eugene cho

truly amazing to see the pop cultural phenomenon of apple, inc.  when steve jobs introduced the iphone two weeks ago, it was stunning to see the effect – on conversations, on wall street, on competitors, and the constant flows of ‘oohs,’ ‘aahs,’ and ‘it’s so pretty.’  but c’mon now, $599 for a  phone? 

this is a dumb way of sharing some thoughts on our church’s annual meeting that took place this past Saturday with our church members and partners (regular attenders).  as we began the meeting, i poked a little phone and introduced to the church our newest innovation:  the qPhone (in the pic above).  i bought this phone at goodwill a while ago and love to pretend that i’m speaking on it as i’m driving around seattle every now and then.  the looks on people’s faces are hilarious. 

back to the meeting, i’m sharing some stuff from our meeting so that friends, other pastors and church leaders, and folks that have contacted me over the years asking for resources, advice, friendship, and/or mentorship can see if any of this might be helpful for you.  i share these resources on this blog from a posture of ‘i’m still learning… ‘ and to simply convey one way, one voice, one family, and one church that is seeking to respond to ‘faith seeking understanding.’

during our first unofficial quest meeting, there was probably a dozen people and everything we needed to discuss was on a 1/2 page paper.  our first official meeting was attended by 35 people on a boat ride around lake union.  as the years have passed, things have certainly changed and not necessarily for good or bad. 

when you have some time and if you’re interested, check these out:

• quest annual report (minus financial summaries and constitution)
• my pastoral report | audio | shortened version
• my pastoral report | text- it’s five pages so i’ll highlight a couple pages in later posts

perhaps the biggest lesson that i’ve learned as a pastor and as a person – at quest and elsewhere – is the importance of good communication.  good communication includes honesty, transparency, accountability and ‘good listening.’  as i was reminded from a distant mentor today, people need to 1) feel loved, 2) feel significant in the larger mission, and 3) feel heard.  providing good venues to give information, share conversation, and make decisions together are important - whether it’s a congregational or eldership model.  this is where the church will die or flourish.  time will tell for quest…

Filed under: church, churchplanting, emerging church, ministry, quest church