Portrait of a son

Just go to hear pastor Chris Hodges share a powerful illustration for a closing message for All Access Conference. That Conference is put on by our church planting organization Association of Related Churches.

Pastor Chris talked about a powerful word found in 2 Timothy 2 about how God, when we let Him, is painting a beautiful portrait in our lives. One that we can’t fully recognize the picture until it is done. He pointed out 7 ‘Brush Strokes’ that the Lord is painting. In this brush strokes we take on the nature of different metaphors to be shaped more like Jesus.

1. 2 Timothy2.2.           A Mentor: living a reproducing life  – Who am I influencing?
2. 2 Timothy2.3-4        A Soldier: living a disciplined life – What area of my life needs discipline?
3. 2 Timothy2.5            An Athlete: living a focused life – What stands in the way of my life mission?
4. 2 Timothy2.6-7        A Farmer: living a fruitful life – Am I driven by eternity?
5. 2 Timothy2.15          A Laborer: living a skilled life – What am I doing to develop myself?
6. 2 Timothy2.20         A Vessel: living a clean life! – What decisions do I need to make to stay pure?
7. 2 Timothy2.23-26   A Servant: living a humble life! – What can I do to reflect Jesus better?

Some great insight from this passage from Pastor Chris that I wanted to simply pass on to others.

Heading to Exponential!?

My wife & I are heading to the Exponential conference this next week. I am so excited to be joining over 5,300 other church planters, pastors and others as we gather to hear some incredible teaching and vision casting for reaching our cities for Jesus.

If you don’t know, we are church planters heading to Kenosha Wisconsin to plant DayBreak Church. We would love to connect with you and your church for coffee, a couch conversation, over lunch you name it! We would love to hear from you, learn from you, learn with you! We are especially interested in connecting with churches and planters in from the Midwest, Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul, Kenosha area’s to hear what God has been doing in your ministry.

Would love to connect so follow us at brit_windel on twitter or message me here if you’d like to get together. Also let me know what session/talk you are most excited about attending!

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So I just discovered this… and I WANT IT

 

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Click here to go to their Kickstarter account to get yours and make it happen!

Friday Five: New Books!

Well it happened… I finally decided it was time. No! I didn’t buy a kindle or iPad, still waiting from someone from my church or out in this world to just hand me one cause they love me. I finally got rid of my xBox… and for good. That doesn’t tie in super well with this weeks Friday Five other than my excitement of now having my sabbath back to do more productive things with my time.

So to celebrate I just bought 5 new books that I am super stoked about reading in the month of April & May. Here they are and why I’m reading them…

• In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen: I have heard great things about this simple yet complex little book about Christian leadership from one of the most incredible spiritual giants of our day. This book gives great reflective questions that engage the reader and leader into answering why they do what they do and where their strength should be coming from
• The Loser Letters by Mary Eberstadt: This book was recommended to me several months ago by my friend Rick Lawrence. It is a very satirical book about a young person going from Christianity to Atheism and why Atheism is ‘so much better’ than Christianity.
  
• Community: the Structure of Belonging by Peter Block: This book address how our society is so fragmented yet so many are desiring true community more and more. Not a christian book, but one I have heard is filled with great wisdom on creating these communities amongst fragmentation.
• The Fifth Disciple: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge: I heard about this book in passing while at a conference for pastors. It was spoken of very quickly but the concept caught my attention. This book looks at ways of engaging the individual as well as the macro-level of leadership and participation of those involved in an organization how to help them live out an impressed upon truth and idea.
• A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin Friedman: For the past year or two this book has come up in many conversations and many leaders in my life have encouraged me time and time again to pick up this book and read it. This is a leadership book written from a perspective of a family counselor that stretches to practical leadership and life lessons for anyone who leads, parents, pastor’s, lunch ladies, janitors, CEO’s and everything in between and beyond.

My ‘to get’ book list is getting ridiculously long so trying to start taking a few chunks out of it from time to time. What are some of the books you are picking up and reading? What do you have on your reading table or on your to read list?

Five years & counting…

Today marks the fifth year I have had this blog. Here was the 1st blog entry I ever had – How are we to Breath?

It is crazy to look back at some of the things I have written, some of the things that consumed my thoughts, some of the things that my mind reflected on, some of the absolutely horribly structured sentences & just poor ways of trying to articulate what I was thinking.

I am still really struggling with what to do with this blog… What the purpose of it needs to be. My thoughts are to chaotic & disorganized for me to safely say that this blog will be …. THIS… or … THAT… I have this fire though that stirs in me that causes me to want to furiously move these fingers of mine to let the thoughts out of my head & onto paper or onto the keys that brings a story or thought to life. It is this desire I think to hope to finally birth something out of my own existence. Or maybe the proper response needs to be my desire to reflect an already beautiful life of God to others to better understand what he desires to birth in us…

Still not sure, still learning how to breathe like my first post back in 2007 was trying to articulate.

Friday Five: Finding my ON switch

Well It is Friday & in trying to get back in the swing of the creative disciplinary outlet of writing, here I go.

I wanted to share five practices I have taken up and will be taking up for my life. My prayer is that these won’t simply become something I ‘practice’ but something that becomes a part of who I am. So here they are in no particular order…

• Fly Fishing: I have decided I want to take up the art of fly fishing. I have had a few friends suggest it to me and I feel that this one will incorporate some of my other ‘five’ as well.

• Exercising: this one is pretty simple… I need it! I am exhausted all the time and have let my body & health get a way from me. This will help in finding that off switch in that I will be focusing on myself and not others, getting my self into a healthier state of body, not just mind.

• Seeking Joy: I feel that over the years the things I take joy in have been put on the shelf. Reading/writing/drawing/playing video games/ walking around in nature the list can go on and on. Joy is something that is more found in the state of being we are in, not about finding something that brings you joy. So when I say seeking joy, its more finding within myself those moments that bring me joy and living within that state.

• Reading/Writing/Journaling: This is also simple, I just need to do more of it. I haven’t read near as many books as I had set out to do. For me this is a discipline to sit down, no distractions, turn everything off and be present with just a book and my thoughts with pen and paper

• Enjoying Nature: I grew up on a farm and would walk our acreage just about every day. I loved the woods, the fresh air, animals. I live in one of the most beautiful states in the US. I am 45 minutes from one of the most beautiful National Parks. I want to get back into the routine of just getting away and being in nature.

A lot of these circle together like seeking joy/enjoying nature/fly fishing/ Exercise. I say finding my ON switch as I know just turning off (like I talked about last week) isn’t what needs to be done. It finding what to do with  myself when the switch is off. Finding those things to do that will fill me up. So… what are the things when you have your switch turned off you turn on.