I Have Moved!

I have moved my life on the web to Tumblr.com. You can find my blog at http://joewthompson.tumblr.com. I really like Tumblr’s layouts and the simplicity of their weblogs. If you have added me to your blogroll, don’t forget to change the url to the new Tumblr address. Thanks everyone! Hope to see you around the new blog!

Customer Service

I find it astonishing that one of the most frequent comments I hear from people who are either “unchurched” or “de-churched” is,

“I did not feel very welcome there.”

Or ever heard this one?

“The people there are not very nice at all.”

We hear these types of things in so many various forms, and it pains me to hear people say these words given the fact that ONE of our God’s greatest and most admirable characteristics is His LOVE. We also see this fantastic characteristic all throughout the life of Christ, and the forerunning need for His INTENTIONAL death. I think one of the greatest truths we, the church, can gather from God’s character and Christ’s example is INTENTIONAL LOVE.

First let’s define LOVE. Here are two GREAT definitions of love:

(n.) a great interest in something. (i.e. We share a love for music.)

(n.) affectionate greetings conveyed to someone on one’s behalf.

God’s love is clearly something that is to be shown to people on His behalf. We also see that when we do something as simple as greeting someone and showing the least bit of interested in them, we are showing them love, especially with the intentions of bringing them closer to God. This is crucial to a Sunday morning. It is the sole reason a church needs a volunteer group to take care of one thing; WELCOMING PEOPLE.

For this there are two examples that many churches should take notes from. Disney is the greatest achiever in making people feel welcome in their parks, resorts, and cruises. In fact, as I learned from The Season Of Disney on The Travel Channel, a key value that Disney puts the greatest importance on is making sure their millions of guests are happy. It is a huge undertaking, however, if you’ve ever been to a Disney park, stayed in one of their resorts, or relaxed on one of their cruises, you know exactly what I am talking about.

The question is now posed: With millions of guests every year, how does Disney achieve being the friendliest place on earth?

The answer is simple. Every employee stands by this one value of making sure it stays all about the people. With every employee working together to achieve this common goal, millions of people visit Disney and leave satisfied. Why not the church?

Another example of applying intentional love to serving people is Apple. Everyone knows their devices and computers and almost everyone has an iPod (exaggeration). But for the many who have encountered the atmosphere of an Apple Retail Store, you can probably agree that Apple does a brilliant job of accommodating their guests. Whenever I have walked into an Apple Store, immediately I am greeted by an Apple Store employee, asking me if I need any help that day. Although you might see this in every other store, the level of greeting I get from an Apple Store employee verses the level of greeting I receive from other electronic retail stores tips the scales to Apple every time. Their team is knowledgeable of the products and are extremely nice to those who might need extra help learning more about their products. Their retail customer service exceeds expectations and churches can learn a lot from observing Apple’s customer service.

Loving people intentionally should be priority 1 when it comes to any worship service at your church. I stress the word intentionally because when we place such importance on something so simple as greeting an individual like they matter, it creates a new environment where everyone who walks through your doors will feel like they’ve been there for years. Building relationships rather than just making sure you have shook every hand that walks through the door is what we are called to do. Intentional love means seeking out those who might be new or need more help, directing them to the place they need to be; whether it is to guest services, your children’s area, or giving them some information about the church. If you are intentional about loving on people, their hearts will already be in a comfortable place, allowing God to move through their lives so much more once in the actual service. Cloverleaf Church‘s aim for a Sunday morning is to provide the Disney experience to everyone who walks through our doors, making sure we have opened their hearts to what God wants them to hear that day.

For more notes about Intentional Love, visit an Apple Retail Store, or go to a Disney park and you’ll see firsthand what that might look like; and it would be more fun than reading another book…

Tags: Apple, Cloverleaf Church, customer service, Disney, intentional, love, serve, unchurched

An Awakening For All Generations

Courtesy of sixstep Records and 2010 Passion Conferences

Last Tuesday, the live album from Passion 2010, entitled AWAKENING, was released; and it is brilliant. I have  realized in so many different ways how music is so healthy for one’s soul, especially music that glorifies God, music which inspires a generation to rise up and take hold of God’s calling for their lives. This new album, which I have been unable to put down, has moved me on many different levels. It embodies exactly what Cloverleaf Church is heading to Rome, GA to accomplish; an awakening of a town to see their need for Christ, for God’s love, in their lives.

My prayer for Cloverleaf Church is the same prayer that is echoed amongst the music and lyrics of this past album; that an awakening of the generations would send a roar from heaven, shaking the ground with the sound of revival (Like A Lion – Daniel Bashta via David Crowder*Band). That awakening begins with those who are committed to the vision of God and committed to reaching their own God-given potentials in this life.

Tags: AWAKENING, Cloverleaf Church, Daniel Bashta, lion, Passion 2010, Rome

Generous Givers For Cloverleaf Church

Today, Jeremy and I, went to Rockmart, GA to meet with lead pastor Danny Echols from Crossview Community Church. This was an exciting meeting, as all the meetings prior have been. We cannot wait to impact the Kingdom alongside the great churches in our area.

So much is going on for Cloverleaf Church. We are currently working on updating our videos on our vimeo page mainly because we believe that none of them are very well made and we are a church who views excellence as a mandatory trait. Right now, those videos are not excellent. But we are working on it!

Also, we are updating and adding pages to our website. We are adding a “Needs” page, which gives you a list of needs we have for Cloverleaf that has to be met financially. As always, prayer is our number one way of reaching the goals God has placed before us.

However, there are a lot of different ways to become fully devoted to the vision of Cloverleaf Church.

The first is what we want to continually stress to each person, and that is PRAYER. Without God, nothing can be done, which is why we must come before him in humility and worship, asking Him to bless us beyond belief as we carry out His vision!

Another thing you can do is GIVE FINANCIALLY. This is a huge step for many people, especially in the economy we are in. When it comes to giving, many questions arise, wondering where the money is going and making sure it is being stewarded in a Godly way. Well, that is where our new webpage comes into play. We want to be very transparent in what we need financially. I will update you as soon as the page is up and running and you will have the opportunity to give towards a ministry area that needs your help! How you give the money that God blesses you with is up to you, and we honour your decisions, whatever you decide!

The last thing I’ll mention here that you can do is to JOIN US in Rome, GA. We are fervently searching for the people God has chosen to make up our LAUNCH TEAM, which is the group of people who will ultimately help launch the church, making up the majority of our volunteer group, or PARTNERS, as we are calling them. This takes the most commitment, as we would ask you to move with us to Rome and begin the journey alongside us!

Any little bit that you can give will be blessed and multiplied by God, but it takes a huge act of faith to make this happen, and we can’t do it alone. Taking any of these steps above in helping Cloverleaf Church further God’s Kingdom will ultimately bring you closer to becoming, or further in being, the GENEROUS GIVER God has called all of us to be! IF you want to get involved in any of the above mentioned areas head over to our WEBSITE so that you can contact us easier. Send us an email, we would LOVE to hear from you.

Tags: Cloverleaf Church, commitment, Generous, Giver, partners, prayer, Rome

New Music Tuesday? Or New Music Overload?

For the past year now, as the Monday’s come and go, I have been looking forward to Tuesdays.

WHY?

Because Tuesday is the day when new music arrives in the iTunes Store. Each week, there was always something “New And Noteworthy” that I looked forward to as Tuesday arrived. However, for the past couple weeks now, I feel as if either there isn’t anything new that I would like to indulge myself in or I find that I really don’t want, or need, ANYMORE New Music. I have found myself in what my good friend, Matt VanZant calls, NEW MUSIC OVERLOAD.

So I did something about it…

Last Tuesday, rather than searching through the seemingly endless amount of music that iTunes carries, I pulled out an old box of CD’s that had not yet made the journey onto my computer, and I began sifting through the memories of old music. Now, I’m not talking about ‘Oldies’ in the sense of 60′s, 70′s and 80′s; I am talking about music that I listened to maybe 10 years ago, and music that has been carelessly lost in a box in a closet. It has been very refreshing to go back in time for a little while and enjoy music that I grew up to.

Although North Point Live’s new Album, AWAKE, came out today on iTunes, I have decided to fast from the New Music Tuesday until the turn of the decade. Perhaps the remaining weeks of 2009 will bring about a renaissance in my mind toward music and my prayer is that God will teach me to be more content with what I have…

Tags: Awake, iTunes, Matt VanZant, Music, North Point, Tuesday

It’s Really Cold Out…

Today was the first day I felt cold with a jacket on. Normally, I can wear my regular jacket and be completely comfortable. However, this was not the case today. I believe from now on, I will be wearing my wool coat.

On a similar, yet different note, Christmas is on the way. It’s an exciting time of year for everyone and there always seem to be a change in the air as the Holiday season arrives. Somewhere between Thanksgiving and the New Year parties, the Christmas spirit seems to take over inside of me. I begin listening to Christmas music on a more daily basis. The Christmas tree is up and there are gifts underneath it and the smell of pine needles is circulating within our home. Well, that’s actually a candle because our tree is fake, but you get the picture. Alyssa, my fiance, is leaving to visit her family in Indiana on December 21st, so we are celebrating Christmas together this weekend and I am very excited to give her the gifts I have purchased, like the gift I gave her at the beginning of summer wasn’t enough (engagement ring..). I am just kidding. I love getting her gifts and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It is one of the ways that I show her how much I care about her.

This reminds of me of a book I’ve been reading recently, Fields Of Gold by Andy Stanley. I am learning so much about how to become a generous giver of my finances to God. Although I am not finished with it yet, the overarching truth behind the book is that becoming a generous giver means we have to let go of the fear that God may not do what He has promised us He would do, and that’s taking care of us. Before reading this, I used to see giving as another check off my list. In fact part of me rarely ever really wanted to do it. I was being selfish with my money, or what I thought was MY money. What I’ve learned was that the greed inside of me stemmed from a fear that if I gave to God, then I might be without. It was a doubt in God’s ability to give, and a selfish one at that. Giving to God should give us as much joy as it does to give to our wives or girlfriends (or for you women, husbands and boyfriends). Imagine every time you place that envelope in the offering plate, God’s face brightening up with a huge smile, just like if you gave it to someone you loved. In fact, it should be exactly as if you gave it to someone you loved. That is such a perfect way to LOVE God, and it can be such a humbling worship experience if we let it be.

We get so wrapped up in making sure that we give gifts to everyone in our family that we forget about the gifts we should be giving to God. This holiday season, I encourage you to look at giving, not as a chore, but consider it a joy to be able to give back to someone who has already given you so much…

Tags: Andy Stanley, Christmas, cold, fear, gifts, giving, Love God

Blogging Is Tough

This is my second attempt at a blog. The first blog I started was unsuccessful. I had three posts and stopped for whatever reason. Now, I have rekindled the fire within my soul to blog. I need to start journaling. I have been encourage by a mentor of mine to begin journaling my thoughts, prayers, and so on. However, I have a hard time with such a routine. So in order to get myself into a journaling type routine, I have began blogging.

For now, I will blog every Thursday about the happenings in my life. Enjoy and feel free to drop me a line via a comment or follow me here on Twitter.