Some GREAT Links… July 3, 2009
Here are a few great links for your Thursday…
- Los’s “Seven Keys To Becoming An Effective Leader of Worship” = FREAKIN AWESOME!!! (BTW…this is for pastors as well!!!)
- Shaun’s post on “10 Things That Are Harder Than I Expected” is SO true!
- I needed Mark’s post on “10 Ways To Create Margin.”
- Mark Batterson also posted this which is freakin’ awesome! Seriously…if you don’t read his blog…you should. This post seriously has sent my brain into OVERDRIVE!
- Jay Hardwick did an AWESOME job in this post in explaining what happened at the SBC and the misinformation that followed. The post is entitled, “Every Family Has a Crazy Uncle” and it is well worth your time…I know it helped shed some light on things for me personally.
Just a few reads I thought you would enjoy!
Influence July 2, 2009
“Who or what you listen to will ultimately determine what you do.”
I once heard Andy Stanley make that statement…and like it or not…it’s true. Every single one of us are influenced by someone or something–period!
This stuck out to me the other morning as I was reading through the OT and saw II Chronicles 24:1-2…take a look at that verse and notice the phrase, “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest.”
In other words…Joash did what was right as long as he was being influenced to do so.
BUT…as I continued to read IN THE VERY SAME CHAPTER I saw II Chronicles 24:17-22…WOW!
How does a guy who is so sold out to the Lord eventually turn his back on God and even have people killed who try to talk sense into him? Simple–WHO he listened to changed.
None of us…NO ONE…can make wise, godly decisions on our own! We need help…which is why we should continually seek…
#1 - God’s Word - I’ve said it a million times–NO ONE has ever came to me claiming to have screwed up their lives by reading the Bible and then doing what is says. In church world this is true as well…if our THEOLOGY isn’t driving our METHODOLOGY then we are screwed! (I would say correct theology!!!) And right doctrine comes from a right discipline of spending time with Him in His Word!
#2 - God’s People - Let me be clear…I do not make decisions without the godly input of others. Once again to borrow from Andy Stanley…I heard him say once that the wisest person who has ever lived (Solomon) had tons to say about listening to the advice/counsel of others. If he needed it…we do as well!
Let me be clear before moving on…we need to seek the advice of people who LOVE JESUS and we know will tell us what we NEED to hear rather than what we WANT to hear. We can always find a group of idiots that will affirm our sin and dysfunction because doing so will allow them to justify their lifestyle.
BUT…that would be the WRONG approach.
#3 - God’s Church - When you attend a church weekly and walk in with a prepared heart…you will often find that God WILL speak to you in very direct ways! I can’t tell you the number of times people have said to me, “Pastor P…I felt like you were talking to me and only me today.” Which is funny because I didn’t have that particular person in mind when I prepared the message!!!
I could list some other ways…but my question to you is WHO or WHAT has the most influence in your life…because “who or what you listen to will ultimately determine what you do.”
Life is too short for us to make bad decision after bad decision…we need Jesus and we need one another! Don’t fall for the lie that this is “my life” and I will do as I want because…in reality…our decisions always impact other people.
So…think about it…who or what has the most influence in your life? Answering this question is dangerous because in doing so, you may need to make some adjustments! When Joash got away from doing things God’s way it ALL went downhill…and what is sad is that it didn’t have to be that way!
God is ALWAYS speaking…the question is are we always listening?
Prayer Requests July 1, 2009
Quite often people will ask me how they can pray for me…which always encourages the heck out of me! Today I wanted to share some things that you can be praying for if you feel led to do so.
#1 - My Walk With Christ!
I have never really struggled with having a quite time…I love to meet with Jesus every morning with a huge cup of coffee, a Bible and a pen. However…the desire of my heart is NOT to meet with Him in the morning but rather to walk with Him all day long! My prayer is that He will continually draw me closer to Himself.
#2 - My Relationship with ‘Cretia!
I desperately want to be a godly husband and not be the man I think she needs me to be…but to be the man Scripture commands me to be. I am praying that I will continually become a better listener and also continue to become intuative in regards to who she needs me to be.
#3 - My Relationship with Charisse!
I have NO IDEA how to be a dad…but I am LOVING the learning process. My prayer is that she will grow up loving Jesus, loving me & ‘Cretia and loving the church.
This past Sunday at our Anderson campus I let her watch people being baptized and I begged God for her salvation and for the privilege to one day baptize her! I want to be the type of dad that she respects and admires…not despises because I was so busy with other people that I neglected who was supposed to be more important.
#4 - My Leadership
God has been BLOWING MY MIND lately with thoughts and ideas. We are coming up on our 10 year anniversary here at NewSpring Church…and there is NO WAY that anyone would have ever predicted what has happened since we began with 15 people in a living room!
SO…if this is what He has done in the first ten years…and to whom much is given much is required…then what does He want out of us over the next 10 years. That thought causes me to be PUMPED UP…and also to pee my pants! I am BEGGING Jesus daily for His wisdom (James 1:5) and would appreciate it as well if you would ask the same for me.
#5 - My Book
Yes, I am writing a book…and it is a little frustrating. I’ve got the best agent in the country (in my opinion), I have publishers who are interested, I have an outline that I believe the Lord has given me and I have a desire to write…
It’s just that I can’t get started for some reason! I am trying like mad to write this thing…and I know that in order to do so I am going to have to make some adjustments to my schedule in order to get it done. I would appreciate the prayers so that I can make all of that happen!
That’s it for now–thanks!
DANG! June 30, 2009
“Jesus leadership example = saw a great need which produced a broken heart which ignited passion which worked itself out through sacrifice.” Shane Duffey
Saw this on Twitter this morning…was too long to retweet and didn’t want to dilute the message by trying to abbreviate it…
Might be one of the best definitions of leadership I’ve ever seen!!!
16 Leadership Questions That Will Help Us Make It In Ministry - Part 14 June 30, 2009
14. Will I Preach Jesus?
In Matthew 10:32-33 Jesus is very clear to His disciples the purpose of preaching and leading is to proclaim His name…and that if anyone denies His name that He will deny them- pretty serious stuff.
I remember a time several years ago where I nearly lost my focus. I would find a cool video idea or a cool song idea or a sermon prop idea and try my best to revolve the sermon around a concept rather than scripture.
I actually thought I could give really great lessons in morality and not preach Jesus because His name seemed to constantly offend people—then God rocked my world, slapped my face, got my attention and helped me to understand that Jesus, and ONLY Jesus, is the game changer.
“Cool and cute” will impress people….but Christ will CHANGE them!
I could teach people get out of debt, have great sex with their spouse, get over anger issues, and become greater people; however, if I do all of that without pointing them to the Gospel and sharing Jesus with them I have rescued them from Hell on Earth and damned them to Hell in eternity.
(And do not misunderstand the paragraph above as me taking shots at teaching the practical…I am not against that at all…but when our goal is simply to be practical and avoid the controversial that the Gospel will cause…we have a problem!)
I try to be a student of growing churches…and the thing I see across the board in nearly every church that is experiencing growth is that they are preaching Jesus…that there is a dependence upon the Spirit and not just systems…
And the Spirit will ALWAYS lead us to proclaim the name of Jesus!
When our agenda in the church becomes anything except for Jesus (insert whatever you wish here—political preferences, home schooling, recycling, the list goes on and on) then we are proclaiming another Savior…which is dangerous and heretical!
I Corinthians 15:1-8 is where Paul says THIS is the most important thing we can preach…we NEVER go wrong by lifting up Christ.
Seven Questions Leadership Teams Should Wrestle With June 29, 2009
#1 – Has everyone in the room kept short accounts…or is there any unresolved personal tension that needs to be dealt with?
#2 – Is there anything that we are doing as a church that we would not be excited about if we were not on staff?
#3 – Would we even attend this church if we were not on staff?
#4 – Is our goal to really focus on what needs to be done…or to get the meeting over with as soon as possible so we can get on with our individual agenda?
#5 – Are we resisting anything that God is leading us towards because it puts us in a very uncomfortable place?
#6 – Are we moving towards complexity or simplicity?
#7 – Is there anything that is obvious to everyone else but we are choosing to deny it because dealing with it would force us to change things up?
Sunday Night Reflections June 28, 2009
Here are a few thoughts as I try to digest the chicken in my belly!!!
- It was really…weird…watching me on screen today…but…I guess I needed it…found lots of areas to improve in.
- One of the things that we seem to forget the most as followers of Jesus is that He is right here with us! (And when we forget that is when we usually do something really stupid!)
- Had some conversations that absolutely pumped me up about the future of NewSpring Church…
- Praying hard for our Florence campus…some BIG things about to happen down there that will set us up to reach so many more people for Christ!
- Praying hard for our Columbia campus…we are about 95% sure we have secured a location and quite possibly will begin services in August…we will let you know as soon as we know!
- Praying hard for our Greenville campus…the staff and volunteers over there are knocking the ball out of the park!
- Praying hard for our Anderson campus…and getting ready to do a few new things that is going to allow us to reach hundreds of more people every service!
- Yes, we are doing a singles series this fall!
- Yes, we are doing a series on “the end times” this fall!
- Yes, we are doing a series entitled, “Five Lies satan wants you to believe” this fall!
- Yes, we are doing a series entitled, “In Rhythm” that begins in a few weeks that will both FIRE people up…and quite possibly create some empty seats!
- Yes, we have a MAJOR announcement coming in regards to our 10th year anniversary service…it’s going to be HUGE!!!
- Was SO awesome to get to meet Bruce Frank from Biltmore Baptist this evening…love this guy and the work the Lord has called him to in Asheville, NC!
- Was SO awesome to get to connect with Daniel Lucas from Crosspoint Church in Morehead, Kentucky as well! Daniel was in my first coaching network…and what the Lord is doing with his church in AWESOME! I can’t wait to see what happens next for these guys!
- We are coming up on being a church for 10 years…so thankful for all He has done…and so absolutely PUMPED out of my mind when I think about what He wants to do next. Jesus said to whom much is given…much is required…WOW…NewSpring, hold on to your fork…the best is yet to come!