Re-posting: finding the rhythm

It is very interesting how proactive one must be to find this rhythm in God and in life. Gotta be intentional!

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yes i know, the white guy at the dance club proves this, that we struggle with find our rhythm in life… well kinda. this week i have become very aware at the fact that i have not yet found my rhythm in life. from 2006 moving to ireland for a year to 2008 spring moving back to arkansas to graduate and then 5 months later packing up everything and moving to Colorado to work for ‘The F.C.” i have not found a common groove in life…out side of blogging from time to time….which that isn’t helpful at all

so this past week i realized this more than anything when i began to look at the pace in which i have been trying to go in our ministry. so often when we start a new ministry we want to really make sure we are grounded and as my old boss Brian says, ‘hit the ground running’ the problem is sometimes you don’t hit the ground

my analogy for the day is sometimes starting at a new ministry is like sky diving into a lake. as your landing you see the ground in which you are going to have to swim towards and then quickly you have to brace yourself for impact. you’ve seen in the movies probably the problem with landing in water is that your chute will start to drown you from going under if you don’t quickly regain your bearing and cut that strap.

some more imagry to help you get the picture of what i’m talking about

para-chute – this can be and is not limited to your expectations of self, others and the students and ministry. its the baggage we have in ministry that we have found to be helpful in ministry in the past.

the lake – first few months to year in ministry. this is the rocky not so solid ground when you walk into a new ministry. you have to know where to tread, know your kids, staff, volunteers and your congregation. it takes times and as you are coming from above into dark murky water you have know idea what lies beneath you and sometimes there are some bigobstacles in that water that can really do some damage coming in and trying to make it shore.

the shore – this the actual meat of the ministry…well the start of it anyways. we need to swim to it but to remember that even when we get to the shore walking into the jungle isn’t our first priority, we need to gain our bearings and remember what we saw as we were coming in. we might be on the wrong side of the shore

the problem is that some times when we land we become so disoriented in what just happened that we start to panic, and even if you manage to cut the chute strap you are so exhausted and disoriented that you don’t know which direction you now need to go to get to the shore

some might say…well to solve this problem… don’t land in the lake….well thats a novel idea, but in ministry you never know what you are stepping into. everything is going to be very fluid and unbalanced for a while..sometimes a long time before that balance and rhythm can be found. again it is why Christ and Paul teach us about the preparation in ministry and running the race. it is a tough road and very physically, mentally and spiritually challenging life and one that if we don’t take seriously you will drown at some point not to long after your landing

i don’t have very many wise words yet to how to prepare for this landing accept what i am learning right now my self (and something i will write about later today or tomorrow) know your surroundings and don’t forget that the ministry you are working alongside God and leaders with will only be as healthy as you your self are, take your time when coming in for the landing to look at where you are going to want to once you land…don’t panic when that chute wraps around your face and starts to pull you under, cut the chute and swim to the shore… read this post i wrote about things to remember when starting in a new ministry

(again this analogy i am going to carry over into my next post about what to do when your 50 yards down the field ahead of your students and leaders) and its imperative that you start in the right direction…(duh i know) more on this to come

Nehemiah on Leadership pt.2

We look today at Nehemiah and his leadership. Last week we looked at chapter 1 and saw how there are several aspects of leadership that we should look at in our lives when called to lead others. You can review that here.

Today there is again a lot that we can see in this scripture in reference to leadership and character that I want to draw our attention to as leaders.

The first would be the dialog that takes place between Nehemiah and the King. Something that I find interesting is that the king notices that something is bothering Nehemiah. For a king to notice a cupbearer and entreat to ask what is wrong says a lot about Nehemiah and his relationship with the king. For a king to care about his cupbearer to the point of asking what is wrong and how he (the king) can help say tons about how Nehemiah’s demeanor in his job had created a place of respect and trust that would allow the king to want to inquire and help.

The next and very important aspect of leadership is Nehemiah’s readiness and preparedness to answer questions. The king inquires about the logistics about the plan of going to rebuild. Nehemiah does not retreat and ask for time to think about what needs to happen, before even going to the king with the request he has mapped out what he needs and about how long the journey will take him. This vision and pre thinking creates a calmness in ministry and in leadership that helps calm those who are wanting to help or who are interested. If you don’t have a plan or description for most people, they will not follow you blindly into a vision or dream.

This leads into the next part of leadership and when you should share your vision and plan. In 2.12 we see that Nehemiah ‘told no one what my God had put in my heart to do’. The reason for this we is that he had not yet inspected (13-15) what all needed to take place and what the best plan of attack was. Nehemiah took the time to analyze and inspect what needed to happen and where. He took time to envision the vision taking place. The great practice here is looking into the future of your vision and seeing what all may need to be done in order to achieve the dream.

17-20 is the speech of motivation that stirs the hearts of the people. In verse 17 you see that he speaks on the visible reality that those in Jerusalem see. He points out the obvious but provides an opportunity. “Come, let us do”. Nehemiah shared his vision and gave them the hope that God was with them. He gives them the vision and then started. They didn’t wait around for a vote, he didn’t seek TONS of peoples insights about how to do. the simply said, ‘Let us start building’! I believe there is some great wisdom here in not taking lots of time to entertain ideas from lots of other people about how to make something happen. When you do this it can postpone the process and even worse keep things from happening because people aren’t unified. Which is the next point.

18: So they committed themselves to the common good! The people had come to a place of unity to work towards the same goal. The goal was laid out simple and clear with reasons for why! Goals that are too deep and to layered can cause for confusion and keep things from happening.

Lastly which is one of the most important I believe is found in verse 20: The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start this build”. This verse is a great challenge and reminder that God is the one who grants the strength and vision behind any project…and needs to be the one we work for. To start and finish a project in Him and only in Him is the only sure sign of success in a Kingdom project. But the last part is very important as well…we are called to be the ones to get started in the building. With his help and guidance and our hands greatness is around the corner for His kingdom and the ministries we are apart of.

An overview for leadership:

• Be a man/woman of positive character: filled with integrity & trust. You are this not for the reason to follow, but because its what we are all called to. This positive character allows others to trust and want to follow and be genuine in their care for what is going and how they can help
• Readiness and being prepared to share the vision to its fullest extent when the time calls for it. To have spent a great amount of time in prayer and preparation so that the vision can be shared and caught by others…there is another lesson here as well in being a good communicator so as to communicate the dreams and goals with out confusion.
• Take the time to envision the vision! Take the time to map out how things should be going and how they will come to be. You need to think about the obstacles that may/will arise so that when they do you can move beyond them to a successful goal reached.
• Your team must be unified and working to towards the same goal. If not failure is bound to happen. If you don’t have a shared cause and vision those with different ideas and hopes may derail what needs to happen. (This is not always a bad thing, but we are going with the concept that you are in the right and doing what God has called you and your ministry to do)
• Do your best to keep a goal and vision something attainable and easy to communicate. You want something people can catch, see and participate in a realistic way.
  • Bad example: our goal is to change the culture of youth ministry for the better by talking to them about God
    • Something that needs to happen, but so abstract in the how and why few will jump on board
  • Good Example: We want to promote the awareness of positive and negative effects of technology to our teenagers, by doing a month long study in the effects that texting/cell phones/ video games with our students to help them find pros and cons.
    • This is slightly long, but gives something visible and attainable and some ideas of what will be done.

Where the Wild Things Are: Movie review

ok so i went to see Where the Wild things are last night… can i say i was very pleased!

to take a 14 page book and turn it into a movie…very good. had some great touching parts and brought some great life to the book. the visuals were amazing. now… it does have some down sides. it is kinda slow in some parts. there isn’t much dialog which can make for awkward moments of silence. I would not recommend this for children.

Why? well because there just seemed to be a lot of moments of just blandness and not really engaging!I know how can I say i liked it but then say that. The movie is great for people who have read the book as children, but i don’t think most kids now (8 and under) would enjoy the movie as their parents might.

another piece is the amount of walk aways that could have taken place with, being yourself, being creative, being forgiving, loving and so on… it really didn’t do a great job portraying that and giving the audience time for reflection.

so i would rate it on a 10 scale about a 6.5-7! i really enjoyed it and would possibly go see it again, but the reason it was so high was because of the joy i had from the book as a child and the beautiful cinematography

Nehemiah: Leadership pt.1

So I have had the burden of re-reading Nehemiah lately on leadership. Nehemiah I believe is by far one of the greatest books on pastoral/ministry leadership and motivation. I know there have been several books authored on the topic of Nehemiah here are a few

Nehemiah: Becoming a Disciplined Leader

Nehemiah: Experiencing the Hand of God

Becoming Nehemiah: Leading with Significance

So my ‘goal’ is to write a little bit each week about what I think are some good take aways that week in reading from Nehemiah. Today I wanted to look at Nehemiah chapter 1 to give some insight and take away’s for church leaders. I ask that you’d either pull your Bible out with you and read along here and see where things jumped out for me and what jumps out for you.

Chapter 1 Reflections

The First of many things that stands out is found in the second verse. Nehemiah runs into some of his people and asks them questions about how things are going and what is happening in their lives. He asked about how people were doing. Nehemiah inquired about others! This is a huge leadership quality as it means you need to be aware of and always willing to ask, how is this going, how is that doing! These inquiries in leadership help you reevaluate and know if something is needing to be done in your ministry or life of others & yourself

The response they give jumps out to me as well. The respond with, the walls are broken down, and the gates have all been destroyed. This stands out because I think in our always be positive society honesty and urgency is sometimes lost and not wanted to be heard. We try to sugar coat a failure or something that didn’t go quite right, or don’t address something very harmful or negative which ends up misleading the intent and need for action. In our ministry we need to hear honesty and speak it even when its hard, because of the call and style of ministry we are called to

the next few verses are by far the most important for a christian leader…PRAYER. Read verse four and see the urgency and passion that takes place as he hears the response. Now there is a lot here in this one verse that I want to bring to light. The first is that he CARES & is MOVED by what is happening in the lives of his brothers and sisters. This concept of compassion is huge as a leader will need passion/compassion and love/reason to be motivated to lead and to lead others. The  next piece is his RESPONSE, he prayed and fasted. He took time for self reflection and guidance from God & did not immediately start making changes or heading in a direction! You see this through his prayer found in verse 5-11.

How he prayers is very important. He starts by acknowledging that ‘first things need to be first’. First being praise to God for his love and keeping in the forefront of his mind Who God is, What God has Done and What is wanting to do. Then there is acknowledging of sin, weakness, and need for help. He realizes he is not perfect, very important to be a humble leader, which we will talk about later. As a leader he doesn’t just pray for himself, but Prays for his people and their needs. He is aware of others need for repentance and need for grace.

And lastly in his prayer he lifts up the immediate urgency in front of him of him that calls for action. He prayers for Success in his mission to accomplish change. How and What he prayers for is very important. He doesn’t pray right up front for the walls and city to be restored. He prayers for repentance, for help in knowing what needs to be done, and in the first step.

I know I sometimes (most times) miss these steps of wanting to jump to the end success of having the project completed. But there are the steps that need to take place in their order so that the mission may be truly successful for the Glory of God. The prayer is a huge piece in the place of a great leader. He/she is called to know God’s will in the midst. the will in this prayer is found 9-10, to bring the people back into His (Gods) love to establish His name, or His Kingdom. This is ministry at its simplest thought, to establish His name and His kingdom.

Lastly as a leader its to know your place. Nehemiah new he was a simple cup bearer that had a dream for restoration. This is where leadership is born, out of a dream for something great! This will be discussed more in the next few posts, but to ask your self a few questions

• what forms of leadership am I being called to where I am
• do I put the first things first
• do I have a dream for something great for Gods kingdom
• how do I approach this dream

There are many other questions but these will help you begin to wrap your mind & heart around Gods call for you as a leader

in overview for leadership:

• be ready to inquire and ask the hard questions/be ready to hear the hard responses
• understand the need & importance of honesty & urgency
• be compassionate and sensitive to the things around you and the needs for others
• know the following about your self & God: the past, present, desire for future// Heart, Passion, Desires, Reasons
• Pray, Pray, Pray for…everything and everyone
• Listen to what needs to be done/don’t just assume
• Define what SUCCESS looks like in small steps
• Dream for greatness, not in yourself but in the mission of what God has for you and His people

Add your own thoughts and gleanings from this reading, things you agree or disagree with!

New goals!

So I have been rethinking a lot lately about my life and what all is going on in it. So I decided it was time to do some more goals. there are some new things in my life that I need to devote healthy and intentional time towards. these things are

1. My amazing girlfriend
2. My new Masters Program
3. working out
4. New ministry Models at our church

so with all of these i need to sit down and prioritize these goals and how to live towards them effectively

A goal of wanting to invest good Godly time in me and Stacie’s relationship. really diving deep into one another’s lives but most importantly allowing God to have the watch and time of how things progress. with this we (I) have set up times during the week so that we aren’t up super late, which effects our work and our daily lives. we have started doing a bible study and reading a great book together, called Life With God by Richard Foster

with my masters program, I am wanting to get as much as possible out of these classes and start using all these new things i’m learning… so I am taking it upon myself to preach more at the church using the things i’m learning to help people see God in their midst’s in whole new ways. but with the schooling I also really need to invest good amounts of time reading and writing and reflecting, which i need to set aside days for that

Workout!!! ugh. I want to lose 10-15lbs by the end of they year and set a goal of 50-70 for next year…I hate working out…and I hate how slow things are… so my goals are to really push myself (stacie is great at being an encouragement for this as I encourage her in her work outs as well)

Last is for our new ministry models. I won’t spend a lot of time on this as I will have other blogs about it…but we are setting goals in our ministry here at Faith and I am excited and motivated to bring some great new change to our ministries and to get our families seeing and experiencing the grace of God in their every day life.

lastly though is PRAYER!!! I am really needing to spend more time in prayer for our youth, families, staff, church, town, friends and world. I do pray don’t get me wrong… but as a leader and someone needing to be shaped by God for the hearts of others I don’t pray nearly enough. So blocking out times in the day that our for my shaping and acknowledging to God where I am and where He thinks I should be is needed

Help me with my sermon

I am working on my sermon for All Saints Day November 1st

and i want your help writing the sermon

I preaching from Deuteronomy 6.1-9. The basis of the message is what is it to have God’s word and love written on your mind, your heart and your world. there should be a progression in our faith from head to heart to hands (sorry JBU i stole it i know).

so below are some questions i’d like you to answer. you reply to my email brit@fclc.org, or reply to this blog. you can do it anonymously or reply with your own info.

Parents: What obsticles do you have in raising your children in the way Deuteronomy suggests

Parents: How do you keep Gods love in your mind, heart and world for your children to see or do you

All: How would you define Saint?

All: Does Jesus deserve more than just our thoughts of him?

All: Does your family participate in any kind of family worship? if so what

All: What is something that has lead you to a closer heartfelt relationship with Jesus?

names will not be used in the message, but your responses to this and any reflections on the scripture will be greatly appreciated