This is part of a series exploring some of the things I learned an experiences by living in Australia during the summer of 2007.

It was our first Sunday at New Hope Brisbane.  We made the trip to Australia and had settled in our home.  Brisbane would be our residence for the next 2 months.  New friends, new church, new surroundings.  It was a bit overwhelming.  OK, it was greatly overwhelming.

The band was finishing the worship set with "Blessed be Your Name."  As people began to sing the bridge, I started to cry.  Lucky for me, the singing covered up the snivels from my snotty nose.

You give and take away.  You give and take away.  My heart will chose to say, "Blessed be your name."

Those words described our experience.  God had given us an incredible opportunity.  He had also done something I had not expected; he had taken away many things. 

• Our home was taken as we lived in several new places (some for a night, some for longer).
• Our closets shrunk. We had to live out of one suitcase per person (for 2 1/2 months).
• We left familiar stores, currency, and culture.
• We left our friends and family.  This was probably the most painful.  You cannot fully realize the depth of your friendships until walk away from them.

In the middle of a different country we would have to look at each other as if to say "It’s just us, guys."  I’ll be honest, there were times when it was lonely.  There were moments when I was ready to grab a plane back home. But it was what exactly what we needed.

In the stripping away, we found more than we ever knew.  It makes me think that a simple life is a full life.  It would prove to be the summer of less being more. 

It drew me to the simple life and made me wonder why I chose to live with abundance. 

In the stripping away, we found much more. 

Here is to the God who gives, and the God who takes away. 

Wow.  Willow Creek Community Church reports that Gene Appel and Randy Frazee have resigned Willow and will be serving as Sr Pastors in other churches.  Hybels will assume the role of Lead Pastor at Willow.  I am sure it is a bit of a hit to Willow, but let’s pray for a great transition all around and that the kingdom overall would grow because of these changes.

Read about the whole deal here.

Author, musician, worship leader, theologian, and cultural diva Sally Morgenthaler recently sat down with Alan Roxburgh at the Allelon Institute and discussed the role of worship and the church.

Sally is a friend and a solid leader.  I have had the privilege of talking through life and leadership with Sally and I always come away thinking (1) this lady is solid and (2) she makes my head swim.

Grab a cup of Starbucks and enjoy this video interview.

Thanks again Sally!

Dave Ferguson is the Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church in Chicago, co-author of The Big Idea, and Head Honcho of The NewThings Network.  Dave lives and breathes Christ and the multi-site church.  Next time you see him, ask about reaching a billion people for Christ.  A billion?  Man, I love God-sized dreams! 

I recently asked Dave a couple of my favorite questions.

Scot:   If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Dave: Do different?  Lots..but here are a couple

1. Make sure that I had a whole team of church planters and campus pastors on my team so I could start reproducing campuses, churches within the first 18 months.
2. Raise more money.
3. Spend more time in prayer listening to God.

Scot:  What would you do the same?

Dave:  Ok, here goes.  Here are the things I would do the same…

1. I would stay committed to the mission of Jesus through church planting and reproducing churches.
2. I would accomplish the mission though a group of people who love each other and understand what it means to be a community.
3. I would be understand the mission of Jesus to include my family and being committed to them.

For more info, drop in and check out Dave’s blog.  You’ll be glad you did.  Thanks Dave!

Rick Newman brings us our number three thing we could learn from Bruce:  Share the credit.

There’s been a lot of hype about Springsteen reuniting with his famed E Street Band for the first full tour since 2003, but come on — Springsteen, the man, is the draw, pure and simple. Still, this is one maestro who spreads the glory across the stage. Not once during the show does a spotlight shine on Springsteen alone. He continually calls out "Steve," "Clarence" and the other band members. And when they bow at the end, they bow together.                          - Rick Newman, US News and World Report

It is a picture I still have in my mind. We were in the throws of a full-on E street experience with sold out crowd in Chicago. The band was lighting it up Jersey- style. The crowd was singing along and the focus was not directly on the Boss man.   Bruce walked over to long-time friend, Clarence.  (Note to all Boss newbies:  Clarence blows the sax for the man.  And he is baaaaaaad).  He stood beside Clarence and together they looked at the crowd.  He reached down and grabbed Clarence’s hand and together they silently stared at the crowd.  It was a brief moment that spoke volumes to me.  A simple holding of hands that said "Can you believe this?  Can you believe that we get to do this together?  Don’t forget this moment we have.  How lucky are we?"

It may have been the best part of the show for me.  Springsteen doing his genuine best to share the limelight.  We could learn a thing or two from that.

Any way that you cut it, church leadership is a team effort.  If you think you are in it alone, you are wrong.  If you think you can handle it alone, you are wronger :>

How can we share the credit?  We need to realize . . .

1. God gets the credit for this gig.  I realize that is the cliche thing to say, but it had better be true.  God gets pretty worked up when other people take the glory away from him.  It’s a dangerous place to be.  A couple years ago I was pulling into our church parking lot.  I looked at our large building and thought of our extensive ministries.  I slowed the car and quickened my pride.  I started to recount all the hard work, long hours, planning, and loss of sleep that had brought us to where we were.  My pride got the best of me.  I was proud for what I was part of building.  At that moment I sensed the spirit of God say to me "Scot, what has happened here has been because of my hand. If you start to take credit for it, I will begin to remove my blessing."  Gulp.  Check please.
2. We need to operate as a team.  I get a little sideways when I hear Pastor’s talk about "their church."  Or something that "they" did.  We can operate as a CEO who thinks that the church world revolves around us, or we can wake up and realize that this kingdom thing is based on many people doing many thing.
3. Leaders take the blame, share the fame.  My Dad once said "When something goes wrong, you take the blame.  You say "I."  When something goes right, you share the fame, you say "We.""  Smart man.
4. Life was meant to be lived together.  I would much rather gather my team around me and celebrate a job well done than drive home alone and tell myself how good I am.  When people compliment me, I state the dead-on truth:  "We have a great team, I am glad to be a part of it." 

There are unsung hero’s on your staff.  There are people on your team who deserve some recognition.  Share the love.  Spread around the credit.  Don’t be afraid to grab a few hands, take a look at the landscape, and say "Can you believe this?" 

And when you bow, bow together.

Photo by luiginter

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil
- Gen 3:4-5

We had it good.  Were able to walk in the garden; naked.  With a hot wife.  Were able to name the animals.  God was close by.  The best of all - we had no idea what evil was. We didn’t know what it was like to hurt someone or be hurt. We didn’t know about hate, dishonesty, murder, molestation, anger, depression, stress, worry, misunderstandings, bitterness, loneliness.  We knew nothing but good.  Evil?  What is that?

And it all changed in an instant.  God had protected us from knowing what he already knew.  There were things that he knew and that he had to keep from us for our own good.  Why did we think we had to know everything?

More times than not, Steph and I will be having a semi-private conversation.  I say "semi-private" because we are around my daughters, maybe riding in the car.

Madison will usually jump in,  "What are you talking about?" 

We always reply "Nothing.  It is not important for you to know."

"But I want to know."

Isn’t that just like us?  We always want to know.  We want to know everything about everything.  When it comes to God, we want to know it all.  Truth is, knowing it all sometimes gets us in trouble.  We have to trust that God is revealing to us exactly what we need to know, when we need to know it.  We didn’t need to know about good and evil, but we just had to know, and have been paying for it ever since.

God, I trust you, I get frustrated sometimes, but I trust you.  I want to know things.  I want to know a lot of things.  Sometimes it seems that you are very quite.  I don’t like that, but I wonder if I would like the knowing even less.  Thanks for protecting me from what I do not need to know.