Mentoring with Pastor Bil Cornelius

In Management Staff recently Pastor Bil ,said he felt led to open his life up to a group of pastors and church planters around the country, and asked us to help get the word out. I am so honored to be talking about this opportunity on my blog, because I really believe in Bil and I know if you will sign up for this it will be a huge benefit to the future of your church, and more importantly to you and your spouse!

I have had the great blessing of being along side Bil & Jessica for over nine years, and I have personally seen BAF grow from around 300 people to almost 7000 in weekly attendance meeting is six locations. Over those nine years we have seen God do some amazing things, but we have also seen many of the things we’ve tried fail miserably. One of the greatest things about Bil is, he will share both the good and the bad with you. We have learned over the years that often times there are greater lessons in our failures than our successes. Bil is a gifted yet humble leader who is not afraid to share everything that has happened since planting BAF, and he will pour his life into the leaders who join this group. Bil has recently been hugely blessed by attending a similar mentoring program with Craig Groeschel, and it has really challenged him to do the same thing for other pastors. On top of that his wife Jessica will spend time with your wives and help them to learn to navigate the mine field called “pastors wife.” Jessica is an amazing woman, and she has a huge heart for pastors wives, and they will be richly blessed if they are able to come with you. Growing a church from 5 people to almost 7000 in 12 years has uniquely gifted them to be able to share a lot of wisdom that I am absolutely sure will bless you and your church!

However, you will not only have access to Bil during your time with us, you’ll also have access to our entire leadership team and staff who I promise you will do their very best to help you in any area you have questions about! Please consider joining us in December for what I believe will be an amazing blessing to your future.

You can find out more about this at http://bilcornelius.com/blog

John

Preparing Future Campus Pastors

If you follow BAF you know that the Multi Site Ministry has been moving fast around here. As we’ve moved forward one of the things that has become clear is that we have to begin focusing on the future, and that means putting in place a system that will begin preparing future leaders now, so they’ll be ready when its time to start a new BAF multi site campus. This is critical because one of the main things we’ve learned over the last 18 months is that DNA transfer is tough. My experience tells me were better off sending out our DNA to a campus, than hoping it will be caught by someone whose already there. However, that is not something that is completely set in stone because every situation is different, but we do feel like sending DNA, if possible, is a good thing.

Realizing that has set us on a path to begin preparing leaders to start new campuses long before we have a place to send them. Pastor Jason Curlee and I are working on a leadership development program that I am really excited about. I will be sharing our ideas with you this week. Please understand they are ideas, and we reserve the right to come back later and say they didn’t work Here are two things we are doing that we think will be critical to to campus pastor leadership developement.

1. We will start having potential campus pastors attend our MS staff meetings when they can. No better place to begin absorbing BAF Multi Site DNA than in a staff meeting with all the CP’s and MS Staff!

2. We are having campus pastors start making themselves unavailable more often on weekends so there is a spot for potential CP’s to step in and lead. If the CP is not around, it forces the CP in training to deal with all the issues of the day on their own. This is usually harder for the CP than it is for the CP in training Could this be problematic, maybe, but we feel like the positives far outweigh the negatives, and were also not talking about leaving a campus to someone until they’ve been there plenty of times with the CP!

I’ll be sharing more of our ideas as we put this together, and as with everything we do, we’ll make it available to anyone who wants it when it’s done.

John

Birdseye View of BAF San Marcos

Week before last we spent two days at the UPACC Center on the Campus of Texas State University in San Marcos adding a new media package because thats where our newest Multi Site Campus BAF San Marcos meets. Here’s a video of the work we were doing. Can’t wait to see what God is going to do there!!

Have I Lost It?

Yesterday I felt led to write the Monday Mindless Dump for the first time in over a year. I finished it really late yesterday afternoon so without reviewing it, I just posted it! Good Lord did anyone actually read that novel? lol When I looked at it this morning I thought, who does that moron think he is, Tom Freaking Clancy? Geez what  dufus. I can’t believe I wrote War and Peace on my blog and didn’t even know I did it. Sorry folks I’ll try to refrain from such stupidity in the future :)

Monday Mindless Dump

I used to do the Monday mindless dump well, on Mondays, but starting four campuses is 19 months has taken me away from it. I have so much that has gone on in those months that I’ve wanted to share, and one of the ways I used to do that was with this. So here we go for the first time in well over a year. When reading this please take in to account the size my pea brain was before we started the four campuses, and then take into account the shrinkage that occurred while starting them

1. I am so proud of the Multi Site team. There are now five Multi Site campuses, and all are doing well, and each of the teams have sacrificed so much to get these campuses up and running. Let me just call out the MS team because they are an awesome group of high capacity leaders. Rudy Garcia, Dave Cotham, Joey Davila, Jason Curlee, Kyrah Hopkins, Randy Bryan, Tony Reyes, and David Flores. I am beyond blessed to have this team around me!

2. Just heard the other day from Jason Curlee that right at 200 people have asked Jesus Christ into their lives at the 5 Points Campus in the last 15 months! I am blown away by how God is using this ministry. The cool thing is, it’s happening at all the other campuses as well. 5 Points is doing such and amazing job and Pastor Jason has built a group of leaders that are second to none. Props to everyone who has worked so hard to create an amazing church out there!

3. The Kingsville campus was started four years ago and was our first campus, so it has been around for four years, but years in it has never looked better, sounded better, or operated more efficiently than it is right now. Huge props to Pastor Rudy, his worship Director Eric, Children’s Director Herlinda, and the rest of what is an incredible team of sold out followers of Jesus Christ. Kingsville has been transformed, and this team deserves some huge props for all the work they have done!! You guys rock!

4. I don’t know what to say about the folks from Padre Island. They are pouring their hearts out not only for their own campus, but they have given like crazy to help make all the new campuses happen. I don’t know of a more giving, loving, vision driven group a folks anywhere at any church. Pastor Dave and his team have something special going on out there, and it’s making a huge impact on the Kingdom of God.

5. I am so proud of Pastor David for being willing to follow God and take over the Alice campus with little or no experience. He stepped out on pure faith and God is creating in him an amazing Pastor. Alice is still in it’s infancy, but it is doing well and people are coming to Christ, and all that because a guy who simply loves Jesus was willing to step out on faith and go somewhere he’s never been before, to do something he’s never done, just because God said go!

6. Last week we made a decision to do something that we probably should have done already, and that is to ordain and license Joey Davila into the ministry as our Multi Site Worship Pastor. Pastor Joey, now that has a God felt ring to it. I am so proud of the leader and Pastor Joey has become. He will represent the ministry well and we are so blessed to have him on our team. He has started five separate bands basically from scratch, and turned them in to great teams leading amazing worship. Let me tell you folks, that is one tough gig!

7. We have one assistant who supports the entire MS Ministry and she does and amazing job. Kyrah has to put up with seven of us and all the campuses and ministries we represent, and somehow she has done it while remaining relatively sane. I assure you we would all be lost without her taking such good care of us. Not sure how she pulls it off every week but she does and she does it amazingly well!

8. I can’t believe how much has happened is such a short amount of time in San Marcos. We merged and existed church in San Marcos whose pastor is a great friend of ours and has been for many years. With any merger there is usually a tough period where a good many of the people are deciding whether they are going to buy into all the change or not, and thats the journey San Marcos has been on. Pastor Randy has been through a tough time over the last few months because he has been at ground zero as all this has transpired, but as we have gone through it, it’s become clear that God has chosen the group of people He intended to stay and be a part is BAF San Marcos, and they have not only stayed, but they have completely bought in to the vision and are excited about the future. Pastor Joey and I have spent a lot of time there in the last few months, and every time we go were more excited than the last time, because people are getting it. The potential for that campus is off the charts because there are four times as many people in San Marcos than any other city we’ve put a campus in so far, so we are so excited for all the people who will come to know Jesus there!

9. Been looking at some great West Side locations and just waiting for God to open the right door. I’ve reached a point to where I’m completely comfortable with Him closing doors I thought would open. Very cool feeling to just wait on Him and know that He is indeed God!

10. Spent two days in San Marcos this week installing all new audio/video components. Man this was a tough install because the UPACC, where BAF San Marcos meets, has 350 seats, a 30 ft ceiling, sloped floors with permanent seating. It was definitely a new challenge for all of us, but with an amazing team we, as Larry would say, got er done! I couldn’t believe how awesome the worship and the message were this last weekend. Big thanks to Dave, Joey, David, Randy, Ralph, Mario, Bear, Rick and all the others that worked so hard those two very long days!

11. I am truly the most blessed guy on the planet. My wife April is the greatest Pastors wife on the planet. I hope there tons of pastors out there who disagree because you should. She gets my calling, and she is my number one fan. She supports me and understands that the job God has called me to is time consuming, but at the same time she is the best at telling me when it’s time to back off a little. And she does it in such a great and uplifting way and never by criticizing me. I don’t know if she knows how much that means to me. I love her for many so reasons, but none more than knowing she always has my back. They say lots of things are priceless on the Visa commercials, but there is nothing in my life more priceless than April! She went with me to help out in Children’s at Alice a month or so ago and realized they needed help big time in that area, and because she’s done Childrens Ministry for 5 years, and because God asked her too, she has been driving 50 miles over there every weekend to lead Children’s ministry to help out Pastor David, and will continue to do so until someone is raised up and trained to take over. That is just one more of the many reasons I love her so much, her answer to God is always “yes,” regardless of the cost.

12. I have twin 17 year old boys who are sold out to Christ and are living their faith out each and every day! They are living a proactive faith and I am so proud to be their Dad. One is on staff in Element Student ministry leading worship, the other one serves on the Element leadership team as well. I was listening to a Craig Groeschel (Lifechurch.tv) podcast the other day called Practical Atheism, I highly recommend it, and the premise was about people who claim to know Jesus, but live as if they don’t. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be able to say that my wife and children all live out their faith every day, as if He does indeed exist.

13. When I found out my wife was pregnant 5 years ago, I was both happy and overwhelmed because I was 45 at the time and didn’t know if I had the energy for a baby at my age. I don’t know what I would do without my soon to be five year old little guy in my life. He is the love of all our lives, and the joy he brings to us is beyond measure. Thank you God for working through my selfishness and bringing your little guy Caleb to our lives. I love the look on his Mommy’s face when he loves on her. That too is priceless!

14. Every time I go to a different campus I am constantly being blown away by the people. There is over a 1000 people worshiping at a MS Campus on any given weekend, and they really get the whole MS thing. The spirit of the people at these campuses is incredible, and at every campus people are constantly asking me when and where the next one is going to be. If you’re wondering is MS actually works, let me assure you it most certainly does, and there are in excess of 500 BAF people who will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus who will attest to it! I also have tons of Pastor friends who will tell you the same thing.

Please forgive any typos or grammatical errors, I’m exhausted and ready to go home, and of course there is the pea brain issues I told you about as well So much for  my first Monday Mindless Dump!

John

BAF San Marcos

If you follow my blog you probably know that we are trying to start 6 campuses in 6 months. That process has begun, but we also had some unfinished business at one of our existing campuses. For the last three days myself, Pastor Dave, Pastor Joey, Pastor Randy, and some awesome volunteers from San Marcos have been burning the midnight oil installing all new media at the UPACC, which is a building on the Campus of Texas State where BAF San Marcos meets. It was three long grueling days, but well worth it, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

This was by far the most difficult install the multi site team has ever done. We’re trying to be good stewards, so up to this point, we have tried to find buildings for our campuses that will hold about 150 in worship, and have room for supporting children’s ministries. These buildings have all been around 6000 sq ft with 15 ft or so ceiling heights. This has worked well for us and we’ve been  able to continue to grow these campuses with multiple services while not killing the budgets. The UPACC however, has seating for 350, 35 foot ceilings, and a sloped floor with fixed theater seating. This made for an interesting few days because of course everything we were doing was being done over the top of fixed theatre seating and 35 feet in the air. We had a lift designed to work over seats, and it worked well, but it took forever because it had to be rolled back into the aisle every time we moved it, and good grief did we ever move it a lot. Of course the stage created the same problems for screens and lighting so the team really worked their tails off on this one. It’s important to know that all this work was being done by a MS Director, 2 Campus Pastors, a Worship Pastor, and a handful of volunteers! Pretty crazy mix for sure

Really proud of everyone on the team because they really did some amazing work on this one. This weekend at BAF San Marcos, video, lights and sound will be at, as our friend  Pastor Ed Young Jr says, “a whole nutha level.” I’m really excited for the team at BAF San Marcos and me and Pastor Joey will be heading back up there Sunday to make sure everything is working as we planned it. By the way, who in the heck is the idiot who came up with the idea to start a campus three hours away? Oh yea never mind, I think that idiot is me:)

John

 

One Seriously Proud Dad

All blessings from God are great, but nothing comes close to the blessing of God in the lives of our kids. In a world where teenagers lives are falling apart, and we see it in our church all the time, my 17 year old twins are living out their faith each and every day. The one on the left (Cory) is on staff in the Element Student Ministry as a Worship Leader and has a calling on his life to ministry, the one on the right (Cody) is part of the Element Student Ministry leadership team and pours his heart into it with all he has. Both are sold out to reaching broken and hurting students for Christ and model servanthood in ways that challenge me all the time!

I thank my God each and every day these two amazing young men. I love them with all my heart and am so proud to be their Dad. Thank you God from the bottom of my heart!

The BAF Multi Site Vision

Over the last 18 months we have started 4 new multi site campuses in small towns around CC and I’m so excited to say all are doing really well. I know starting 4 campuses that fast sounds crazy, and frankly it is, but the cool thing is God just kept showing up over and over, and always right when we needed Him the most. But here’s the key, the provision was always found in the pursuit of the vision, not in the planning for the vision. Faith started 4 campuses not BAF, and every one of me team would wholeheartedly agree. I’m constantly being asked questions about how we pulled it off. Questions like, how did you pay for it, what’s your system, do you have written job and ministry descriptions, how do you staff, and tons of other questions, and sometimes I kind of feel bad because I don’t have a ton of stuff I can send people, but honestly, there really isn’t a system per se. Don’t get me wrong, I have a fantastic team of leaders who I would stack up against any leadership team in the country, we make plans, and we try our best to carry them out, but when I try to explain exactly what were doing, most people look at me and wonder if I’m completely crazy.

So today I’m here to confirm some suspicions and answer some questions! Based on the last 18 months, and the current vision in front of me, I am indeed crazy, probably not a big surprise to most of you, no I can’t really explain in a clear concise way what our system is because it’s evolving and changing faster than I can write it down,  and yes we are really planning on starting seven more campuses in the next six or so months, and no we don’t have the money or people to pull it off. Some leaders would frown on that, and frankly I completely understand why, because I would be the first to tell you that what were doing really doesn’t make much sense, but I can also tell you it’s working.

So for all of those who are asking how we’re doing this, here’s the BAF Multi Site system as best I can explain it, and I’m not joking here, our faith is bigger than our common sense and skill! Thats pretty much the entire BAF Multi Site plan. For the last 18 months we have stepped way, and I mean way, out in the faith zone and started four campuses with not enough money, not enough people, and not a real clear plan. To be honest, we didn’t have a clear plan because we had no idea how to do what we were feeling led to do, but what we were sure we had was a word from God, and He came through every single time we needed Him, and is some huge ways. Here’s why I’m so excited to be called to carry out this vision, Pastor Bil has committed two hours of prayer a day for a year now, yes I really said every single day for a year he has prayed two hours, and in that time God has told him to keep starting campuses, so the BAF system is this, we’ll move forward and continue to figure it out as we go! I can tell you this, it sure is easy to follow a pastor who has spent two hours a day in prayer for a year asking God for His vision and provision!!!!

John

A Big Vision

Life in the Multi Site ministry has been crazy, but man has it been fun. In the last 20 months we have started four new BAF Multi Site Campuses and all are doing really well. A lot of people would be ready to sit back and take a rest, but Bil’s on fire for Multi Site and he’s spent over 200 hours in prayer asking God what He wants us to do. In his prayer time Bil is absolutely sure God wants us to push forward with a huge vision and just trust Him with the money, people, and places. So that’s exactly what we’re doing.

In this vision we have seven locations where we want to put BAF Campuses, and we want to do it in a very short period of time. Part of what we are doing in the process is restructuring the entire Multi Site Ministry. I’m very excited about the vision in front of me because it will challenge me to take my leadership to a whole nutha level! I’ve never done what is in front of me, and that  excites me. The cool thing about this vision is, it makes absolutely no sense and just couldn’t happen if it wasn’t from God, but Bil has prayed over 200 hours about it, so we’re going to trust God and move forward with it. Man I love that crazy faith zone!

I’m really excited about all this but trust me, there are times when I look at the size of this vision and wonder what God was thinking when He chose a guy to lead it who walked without his Son for 37 years, has no seminary training, or any church experience at all prior to coming to BAF. But for some reason God chose me to lead this thing, so I’m going to have to trust He knows what He’s doing

As we pursue this big vision I am so thankful for the amazing team God has surrounded me with, because without them, I couldn’t even come close to pulling this off. This is an amazing group of leaders who without exception have this vision deep in their hearts. Jason Curlee, Dave Cotham, Rudy Garcia, Randy Bryan, David Flores, Joey Davila, Kyrah Hopkins, and our newest Campus Pastor for the Westside whose name I don’t want to reveal until he’s had time to tell his family and friends. This is one seriously amazing team and I cannot put into words how thankful I am for each of them!

It’s going to be a crazy ride so if you’re reading this and you’re a part of BAF, we need your help. Get in contact with us and we will find a way to get you involved. This will take a body of believers joining together as a team to start all these amazing campuses where people can gather to experience the life change that only comes from a relationship with Jesus. We need you on our team.

John

Been Too Long

If you have followed this blog you obviously know that I haven’t posted in six months. I used to blog once or twice a week and really enjoyed doing it, but the job God has called me to has simply put me in a position where I’ve had to change some priorities.

As much as I love this blog, I love leading the Multi Site Ministry at Bay Area Fellowship more. In the last 19 months we have started four new BAF Multi Site Campuses. I have been the guy leading that vision and it has challenged me in ways I could never have imagined.

There were so many times along the way when I knew I should be blogging about the journey, but there just didn’t ever seem to be enough time. I am going to try to make some time in the future, because the journey has been an amazing one for me and the Multi Site Staff. Four new campuses is truly amazing, but whats more amazing is all the people who have asked Christ into their lives at the campuses. So much life change happening all around us. I am so proud of my team and so thankful we serve an amazing God!

We are getting ready to start a bunch of new campuses and I am going to try to do better blogging the journey, because doubling the BAF Multi Site Ministry is of course going to stretch me even more. I actually feel like I’ve learned more about leadership, ministry, and myself in the last two years than the previous ten. I’m feeling like I need to do a better job of sharing what God is teaching me, so I will. Hope you check back!

John

Stay tuned and feel free to comment and hold me accountable to keeping you in the loop.