Legacy

With the unexpected death of Don Lash, I am reminded once again of how fragile life really is. Earlier this year I asked the people of Charter Oak Church how they would live if they knew they had 30 days to live. In moments like we are going through now, I realize that most of the time we won't know that we have 30 days to live. Therefore we must choose today to live completely and totally for the glory of God.

When I approach life with this mindset then the things I think are so important fade into the background. Instead, my heart beats faster for my family. My pulse quickens for the 33,000 people within a 5 mile radius of Charter Oak Church who do not have a church home. My drive is stronger to equip people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. I want to go after life and after all that God has created me to be and to do. If my attitude is one of expecting to live a very long life, my tendency is to take people for granted and to be slow to engage people outside of our church. You and I must live today to the fullest.

We are all going to die, but it is in the way that we live that matters.

The Passing of a Pastoral Giant

The Reverend Don Lash died on Saturday evening. Don's wife, Betty plays the organ for our traditional worship services. The following is his obituary...

The Rev. H. Donald Lash, 79, of Greensburg, passed away Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008, in UPMC Presbyterian, Oakland. He was born March 29, 1929, in Madison. A gifted preacher, he served seven churches for the United Methodist Church in Western Pennsylvania, from 1957 until his retirement in 1994. He also served as the district superintendent of the Kane District from 1989 to 1994, and sat on dozens of boards for the conference and district offices. Surviving are his wife, Betty M. Lash; his sons, Chris Lash and wife, Karen, of Palm Coast, Fla., and Dan Lash and wife, Jennifer, of Pittsburgh; his only grandson, Corey Lash, of Punxsutawney; and two brothers, Lowell Lash and wife, Sally, of West Newton, and Nelson Lash and wife, Mary Anne, of Arona. He was preceded in death by his parents, Clarence and Edith Lash; and his daughter, Karen Coleman. He was a graduate of Clarion University and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He most recently served as the Minister of Visitation for the First Presbyterian Church of Greensburg from 1998 until the time of his death. Family and friends will be received from 1 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the KEPPLE-GRAFT FUNERAL HOME INC., 524 N. Main St., Greensburg. Additional visitation will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with services following at 11 a.m., in Charter Oak United Methodist Church, 449 Frye Farm Road, Greensburg, with the Revs. David Eversdyke, Martin Ankrum and Chris Whitehead co-officiating. (Everyone please go directly to the church on Wednesday.) In lieu of flowers, the family wishes memorial donations to the building fund at Charter Oak United Methodist Church. Terence L. Graft, funeral director, entrusted with the arrangements. For online condolences and information, go to www.kepple-graft.com.

Book #17 - The Next Level

One of our staff members gave me a book earlier this week and said that I should read it and it would only take about an hour to read. It was David Gregory's new book The Next Level: A Parable of Finding Your Place in Life.

There seems to be a new movement among authors to write about business principles within a parable. Most write the parable and then explain the principles and how to put them into action. This book didn't do that. It is just the parable and the expectation is that you can decipher the principles and how to apply them.

In this case, I got the principles, in spite of the parable. I'm sure it's just me, because I have read some good reviews of this book, but I thought the parable was forced and sometimes became more about the story instead of the principles. The book is fine, but just not at the level of a Patrick Lencioni parable telling book.

Worshipper

I just read the following post from one of the worship leaders at North Point Community Church. Click here to read the whole post, but if you want to read what grabbed my attention read on...

And let me be clear - participation, at least as I define it, is not necessarily “hands up, eyes closed”, but rather someone’s own, unique way of connecting with their Heavenly Father. That can mean a ton of things, because it really is different for everyone. Your level of spiritual maturity and growth is not based on how loud you sing or how high you can raise your hands. But for many, many people, there comes a point in corporate or private worship when you choose to focus on God, and subsequently your soul connects with the Holy Spirit, and it moves you to an outward display of submission and adoration for your Savior. But all the while, the real connection takes place on the inside of you - in your spirit as you submit your will to God.

Book #16 - Wide Awake

The other book I read on vacation was Erwin McManus' Wide Awake: The Future Is Waiting within You. There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed and was challenged by, but there were other parts that just seemed like he was re-hashing things he has written before. If you haven't ready anything by McManus, then I would highly recommend this book to you. But if you have read most of his other books, this is a take it or leave it book for me.

I love his challenge to be creative and to make the leap to go big with God. Here's a great line for me..."We become dogmatic as a result of fear, not faith. Faith keeps you flexible and postured for change. Faith ignites courage, not conformity. Fear seeks to control; faith seeks to create. This doesn't mean you don't have convictions but that you understand what your nonnegotiables are. Some things are your core; everything else can change."

I know he is writing about our relationship with God, but I have found that the same is true with people. When I have faith in someone then I am not dogmatic, I don't seek to control. Integrity is huge for me, when I lose trust in someone because they have choosen a set of actions or words, it's not good for my relationship with them, they lose my faith.

Book #15 - The Shack

I forgot to share with you the two books I read while on vacation. My wife handed me The Shack by William P Young right before we left. I have read so many blog posts about this book so I thought I should read it to see what all of the fanfare was about.

This was a really good book. It creatively looks at the relationship we have with the Trinity, in each of the three parts. It is fiction, so Young doesn't have to get it exactly right from a theological education that I received from Duke, but I think it does get it right from a heart and intention perspective. For that I am glad I read the book.

What would happen in your life if you decided to gather on a weekly basis with a group of people to pull in the same direction - that direction being the way of Jesus? We have just started sign-ups for 24 small groups, with more to come. We have men and women's small groups. We have support groups. We have Bible studies. We have book studies. We have them just about every day of the week and at different times during the week.

We believe that the environment that creates the best context for spiritual growth is a small group. I hope that you will join a group of people pulling together to become more like Jesus in every aspect of your life, down to the last detail.

For the Heart of Your King

Pastor Mark began his first series at Charter Oak Church this past weekend. He is talking about living in such a way that we no longer "sit and discuss" but that we "go and make." What would happen if we moved from the seated position to faith in action? What is your first step to make this change?

At the end of the worship service people came forward to write their "cardboard testimonies." The life they used to live and the redemption they are now living in through Jesus.

That's what we are about at Charter Oak Church - lives changed for eternity. We want to equip people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. About 20 people we able to stand before family and friends and declare what God has done for them and in them. Great weekend!

What We Do Matters

What you do says a lot about what you believe. I guess I have inherently known this for a very long time, but from time to time it really becomes obvious.

When I take a day off in the middle of a busy week to spend with my family, it says that I value my family over work.

When I am a little late for a meeting, it says that I don't value the other person's time.

When I return a phone call or an email within 24 hours, it says that I respect that person's need.

When I am eating ice cream right before bed, it says that I don't believe my body is the temple of the Lord.

When I tithe, it says I am thankful for what God has given me.

When I don't take care of the stewardship of leading Charter Oak Church, it says I don't respect the Bride of Christ.

I could go on and on and on about my actions and what they are saying about what I believe. Half of the ones I listed above are on the negative side, I think it is important to also list the positive things I do and what it is that I am saying as I do those as well.

What about you, what are your actions saying about what you believe? What are you doing with your family? your finances (at work & at home)? your self-care? your leadership? your busyness? I can usually tell what some one believes about a particular area by the decisions he or she makes in that area. What are you saying?

Leadership Summit 2008

Last week I attended the Leadership Summit with a good friend and partner in ministry. Together we grew in our ability to lead well. Here is just a few things that I wrote down that were very important to me. Out of all of the Leadership Summits that I have attended this ranks very close to the top, if not at the top. Here are some notes...

Session #1 - Bill Hybels: The High Drama of Decision Making

How to make a decision...

1. Does the Bible say anything on this?

2. What would smart advisers say?

3. Look at pain of past decisions, gain of good decisions, & experience of past

4. Is the Holy Spirit prompting me?

Session #2 - Gary Haugen: Just Courage - Charging the Darkness

How are people to believe that God is good? The church is God's plan to make God's goodness evident to the world.

If you want your leadership to matter then lead in areas that are important to God.

Session #3: Bill George: Finding Your True North

We have been in a leadership crisis for the last 10 years.

What are you doing to lead and to develop your gifts?

21st century leaders...

Align people around the mission and vision of the organization

Empower people to lead

Serve others

Collaboration of people and organization

Session #4: Wendy Kopp: Stand Up and Lead

All great leaders have something that burns within them

Why are pastors afraid to ask big time? to sacrifice? to set the bar high?

Session #5: John Burke: Leading in New Cultural Realities

Broken relationships between God and each other prevents community

Tend the soil God gives you

Session #6: Efrem Smith: Leading in New Cultural Realities

God wants to love the world thru us, if you can't love across race you can't lead today

Race labels are not where we are

Session #7: Craig Groeschel: IT: How Leaders Can Get IT and Keep IT

4 Qualities

1. Laser focus

2. See opportunities when others see obstacles

3. Willing to fail

4. You need to have IT for your ministry to get IT

Session #8: Chuck Colson: Defending the Faith

We have transferred our allegiance from truth to therapy

We must contend for the faith

Lead, don't pander

Session #9: Catherine Rohr: Risk Taking, Barrier Breaking, Bold Leadership

Prayer - "Bring it on God, bring it on!"

Execute in obedience to God

Session #10: Brad Anderson: An Uncompromising Focus on People

It take a leader who really cares to bring employment engagement

Session #11: Bill Hybels: Relentless

God searches for those who are fully committed to Him.

If you were God, would you go after you to lead the church?

I want more of God than a bigger church.

Good Is the Enemy of Great

I haven't posted for a while, there's been a ton of stuff going on in my life and my leadership. One of those things has been an opportunity to coach the Latrobe varsity soccer team. The coach quit while I was on vacation. I was immediately interested - the same opportunity was presented to me at the end of last season after the long time coach quit because his wife was having their first baby.

As I looked at this opportunity I saw it as a good way to build relationships with people outside of Charter Oak Church. It was a good way for me to add value into teenage boys - to teach them integrity and character from someone who seeks to live into it from the Jesus way. I came up with a ton of good reasons to coach. I almost had myself convinced that I was supposed to do it. But all the reasons were only good reasons. As Jim Collins writes - good is the enemy of great.

After a more wrestling about a decision than I have ever done I came to realize that if I were to coach soccer then my family and my leadership at Charter Oak Church would be lessened for the season. So I decided not to coach. Below is the letter that I wrote to the athletic director explaining my decision.

Matt,

I wanted to get back to you as soon as I could about the opportunity to coach the boys' varsity soccer team at Latrobe. As I shared with you I needed to talk to my board, staff, and family about this before I made a decision. I have never wrestled about a decision like I have about this one. I would love to coach for Latrobe, and I know I could do it. However, I have a greater responsibility to my family and my church, so I will not be able to apply for the coaching position. I know my family would not get the fullness of my heart for the next 10 plus weeks. There is no one more important to me than my wife and kids.

Since I have a new job, I really don't know the full scope of leading this place well. The fall is the busiest time of the year for us and I just don't know what affect coaching would have on my ability to lead with integrity. I am not ruling out coaching in the future, my heart is in soccer. Right now I know I will not be able to love my family, lead my church, and coach the boys' soccer team at the highest level. I would dishonor all three if I did. It pains me incredibly to say no to you.

I am still willing to help run practices next week if you still need me to do so. If you don't want me there, I will understand. Let me know what capacity, if any, you would like me to have next week with practices.

Thanks,
Chris Whitehead

Home from the Beach

I'm back from the beach. It was a great time of relaxing. Kelli told me she hasn't seen me sleep so soundly in years. We spent almost all of our time on the beach or in the pool. This was the least amount of reading I have ever done on vacation - I was too busy playing with my kids or taking a walk on the beach with Kelli. I can officially say that I created margin in my life. It's good to be home.

Vacation!!

We are packing up the Jeep and heading for Sandbridge Beach, VA for vacation. I just packed more weight in books than I will pack in clothes. Just need my swim suit.

The house has a pool and we are right on the beach. The name of the house is "As Good as It Gets." Now that's what I am talking about!

Google Map

New Camera

I bought a new camera - the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. I feel like a manly man just typing the name of the camera. Anyway, it is a huge jump in technology for our family. We had one of the early digital cameras. It still worked but we began to notice that the picture wasn't as clear as it used to be. It was slower to take the next picture. There were just those little things that kept coming up that caused me to want to go get a new camera. Wow! What a camera. This thing takes clearer pictures than I could have imagined. It is a 10.1 mega pixel camera. That means it is rockin good!

As I thought about getting a new camera and what was happening with the old one, it made me think about the local church. It is so easy to get used to what we have always done. It has worked so well. We have great memories. But when we take a closer look, the way it used to work isn't the same as it is now. The quality isn't as good. The clarity of vision isn't as crisp. But we hold on to what we did because of the emotional attachment to it. (I have some of the most important pictures of my wife and kids that were taken by our old camera.)

We took our new camera to an outing in the mountains with some friends of ours. I took a ton of pictures (there is a feature that allows you to just keep taking pictures). I hooked the camera up to our computer and looked at the pictures. I was stunned! The clarity, the intensity were so awesome. We had a great day with our friends and I have the pictures to prove it. All of a sudden we have new memories. The camera didn't have anything to do with the great time we had - that is all about the people we were with that day, but the camera helped to capture it.

We don't do church the way most people in this region. We look very different to most people - from the way our building is designed to the way we create a total weekend worship package. We change things up to make sure that our vision is crystal clear to everyone who is connected to Charter Oak Church. We are developing and equipping people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. We will use technology, buildings, drama, etc but the real point is people - people who become more like Jesus.

Website Updated

The Charter Oak Church website has been re-vamped and updated with new information, pictures, and features. More pictures should be on the way in the future. More and more people tell me that they find Charter Oak Church through the web. Hopefully the changes will draw even more people. You can check it out here.

Weekend Thoughts

This past weekend Pastor Dave continued his sermon series The Enemy Within by talking about bitterness. The total package of this weekend was phenomenal. Everything just clicked in together all building together to the message of letting go of the heavy weight of bitterness that people carry around with them every day.

We often do a funny drama to set the stage for the message. This weekend we did a very serious one that spoke about the bitterness in a marriage when someone has been unfaithful. At all of the worship services people didn't know whether to clap or not. It disturbed us - just what we needed to get our mind and heart focused on what God wanted to say.

I loved it when Pastor Dave said that forgiveness is available to everyone, God's grace is waiting with open arms to embrace you right where you are. Then he invited people to come forward and turn over all of their bitterness to God. Lives were changed for eternity this past weekend for sure. People dealt with junk that they have been nursing for a long time. They let it go so they could jump into the everlasting arms of Jesus and join God in His work.

If you are one of those people who didn't get out of your seat but you know that God was knocking on your heart to get rid of the bitterness, it isn't too late. Take the time right now, right where you are and turn it all over to God and ask for His healing. You will never be able to be all that God wants you to be until you let go of all of that weight taxing you.

If you are one of the people who did go forward, way to go!! That's so awesome. I want to challenge you to tell someone about the work that God did in you. Let your story help someone else have the opportunity to experience the grace and love of Jesus. God wants to redeem your pain by using it to display His power and mercy to someone who doesn't know Him or who has walked away from Him. Ask God to show you someone this week.

You belong to Jesus - He is all you need.

Celebrate Recovery

This past Friday we internally launched Celebrate Recovery at Charter Oak Church. What a great night! I am so excited about lives being changed for eternity as we journey together to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. Betsy Hunt has had a vision for bringing this ministry to Charter Oak Church and eventually to this region for over four years now. She gets the awesome privilege to partner with a great team of leaders led by Jeff Weneck to create a ministry that is Christ-centered. We are blessed to have gifted leaders like Betsy and Jeff to champion ministry at Charter Oak Church. If you are interested in more information you can show up on Friday nights at 6pm for a lite supper and then they kick off the ministry at 7pm.

All I can say is, way to go Betsy, Jeff, and the leadership team of Celebrate Recovery!!

Book #14 - When Leadership and Discipleship Collide

I picked up a small book that is part of a leadership library that is being compiled by the big names in ministry. When Leadership and Discipleship Collide by Bill Hybels is a quick read that really gives an authentic revealing of the best and worst of decisions that Bill Hybels has made and comparing them to decisions that Jesus made. The last 10 pages really make the book worth while because it is Hybels saying what to do when leadership and discipleship collide, because they always do. The main point is, always choose discipleship.

Leadership Lessons from Track Camp

I have spent the last two evenings with my kids at track camp - it lasts all week long. I have watched how this camp has been run and I have learned some pretty good leadership lessons along the way. The camp is being run by the local college, Seton Hill University, track coach. He has brought about a dozen members of his team with him to help, both men and women.

The first thing I noticed was that the track coach wasn't actually coaching any of the kids. The members of his team are doing all of the instruction. The kids are broken down by age and each age group spends about 15-20 minutes at each track or field event.

The second thing I noticed was that each of the track team members that are assigned to the specific event corresponds to their own personal event. They are competing at the college level and therefore are specialists in discus, high jump, hurdles, long and triple jump, sprinting, and shot put. The sprinters are not teaching the shot put, but instead what they are very strong in.

The third thing I noticed was that the head coach just goes from event to event to encourage and to help the member of his team that is running the event. He is pouring into the leader of the event.

The four thing I noticed was that they gather all of the kids, maybe 100 kids, together at the beginning to tell them what they will be doing that night and any changes they are making from the previous night. No one wonders what they will be doing.

The fifth thing I noticed was they are building to the last night. There will be a competition night and the kids get to pick their three favorite events and then get to compete for ribbons. This is great because kids can begin to self-evaluate what they are good at or what they enjoy and then really work hard on those events because they know that a competition is coming up on Friday.

What I would have liked to have seen is the head coach bringing all the kids together at the end for a quick pep talk, see you tomorrow, and think about what events you will compete in on Friday. Just a little vision casting to finish off the night. I also would have liked to have seen the head coach notice the team members on their phone or texting and remind them to fully engage with the kids. Just a little reminder of why they are there in the first place.

All in all, I am very pleased with what is happening in the camp and my kids are loving it. Good stuff all the way around.

Book #13 - Leadership Gold

Just about every pastor knows the picture of the guy on the book to the left - it's John Maxwell. The very first conference I went to when I was new in the ministry was John Maxwell's The 21 Irresistible Laws of Leadership. I wasn't 30 yet, I was given the incredible responsibility of leading a church and I was scared. Thanks to John's teaching, writing, and encouragement I have been able to grow by leaps and bounds in my leadership.

While on the beaches of Jamaica I read John's latest book Leadership God: Lessons I've Learned from a Lifetime of Leading. I picked this book up on a recommendation from my friend Tom. When Tom speaks, I listen.

Leadership Gold is John Maxwell's collective wisdom of 40 years in ministry and leading organizations well. After reading this book I realized I need to go back and take one chapter a week and really go after what it is that John is teaching here. If these principles worked for him, I need to press in and listen to the Holy Spirit as it applies to me and my leadership. I don't ever want to stop learning and growing. John has been one of those people who has mentored me from afar throughout my career. This book is for all leaders.