Clif McKinley Dot Com

• Johnny is a string breaking animal, wow Bro we need to get you some lighter picks
• It was fun to preach again, I hope the message was challenging and encouraging, “Are We There Yet?” special thanks to Shrek and Donkey
• Attendance is up and so is giving so Praise God for that
• God is definitely doing a good work, it feels like Lighthouse is really moving toward church health
• I excited about the month of March lots of good stuff coming up, CLASS 101, CLASS 201, a Water Baptism, a Fellowship to welcome all our newcomers, Chi Alpha, a short sermon series dealing with Stress & Pain, and Easter we kick of the Mythbusters series. I also turn 35 the day after Easter, wow what a month.
• For my Birthday I want a Taylor T5 Standard in Tobacco Sunburst if anyone has an extra $2,000 that they don’t know what to do with
• Yeah that’s all I’ve got right now…Blessings

• Pastor Dave and Eric did an awesome job over the past three weeks teaching on money, I am very proud of them
• A lot of folks have benefited from this series and we will have to another one later this year
• God is blessing our attendance and our giving, we are making great strides toward church health
• Some days I really miss being the music minister, when I am doing it I’m in the sweet spot
• We have 3-5 baptismal candidate
• We have 5 folks signed up for CLASS 101, Discovering Church Membership
• There is also a few signed up for CLASS 201, this is very exciting
• I will be preaching this Sunday, it will be interesting to preach again after not doing so for 3 weeks, I hope I still remember how!!!!!!!!!!!

• Not preaching for a few weeks is relaxing
• David has done a great job, timely messages on money, practical and applicable
• Big thanks to our friends at Lifechurch.TV for sharing their tools, the opening video was produced by their crew. “Stop Spending Money You Don’t Have” that was awesome
• I love playing guitar, I missed you Johnny, but thanks for letting play in your place, I took good care of your Taylor, although your sister was telling me I could keep it.
• We have a killing music team, great people and awesome musicians, I’m blessed to be able to sit in.
• Seems like a lot of folks are fighting the same flu bug my family and I are battling, thanks for your prayers all.
• Our Kids Ministries look like they are picking up momentum, folks are seeing the need and stepping up, YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!!!
• Our new friends seems to be enjoying Lighthouse, thanks all for welcoming them and ministering to them, and Perry was styling it that suit, looking real sharp.
• For those that don’t know our coffee is roasted by one of the family, George roasts the beans and grinds them, the blend is amazing.
• Debbie rocks, she making sure it gets brewed and makes sure the spread gets laid out, Martha and Tracy are right there with her. We have killer people on our team.
• I’m reading Max Lucado’s Cure for the Common life and I cam across a phrase that is blessing me and blowing my minds, “the oak is in the acorn” we have amazing potential in seemingly small insignificant packaging, more on this in another blog, just figured I dump it on you as I’m download from the day.
• I’m still adjusting to the schedule and work, the tent-maker life is different but cool.
• I think we have reached a tipping point, and we are about to see God do some amazing things.

Blessings

Vision will always cost you something.  Sleepless nights, hours in prayer, the stretching of your faith, and many times it will cost you members and money, and that is when the rubber meets the road.

The past five years have cost me dearly.  Transitioning an existing church into one that is  life giving and culturally relevant has posed many challenges.  Being more contemporary with music forced some out the door, topical teaching in series that is relevant to both the churched and the outsider sends others to the door, before for long you have said goodbye to friends and faithful givers.  In the last nine months it has happen a few times and when the church only runs 100 or less every one who leaves is noticed.  Which causes some to question why are good people leaving, which causes them to question your leadership, yeah vision costs, in more ways then one.

All the while you feel completely inadequate  and often very alone.  I am a good teacher but not always a good communicator, I am a visionary and creative person, but not always a good leader or manager.  Most days I feel like I am out of place, that what I want see for the church is not what they see or ever want for themselves.  I believe in the potential of Lighthouse but I wonder how far they are willing to go and what price they are willing to pay.  I have sacrificed so much over the last 12 years serving this church.  Some days it would be easier just to walk away, to accept the offers and start over somewhere else, but then something happens…unchurched friends decide to start attending, a group come over from another church and suddenly there is hope.

The vision has cost me a lot and I know I still have more to pay, I soldier on hoping that other will begin to see what I see.  So I count the cost and keep going.