Hitchhiking to Substance

Signing his life away!

Well Substance, I’d like you to welcome Substance’s newest pastor:  “Reverend Mark Mellon” (O.K., but you don’t actually have to call him reverend).  Yes, indeed, the Substance staff family is growing!  And I know that hiring Mark won’t surprise hardly any of you.  After all, he virtually runs all of our Sunday morning ministry teams.  Most of you thought he was already on staff.  But, no. He was just a crazy servant leader!

Believe it or not, I met Mark because he wanted to plant a church in Saint Paul.  And back in the day, Substance was going to help him launch.  I actually told him to join our leadership team and recruit as many people out of our church as possible.  How cool would it be to be able to plant a new church starting with 200 people!

Of course, in the meantime, Substance has been exploding.  In fact, the average church size in Minnesota is 269 members.  Yet, last September alone we grew by twice that number. In other words, every couple months Substance is basically planting another church inside of itself; so, we need to be hiring savvy leaders. And who better than a guy who’s all ready living a true pastoral lifestyle.

So, after talking about it, Mark and Bonnie decided that they wanted to stay! (Yippie!) But seriously, Mark has already had an amazing impact on our church community. I bet you that he knows more Substance people than I do! And to boot, the guy is really really smart. (He’s a year or two ahead of me at seminary… so he always gives me “the scoop”.)

And what is Mark going to do? Believe it or not, I’m not quite sure. He’ll probably just pick up my coffee and shine my shoes (just kidding). Actually, he’s gonna help us launch multi-sites (i.e., Plant churches inside of our church). But, pray for our staff! This is a big year. In old-school Pentecostal circles we used to say: “New Levels, New Devils.” So pray! And give Mark a fist pound this Sunday!

My Wife (left) & the Farrinas at Cheesecake Factory

Last Night I just hung out with some pastor friends, Tory and Elizabeth Farina. Talk about a fun couple! Seriously, every time I hang with them they make me feel like a million bucks (that’s a nice skill when you’re a pastor). As for me: I have an ability to make people around me more sarcastic. And, yes, that’s a gift too; but, I’m trying to acquire a few more gifts that will actually help me excel in the ministry.

Not surprisingly, Tory and Elizabeth call their church “Highpoint” …which is a great name by the way. It seems like everyone is naming their churches after golf courses, retirement homes, or any name that has a variety of tree. (Seriously, think about it). Of course, I can’t throw stones… after all, everyone thinks we’re a substance abuse support program. But, as for Tory and Elizabeth, they actually pastor right here in the Twin Cities… at a high school in Mendota Heights on the southwest side. Seriously, Substance people, you need to check out their church some Sunday. In fact, they’re just like Substance.

But anyways: Hats off to Tory and Elizabeth. You guys are rocking it. I’m just blessed to be friends with amazing people like you!!!!

Jamin Cousins & Zach Lien...highly focused

For years I’ve been telling people that God’s got a call on this church to do worship albums.  In fact, my associate recently told me that 7 of the final 14 bands in the classic 3 degrees band tournament are Substance members.  (translation:  ”We’ve got a stinking amazing number of talented musicians.”)

Of course, a lot of churches do mediocre worship albums… that are primarily cover tunes.  So when I talk about worship albums I’m not so much talking about cover albums.  Rather, we have some genuinely good original song writers here at Substance.  And perhaps you didn’t know this; but, I’m a rather obsessive song-writer myself.  I spend about two hours a week penning new songs.  (All those years of piano, guitar, and cello lessons are good for something!!)  

So when our worship producer Jamin Cousins finally came on full-time here, I charged him with the task of getting our musicians in order.  And that’s exactly what he’s doing.  In fact, this last weekend, we invaded Dylan Heeg’s house to do Substance’s very first recording sessions.  So far they’re sounding great!  But this is just the beginning.

But if you’re a starving artist… get involved!   After all, we’re gonna be doing a heck of a lot more of this once we get into our office center!  (Which is taking shape every single week we’re there!!!!)

Be blessed you guys!