TILL HE COMES Blog

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Today is the third and final installment on things I’ve learned about church leadership and church planting from Will Smith.  Yesterday we looked at the first five. Here are the last five:

6. Understand ideas, and which ideas move people.Smith says that when studying movies, and which ones are popular, he tries to back up and get the big picture. “I look at movies in their essence,” Smith says. “Will that idea sell?” If you look at the movies Smith does, he always does movies that focus on an idea or a story that resonate with the vast majority of people on the planet. He is not just trying to entertain, he is trying to connect.

7. Understand universal patterns. This is related to number 6. Smith calls himself a student of universal patterns. He watches for movements in worldwide society and culture, and then tries to focus on these patterns. He and his manager sit down every Monday morning any analyze the box office numbers for the past weekend, as well as the past 10, 20, and 30 weekends. He is looking for trends and patterns.

8. Think globally. Smith doesn’t just want people in the US to see his movies. He wants to be a worldwide movie star. So after a movie debuts in the US, he travels to England, Germany, Japan, Brazil, China, and promotes his movies. This, of course, makes him popular with the movie producers because it is  more money for them.

9. Go where the people are. Since Smith didn’t initially have worldwide recognition, he knew it would be hard to get a worldwide platform unless he went where people were already gathering. So when he travels, he travels intentionally. He promotes his movies in South Korea at the World Cup, in Brazil during Carnival, and is headed to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Why try to gather a crowd on your own when you can just use a ready-made crowd?

10. Never neglect what is important: family. This I though was the most amazing thing of all. Hollywood actors are not known for stable marriages, mostly because they are trying to follow their dreams and make it big. Smith has been married for 10 years and says, “Our first official date was with a relationship counselor. The math is simple. Start while it’s good. Do it three times a week while you’re laughing and still having fun. You get so much more work done. You head off problems. Do it during the ether time, and do it aggressively.” Smith knows that all of his fame and glory is nothing if he doesn’t have a his wife and kids to share it with.

Now, most of these ten principles are driven by secular goals. But if you go back through them, and substitute in spiritual, Biblically-based goals, you have a surprisingly good list of what it takes to hear God say “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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Yesterday I reminisced about Will Smith and his transformation from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Will Smith of Hollywood.

In the December 10, 2007 issue of TIME magazine, there was a writeup about Will Smith and how this transformation occurred.

What is Will’s secret? Intentionality. Will Smith says that this is all according to plan. TIME reports that “Because Smith has mastered the delicate art of appearing artless, few moviegoers realize that his is one of Hollywood’s most meticulously planned and executed careers.” He hatched his plan at age 16 after his first girlfriend cheated on him because (in his mind) he wasn’t good enough. he decided that he was never not be good enough again. He made a plan to correct this, and never looked back. You can see the plan unfold as you watch the career of Will Smith. But what interests me are ten principles he operates by to execute that plan. Here they are as gleaned from the article:

1. Don’t have a Plan B. Relentlessly pursue plan A. Smith says “By even contemplating a Plan B, you almost create the necessity for a Plan B.” As church leaders, while it is often a good idea to make plans, I think we sometimes get derailed from God’s vision for our lives by naysayers and setbacks. But if all we have is Plan A, we will work at it wholeheartedly because there is no other  option.

2. Read. Read. Read. Find your answers in books. Smith has a library stocked with books on every topic imaginable. He reads and studies to find the answers he needs. This reminds me of something I heard Chuck Swindoll say: “Readers are leaders.”

3. Study what others have done, and emulate. Learn by watching others. When Smith began his acting career, he would watch and emulate the various actors that came on the show, even mouthing their words after them when they rehearsed. Later, when he started to try to get into movies, he and his manager found a list of the 10 top-grossing movies of all time, and looked for patterns and similarities in them. Church leaders can do this with churches, but we have to be careful how we define “success.” Big churches are not the most successful churches.

4. Be Friendly. Make contacts.Smith had a knack for charming his way out of trouble and winning friends.  This is how he met “DJ Jazzy Jeff” and later, James Lassiter, his manager. Church leaders and planters cannot afford to be introverted. We must love to spend time with people.

5. Work hard. Be Diligent. Smith has a good work ethic and works hard at everything he does. Leading a church is not easy. It takes hard work and lots of sweat and tears.

We’ll save the final five Principles for tomorrow.

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I’ll admit it. When I was in Jr. High, I listened to “DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.” My friend, Jason Schuyler, and I listened to all of his tapes. (CD’s were just coming out, and I didn’t own a “walkman.”) His rap was just what Jr. High white boys in Montana liked: it was smooth, funny, and just a teeny bit rebellious.

I remember that some of the more serious, hard-core rappers gave The Fresh Prince a hard time for his music. “It’s not rap,” they argued, “unless it’s got edge and reveals some anger. It’s not rap unless there is some profanity.”

The Fresh Prince took it all in stride, and just kept selling tapes. He got a TV show, and then a few movie roles. Now, 20 years later, he can look at all those who criticized him and, with country-western singer Toby Keith, say ”How Do You Like Me Now?”

The Fresh Prince, now known as Will Smith, is one of the most sought-after actors in the movie industry, not only in Hollywood, but in the entire world. TIME Magazine recently did a brief article on him and how he got where he is. As I read it, I was amazed at what church planters (and all pastors and leaders) can learn from Will Smith. I’ll share these things tomorrow.

Until then, “Bust a move!”

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We previously asked the question, “Who is the church service for - believers or unbelievers?” (See Part 1 and Part 2). We saw that depending on how you answer that question determines whether you are going to focus on teaching believers or reaching out to unbelievers (aka seekers) in your “church service.” However, statistics and surveys reveal that in general, disciple-making churches don’t turn out very good disciples, and seeker-sensitive churches tend mostly to attract Christians from other churches. So both approaches are failing in both discipleship and evangelism.

I suggested that the solution to this dilemma is to ask different questions. First, What is church? and second, What is the church service? With basic answers to these questions, we can now see that the only time “church service” is happening is when a group of believers (the church) are actually meeting the needs of someone else (serving), whether these needs are spiritual or physical. To be balanced, a church should focus on both spiritual and physical needs. Who is the church service for? It is for anybody that that the church is serving.

Ideally, a group of believers could meet together for prayer, Bible study, and fellowship, then as a group, go and put into practice what they have learned in Scripture. They could do this all on one day, or split it up during the days of the week, or even alternate weeks. This will work best when the same group of believers that learns together goes out and serves together as well. Other than these few things, I cannot find any clear guidelines in Scripture on when the church is supposed to meet and/or what they are supposed to do.

This will radically free you from the constraints of what has come to be known as “church.” Tune in tomorrow to see what I mean.

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I am not sure how the hour from 11:00-12:00 on Sunday morning (or whenever you “go to church”) became known as “The Church Service.” Probably, the term is too ingrained in our church culture to change it, but it is one of the most tragic misnomers of Christianity.

First of all, little actual service takes place. If we define service as “using your spiritual gifts to edify and meet the needs of others, then on Sunday morning, only the Sunday school teachers, the ushers, the music team, the pastor, and a few others are “serving.” I suppose one could make an argument that putting money in the offering plate is “serving” and in some sense, simply showing up is an encouragement to the pastor, but is this really what is meant by ”Christian service”?

Second, it is tragic that we have segmented off an hour or two of our week and called it the “Service Time.” Check most church websites and bulletins, and they have their “Services Times” listed. The implication is that if you show up at one of these times, you are involved in Christian service. And if you ask most Christians what they do in their “Service time” they will talk about praying, singing, and listening t0 someone teach them from the Bible. Is this really service?

Somehow, we need a radical shift in how we schedule our church functions and programs. We need to have actual “Service times” where we get together and go help someone in our church or in our community. Mow lawns, feed the hungry, help single mothers with their kids. Then, we can come together as Christians for times of celebration, prayer, and teaching, but we probably shouldn’t call such times ”service.”

You probably aren’t going to get your church to change any of this, but how about you personally? How can you put the service back in “church service”?

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