Friends

It has been just about 8 months since Kevin Daniels came to Harrah Church and took the reigns as pastor and my boss. Kevin is not the traditional pastor type. I have worked in several church over the past years and Kevin just does it different…and I like it. He is challenging me in the concept of the HERO and pushing me to become more of facilitator. I have this tendency to create a space where I work that becomes very hard for just one person to take on once I leave. I am a work-a-holic and I love the atta-boys and cuddos that come from that kind of work. Everyone wants to feel needed. What I haven’t understood until Kevin are the things that come from a more balanced lifestyle of work, family, home, play, etc. He models it and does a great job of defending it.

Is Kevin a great communicator? YES. Is he a great pastor? YES. Is he a great leader? YES. But, every person in your church is looking to him for a different reason and he is bringing so many different sides to the table and stretching Harrah Church in many new ways that will increase our ministry potential in the future, because he is unwilling to let guys like me HOG the work, steal the glory, and destroy ourselves. Some are being challenged to get more involved. Some are being asked to delegate. Some are being asked to STOP. Some are being asked for better, some for more, others for less.

What are you looking to your pastor or boss for? If you work in the church, how is your boss pastoring you?

I few insights that have helped me this past 8 months are to look to your new boss to find out what are his goals. What are people, especially those in leadership over him, asking for? What are his deliverables? Help him succeed and he will help you succeed. How does he like to work? Kevin hates meetings so we try to avoid table talks when a lunch conversation or quick couple of questions get the job done. What kind of work does he appreciate? What does he do for fun? This isn’t about sucking up to the boss. Working the relationship can be like fine tuning your car’s engine. That thing is never going to run right if the parts aren’t working together.

Just a couple of thoughts about the last 8 months and how things are going here in Harrah, which is totally awesome.

I am spending the bulk of this week in Orlando for the Exponential Church Planting conference with my pastor Jimmy Holbrook and our worship leader Justin Mann. We are having a lot of fun and I can say that we have broken many laws, but have not been arrested…YET.

I have learned many things on this trip

• We have too many chiefs in this car
• Jimmy eats 5-7 meals a day
• There is a reason that Jimmy has so many traffic tickets, really there are MANY reasons
• 5 Guys Burgers in incredible
• Orlando is an amazing place

I have learned a lesson about why you don’t eat with your elbows on the table. Jimmy eats so often that I have developed a blister on my right elbow from lifting my drink and food to my mouth. Ouch.

&

     Part of me wants to be an uncle similar to Gene Hackman’s grandfather in The Royal Tenebaum’s. He had freaking blast with those boys. I guess time will tell.

& www.Harrahchurch.com with Justin, Mike, Timmy, and Daniel yesterday. It felt so great to play out like that again. Harrah Church recently built a new worship center and it was a great room. There is a least one new large housing edition being built next to the church. Greater things are yet to come for Harrah Church. Pastor Jimmy Holbrock was bringing a great message as usual, he is a real old school laugh and yell preacher. His sermon was called Ear Pollution and spoke about the power of our words and how we can say hurtful things to others. Dang good message. It is part of a series call Green, which is about learning to live at peace. I had to listen to it again this morning while capturing some video.

     I saw some great volunteers working together at the church. The Kraeer family works together in the A/V running sound, lighting, and video. It is great to see a family serving together. What a legacy.

      The church’s student ministry is gearing up for a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank in January. During the performances they will have exhibits in the lobby area about genocide that is happening throughout the world today. It is really great to see the church bringing attention to these issues to the community. I hope to get back to Harrah Church soon and lead some worship and see some more friends.

     Head over to www.harrahchurch.com and check out the church, watch the sermon, and send Jimmy an email telling him to start blogging.

I

Ryland Russell at the University of Central Oklahoma in 2003. He and his wife were working with my friend Tommy Haines of RealChurch at starting a worship experience on campus. It was an amazing experience seeing so many people connect with God. Ryland and his band led the worship and I had the privilege to run sound. When I left Waterloo Road to come to Arrow Heights I was tasked with finding my replacement and I only had one person in mind. Ryland is an amazing and gifted worship leader with many other amazing skills. This is starting to sound like a man-crush article. Scary.

So last night I saw that Ryland had posted a video of his band singing Jesus, Paid it All that I wanted to share with you guys. Watch the video, go to his web site, invite him to lead worship at your next event, buy his new album.

Ryland Russell Band – Jesus Paid it All – SYATP 08 from ryland russell on Vimeo.

& new web site ready for launch. We went live with the site last night and I stayed up most of the night checking things out and adding content. I normally don’t get very tired, but I have been sleepy all day.

     I went to Dark Side skate shop this afternoon to pick out a skateboard to give away at our September 9th Launch party for Skate Church Broken Arrow. It is going to be a killer time and the board is amazing. It is a Bachinsky deck with Venture trucks, Pig bearings, and Hubba wheels. I love going to the skateshop and putting a board together. Highlight of my day. Well, that and the white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies I ate. The students are going to freak over this new board.

     Currently watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Clint Eastwood is crawling around the desert and looking like a burnt raisin.

     Kim and Phillip came over and hung out at the house with us tonight. They are relatively new to the church. They both love to watch movie, listen to music, and go to concerts. Great people. Phillip helped me move the skate ramp I built over the weekend to the church.

Battery is running low and so am I. Chat at you later taters.