Archive for November, 2008

Here’s my buddy on his 7th birthday…

Incredible Hulk is his favorite…

Bowling with his best friend Mark (the other cotton top) and another school friend…

Haven’t really been doing a post-weekend purge recently because I am not sure how many people want to hear about my weekends but thought I would bring it back this week just for those who like to know what is happening in my crazy world…

- This weekend was really a “Zac” weekend as my little dude celebrated his 7th birthday. He was born about a month premature and had to fight his first few days for survival. He has been fighting ever since.
- Took Zac and a couple of his buddies bowling on Friday night. That was entertaining. Thank God for bumpers.
- After bowling, my wife Starla took our daughter Kayleigh to see Twilight (they have both read the books) & I took the boys home. At some point in the evening I heard Zac mention they should throw the parachute man off the top of the steps. A few minutes later, the thought crossed my mind, “I hope he is not leaning over the railing to drop the man down (about 20 feet or so).” I walked out and he was not just leaning over the railing but sitting on it with his feet dangling over while leaning over. My heart sank. I walked quietly behind him and pulled him to safety (much to his surprise). It was “one of those moments” as a parent. My boy never ceases to bring excitement to my life.
- Saturday was birthday party day with about 6 boys coming over. Let’s just say a lot of energy was exerted.
- We played some volleyball Saturday evening (great weather in Vegas right now) and then hung out with some friends.
- I claim to be one of the most avid Seinfeld fans around so we picked up Seinfeld Scene It and played this weekend. Tough game. I didn’t know as much as I thought but I did win the game.
- We were deceived by some “friends” of ours into watching a movie they claimed was awesome. We made it about 30 minutes before turning it off realizing we had been duped.
- Sunday was a good day at GP: vision-casting for 09 & baptisms
- GP will have served around 150,000 people by the end of 08. Yes you read that correctly.
- We started our Vision 09 offering this week.
- We are moving to a monthly budgeting system at GP to help us deal with the economic crisis in our area.
- The church we are helping plant in the San Fran Bay Area had 175 in their first preview with 5 people coming to Christ!
- Cowboys looked better yesterday. Still have a glimmer of hope.
- Tarheels look great. Could be an exciting year as a Heels fan.
- The BCS system is jacked up. It is ridiculous that college football does not have a playoff system.
- Short week this week.
- Look forward to Thanksgiving -lots of food and football.

Have a great week.

Just got back from my bi-annual trip to Leadership Network. I was able to spend to days with 3 of the greatest pastors in America and 10 other young pastors leading great churches. Our mentors this session were North Coast Church pastor Larry Osborne – one of my favorite large church pastors of all time, the controversial and entertaining pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Mark Driscoll, and Seacoast Church pastor Greg Surratt – one of the frontrunners of the multi-site church. These guys are awesome and I appreciate them taking time with some of us to just talk. A lot of people would love the opportunity to spend just a small amount of time with any of these guys. I got to hang with them for 2 full days!

I also enjoyed hanging with some other young pastors who are building some great churches. I know I always feel a little “out of my league” among this group so I am privileged to hang out with them. I always learn a lot about ministry from them as well. Not sure why I got invited to be a part of this select group but I am sure glad I did!

After the first week of surveys, some interesting reality about doing ministry in a transient city like Vegas: 1 of every 4 people at GP have been there less than 6 months … 1 out of every 2 has been there less than a year … and almost 9 out of 10 have been there less than 2 years!

Those who know me know that I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. Always have been. Obviously the past few weeks have been frustrating watching one of the best teams in the NFL the first 5 games of the season drop to a mediocre team at best. A lot of our struggles have had to do with injuries – tons of key injuries on both offense and defense. No injury has been bigger than the one to our QB Tony Romo who broke his pinkie finger in the Arizona game. Romo returned yesterday and played decent considering a) he has been out of action for 4 weeks and b) he was wearing a cast on his pinkie finger. His play definitely helped lead the Boys to a much-needed victory yesterday. I think his mere presence and his leadership on the field gives the Cowboys a confidence they are missing otherwise.

Romo’s return reminds me of the necessity of having a strong leader on the field. The jury is still out as to whether Romo is a Hall-of-Fame type QB but regardless of whether he is or not, he is THE leader of the Dallas Cowboys and they need his presence to be the best team they can be. He sometimes makes huge mistakes at key times. His decision-making is not flawless. At times he frustrates those of us who are fans. I disagree with his judgment occasionally. I often ask him via TV “why did you do that” or “why did you NOT do that”? He is not perfect. But he is the leader and the Cowboys look “lost” without him.

Regardless of the strength of one’s supporting cast, a team always needs a stronger leader to make it the best it can be. Without it, the team, organization, business, church, etc. just seems a little “lost.”

For the first time in the history of our church, we are giving people the opportunity to fill out a survey about Grace Point. The survey provides the opportunity for the leadership to see the involvement level of our regular attendees and the opportunity for our people to provide feedback for us.

The first half of the survey asked questions about how long people have attended GP and their involvement level in small groups and community service. The second half allowed people to offer feedback on our strengths, what we can do better, what keeps you at GP, and if you could tell the leadership one thing, what would it be. Great feedback so far!

We offered the survey online through monkeysurvey.com (great resource) and our website. We also had hard copies in the worship guide on Sunday.

I have been a skeptic of surveys in the past b/c I have been burned by them. In past experiences, they provided a platform for every gripe and complaint you can imagine. However this survey has been great for us. Obviously you have to weed out the extremes on both sides (extreme praise and criticism) and hopefully discover in the middle some positive things that will help you grow healthier.

We definitely got some feedback on some areas where we can improve – connection primarily. Not sure we have learned anything “new” so far (we usually know our own weaknesses) but it is definitely giving us a different perspective.

Isn’t it funny how the same people can hear the same music & messages and cover the same small group material and have entirely different perspectives on them?

Survey says … wise idea to do a survey.

Like her daddy, my oldest daughter loves to read and write. She dreams of being a writer one day. So last night we started attending a “creative writing” class together at the local library. I am really taking it more for her than me. As usual, I was quite bored about 7 minutes in. I squirmed and scribbled my way to the end for her sake. Not sure why I get so bored so quickly in situations like that. Perhaps it had to do with the nature of the class or the instructor or the tendency of an obnoxious few to say more than their knowledge or experience allowed. But for whatever reason, my mind was racing in a thousand directions.

One of the exercises the instructor asked us to do to get our creative writing juices flowing was to answer the following simple questions:

- Who am I?

- What am I?

- Where am I?

- Why?

Intriguing questions. Outside of the obvious answer: “I am Devin Hudson, an A-level bored human being sitting in a hard plastic chair in a subpar writing class with my daughter Kayleigh”, I tried to really think about who am I and how I got here in life and why I am here. I will not share my answers for the world to see but it did cause me to see my own perspective of my life’s journey on paper before my own eyes. Interesting exercise that all of us should take time to do on occasion.

So maybe sitting for a couple of hours on a hard plastic chair in a local library listening to a person twice my age drone on and on was worth it in the end because it allowed me to pause for a few seconds and think about some of life’s most important questions.

Nevada has led the nation in foreclosures 22 straight months. One in every 71 homes in Vegas is in foreclosure! Wow. The economic downturn is hammering Vegas residents – particularly in housing. What I did not expect is the impact this reality would have on our church. The trickle down effect is intriguing. Here are some of my deductions and how the homeowner crisis has affected Grace Point.

- Obviously it has affected our giving. Give to God or pay the mortgage? Tough predicament to put on someone.
- Very few people have a significant reason to stay in this city ~ very few plan to stay here long term. For that reason when a person loses their home (and potentially their job), there is no reason to stay here.
- As a result of the economy, new home construction is at a virtual stand still. No new homes = very few new people in our area.
- For the first time in a long time, more people are moving out than are moving in.
- Financial strain has a tendency to pull a person away from God – because we think somehow we control our finances (that’s a message I can’t deal with here).
- Having your house foreclosed upon can be a blow to our pride – which again causes us to play the “blame God” game.
- No gas money = No driving to church

These are just a few of the factors you never consider when planting and leading a new church! What do we do? Hold on and try and remain as healthy and focused in the process as possible. Hopefully things will turn around in the near future! I think a Christ-follower should also be faithful to give to God even in times like these. God blesses giving – even when it is tough to give it. As a matter of fact, it is during the difficult times of giving that our faith is stretched even further.

Here is a spoof comparing the church and its marketing with Starbucks. It is a satirical but realistic look at how both churches that try and market and churches that are insider-focused operate. Enjoy.

In our Urban Legends series this weekend, I taught on whether a Christian should judge or not – of course this popular urban legend stems from Matthew 7:1 – perhaps the most quoted verse in the entire NT from those both inside and outside Christianity.  We talked about the perception that exists that Christians are judgmental people.  The recent release UnChristian says that 87% of young adults (18-30) believe the term judgmental accurately describes modern Christians.  I am sure many Christians would want to disagree with that statement because we do not like to be called judgmental but the truth is – it does not matter if we feel the sentiment is accurate or not, that is the perception of almost 9 out of 10 young adults in our country.

One of the common cliches we use as Christians is: love the sinner but hate the sin.  I recently heard it said and concur that perhaps our mantra should be: let’s really love the sinner (not just in words but actions – be Jesus) and hate our own sin.  I think we are so quick to judge others and their sins because it somehow makes us feel better (i.e. morally superior) about our own sins.  We dealt specifically yesterday with Matthew 7 and how Jesus is actually saying that we can’t even clearly see into the lives of other people’s lives when we are blinded by the 2×4 protruding out of our own head.

We examined three times the Bible encourages the Christian to withhold judgment: when it is hypocritical to do so, when it is appearance-based, and when it is preference-based. Yet these are often the times we are the quickest to judge!

There are also times to use proper judgment (discernment), specifically matters of my own heart, doctrinal matters, and family matters (open, unconfessed sin within the body of Christ).

I think a Christian can use proper discernment without being so judgmental.  I also know that Christ-followers can be some of the most judgmental people I have met. Perhaps this has to do with the fact a lot of our judgmentalism comes from a religious platform, which almost justifies it for some as “standing for the truth.”  Jesus had a lot to say to the judgmental religious people of his day.  I know it is a tough balance to strike and I fail more often than I succeed when it comes to this issue. I can be very judgmental at times.  I think this week’s message reminded me to focus on my own heart first which will help me learn to be less judgmental toward others.

What would it look like and take for Christ-followers to turn the perception we have created? What would it look like if those with whom we vehemently disagreed on moral issues still knew that we loved and cared about them? Am I more focused on the unrighteousness of other people or my own self-righteousness? Questions to ponder.