10 Things Your Husband Wants To Tell You May 16, 2012
Women, you may think that your man is confident, strong, and sure of himself. But you’d be surprised what he would tell you if he felt like he could be completely honest. So I want to tell you on his behalf. Here are 10 things that your man may have thought at some point, or may be feeling right now.
- I am really insecure about lots of things, but especially about how I am doing as your husband.
- I worry that you are not happy with me and that one day you will leave me.
- I’m scared that our kids may not turn out the way we hoped they would.
- I never feel like I have enough time for you, our family, and work. I feel like everyone wants something from me.
- The reason I work so hard is to provide you and our family a life of security, joy, and safety, and to make you happy.
- I often feel like you are not attracted to me.
- I feel inadequate to be everything you ever wanted from a husband.
- I’m afraid to tell you that I feel depressed, anxious, and sad, and that I compare myself to other husbands and fathers.
- Your approval and affection is the one real thing in this life that gives me confidence in myself.
- If you believe in me, I am unstoppable.
(This post was written by Clayton King – you can find more stuff written by Clayton on his blog, here is the link!)
A Letter From Pastor P To NewSpring Church May 15, 2012
Howdy NewSpring Church, FIVE things I want to share with you today…
#1 – I ABSOLUTELY LOVE what Jesus is doing in our church. On the Sunday that Clayton spoke (May 6) I received a text from a young man in my high school discipleship group that I lead telling me that he was PUMPED because a guy in his Fuse small group received Christ when Clayton gave the invitation! Well…this past Sunday night I received another text from him and the conversation went like this…
- Him: ”Remember how my small group kid got saved last week”
- Me: ”Yep”
- Him: ”Just making sure”
- Him: ”oh, and he brought his dad and he got saved tonight”
THAT NEVER GETS OLD!!! Found People Find People!!!
#2 – Sunday was an INCREDIBLE Mother’s Day as we were able to focus on the fact that when we have a right relationship with Jesus it will allow us to have a right relationship with others. I’ve been doing ministry for over 20 years and EVERY marriage problem that I’ve ever seen was the result of one or both people not actively walking with Jesus. THE BEST thing we can do for our marriage (or our future marriage) is begin to ask Jesus to show us the areas where WE need to improve rather than complaining to Him about all of the things that are wrong with our spouse.
#3 – This past series has been amazing…we’ve seen record attendance, hundreds of people surrender their lives to Christ and are already hearing a lot of excitement in regards to the “Eve & adam” series this fall where we will dive into what the Scriptures say to and about women.
#4 – The VISION EVENTS are happening THIS WEEK!!! Last night we had one in Anderson for that campus and our Greenwood campus…and the schedule for the rest of the week is…
- Tonight (Tuesday) – Florence, 7pm
- Wednesday – Charleston, 7pm
- Thursday – Columbia, 7pm
- Saturday – Greenville, 7pm
I’m PUMPED about these events as I will be specifically sharing what we feel God has for our church in regards to our next steps…and I will also be sharing an announcement in regards to my future here at NewSpring Church that I am very excited about. (I will also be sharing this announcement on Sunday in case you have to miss a vision event.) We are going to reach 100,000 for Christ…and I’ve NEVER been more excited about our church than I am right now!
#5 – Thanks to everyone who has stopped by my Facebook page (right here) and left a comment since I have joined a few weeks ago. And…if you haven’t yet, come on by…it took me some time but I finally joined the Facebook party! (And…for the record, I never was against Facebook…it’s just that I have about as much technological wisdom as a pile of dirt!) :-)
That’s it for today…I LOVE MY CHURCH!
Every Number Has A Name, Every Name Has A Story, Every Story Matters To God! May 14, 2012
Here is the video from Mother’s Day, I LOVE stories like this…they NEVER get old!!! (Warning…if you haven’t seen this yet you are going to need some Kleenex!)
Eight Things To Keep In Mind In Regards To Conflict At Work/Church May 10, 2012
#1 – Email DOES NOT WORK! (This would also apply to texting as well as any form of social media!)
When conflict use to arise with me and someone in the office I used to walk to my desk, log on to my computer and fire off an abusive email, several problems with this…
- It is the act of a coward, I would do this so that I would avoid a eye to eye conversation.
- It removes the fact that I am actually dealing with another person…if I type an email I don’t have to look them in the eye and removing that obstacle allows me to say things to them through typing that I would NEVER say to them in person.
- It often drags out the conflict way longer that it should be.
- It can easily be misinterpreted, thus causing new conflicts.
#2 – Handle Conflict Quickly – The Bible is VERY clear in Ephesians 4:25-26 that we are not to allow the sun to go down while we are angry. If we allow something to fester inside of us what usually comes out of that is NEVER pretty.
#3 – Always Assume The Best About The People You Work With – If you don’t get anything else in this article then PLEASE get this, LOVE ALWAYS ASSUMES THE BEST ABOUT SOMEONE…ALWAYS! If you hate/can’t stand the people you work with then THE BEST thing to do is to begin to ask the Lord, “what is wrong with MY OWN heart?”
#4 – Remember that Email Does Not Work!
#5 – Stop Expecting People To Read Your Mind – Often times people have said something hurtful to me that they did not perceive as hurtful. I would become angry with them and actually tell myself, “well, they should just know that hurt me!” NEWS FLASH – THEY DON’T KNOW, and they won’t know unless I am man enough to look them in the eye (because email does not work), assume the best about them (which automatically assumes they didn’t mean to hurt me) and CALMLY walk them through why what they said wounded me.
#6 – Stop Waiting For Them To Approach You – If you know there is conflict and you know there is a problem to be solved but you are “waiting on the right time” or “waiting on them to come to me” then I would encourage you to read what Jesus said in Matthew 5:23-24. Maturity is when a person is willing to seize responsibility instead of just waiting on something to happen.
#7 – Never, EVER Go Public When You Have Not Even Attempted To Talk In Private – Too often people take their conflicts online when they have never even attempted to handle them in a private matter (sort of goes against what JESUS actually said in Matthew 18:15 as the first step in dealing with conflict!) People are way too quick these days to read/hear something that someone says and automatically fire off a tweet or blog post without ever attempting to have a conversation with the person that they assume “got it wrong,” causing them to feel like they need to be the savior of the world by jumping to conclusions and making accusations about things that they actually have zero knowledge of.
#8 – And finally, do not forget that Email does not work!
How To Deal With Betrayal May 9, 2012
Betrayal is one of the most brutal things a person (especially a pastor) deals with.
It hurts…deeply.
Someone who was close to you and who you trusted walked away…and they did not do so silently, they left making a lot of noise, saying things about you that simply were not true. They called people and spoke lies/half truths about you.
They sent out mass emails…
And at some point you felt like everyone in the world believed them, hated you and ultimately wanted to see you fail.
You know what Jesus said about loving your enemies…but it’s hard, really hard because the wound that they left runs deep!
You see them (or those influenced by them) in a public and you want to crawl into a hole and hide because it is so awkward and you just don’t want to talk about it anymore.
You isolate yourself and convince yourself that you can never actually trust anyone again because of how bad it hurts.
Ever felt like this?
Are you going through this right now?
It’s happened to me a few times in the past 20 years of ministry!
I’m not going to lie…the pain associated with this is VERY real!
It does make you question whether or not it is worth it to keep “running the race” and causes you to want to never trust anyone again.
So how do you get past this and move on to what God has called you to?
It’s pretty simple really…we’re given a GREAT model in the way Jesus handled His betrayal.
Judas was one of the twelve…he was close to Jesus, he heard His words, witnessed His miracles and still chose to walk away.
And how did Jesus respond?
Simple…He moved on!
He didn’t allow the betrayal of Judas to sideline His ministry. (It actually served Him in a way that enhanced His ministry! Think about it, without the betrayal there would have been no crucifixion, and without the crucifixion there would be no resurrection!!!)
Isn’t it just like God to use something that the enemy meant to use to destroy us for HIS glory and our good? (See Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28-31!)
And while this has distracted you it does not have to destroy you!
Pour out your heart to God, tell Him exactly how you feel, be completely honest like David was in so many of the Psalms and ask Him to make things right in His eyes and in His time…and then get back to work.
We cannot be effective leaders if we are more obsessed with the pain of our past than the potential of our future.
Betrayal will happen if you are in leadership long enough…but the leader who is defined by it will always wallow around in self pity and defeat while the leader who is sharpened by it will allow God to use it to conform him to His image and shape him into a better leader.
The Apostle Paul had a friend named Demas (Colossians 4:14, Philemon 1:24) who abandoned/betrayed him because of “his love for the world” (II Timothy 4:10) and yet Paul still finished well (II Timothy 4:6-8) and trusted the Lord when everything else seemed to be going crazy (II Timothy 4:16-18!)
If He brought you to it then HE WILL LEAD YOU THROUGH IT (Philippians 1:6!) Don’t give up on God or the people He has called you to serve…stay the course, life is too short and hell is too hot to allow discouragement to turn into defeat!
A Letter From Pastor P To NewSpring Church May 8, 2012
Howdy NewSpring Church, SEVEN things I would LOVE to share with you today…
#1 – I absolutely loved having Clayton King with us at our church this past Sunday as he dove into, “The Man Mystery, Three Things That Every Man Needs!” It was SO AWESOME to see Jesus do what He so often does and draw people to Him through the preaching of HIS WORD–we saw 110 people receive Christ, and…as I always say…THAT NEVER GETS OLD!
#2 – THIS COMING SUNDAY IS MOTHER’S DAY!!! And, we will be concluding our “Adam & Eve” series by dealing with the topic, “The One Thing That EVERY WOMAN WANTS!” Trust me when I tell you that you need to be here, you need to BRING SOMEBODY and you might want to pack some Kleenex.
#3 – I am going to be spending next week visiting every NewSpring campus (there are a couple of combined campus meetings) where we will celebrate all that God has been doing and looking ahead to our next steps as a church…and even more specifically as a campus so that we can see 100,000 people reached every week! (I wrote all about the details yesterday in this post…check it out for times and places.) AND…at this meeting I will also be telling you about what is so special about August 24 & 25 and why I’ve been telling you to go ahead and block these dates on your schedule.
#4 – The very next series we are going to begin on Sunday, May 20 is entitled, “Weird!” (I ripped off this idea from my friend Craig Groeschel, who is THE BEST LOOKING pastor in America!!!) :-) We are going to spend SEVERAL weeks together as a church diving into the idea of why we should aspire to be weird…because normal is NOT working!
#5 – If I am not mistaken…I think we have a little over 150 spaces left for The Gauntlet. Parents, trust me when I tell you that this is ONE OF THE BEST investments you could ever make in the life of your teenager. I cannot put into words what the Lord does during this week every year in the lives of all who participate. (HERE is where you can get more info and sign up!) This event will be full by the end of this month, and so if you’ve been putting it off then NOW is the time to go for it!
(AND…THIS SUNDAY IS THE DEADLINE FOR THE 2ND PRICE BREAK!!! It is currently $325…it will go to $375 on Monday!)
#6 – I’ve joined the world of Facebook…here is the link to my site…stop by and say hello!
#7 – The trip to Israel that I was able to lead last week was absolutely amazing, one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had in my life. We will be going again as a church in about two years or so…so go ahead and start saving up now, I can promise you it will be worth every dime.
That’s it for now…I LOVE MY CHURCH!
Next Week At NewSpring Church… May 7, 2012
Howdy NewSpring Church, normally I post a letter to our church every Tuesday (which I will still be doing tomorrow) but I wanted to share something with you today in regards to something I am VERY excited about…
Starting next Monday (May 14) I will be coming & speaking at every NewSpring campus about what God is doing at our church and what we feel that God is leading us to do in regards to taking next steps as a church to do everything possible to reach 100,000. I will also be making an important announcement regarding my future at NewSpring Church that I’m really excited about…the schedule for these meetings are…
Monday, May 14, 7pm – Anderson Campus (Our Greenwood campus is also invited and encouraged to attend this event as I will be talking about both of our campuses in these particular areas.)
Tuesday, May 15, 7pm – Florence Campus (Our Myrtle Beach campus is also invited and encouraged to attend this event as I will be talking about both of our campuses in these particular areas.)
Wednesday, May 16, 7pm – Charleston Campus
Thursday, May 17, 7pm – Columbia Campus
Saturday, May 19, 7pm – Greenville Campus (Our Spartanburg campus is also invited and encouraged to attend this event as I will be talking about both of our campuses in these particular areas.)
I’m so PUMPED about these events as we will be taking a look together at all that God has done…and praying/dreaming together in regards to all we believe He is going to do. There is REALLY exciting news to share with each campus…and I believe in what the Lord has put on my heart so passionately that I’m coming to each campus to deliver these talks personally. I hope you will make plans to join us.
Each evening will begin with our band leading us in a time of worship (which is ALWAYS incredible) and then I will speak. We will not have childcare at these events…but I can promise you that this is something that you would definitely want to hire a babysitter for!!
It’s going to be awesome…can’t WAIT to see you next week!