giver or taker

Are you a giver or a taker? In relationships and friendships, do you add, or are you constantly taking? With your finances, are you a giver or are you always taking and expecting? With your words, are you an encourager or do you negatively tear people and things down? If we were to add the sum total of your life in these and so many more areas, would we have a positive or negative balance?

humility

Batterson says, "Humility honors God and God honors humility." The Bible is very clear that pride is repulsive to God, but humility He rewards by lifting us up. Humility is not being someones doormat, but rather realizing who we are in relation to God. He is the owner of EVERYTHING and we are only STEWARDS. Every breath we breath was given to us from God. All life exists for Him and that includes mine and yours.

retreat

I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded by some amazing people. They are truly a gift to Gary and I and our church. It's amazing to have discussion with people who care about something as much as you do. I am praying God's favor on the decisions that were made this weekend.
Huge thanks to Jim and Susan Parker for use of their amazing place out in the country for our retreat.

ELT Retreat

I am excited about this weekend as it is the first Executive Leadership Team Retreat that we have ever taken. We are going to seek God as the leadership of our church and pray together for God's direction and favor. There are several big decisions that need to be made and discussed. It will be exciting to welcome our 2 new members as well. Praying for a great weekend.

bothers me

My wife and I had a discussion the other day about things that bother us, because they bother us. The problem is, when something that bothers you, doesn't bother you. These are different levels of spiritual maturity. How much it takes to offend you is revealing of how spiritually mature you are. If you get offended, that is revealing. If you are offended, but it bothers you that it offended you, that is a higher level of spiritual maturity. And if something on that same level happens but doesn't offend you, that as well is a whole other level of spiritual maturity. So in other words, being bothered about something bothering you, should only bother you to the point that you are pushing through it so it won't bother you.

The Blessed Life

As a church we are going through the Blessed Life book by Robert Morris. God is doing some amazing things through the revelation of God's Word through this book. It's amazing how much of a grip money has on our hearts. It's kind of crazy when you think about it, that many people will trust God with their soul for eternity....but not with their money. Truly, money is the great revealer.

MLK

Today we honor an incredible leader who changed our country. Martin Luther King Jr. stood up for truth and justice even at the expense of his life. I pray that God would raise up more world class leaders who have the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to live it out.

anointing

Today, I was incredibly blessed to have spent some time with Pastor David Thomas. He said that "anointing chases obedience." He went on to share how God makes us look good and the only thing required of us is to obey. When we are obedient to God's leading, we look smarter than we are, and accomplish more than we ever could have hoped for. What a great deal. I'm so glad God keeps this simple.....just obey...and His anointing will be on your life.

what's next?

Thinking through clarity, vision and communication lately. I feel I need to do a better job at doing these things. I think one of the keys is looking to see if I have all the information I need to make a wise decision. I may be paralyzed because I need more info, more time to process or perhaps need a confirmation from God. Whatever the case, by identifying what step is "next" can be incredibly freeing. Once we know what is next, we can continue to move forward. It's when we don't know what is next that we get stuck.

What's your next step?

messy

Ministry is messy. As a Pastor you do your best to help people and love them through all their baggage, while at the same time dealing with your own battles. Then sometimes, those you have invested in the most, will hurt you the deepest. Or those you have journeyed with for some time, just walk away from Jesus and make foolish decisions. That's the part of ministry that hurts. But even through all the mess, it's what I am called to....and it is the heart of Jesus to see His creation restored. Jesus is the only one who can clean up the mess in peoples lives and my job is to love people to Him.

in my way

Sometimes God gets in our way, to show us His way.
I know that is true many times for me and I have lived this out. It's hard to understand at the time, but I'm incredibly grateful when it is all plays out.

embrace

Embrace what God has put in front of you.

vision beyond resources

I came across this phrase, "vision beyond resources" in Mark Battersons book, "The Circle Maker" this past week. I want this to be a mantra for how I live and lead. Truly if the vision we are running at is not beyond our resources, then it's most likely not from God. His Will for us is so much bigger than ourselves and it can never be reached in our own strength, but can only be achieved through His. This involves faith, which is easy to talk about but hard to live out. Is the vision that you are living out bigger than your resources?