… But it always seemed too expensive on a church planter’s salary.
But guess what? Robin and I are going to Hawaii in September!!! 
God really takes care of us when we put Him first. Sometimes, He even provides the dreams that we don’t consider all that important when we just stay focused on doing His work first. I think that’s what happened this time.
This blessing really started a little over two years ago when I was nominated to be part of a program for senior pastors called SPE – Sustaining Pastoral Excellence. This is a three year program funded by a Lilly endowment grant to the Lake Hickory Learning Communities that is designed to take senior pastors who have demonstated excellence in ministry to higher levels of excellence. As a part of this opportunity I received a mini-grant that could be used for personal learning. I’ve used this grant to attend several great learning experiences. And this September I’m using the last of the mini-grant to attend a Leadership Practicum with Pastor Wayne Cordeiro.
Dr. Wayne Cordeiro is Senior Pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship O’ahu, a Foursquare church in Honolulu, Hawaii. New Hope began on September 10, 1995 and is one of the fastest growing churches in the nation. Over the last 12 years there have been 31,000 who have received Christ for the first time and the church has grown to over 12,000 weekend attendees. Eighty-three churches have been pioneered under New Hope’s church-planting ministry outreach.
Outreach magazine has listed New Hope O’ahu as one of the top most 25 influential churches in America and one of the top ten most innovative.
I’ve been accepted to attend Pastor Wayne’s week long leadership practicum on Team Building. This is a unique opportunity because Pastor Wayne only invites a few senior pastors each year and he uses a “shadowing” approach to teaching, where the conference attendees follow him on all of his regular duties.
Apparently, this includes being on the beach every morning at 6:00 A.M. for exercise and team building activities. I even had to sign a health waiver and verify that I was a good swimmer before being accepted. Pastor Wayne likes to use paddling outrigger canoes to develop team spirit.
Can you hear the “Hawaii Five 0” music playing in the background?
wow!!! that’s awesome. what’s a ‘foursquare’ church?
Foursquare refers to the denomination that most people believe to be foundeded by Aimee Semple McPherson. The “four square” is salvation, the presence of the Holy Spirit, healing and millennialism. Hers was basically a Pentecostal church to which was added Aimee’s personal charisma and sense of good marketing. Like other Pentecostal churches, the primary source of beliefs and inspiration lies in the Bible, and members accept such doctrines as Baptism by the Holy Spirit, the power of Christ to divinely heal faithful believers, and the future Second Coming of Christ.
While our church is not of the same doctrinal emphases as this, there is still much to be learned from one another. Wayne is an expert on team building, which is the piece that I’m looking for help on.