Comments for Ben Liles - Living Panoramically

Comment on I’m Bragging! by benliles

benliles — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:35:09 +0000

Thanks so much Josh! Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Comment on I’m Bragging! by benliles

benliles — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:30:27 +0000

Dr. Kushcel,
Thank you so much. Without your influence and consistent mentoring we would not be where we are. You have and always be a major influencer in my life and the success of BPC is due to that. Sunday will be fun, so hold on!

Comment on I’m Bragging! by E. Bob Kuschel

E. Bob Kuschel — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:06:57 +0000

Ben,
I really like the blog and the good report. More importantly, I am impressed by the way you and your staff allow God to work through you to accomplish the wonderful plans that He has for BPC,as well as PCB.
Looking forward to being in service with you.

Comment on I’m Bragging! by Joshua Bowyer

Joshua Bowyer — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:50:13 +0000

Hey Man, I will continue to pray for you and your church. I can tell everytime i work with you that you will lead your church to places never imagined. Your a hard worker, a trusted friend, and honestly you have a wonderful family to stand with you. I’m glad to hear someone brag about something thats worth the time to read.

Comment on First 5 Months Learnings by Trevor from Excellerate Church Membership Software

Trevor from Excellerate Church Membership Software — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:54:46 +0000

These are great points. I haven’t had the pleasure of planting a church, but these are great points for anyone in any level of church leadership. I know I definitely struggle in the area of letting go so the leaders are fully empowered, so it’s great to be reminded of that, because without it leadership development isn’t really possible.

Comment on Spiritually Segregated by Trevor from Excellerate Church Management Software

Trevor from Excellerate Church Management Software — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:31:56 +0000

That is a tough problem for pretty much everyone. It seems to me the real issue is one of stamina. From your description (which I think is good), a service focused on believers is going to just have more of the same stuff. Longer worship time. A message that pushes deeper into the word. More prayer time.

Same content, just more of it. So, it seems to be a stamina issue. So, it could be possible to do a medium length service, rather than feeling stuck between a shorter baby Christian level and a 5 hour spiritual decathlon.

Another thing that my home church does, is they have the Sunday mornings geared toward the lost, so they’re intense, but not going to wear a new believer out to the point they can’t move the next day (continuing the sports metaphor). Then, there are periodic leadership nights or Wednesday night services, etc. where most lost people won’t come (though they’re welcome), but all believers are encouraged to come. That’s where we have longer, more intense services that can stretch everyone and allow new believers to learn from the more mature.

Comment on December Series by benliles

benliles — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:41:20 +0000

Thanks Tripp! The credit really goes to Pastor Jeremy and his setup team. They did a great job. It’s amazing what you can do with some spandex, led lights, and a little hard work!

Comment on December Series by Tripp Battle

Tripp Battle — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:08:09 +0000

Not gonna lie….you guys do a PHENOMINAL job on creating cool environments from what I can see in the pics.

Comment on Spiritually Segregated by Celeste

Celeste — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 04:43:12 +0000

Coach and Mrs. Brenda!! : ) Let me preface by saying I should be studying but was too distracted. This blog peaked my interest, and it’s a pretty long response.

Anyhow, I was thinking of you both and decided to check out this site. I listened to your sermon “Say whaaat?” and read this post. Here are my thoughts/opinion on the blog:

wow! Yes. We definitely need to be connected with the mature, the new believer, and the lost! I can see that there is a struggle of knowing how to balance a service. I think you are right on about segregation amongst believers and church in general.

My opinion, what unites the lost and the believer (on any and every level), is Jesus. Cliche, I know, but I really believe so!!!

Jesus. It is what the lost person needs. It should be the passion of the believer.

You mentioned offense. Man, I struggle with not wanting to offend people with my faith. But like you said, the cross, the gospel, Jesus is offensive. Grace and wisdom when planning your services!

I’ve been reading in Romans for a while so most of my thoughts are being stirred from these passages…

I think, concerning this topic of reaching the lost and uniting believers, Paul really models what it looks like to do that. Like you, it was also his ambition to accomplish this.

So, as for the lost… it is what they need, the only thing they need is Jesus. Not another way, another church, another service.

The gospel was the driving force in Paul’s life. He often addressed churches, as you know, telling them to set aside differences (food, traditions, jew vs gentile) and keep Jesus the main thing. It was always about Jesus.

Rom 15:20 “it has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known…(verse 15 16) because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God” .

The message of the cross is, like we just said, offensive. So many were offended by the words of Jesus, especially the “spiritual” ones haha.

Offending people didn’t stop Jesus from speaking truth and didn’t stop Paul. They could do this because of LOVE!

In Romans 1, Paul says he is obligated to Greeks and non-Greeks to preach the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes!!!!!

I think the story of LOVE, Jesus, Father, the Cross… is what can unit us and hopefully cure our segregation!

But in your case, I am not sure how to create that setting. I am not sure what would make a visitor comfortable or uncomfortable. I would think the biggest turn offs would be fake/hypocrisy. Avoiding that by being transparent (which you are), and loving each other, genuinely and deeply. Just be you. Love God the way you love Him, and people will follow.

I am so glad that your church vision and passion is targeted to reaching the lost!! That is awesome!! And you and Mrs. Brenda I’m sure are an amazing team for this!

I miss talks with you and Mrs. Brenda!! You both always made it safe to talk about things. Marvin and I were just saying that a few days ago, when you guys came up in conversation! And it sounds like your church has that same feel. It is very obvious that you really care about the people you pastor ). Keep loving well . I hear good things about what you are doing! I hope you are encouraged. You guys are on my heart, and in my thoughts and prayers often! Love you, say hi to the girls!
chela

Comment on Managing Expectations by Trevor from Excellerate Church Membership Software

Trevor from Excellerate Church Membership Software — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:33:04 +0000

I love this principle. I was reading several months ago about the fact that the human brain actually produces a stronger pleasure response to the thought of possible success than it produces upon the realization of actual success. That’s why it’s so easy for people to get depressed when their church doubles overnight. They don’t see it as doubling, they see it as going from 7 to 14 people. In reality, that’s 7 people who never knew God before and have been found. That’s all we should care about.

Under-promising and over-delivering is a great way to manage that expectation. It allows for the pleasure of dreaming about breaking the faith goal of 285 members in church out of 38,000 in town without ever making the dreams so huge that there is never the pleasure of exceeding expectations. And, it helps avoid greed, because if you really got 20,000 in your church… are you sure you aren’t just taking members from other churches? Under-promising means you can reach your goal and still allow other churches the room to reach theirs, and it’s the combined total that matters.