man up challenge

Right now we have the majority of the men in our church doing a Man-Up Challenge for 30 days. They are all split up on teams of about 5 for accountability and are daily reading their Bibles, journaling and praying out loud with someone else. It has been organized as a competition, but the heart is to get the men of our church closer to Jesus. We are praying for God to do something huge in the lives of our men during this time.

Spiritual impact

What kind of spiritual impact does your life have on those around you? What about at your work, family, friends or even church? We make that impact through things like prayer, our actions, truth and love. I want to focus this week on making a Spiritual Impact!

sharpening

Yesterday, I got to be a part of a meeting in which Jeff Leake, who is a church planting guru, spoke. He and his church have planted several healthy churches. and God has blessed them. I loved his humility and heart for following the Spirit of God. There were also several other church planters there who hope to plant churches someday from out of their churches. It's amazing how being around different people of vision can sharpen you. We many times rise or fall according to the level of those around us. I walked away feeling that iron had sharpened iron.

Feel

How something "feels" plays a big role in whether we like something or don't. We have that "feeling" of belonging or pushed out when we attend a new meeting. Or the "feel" of a restaurant or store speaks incredibly loud to whether we will return. Maybe it's the "feeling" you get around another person, perhaps warm, loving or even creepy. Whatever the case, how we "feel" plays a huge role in our lives. Now ask yourself the question, how do you make people feel?

what's stopping you?

Have you ever thought of the answer to this question? What IS stopping you? What is your dream? What is that obstacle keeping you from pursuing it? Many times it is just fear or uncertainty. If your dream/vision is from God, who is all powerful, then what can stop you? Only YOU. Think about what is stopping you...write it on paper...and then with God's help, overcome it.

optimistic

I came across this today from Leadership Freak: - Be optimistic about the future and realistic about the present. Optimism frustrates others if you don’t acknowledge present realities and problems, first. -
I now for me, I may be acknowledging the problems and realities in my head, but not to my team. My team needs to know that I feel the weight of the present before I/we can look to the future.

routines

We are people of routines. Routines can be both good or bad, the question is where do they lead us? Currently, our church is in a 21 Daniel Fast leading up to Easter. This fast, is pulling us out of our routines and therefore challenging people to change and seek God. What if we had a normal routine of changing our routines? Just a thought.

perfectly

My life is perfectly designed to get the results I am getting. Whether it is my relationships, health, spiritual health, etc, you name it, my life is perfectly designed to get those results. If I want different results, I need to change. This week, we will be talking about trading. What are we willing to "trade" to receive something else? Everything in life is a trade off and we will only trade something for something else, when we see more value in that something else.

Daniel Fast

Our church has begun our season of fasting leading up to Easter. We are doing a 21 Daniel Fast, which is pretty much fruits, vegetables and water. Our heart is to seek God for something in our own lives, for our church that leading into Easter we see people come to Christ and for our City. I really feel like the timing is right for our church. We are in a season of growth having just moved to 3 services, but are also seeing some individual families come against some junk. I'm praying for God to blow the lid off of this thing.

lack of faith

When I worry, it is a lack of faith. When I get over busy and feel overstressed, that is a lack of faith. It's a lack of faith because I believe that I am master of the universe and the world can't function without me. I guess I had just never really thought of these things being a lack of faith, but they are. How's your faith?

kony2012.com

This video is amazing. Again, I have heard of invisible children and know of their work and am just learning about this project. The thing that is truly amazing is how they leveraged social media to ignite a world wide movement. This project will change the world as we know it, because it opens the door to spreading information across the world at the speed of "viral." I'm believing that something incredibly huge for the Glory of Jesus can be spread through this medium and literally change the world in a very short time frame. I'm praying that God releases the creativity to see this happen!

responsible

I have really begun to feel the weight of responsibility. To say it clearly...."I am responsible." In a culture that shirks responsibility, we have to know that God will hold us accountable for things within our power and people that He has placed under our authority. For me, I am responsible for my wife, children, myself and church, just to name a few. I am also responsible for those who have been called by God to full-time ministry and are in our church. I must do what I can to help encourage, equip, empower and release them into ministry. What are you responsible for?

incredible weekend

I got up and 4am on Friday morning to drive to Youngstown and spend a few hours with an amazing man of God, Pastor David Thomas. I'm completely humbled that he would take the time to invest in me. He also allowed me to share with the Victory School of Ministry students who were incredibly hungry. I left there to speak Friday night and Saturday morning to a group of Youth Pastors and leaders at the Align Conference...with my friend Tom Groot. I had a great time and saw God do some cool things. Then I came home and hung with my family. I gleaned so much this weekend and feel incredibly blessed to have experienced it.

less is more

We are re-looking at the Simple Church model again and how our church is operating. We started 5 years ago very simple. It's amazing though, how quickly the simple can slip into the complex. Our jobs as leaders is to keep what we are leading focused. What is the main goal? What can we measure to get there? Is what we are doing successful? Are we being effective? Are we being efficient as stewards of what has been entrusted to us? It's crazy to think about, but complexity is simple and simplicity is difficult.

Release the Kraken

What could happen if churches truly developed and released followers of Jesus Christ to change their world? What could happen if every believer in our churches were sharing God's love continually, praying with power and revealing Jesus daily? It would be a "Release the Kraken" on the kingdom of darkness. The Church of Jesus is a sleeping giant that has no clue of the power it has, and the enemy wants to keep it that way. It's time to wake up...and to RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

pencils

Mother Theresa once said "I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world."

Truly, we are not authoring anything, but we can be used by the Great Author! As we allow God to use us by being a vessel through which He can love the world, we begin to take a bigger part of His great masterpiece.

Can God write His love on others and the world with your life?

Great Sunday

We kicked off 3 services yesterday with 8:15, 9:45, 11:30 services and had a great turnout. Our team did amazing preparing for this and our church jumped in to serve and make it happen. We now are positioned to grow to the next level by being able to hold more people. Our community groups kick off in 2 weeks helping people grow in relationship with God and others which is perfect timing. Last night we had an incredible prayer service. God is moving in our church and we are honored to be a part of it.

afraid of

Today, I'm really thinking through the question; What am I afraid of? That is a really hard question and the answers to that question leave me vulnerable and weak. This causes me to protect myself by putting up a wall of protection, which then keeps me from ever dealing with these things until the walls are broken down. My walls will never be broken down without an incredible and usually painful impact. .....Wow...the more I think on this, the deeper it goes. I really believe the key is, when you see something in your life contrary to the Word of God, quickly confess it, ask for strength and then line up your life in obedience to God.

What are you afraid of?