Banter from the Basement

Here it goes. I'm joining the more than 40,000 people starting a blog today. I'm calling it "Banter from the Basement" because I office out of my basement and am often doing my work there among the piled up laundry, boxes of assorted junk, and everything else we don't want the rest of the world to see. I'm also calling it this because in the church I lead, we want everyone to come to the basement as quickly as possible.

When we talk about the journey that we hope people take, we start with the front door which is usually a friend. That friend then brings the person to the foyer - that's Sunday morning. Then as quickly as we can, we invite them into the living room - that's house churches. Before you know it, we're encouraging them toward the kitchen - which is service somewhere in our church or in the community. The final destination? The basement. This is leadership. It's the place where we most live out the teaching of Jesus, "whoever wants to save his life will loose it".

It's down in the basement where the chores get done. Where all the stuff that no one sees happens. It's the destiny of every person who desires to be a Christian leader. There is certainly a public face to leadership, but much of what makes a person a leader is what happens in the darkest corners of one's character as well as the behind the scenes work of worship and service.

The purpose of this blog is to encourage people down the ladder. To speak to the issues that people in leadership face. To add appendices to the Sunday morning sermon that may help people to step down a few more notches. To ultimately contribute to the movement of personal growth and church planting that we hope continues to expand here in the happy valley.