sick

I hate being sick. I picked up some kind of virus and have been laying in the bed most of yesterday and today as well. While in bed yesterday, the Ohio Assemblies of God Network Conference business meetings were going on and I was elected as an Executive Presbyter. I am both humbled and privileged by this vote of confidence from my fellow ministers throughout Ohio. Also, I believe I'm the youngest ever to hold this office nation wide. I'm praying for God's wisdom in this new endeavor....I'm gonna need it!

Consumer or producer

Do you take more than you give? Whether it is emotional, monetarily or in any other area of life? May we all live a life that gives more than we take. May we leave people feeling full rather than drained after we connect with them. We can do this looking for ways to invest and deposit to make the world a better place. What do you have and how can you give it away?

Adventure

This life with Christ should be an adventure. If it's not, you are doing something wrong. If we are truly following Jesus, then our lives should be unpredictably predictable. In other words, we should know that God is going to continually shake things up on us. He wants to stretch us and grow us in our faith and trust in Him and this does not come without a cost. The cost is our comfort and routine. I want to be the person that God can dream with. Someone who will dream with God outside of my own limitations.

purpose

Purpose precedes production. If anything worthwhile is going to be accomplished in life, it must come from purpose. Production without purpose is life draining. I learned that the Nazi's would force those in their concentration camps to move large rocks from one side of camp to the other, and would do this over and over every day. That production without purpose took not only a physical but deep emotional toll on the prisoners. It is the same for all of us today. If we feel purpose in what we are doing, it allows us to work toward production that brings us satisfaction.

God idea

Yesterday while in prayer, I had a God idea...that I can't share yet. I can't because it is still very immature. I am putting it in the incubator of prayer to allow it to grow. Prayer is how I process ideas to see if they are from God...or bad pizza from the night before. Also, many times there are people who love to walk around with needles to pop any one's idea or vision for what could be. Right now, I can't fully defend the idea, b/c I only know the WHAT...and am still getting clarity on the HOW. In God's time and way, I pray that this idea can help make Jesus famous!

continuos learning

The day we stop learning and growing, is the day we begin to die. We must be continually learning and growing. I read an article the other day that talked about how knowledge is now doubling every 18 months. What used to take a decade or more, now takes a matter of months and it is ever shrinking all the time. If we are not continually learning and growing, we will soon be left behind. As leaders, we can either lead the charge or be drug behind. What are you learning?

pieces

We have some amazing people at C3 Church! I really feel that we are about to push to a whole notha level and the key is going to be putting the right people in the right places. I feel that God always gives us all the pieces we need to do the work He has called us to do. It's then our responsibility to seek His face and wisdom to know what that looks like. This is where I find myself....seeking wisdom. How about you?

thoughts

The essence of who we are is in our thoughts. Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is." Our thoughts paint our lives, by either making it brighter or darker. They lead us closer to Christ or drag us farther away and our actions soon follow after them. Change your thoughts and change your life. What are you thinking about?

FOR not FROM

I want to lead people because I want something FOR them, not just FROM them. There is a huge difference in the two. "FROM" is where the leaders just wants what a person can DO for the ministry or company. While "FOR" is developing the persons God given gifts and challenging them to go farther than they could have on their own. Yes, the person is fulfilling a role, but at the same time impacting the Kingdom of God and using the God given gifts entrusted to them. It should be a win-win.

Easter

I'm so proud of our church and our amazing leaders. We had 3 great services on Sundays for Easter with 8 adults and several children coming to Christ. I'm not one to normally post numbers other than Easter, but we praise God for the 881 people in attendance between the 3 services. God is so good. There was an excitement in the church and I could feel the Holy Spirit moving and at times it was even visible in peoples faces. I'm so honored to be a part of a healthy thriving church.

drain or energize

Do you drain or energize the people around you? Why? Is there anything you need to change about yourself? Can you be more intentional in this area of your life?

PS - Take some time to thank and remember what Christ did for us 2012 yrs ago today, when He died on the cross for our sins.

catch and release

We are in the process of God bringing us some amazing leaders to C3. Our heart is to raise them up and launch them out to change the world. What if every church truly made disciples and then sent them out to change the change world? The "Dent" that could be made would be Huge! We must operate on the Truth of God's Word that says "we reap what we sow."

amish

Monday and Tuesday of this week my wife and I got a away to Amish country to a bed and breakfast and had a very relaxing time. We got to hear more on their way of life. They are an incredibly disciplined and do their best not to become like the world around them. But there is another part of their way of life that breaks my heart. It seems to me that they are so worried about the exterior and following the rules, that it has become bondage to them. I heard several stories, one of which where they wouldn't let a man take communion because his suspenders clipped instead of buttoned and another because his pants were a slight different color. As fallen creation, we are all bent to go there, where we make our spiritual lives about our works. If we do everything right and follow all the rules, then we might get it. But we are not saved by our works, but only through Christ Jesus sacrifice on the cross. When you boil it down, it all comes down to the condition of our hearts. This is what we will all be judged by God on.