazing that he and Juanita remembered me (somewhat) from when they spoke at a gathering at the Holston conference this past February. Rudy even remembered a guy From our conference he asked to sing a hymn. They are real people who care about folks and are doing significant minsitry.

Our last church was called Ecclesia. It was started by Chris Seay (pronounced See). He is a leader in the emerging church movement. They have a center which is an art gallery, coffee house, bookstore, and community center, all wrapped up in one.

Inside view of their worship space.

Their service was like a typical postmodern service with acoustic guitar, broken people, candles, etc. They have raised 250,000 with four other churches to dig wells in Africa so people can drink water. They believe the gospel requires us to do something for the world and not just for ourselves. In dinner with Chris Seay, he said that most sermons are too neat. They try to wrap up everything. He thinks sermons should be like getting poked in the eye, that raise more questions than they answer. He also loves the Houston Astros and buys 28 tickets per home game and gives them away and invites people to games. He uses this for evangelism and to build relationships with people in his church. He found that with guys especially, it was easier to talk about what is going on in their lives when they were watching a game together instead of sitting down in an office somewhere. I can’t argue with him.

So overall, it was a great trip. My hosts Marilyn and Art were so hospitable. We left at 4am (seen below)

to get to the airport for our 6:30am flight, which had mechanical problems and left us sitting in the airport for another 1 ½ hours. It was good to be home with Kate and the kids.

I pray God did things in my life that will last forever. Mostly though, I learned how important it is to be convicted of what I believe, to communicate that to people, to be more intentional about being a person of prayer, to provide hope to people who are hurting, and to think and dream bigger than my limited vision allows.