Quick Haiti Thoughts

I’ve just landed in Fort Lauderdale and wanted to give a quick update on our Haiti trip.  Mark and I are grateful for your prayers, we had a safe and fruitful trip.  Thankfully we skirted hurricanes and just dealt with a little rain

We were able to visit 4 orphanages in Haiti and also spend time with the leadership of C3 global that’s on the ground in Haiti.  Our most significant time was spent at Palm Valley’s orphanage in Petionville, an area of Port Au Prince that was devastated by the earthquake earlier this year. The orphanage is nearly impossible to get to, with the roads being nearly non-exsistent.

Pastor Luke and his team are doing an incredible job with the 42 children.  The kids looked to be well cared for and fed.  They are marvelous children, with so many dreams and talents that are ready to be lived out.  We toured the orphanage, spent time with Luke, loved on the kids and just played some.  The kids loved their “PVC Kids” and “the Spot” shirts  They even sang a few songs for us, I broke into tears when they sang “This Is The Day The Lord Has Made”.

Palm Valley, these are our kids. We are their sole means of support. What a privilege to come alongside Pastor Luke and his team to provide for, encourage, and resource these children.  Thanks for being a giving church; it’s your faithful giving each week that allows us to help these kids know how much Jesus loves them!

Here’s a few pics before I get on the plane, only two more flights to get home…

Train A Child

During our current series on parenting, I’ve been challenging parents to have the big picture in mind, and parent from vision, not reaction. In the book of Proverbs we’re given 7 key areas to train our children in…

1) Train them to manage God’s money. (Prov. 3:9-10)

2) Train them to carefully select friends. (Prov. 13:20)

3) Train them to watch their words. (Prov. 4:24)

4) Train them to be responsible. (Prov. 6:6-8)

5) Train them to guard their minds. (Prov. 23:7)

6) Train them to be generous. (Prov. 11: 25)

7) Train them to fear God. (Prov. 1:7)

I think this provides a great reference point for parents.  I’m praying for you!

Haiti Bound

I’m getting crazy excited about heading back to Haiti next week.  After services on Sunday, August 29th, Mark Grochocki, our Pastor of Care and Missions, will be flying down to Miami and then Haiti.  Our focus will be touring orphanages in Port Au Prince with our new missions partner, C3 Global.

I’m most excited about spending some time with the orphans and leaders at our orphanage in Petionville.  We have 46 kids being housed, fed and educated, completely supported by Palm Valley Church. Our prayer is that out of this orphanage we will launch a church to impact Haiti. We will get tons of pictures and video to introduce PVC to our kids.

As we tour other orphanages we will see the impact C3 churches are having together, and we will also be scouting for our next orphanage to adopt.

So please pray for safe travel and discernment of opportunities. PVC, this is our giving at work!

Ministry Opportunity

Hey PVC’ers, now that we’ve got our own building, we’ve got even greater responsibility. One of the ways you can take ownerhship and “be the church” is by joining the landscape team to help us give the best 1st impression possible to our community…

You can come help this Saturday, August 21st at 7:00 am.  Bring leather gloves and a leaf rake (if you have one).  The team will work for 1-2 hours.  For more info email Aday@palmvalley.org

Future opportunities…

September 18 @ 7:00 AM
October 16 @ 7:00 AM
November 20 @ 7:00 AM
December 18 @ 7:00 Am

Happy Birthday To My Bride

18 years ago I met my future bride at a prayer meeting. What better place to meet your bride, right?  I knew from the moment I saw her that she was unique, not only beautiful on the outside (she is), but on the inside also. For the next few months I pursued her, and she ignored me. After a while though, she got tired of rejecting me, and we began to spend time together

In those early days I knew this was the women for me. She was stunning, loved the Lord with all her heart, and radiated kindness and love. She was everything I was looking for, and as I would discover over the years, so much more.

After a year of dating we were married, officially making me the luckiest man on the planet.  Life sped up, ministry happened, and we started adding kids to the mix. We started a church together and have experienced incredible blessings in our marriage, family, and ministry.

Today, Lori celebrates her birthday. I celebrate that she was born, and that God brought her into my life.  After 17 years of marriage, I simply enjoy her more every day. She’s more beautiful than the day I met her. She’s grown so much in the Lord and her ministry skill, she has no clue how much her spiritual maturity encourages those around her. She’s given me 4 incredible children and nurtured them in every way; she’s an awesome mom! She’s my partner in ministry and is a huge reason why Palm Valley Church is what it is today.  Her patience, strength and grace have helped me weather some huge storms in ministry; without her I doubt I would have made it.

So today I celebrate my bride, Lori. I love you honey, and pray that today and every day you will know how much you mean to me. I pray that God will bless you with everything your heart desires, because I know that your desires are wrapped in your identity and mission in Christ. I look forward to the days we have ahead and thank you for choosing to walk them with me. Happy Birthday!!

Israel 2010

I spent some time today thinking about, planning, and just plain getting excited about our trip to Israel and Rome this November/December. This will be our third trip, leading a group mostly from Palm Valley, but is open to others. I love going to the Holy Land, and it’s such a joy to help others experience it for the first time. if you’re interested in joining us, email pastorgreg@palmvalley.org and we’ll get you all the information you need.

Some personal highlights that I always look forward to…

• boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Untouched, just as Jesus saw it.
• Ceasarea Philippi, ancient pagan worship site where Jesus promised to build His church
• Caesarea Maritima, roman port city, you can stand on the exact spot where Paul preached in chains.
• Mt. Carmel, where Elijah called fire from heaven, looking over valley of Megiddo (where Armegeddon will happen)
• Dead Sea, lowest point on earth, site of Sodom
• Masada, mountain fortress where Jews hid during revolt of 72 ad.
• Qumran, caves where Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered (incredible proof of reliability of the Bible)
• Mount of Olives, love standing where Jesus ascended to heaven from and looking across at Temple mount.
• Rabbi Tunnel — going underground, standing 10 feet from the “holy of holies”, the dwelling place of God!
• Temple Institute — watching end times prophecy fulfilled is always amazing.
• Temple Mount — Abraham, David, Jesus have all stood there. Most controversial piece of real estate on the planet.
• Garden Tomb — it’s still empty , love doing communion there.

Overall, I just love the sites, the sense of history everywhere you turn, the interaction with Jews and Palestinians who can be so welcoming, it’s the trip of a lifetime!!!  If you can make it, join us in Israel this November.  If you’re a Senior Pastor and want to go, contact me, I would love to help you make this trip.

After going to Israel you will never read the Bible the same again, it will be alive like you’ve never experienced!

Loving Life Change

Somebody asked me the other day what I enjoy most about leading Palm Valley Church. It didn’t take me long to respond, “the amount of life change I get to experience”. You see, I love ministry because on a weekly basis I get to watch people’s lives changed by God. People moving from bondage in sin to freedom in Christ. People who are headed for divorce seeing unity restored by Christ. Teens who are hurting finding hope and purpose in a relationship with Jesus. I could go on and on…

I’m thankful for a church full of people who “get it”. Thanks PVC for fighting the urge to make it about us, and keeping it “about Him”. Thanks for paving the way for others to find Christ, reaching out and inviting them, serving them, sacrificing for them; so that they might be filled with hope and life through Christ!

Over the last two months we have seen an exponential wave of life change. There’s a line after every service at the Fresh Start table of people who have just received Jesus as their Savior. Thanks for discipling them and helping them grow, for being a church where “they” can come and feel welcomed. I believe God has much greater things in store for us in the coming weeks and months, lots of life-change!

Coming This Weekend @ PVC

Looking forward to another great weekend at PVC check out what’s coming up:

When Staff Leaves (an addendum)

I failed to mention in my previous post three other possible reasons for departure. These are more valid reasons why staff might leave, and gives a bigger picture of the array of reasons...

Economic Realities — As a church we are constantly dealing with economic realities, which can provide for staff growth, but can sometimes determine that we cut back on staff.  As we entered the building program earlier this year, we looked at the finances and determined we needed to eliminate a few positions.  This was a hard process in that we were forced to let go of some great people, but it also allowed us to re-purpose funds into the building program.  On other occasions pastoral staff have received more lucrative offers with another church or non-church job.  I fully understand and support staff members who accept such an offer.

Leaving the Ministry — I feel called to serve as the Pastor of Palm Valley Church for the rest of my life.  Not everyone, rightfully so, shares that calling.  Some staff have served faithfully during their time but feel led to leave a church job and go into another line or work. Again, I understand and support a staff member who feels led to make this decision.

Change In Structure — As a growing, changing church, sometimes a staff position that was vital in the past will no longer be necessary. As we grow and learn we often change structure, communication process and even seasons of focus. We staff accordingly.  It doesn’t mean the staff member wasn’t doing a great job, or that they can’t be on staff in the future, there’s just seasons where we need certain positions and those when we don’t.  As those who will answer for the finances of the church, it’s important we continually evaluate and ensure we’re investing resources for the greatest return.

When Staff Leaves

If you’ve been around Palm Valley Church (or any growing church) you’ll notice that we often have additions to our pastoral staff, as well as times when staff leaves. Recently, with all of the excitement, anticipation, and stress of moving to the new building, we have gone through some more staff changes. Many times there are rumors, false quotes and gossip associated with a departure. With a church our size it just isn’t realistic, nor healthy, to mention/address each staff change, so we rarely do, only if it effects the entire church body.  Here are some thoughts I have written for the people of Palm Valley Church to understand and embrace changes that occur…

I understand it can be troubling, disconcerting, and many other things when we go through transitions. This is especially true when we see a Pastoral staff member resign/be relieved of his duties. Change is never easy, especially when it involved people who have been helpful to us in particular. The call of every one of our leaders is to be Pastors FIRST, caring for , feeding and shepherding the body of Christ through the ups and downs of life.

I’m saddened that departures often effected people in such a personal way. In a perfect world we would never have to experience this. However, we don’t live in a perfect world, and as a church we experience changing of staff for many different reasons…

1) A new calling…many times we see staff members sense that God is calling them to a new season of ministry. I experienced this when I was a youth pastor. I loved the church I was at, loved the people, but sensed that Lori and I were being called to start Palm Valley Church. Many in the church struggled with this and looked for the “hidden reason”, which simply didn’t exist. It was simply God moving me to His perfect place for me. I tell our staff all the time, if God is moving you we want to be your biggest cheerleaders! I don’t want them to leave, but I trust God’s plan for them, and for PVC. We have experienced this a number of times at Palm Valley. We have had Pastors who felt called to start a church, so we brought them on stage, celebrated, asked people to go with him and sent him off. Another Pastor came to me with the sense that God was moving him, I gave him months to pray it through. Then when he felt it was time, we brought him on stage, talked openly together about it, prayed over him and released him to God’s will for his life. This has been the occasion with a few other staff members as well. I wish everyone felt, as Lori and I do, that they should commit the rest of their ministry life to Palm Valley, but the fact is that God often moves staff on to the next thing in their ministry.

2) Moral Failure — on a few occasions (thankfully not more) we have had a staff member fail to live up to the Biblical qualifications of a Pastor. This is extremely painful for everyone involved. In this case we remove the staff member privately, seek to help them find restoration and healing with the Lord (and spouse or others involved) and set out a long-term plan for care and restoration. We almost always offer the staff member the opportunity to resign, making it easier for us to provide help and a reference in the future. Unfortunately, we have seen these individuals choose to leave Palm Valley Church and go their own way. As a Pastor and friend, these are painful. These exits often leave a wake of hurt and disillusionment in the people who were involved under the leader’s ministry. Trust me, this is never fun for me to deal with, but we must hold our Pastors to a Biblical standard of living, or we forfeit God’s blessing on our body. These exits are dealt with immediately and privately. Due to labor laws, we cannot discuss the exit of a staff member publically w/o their permission (which is never granted), or we expose the church to a lawsuit. Many churches have made this mistake and suffered dearly.

3) Job Performance — Because we are stewards of the money the Lord has entrusted us with, we feel a strong sense of responsibility to ensure that a paid staff member is the best investment of our resources. We have high expectations for our staff, especially our pastors. This does begin and end with caring for our people. Our Pastors follow up with all prayer requests, perform Pastoral duties (hospital visits, weddings, funerals) and are always available to pray with people. We do twice yearly reviews with staff members based on their job description. Every staff member clearly knows the expectations laid out before them. There are times when we discover that a staff member is in a position where his giftedness/talents/abilities don’t match the expectations we have for them. In this case we always seek over a period of time to develop and encourage the staff member in this area. If that fails, we will seek to reassign to another position and see how they do. There are times however when a staff member simply doesn’t have the giftedness, or work ethic, or leaderships abilities required. In this case the honoring thing to do before the Lord is to ask for the resignation/release that staff member. We always do this privately, and provide financial help through the transition as well as seeking to help them find a ministry fit.

4) Burnout — this is very common amongst pastors. This is no easy gig Many pastors simply can’t handle the stress/hours/pressure of this position, and end up needing to step down. We seek to create a healthy environment and expectation level for our staff, because we want them to last the long haul. On occasion though, we have seen staff members who could not continue and were required to step down. We also handle this privately and provide assistance to the staff member.

Our desire to protect the staff members who step away, combined with current laws, leave us very restricted about addressing the exit of a staff member/Pastor. Regardless the reason, every change is healthy because it forces us to look to the Lord, trust Him for His provision, and pray and seek Him for wisdom moving forward. I understand that a particular staff member’s exit may hit home with you, and I hope you know that this matters to me. I love each of our staff (that’s one reason they’re on staff), and it’s always very painful personally to part ways with a friend/co-worker. The fact that we don’t bring it to the church doesn’t mean we don’t care, it’s simply the most tactful, honoring way to move forward even when we’re hurting. However, the best thing I can do for Palm Valley is to continue to lead the church forward. I assure you that there are many times I’m “playing hurt”; but the church still needs a leader.

I would also point out that just because somebody is no longer a paid staff member doesn’t mean they can’t still lead at Palm Valley. I have expressed to every staff member that exits that I hope they would continue to participate at PVC as they seek where the Lord is leading them next.

All of our staff were first volunteers in our church who were developed in their pastoral skills, invited onto the staff, and equipped to lead. While any departure certainly leaves a hole, it is an opportunity for many others in our church to step up and do the same. I’m excited about the next wave of leaders being developed at PVC. There are men and women in our church who have incredible giftedness in shepherding the flock, and they’re being developed and challenged to be Pastors in our church. We are also equipping them and asking them to function at a Pastoral level.

When Lori and I started Palm Valley Church, the phrase that came to our heart is “where people matter”. This has always been our heart, and will always be. I see this in the current pastors, I see their involvement in the lives of people in our church. The heart and vision of Palm Valley were not birthed by any one staff member, nor has it changed with their leaving staff. We wish them the best, but we will continue to strive to provide the greatest of care for every person in our church. I have committed my life’s work to this, and feel confident in the Lord’s provision for all we will need as a church in the future.