Leadership Is Tough – Part Two of Three March 15, 2010
Imagine with me for a second that you are an Israelite and have been wandering around in the desert for 40 years.
All this time you’ve been hearing about a land that God had for you…one that flowed with milk and honey, that had wells you did not dig, houses you did not build and vinyards you did not plant that would all be yours.
THEN you get to cross the Jordan River…you see God literally put an interstate highway through it while it is at flood stage and over a million people walk through it on dry ground.
You are on a roll…you are about to receive what God has for you. He has promised you victory over your enemies and there is a sense of anticipation in the camp like NEVER before…
And then…
“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.”
WOW…bummer…news like that will seriously crash ANY party…but there is a lesson here…
EVERYONE loves the idea of progress…it’s the sacrifice associated with that progress that we have a problem with.
God was saying to His people, “you are about to go to a place that is greater than anything you could have ever expected…but it’s going to cost you.” OUCH!
One of the mistakes we can make today as church leaders is begin to believe the lie that we’re supposed to merely be comfortable when the call of Jesus on our lives is actually to carry our cross daily.
I think God has AMAZING things in store for His church…I think He wants to do GREATER things that we could ever imagine…and it’s NOT His power that is the limiting factor but rather our unwillingness to sacrifice.
AND…as in this case…sometimes the sacrifice gets VERY PERSONAL! (We love the idea of others sacrificing…we just don’t like it when it comes to us.)
We will never get to where God wants us to go in we are not willing to give up what He’s saying we need to let go of.
This means our personal preferences, our desire to please others, our adaptation to a denomination rather than being who Jesus called us to be, please the biggest giver, remaining silent when God says to speak b/c of fear…WHATEVER…needs to go out the window.
Progress does not come without sacrifice.
Don’t Forget!!! March 12, 2010
OK…so this Saturday night we “spring forward!”
I love it because there is more daylight…that means more time outside with the family…more jumping on the trampoline, more hunting and fishing…ok, I got carried away…no hunting or fishing!
BUT…I am bitter because we lose an hour of sleep! :-)
Anyway, just wanted to remind everyone…SPRING FORWARD SATURDAY NIGHT…that means wind your clock FORWARD an hour!
Have a GREAT weekend!
Leadership Is Tough – Part One of Three March 11, 2010
I talked about this at Unleash…but wanted to revisit a thought that I didn’t fully develop…
Think about this for a second, you are Joshua, you have just led over a million people across the Jordan on dry ground…momentum is high, people are excited and they are just waiting on you to tell them what’s next.
SO…you beg God for direction…and then you get Joshua 5:2-3…
“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.”
Uh…yep…leadership is tough.
Please notice that God told Joshua to do it.
He didn’t tell him to delegate it.
He didn’t tell him to empower others to do it.
He told Joshua, “You are going to have to make the knives and then you are going to have to personally meet with each man you are leading and…” Well, you get the point.
As leaders we ARE called to empower others to do certain things…and we should always delegate the things that others can do better than us…but…
There are some things that God will call a leader to do that he simply cannot delegate…that means…
- There are meetings that you are going to need to attend.
- There are conversations that you are going to have to have.
- There are decisions that you are going to have to make (and they won’t be easy!)
AND…it doesn’t get easier. Keep in mind that there were over 600,000 fighting men…and God told Joshua to circumcise each one.
BUT…God knew Joshua was willing to do the things that no one else was willing to do…to roll up his sleeves and fully invest himself in a matter…to not be a coward because he feared what others might think about him (seriously…do you think people LOVED this idea?)
Leadership is tough…at the end of the day all of us need to be willing to ask ourselves with the question, “Can God trust me to do the things that no one else wants to do…but are absolutely essential for the success of the church that I am leading?”
More about this next week…
Top 7 Money Mistakes I’ve Made – Part Two March 10, 2010
Continuing yesterday’s post…
#4 – Seeking to live the “minimum payment” lifestyle.
I remember my first credit card…after getting it I stopped at a sporting goods store and bought a gun. (Just like all pastors should!) It was $300…and when I got the bill in the mail the next month the payment was ONLY $15!!! (I didn’t know what 19% interest meant!) It was the beginning of a PAINFUL lesson for me–making the minimum payment is NOT a great financial plan!
Within four years I was carrying maxed out balances on around seven credit cards and “successfully” making the minimum payments every month…which was KILLING ME financially. I reasoned that if I continued to make the minimum payments that I would one day be out of debt…which WAS true…but “that day” would have been in the year 2900 at the rate I was going!
#5 – Transferring credit card balances
Don’t roll your eyes…some of you do this! I would get a “convenient” credit card offer in the mail and it would say, “transfer your balances today and get no interest for six months.” What the offer didn’t tell you is that the interest rate was an arm and a leg after that six months.
I always told myself that I could pay off the balance within six months–WHICH NEVER HAPPENED! I realized then that Proverbs 22:7 was/is true…in just four years of having a credit card (which was only going to be used in case of an “emergency”) I had DISCOVERED that my VISA to financial freedom wasn’t in obtaining more AMERICAN OBSESS but rather in turning over MASTER CARD to Jesus instead of the banks!
#6 – STUPID car decisions.
I used to be the guy who said, “I will always have a car payment.”
I used to be the guy that when a car needed a repair I would say, “Go get another one, you don’t want to sink money into that old thing.” (Which, by the way, is STUPID financial advice! Seriously! Spending $300 to fix a leak…or $45,000 on a new car–DUH!!!)
So…because of my desire to have a new car every year and a half (no, I am not making that up) I kept trading them in…and discovered what the term “upside down” means. (It means, “I am a stupid, materialistic person”–at least that’s what it meant to me!)
I once financed a car that was two years old for 84 months at a 12% interest rate…DUMB!!!
Today I own my cars…they do not own me…and that is a very freeing feeling. Most people I have talked to who are strapped financially could free themselves up so much if they would just sell their car…but their desire for status rather than financial freedom will prevent them from it most of the time.
#7 – Not having an emergency fund.
One of the things that Joe and Dave teach is that emergencies are going to happen, the car is going to break down, the kids are going to get sick, the tire is going to go flat…and that if money is set aside for these emergencies then they are less worrisome when they take place.
You CAN set aside an emergency fund…and you CAN live in financial freedom…it just takes WORK!!!
Top 7 Money Mistakes I’ve Made! March 9, 2010
Quite a while back I shared a two part post in regards to the top seven financial mistakes I’ve made…in light of yesterday’s message I thought I would share those posts again!
#1 – I Did Not Place Jesus First In My Finances
OR…in other words…I did not tithe.
I used the excuse that I could not afford to tithe…and it was through some painful financial lessons that God actually showed me that I could not afford NOT to tithe. God kept bringing me back to Matthew 6:21 and Matthew 6:24 over and over again…and in the fall of 1999 I completely surrendered the 10%. (And I’ve never missed it!)
#2 – I treated tithing as the finish line.
When I began tithing I sort of expected God to strike up the heavenly marching band…and for about a year I was quite proud of my newly formed spiritual discipline…until…
In the summer of 2000 Jason Wilson, our Executive Pastor, was speaking at NewSpring Church and said, “We all know that Scripture says to tithe…what I want to ask tonight is what are you doing with the other 90% to advance His Kingdom; after all, He does own it all!”
That statement hit me in the face like a ton of bricks…Psalm 24:1 became more real to me than ever before…and that night I surrendered the other 90% to Jesus!
Tithing isn’t the finish line…it’s the starting point…God has called us to be generous givers–HE IS!!! (II Corinthians 9:15)
#3 – I thought I could NEVER get out of debt.
When Lucretia and I got married on April 8, 2000 we had over $100,000 worth of debt and DIDN’T EVEN OWN A HOME. It was all credit cards, student loans and ridiculous purchases (all made by me!)
I felt trapped–heck, I was trapped…and I had just about given up hope until I heard about this guy named Dave Ramsey. It was in one of his all day sessions that I began to understand that I could get out of debt…but it was going to take sacrifice, a lifestyle adjustment…but it COULD be done!
In November of 2007 Lucretia and I became debt free…we owe on nothing except for the house. Trust me–if we can do it–YOU CAN TOO!!!
(By the way…if you are making one of these mistakes…OR any of the next four that I will talk about later on this week…and you do not MAKE it a priority to get to JOES CLASS THIS WEEK then you’re passing on an incredible opportunity! Seriously, there is NO REASON for you to be in debt…when Jesus sets us free…WE ARE FREE, and yet so many Christians go and enslave themselves to debt! BREAK FREE THIS WEEKEND!!!
Stay tuned for the other four…
Giving from a Child’s Perspective March 8, 2010
We showed THIS VIDEO yesterday…thought it was one of the best “sermons” on giving I’ve ever watched!
So Excited I May Pee My Pants! March 8, 2010
Seriously!
We are doing a one day leadership conference here at NewSpring Church on Thursday, September 16th.
Speakers are…
- Steven Furtick
- Mark Driscoll
- Judah Smith
- Francis Chan
- Jud Wilhite
- and me! :-)
I can’t WAIT for this event…it’s going to be like drinking from a fire hydrant! (Yes, I know that illustration gets used a lot…but I wanted to use it again!)
Six speakers, one day, all speaking about church leadership.
The cost for the day is $149 and sign ups are taking place right now…here’s the link if you are interested.
We have 2,500 seats and once they’re gone…they’re gone!
This is going to be a GREAT DAY! Hope you can make it!