The Overflow

[Here's my portion of the update that was just sent out in the May edition of mine and Paul Fletcher's mailed newsletter - West Coast Wave. Thought some of you blog readers might be interested in reading it.]

We’re officially six months into our work in San Francisco, and the time has flown by startlingly quickly.

May was a good month.

Airiel and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary last weekend. God has nearly spoiled me with such a wonderful wife (and our kids with such a great mom), and I look forward to sharing many more years together with her as God blesses us. I love you babe!

Fellow Lake Merced staffer Paul “Bull” Crites married his fiancé, Noemi, on May 2^nd. All of us at Lake Merced very much enjoyed attending their west coast wedding. The ceremony they had here was actually the second – the first being held in Searcy, AR, the previous weekend. Bull’s family and friends were able to attend the one in Arkansas – the wedding party here was mostly made up of Noemi’s family (many of whom flew in from Guatemala where she’s originally from). Bull’s mom and sister were also able to make it from Texas, and our former classmate and fellow Harding Alum, James “Buster” Collins, flew in from Florida to officiate the wedding. It was fun spending a little time with Buster – he’s doing great work in youth ministry in Florida near my old stomping grounds.

My parents came for a visit over Memorial Day weekend. They were thrilled to see their grandkids (and were happy Airiel and me were able to be there too). We had a great time with them, and are looking forward to seeing them again in July when we’ll be traveling to Arkansas for a few days for the fourth annual campus ministry workshop at Harding that Marvin Crowson and I coordinate.

Speaking of workshops, a group of us from the Lake Merced Church in San Francisco spent a few days at the beginning of May attending The Pepperdine Lectures. That was well worth our time! Our church staff got to visit with leaders from all over the country and learn valuable lessons together. I continue to be amazed at the number of people aware of what we’re doing here in San Francisco who are rooting and praying for us. 

The work in San Francisco continues to move along nicely. Thinking back over the past six months, much progress has been made in a short amount of time:

1. We’ve had one restoration and, I’m not 100% positive of the number, but I believe four or five baptisms (mostly thanks to Paul Crites’ work with men in recovery houses like Metropolitan Fresh Start). A couple of those guys have disappeared, but the others are sticking with us and maturing spiritually as they continue to be discipled by our ministry staff.
2. We’ve formed a ministry team made up a church staff and key members, and I’ve helped facilitate a study on Church Growth for us that we’ve been working on every Wednesday since January. In addition to preaching nearly every Sunday night, a considerable amount of my energy has gone into this study, and I’m happy to say we’ll be done with it next week. Before we can change our church’s structure, we have to change our member’s thinking about what the local church really is, what its mission should be, and how it should function. These studies have really helped us have conversations that matter (NOTE: For those of you that aren’t aware, our ministry team moved to San Francisco to work with an existing church struggling to survive instead of simply planting a new one. Many have said we were crazy to do this, but guess what – it’s working! You can read what I have to say to the naysayers here.)
3. As a result of our Church Growth study, the ministry team has written a new mission statement for our church, and we’ll be working toward restructuring everything to line up with it over the course of the next few months. I’ll share that finalized mission statement with you in a future update (I’m saving that for later because we haven’t formally released it to our entire congregation yet … we still have a few things we need to discuss as a ministry team before we do).
4. We’ve moved to a preaching rotation utilizing each member of our staff of four. We each preach once a month giving us plenty of time to put quality lessons together (check out our audio archive here).
5. Paul Fletcher has been named our worship coordinator and has put together a creative team to work on making our assemblies the best they can be.
6. Our church has seen a little numerical growth so far, and that will only increase as more positive changes are made and programs are established and refined – we’re really just getting started.
7. Healthy relationships have been formed with Lake Merced members, and our community continues to grow spiritually.
8. Airiel continues to facilitate the Friday morning Lady’s Bible Class. Several ladies from the congregation are involved, and from what I hear that’s going very well.
9. Our small group Bible study that Paul Fletcher heads up has been a real blessing. Those who’ve been attending have grown spiritually, and I see great things happening in the future with additional studies like this one being formed.
10. Paul Crites continues to do good work in San Francisco’s Mission District working with the Spanish-speaking peoples found therein. He’s established two separate missional Bible study groups that meet in an old restaurant on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It is doubtful that these people will be plugged in to our congregation here at Lake Merced (because there’s a language barrier – it’d be more natural to eventually see a new Spanish-speaking congregation started), but the gospel is being shared with people and that’s never a negative thing.
11. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Dick Blythe – the preaching minister that’s been working with Lake Merced for over ten years now. He’s a jewel of a man, and I’m very glad that he’s allowed us “young whippersnappers” to come in and work with him without being territorial or possessive. His willingness to be a team player, Christ-like attitude, and grace-filled spirit is an example for us all.

This Saturday our ministry team plans to make a proposal at our congregational meeting to move Sunday assemblies out of the large auditorium and into our smaller fellowship hall. Up to this point all Sunday morning assemblies have been in a room with enough seating for about 600 people, but our average attendance is between forty and fifty. That means when a guest walks into a worship assembly in that huge auditorium, the first thought that crosses their mind is, “Wow, there’s no one here!” – even though we have more people attending Lake Merced than many if not most other Churches of Christ in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I anticipate the meeting this Saturday will go well, and we’ll hopefully be moved into our new worship space within the next couple of months following some minor construction, cosmetic work, and the purchase of new, cushy chairs (because a comfortable booty is a happy one). This will be a very important transition for us. The ministry team is recommending we stay in the smaller space until our membership rises to 250 or more. That’ll put us just over 40% capacity for the big auditorium – the percentage Church Growth expert Flavil Yeakley advises us to shoot for.

Dr. Yeakley has put years of study into both growing and declining congregations, and room dynamics is an oft overlooked but major factor in creating an environment that’s both inviting and attractive to guests.

I realize much of the content in this update has been about our Sunday morning assemblies. That’s because I’m very excited about the changes that are taking place in them! I want our assemblies to be something I can be proud to bring my neighbors to – a weekly event permeated by the Spirit of Jesus. I realize that Sunday mornings aren’t the only thing a church should be about, but I also believe when you’re working with this type of church model (i.e. attractional), they are very, very important. Besides benevolent work, they serve as the most visible aspect of a congregation’s public “face” in the community. I’m so happy our assemblies are coming along the way they are, because I’m envisioning the college students that will fill the seats in the future.

Some people get a little irked when a church leader talks about numbers, but to me, church attendance isn’t just numbers – it’s souls! I desperately want to see a healthy, vibrant, Jesus-loving, gospel-sharing church in San Francisco through which Jesus is saving souls! Numbers matter because souls matter!

I don’t want to be part of a church that’s here for a few years and then fizzles and dies after I’m dead and gone, either. My prayer is that the work we’re putting in now is laying a firm foundation for what God will do with our church in the future. I pray that God use this church in such a powerful way that we can’t even comprehend what’s going to happen, what it will turn into, or the other ministries it will spawn, and I believe God will answer that prayer positively! It’s a prayer I pray, not just with hope, but with expectation.

It’s very exciting to me to be able to be in on the ground floor work of something that is very beautiful – the body of Christ alive, well, and functioning as it should in San Francisco!

Oh, and while we probably won’t have a formal campus ministry for another year or two, we will likely see our first student baptism within the next couple of weeks. Paul Fletcher and I studied with a young lady recently, and I’ve been able to meet with her and her boyfriend, a couple of times since. Please keep them in your prayers – they are a lovely young couple that we’re all enjoying getting to know.

Airiel and I want to say ‘thanks’ to all who make it possible for us to be here. We’re loving it, believe God is using us, and believe He’s going to do amazing things through the Lake Merced Church in San Francisco for many years go come!

In HIM,
Wes