Travis Agnew

Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.

Overcompensation with My Ankle (And Your Church)

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I am still in crippled status.  After 2 weeks in a hard cast, my ankle is still broken from the infamous basketball game.  I am in the boot for 4 weeks gradually applying some pressure on it.  Still on crutches.  Obie said this morning, “Daddy, your crunches go squeak, squeak like a mouse.”

They sure do.

As you look at this picture above, I will ask you, by the look of it, which ankle is hurt?  Of course you would say, the ankle on the left of the picture is the one hurting.

And you would be wrong.

The ankle in the boot feels fine.  No pain, no real discomfort, it’s just annoying to have it confined to a boot.  The ankle that is hurting more is the ankle on the right side of the picture.  I have experienced a real pain deep inside that ankle not confined to the boot.  When talking to my buddy who is a doctor, he said what I’m experiencing is called overcompensation.  Having to put more weight and pressure on the uninjured ankle oftentimes causes more long term damage than the injured ankle.

I firmly believe the principle of overcompensation is happening in your church right now.  You’ve heard of the 80/20 rule.  20% of the people do 80% of the work.  You look at the other 80% of people as if they are broke and so you start putting more pressure on the 20% that isn’t broke.  The problem?  Overtime, you can cause more damage on the 20% if you burn them out.  From the outside, you still can identify those that are not working in the Body of Christ.  Spotting them is as easy as spotting a broken ankle in a cast.

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Courageous Deadlines Have Been Met

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I am happy to report to you that I submitted my last work for the Courageous Bible Study today! I am way humbled to be a part of this great ministry endeavor, but I am also very tired.  It has been a lot of work to do in a short about of time. The movie comes out on September 30th,

10 Things That Will Kill Your Men’s Ministry

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Recently, I was talking to a buddy about why or why not men’s ministries work in certain churches.  I tried to condense what we talked about, so here is a list of 10 things that will kill your church’s men’s ministry:

1.  Hypocritical Leadership – You won’t find perfect men to lead your men’s ministry, but you better find men who are consistently striving towards godliness.  Men can spot fakes easily and provides easy excuses for them.
2.  Getting Too Close and Personal – You need to allow them to get close, but don’t force them to act in a manner against God-given manliness.  Your group can be spiritual without group hugs.
3.  Not Getting Close and Personal Enough – While you don’t force men to be something they are not, don’t also settle for anything less than biblical community.  They need to be close enough to push each other to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24-25).
4.  Cliques – When men come to your church’s functions, you need to remove the clique factor among them.  Make sure to get men with the gift of hospitality (that just means they make people feel welcome) at your doors and get men connected with others in the room.
5.  Trying to Copy the Church’s Women Ministry – Just because your church’s women ministry has a hanging of the greens doesn’t mean you get your guys to decorate the church too.  It works cause it is for women.  Let guys be guys while always challenging them to be men of God.

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Imitation is the Sincerest of Flattery

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“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”  -Ephesians 5:1

Last night in our C-Group, we dug in deep into Ephesians 5 and sought to learn what it meant to imitate God.  One of the guys made a great point at how his son wanted to imitate him because he looked up to him.

I could relate.  It amazes me that these two wonderful boys, Obadiah and Eli, look up to their father.  Over the last few weeks, they have hopped around like they were on crutches  tryinb to be like Daddy.  Obie keeps telling me has a boo boo on his foot like me.  On Christmas morning, when they both got guitars, they stepped up to the microphone, stomped on foot pedals, and said, we are “playing and singing like Daddy.”

If imitation is the sincerest of flatteries, then I am a flattered man.

During group last night, I realized something with massive implications: they imitate me because they want to!  You may be thinking that is obvious, but do you get the spiritual implications?

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Walking in the Light

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I wish I could have hobbled closer to the choir for this picture, but my cast kept me at this distance.  The picture is of 80-year-old Mama Barnes leading the Faith Home choir today at North Side.  Before the service, she told me she didn’t want to lead the choir because she didn’t want to be a distraction.

I said, “Mama Barnes, the choir sounds great, but your dancing is amazing.  Get up there.”

And boy, did she ever!  Her energy and the choir’s passion in worship changed the room for sure!  I can’t even begin to tell you how loud, not the band, but the congregation was this morning worshiping!

We were so honored to have our partner in ministry join us for this special day.  The Faith Home, 4 decades into ministry, has cared for over 20,000 men and women in the area of Christian recovery for alcoholics and addicts.  When they sang, “If he can make a change in me, he can make a change in you,” such hope and passion came out of their mouths and their souls.  Amazing!

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Small Group Values

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Following up from yesterday’s post, I want to share the 4 values on which my small group focuses.  There are many great lists out there, but this is my attempt at trying to maintain focus within the group I lead. Small group values: AUTHORITY Make sure each member knows that the authority in the study is the Bible.  The teacher,

Bad Church Sign: Independent Old Timey…

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This week’s bad church sign is seen on many church signs across the Bible Belt. This sign states: INDEPENDENT OLD TIMEY HELL-FIRE BRIMSTONE KING JAMES PREACHING” Wow.  That’s a mouthful. Let me break it down and tell you what it is saying: Independent – We don’t agree with the stances of larger denominations, so we remain independent from everyone else.

5 Things You Didn’t Know Fathers Do

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I wanted to share with you a list concerning fathers I found the other day.  As I have been studying and working on Courageous, I’ve been gathering a ton of information concerning the impact fathers have on their children.  Here are 5 things you didn’t know fathers do: Fathers Teach Empathy – A 26-year study published by the American Psychological

A Different Look

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Week 2 of leading worship on crutches.  If that poor stool can make it through today, it can make it through anything!  This cast has made me realize I’m a bit more of a dancer than I realize I actually was 😉

Today, we continued on through Ephesians as we studied:

A Different Look (Eph. 4:17-32) – As a Christian, we are called to lay aside the old self and have a completely different look.  We are no longer to live in our former ignorance, but we are to shine differently than before.

Today’s message was great.  Amazing how God’s Word, written years ago, still has so much power for us today!  The point Jeff ended on was so powerful.  He taught how Paul taught in Ephesians that we are to get together before we try to get holy.  You would think you should get holy before coming to church, but this progression teaches us to get around each other in order to make us holy.

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We Are Worshiping On the Wrong Side of the Table

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I’m a struggling worship leader.

I’m not poor or unable to find places to lead worship.  I just struggle with the tension in worship leading.

For years, I have learned how to set the table for people to come to worship.  Setup the right mood lighting, pick the right type of music, dress this way, talk that way, and people will come back to the meal you prepared.  It’s like you are setting the environment for a nice restaurant, and you are just hoping you can serve a course that is so unforgettable, the people will come back week after week.

But maybe in churches, we have been guilty of sitting on the wrong side of the table.  What if we stopped expecting to get your needs and wants met in every worship service we attended?  What if we stopped obsessing over the service we were receiving and started focusing on the service we are offering?

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