In-N-Out Burger

While I was on my Sabbatical I picked up a copy of "In-N-Out Burger," which was a fascinating history of the burger chain. When I worked in San Dimas at Christ's Church of the Valley the church was built on the old Snyder family homestead. The Snyder family owns In-N-Out burger. Esther Snyder (one of the founders of In-N-Out) even came by the church to see the development. The old Snyder house was our church office. My office was the pool house out back where I had a 1000 square foot office and my own swimming pool and jaquzi. I picked up the book because I heard a lot of rumors over the years about our church property. It turns out the rumors just scratched the surface. For a season, the house itself was the headquarters of In-N-Out and the kids names scratched into the concrete outside my office were the Presidents of In-N-Out (Guy & Ritchie). It was a fascinating book that got me thinking about how In-N-Out is a success by doing a few things well. Did you know that in 50 years they have only added one item to their menu? It was Sprite soda.

God has shown me recently that he really only calls us to do a few things well. Lift up Jesus and help people become complete in Him. As a church we will always have limited resources, but not limited opportunities. So, in order to have a quality church with spiritual enthusiasm I believe we have to focus our resources into the few things that we can do well. With that in mind, this fall we are going to be slimming down and focusing on four key areas: 1) Sunday Mornings, 2) Children's Ministry, 3) Life Groups, and 4) Youth. We are planning on postponing activities in some other ministry areas in order to focus our attention on these four ministry programs.

Within each of these four programs we'll emphasize our C2 goal by highlighting 1) Personal Growth, 2) Community, 3) Serving, and 4) Reaching Out. If you have trouble remembering this strategy think of a 4x4 truck. Four programs (Sunday Mornings, Children, Life Groups, Youth) and four emphasis (Growth, Community, Serving, and Reaching Out).

My prayer is that by focusing our prayers, energy, and passion into these four ministries that this fall we can lift up Jesus and reach more people for Him than ever before!