Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley

I just started reading Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. It has been an interesting read as someone who is not a senior pastor. The biggest truth I have gleaned so far from this read is to manage the time I have rather than letting it manage me. If I do everything rather than getting people to help me do it, then not only am I robbing others of a chance to do what they are good at, but I am adding stress to my own life that doesn't need to be there. An example from my own life: Last year, my wife and I decorated the platform at church for Christmas. It took the two of us about five hours lugging out the huge Christmas tree and putting up all the decorations. This year, a team of people came to help and it only took about an hour. Another team came to tear it down and again it only took about an hour! Not only did I save my time and walk away with out sore muscles, but it became an enjoyable experience for a whole team! As a normal American guy, I have a tendency toward self-sufficiency and have trouble asking others for help. As I learn to do so, I am finding that the benefits aren't just for me, but also help to create a sense of community for those who use their own talents to help me, and the results are much better! I may post again on this book as I have more thoughts on it. So far, I recommend the read.

End of the Year...

This Sunday five people gave their heart to the Lord! That jacks me up! After last week when 10 people accepted Jesus into their hearts, it is a great way to end the year! Like most, as the new year looms in the near future, I make new years resolutions. This year, my goals aren't really personal, they are things that affect many people. My number one goal is that we can start a new Home TEAM/small group each month in 2009. As our church grows this is becoming a crucial need to help people connect to each other and to God. Another goal is to spend more time on my "part time" job.
The second part of the end of the year thoughts are on how God blesses us in so many wonderful ways! I look around my house and see that I have a place to call home! God has given me a wonderful wife! In today's economy, it is a wonderful blessing to have a job and be able to pay the bills. God has given me two jobs in which I can serve Him! Just today I received an e-mail from a graduate of the school where I teach. He is serving the Lord in the middle east and just managed to buy a "sewage front" building in which to put a clinic. I am inspired by the stories that come back from the kids who graduate and now are out in the world making a difference. I am equally inspired by the lives changed in my local community through the second job of working at my church. I get to see people every week who used to be drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes...who are now living clean productive lives for the Lord! Have a great New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I pray you all had a wonderful Christmas! This has been a great year! My wife and I had all of her family over for Christmas eve dinner. That was the first time all of her family had been under our roof at the same time, and the first time ever for some of them to visit us, so it was a great occasion. In all the fun and joy of family reunions of this type, I sometimes wonder if that isn't a little taste of what heaven will be like as the body of Christ gets together for a HUGE family reunion! There might even be some surprises when we see someone and think; (((Can you believe he made it?!))) Maybe not, but I know that however it turns out, Heaven's family reunion will be a great one! While I still have much to do here on earth, I am looking forward to the day I get to stand before God Almighty and just get to praise him for a few million years face to face! Have a great rest of your Christmas week and a Happy New Year!

Thoughts on a Verse

Ephesians 3:20 is a wonderful key verse in life. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”. Think about that for a second! What is the most incredible thing you can imagine? God can do more than that! HE wants to do more than that! So why isn’t God answering prayers? One reason is that we aren’t asking. Another one that we often don’t like is that the moral power that we have through Jesus Christ comes when we live in obedient discipleship. When we live in sin, our first prayer must be for forgiveness. Remember that Jesus loves us more than we can ever know and He wants us to progress in understanding His love and in loving as He loved. That is why we should pray for others.

Praises!

Paul talks about boasting in the Lord, well today, I am thrilled to brag on God! Ten people gave their heart to Jesus yesterday in our services. As I think back over this year, there have been quite a few services when five or six people asked Jesus into their hearts! As the guy who teaches the New Believers class, this excites me, but as an ordinary Christian, this excites me more! Seeing how God saves people and then transforms their lives is incredible! Hey, if you leave a comment, I would love to hear how God is changing lives in your church! I know this is not just happening here at 5 Point Fellowship! I know that a few weeks ago another church in our city had 11 people get saved! That is awesome! I am sure some huge churches have more than that each week! One church in the next city to the south of us had 220 people come to Christ yesterday! And some small churches see one or two come to Christ in a year! The great news is that it isn't a competition! As long as we as the Body of Christ are seeing new souls coming into the kingdom, that is Awesome! We can all do more, but today is a day of celebration! Praise the LORD!

Abundantly and Exceedingly more...

Pecans, yes, Pecans...that is the topic of conversation around my house lately. You have probably heard the term "Bumper Crop", well this year, the 10 pecan trees around our house have yielded exactly that. After harvesting about 4 of the trees and having given away many, many gallons of pecans to most of our friends, and having boxed up pecans for Christmas gifts, we still have a big rubber tub full! We have exceedingly and abundantly more than we ever could have asked or imagined from a bunch of old trees that I was temped to cut down when we first bought our house. I realize this post isn't very "spiritual" but is just shows how God is over everything in our lives, even if a bunch of old pecan trees will produce good nuts or not. Have an awesome day!

Why does God choose us?

I live a wonderfully blessed life! I don't mean that I am rich financially, but I do mean that I am very blessed by God! In today's rough economic times, I still have, not just one but, two jobs that I absolutely love! I have a wonderful wife who loves me! We both have a vehicle that runs! We haven't had to miss any meals due to financial hardship! God has blessed me with wonderful friends! I could go on and on, but this morning I was wondering why me? Not the Why Me! that we scream at God when life is not going as we think it should. I am talking about the quiet "why me?" that we ask in wonder as to why God would choose a sorry sinner like myself to work for Him. He, the Almighty, All Powerful, All Knowing, Everlasting, Ruler and Master of the Universe reached down and saved my soul! Then, he chose to give me so very much to be thankful for! I pray that one day if I, like Job, am asked to suffer for the Lord in a very real way that I too will stand true to my faith in Jesus Christ. I just praise God that He has given me another day alive to serve Him, and I pray that I won't waste it!

Crazy Sundays

So in your church have you ever had a Sunday that seemed to go well, but behind the scene it was quite hectic? Maybe that is your experience every Sunday in which case I would encourage you to get a little more organized, but for the rest of us, it happens from time to time. This last week, our pastors hunting buddy died, so he flew back home to do the funeral. His son in law did an incredible job of preaching the sermon! The son in law usually works with the children's ministry. As you can see, there was a trickle down affect. I filled in a bit with the children's side and the controlled chaos on that side of the church was wonderful! The kids were learning and it was great to be back over there even if for only one day. You may not think about how much one person affects the church even when that one person is the pastor. What we learn is that the church will go on even if not as smoothly as before, but it also teaches us that each person is important! Have an awesome day! Craziness can be good.

Reaching Out

We need to reach out to our community. Jan Johnson in her Moody Monthly article "Escaping the Christian Ghetto" refers to people she calls "Rabbit-Hole Christians." According to Johnson, "In the morning they pop out of their safe Christian homes, hold their breath at work, scurry home to their families and then off to their Bible Studies, and finally end the day praying for the unbelievers they safely avoided all day." That is exactly the kind of Christian that we want to avoid being. Our goal as a church is to reach the un-churched for the Lord and then to teach them to grow in their faith in Jesus Christ. The best way that this happens is when people in the church are excited about what is happening and they tell their friends outside the church. God is Awesome! He is doing incredible things in the lives of people here! That is the message that hurting people living without the Lord will hear and be curious about. They will not be interested in hearing that they read the wrong version of the Bible or that their eschatological views are not scripturally accurate. Something my pastor said recently is that we need to see people as opportunities instead of burdens. I pray that across Christendom we can ignite the fire in each other to reach out to people for the Lord and lead them to Him!

Upside Down Chaotic Orderliness

This week is finals week. Which means that all normal scheduling is out the window. My normal arrival at the church wasn't at 8:00am but at about 3:00pm. Two finals in the morning. Each day this week is thrown into turmoil. It is times like these that doing daily devotions is the toughest. We as humans love our routine!Chaos is not usually our friend.
God however isn't ever caught off guard by anything! Isn't that awesome! When we wonder at the chaos of the world around us, we can remember that God didn't wake up this morning shouting "Oh no! What did America just do now? I didn't see that coming! What am I going to do?" No, God knew from the laying of the foundations of the earth what each day was going to hold for us and for each person on earth. He has a plan even when all seems lost! When we put our faith in God, even the upside down chaos begins to have order. Have an awesome day!

Final Exams

This week at the university, I am giving final exams to my students. I can't help but think that God is happy when His students (us) pass the exam. Unlike my Spanish students, God's exam is Pass/Fail. He either tells us "Well done!" and shows us into heaven, or He says "I never knew you" and failure has an eternal price. It was fun to grade the exams when the student had grasped the material and I could see that learning had definitely taken place during the semester. It was disheartening when the pages bled showing that the opposite was true. Does God ever shake His head at us wondering when we will finally get it?

Thoughts on God...

This morning, I was reading in Acts and some verses in Chapter 14 just leaped off the page at me. In verses 8-10 we see a crippled man listening to Paul preach. "Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out 'Stand up on your feet!' At that the man jumped up and began to walk". I have seen God move in mighty ways in healing and I am always thrilled to see God move in miraculous ways! The part that did the "leaping" was that Paul looked at him and SAW that he had faith to be healed. I realized that I have no clue what that is like! If I look out at the congregation at my own church, would I know that someone has the faith to be healed? Do we relegate that kind of activity to the hyper-pentecostal fringe? I believe that God is still doing marvelous works in the world! I pray that He will not let me put Him in a little box! Please pray with me that God will move on this generation in a miraculous powerful way that goes so far beyond sciences ability to understand that only God can be given the credit!

The Shack

I am about halfway through reading the book The Shack by William Paul Young. It is a wonderful work of fiction that I am thoroughly enjoying while simultaneously challenging my view of who God is and what our relationship with Him could be. First let me say that I would recommend this book as a great read! My blog today is more on the reactions of people who find out I am reading the book. There are two camps- the first camp is the "Oh yeah! I loved that book!" the second camp is the "I have heard that book is full of theological errors and thus shouldn't be read." In defense of the second camp, I don't know that I would want to base all of my theology on The Shack and put it on the same level as the Holy Bible, but Mr. Young was not, as I understand him, trying to write a 5th gospel. He was writing a delightful work of fiction for his children that did contain some wonderful biblical truths. One could compare it to Pilgrims Progress or the Chronicles of Narnia. So you can decide to read it or not. I doubt that when you stand before God that He will be asking if you read it while here on earth. I would say however that it is worth taking the time to read if you enjoy a good book that just might challenge your walk with God a little too.
PS. If you decide to read it, have tissues handy.