Floating Axe Heads...

I am really feeling like a spiritual wimp today. As I continue to read through 2 Kings, I am in awe of the miracles that God did through His prophets! Jesus told us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains. These Old Testament prophets had a faith that I have never experienced. It is easy to pray for someone to be healed of a cold, and if they feel better, great! As a child I remember seeing a real healing miracle. My babysitter had fallen off her barrel racing horse and dislocated her elbow...which she had done many times. It swelled up quite large. In front of my eyes, as men prayed for her, the swelling shrunk down and her elbow went back into place and she was completely healed! There was no trick photography or fancy shouting, just a group of guys from the church that both she and I went to began to pray for a young lady in pain and God chose to intervene. What I learned this morning as I read is that God doesn't only care about our health or the big government stuff. He also cared about a man who lost a borrowed axe head in the water. He didn't have the money to replace the axe head I am sure, so God saw fit to allow that axe head to float! Wow! I pray that God will allow me to have the faith that flowed through Elijah and Elisha!

Old Testament Faith

We as a church often skim over the Old Testament, some churches even claim to be a "New Testament Church". Every time I read through the book of 2 Kings, the first few chapters make me take inventory of my faith. If it has been a while, the stories in those chapters include Elijah calling down fire from heaven to burn up the captain and his company of 50 men who were sent by the king to get him. Not just once, but twice! The third captain comes with his 50 men and begs Elijah to spare his life! 51 tough, battle trained men are scared to death to take on one prophet in a garment maid of hair! Then in the next chapter, after Elijah gets taken to heaven in a chariot of fire, Elisha is walking along when some teens make fun of his bald head. He cursed them and "two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." When is the last time you heard the pastor of 1st church of your town call down fire from heaven to burn up the people who disagreed with what God had called him to preach? I can see the headlines now. "Sheriff's entire force wiped out" followed by an article describing what happened while they were trying to enforce a law against preaching in public. Anyway, just my thoughts for the day. Have a great one!

Thank You

I just finished reading something by Andy Stanley. It mentioned the importance of remembering to say Thank You to those in our organizations. When people don't feel appreciated, they quickly become disgruntled. Whether you are a Pastor leading a church or a CEO or any other kind of leader, you have people who do stuff in your organization. A simple recognition of what they have done is a great free way to encourage them and others around them. Rather than reinvent the wheel, here is what Andy said:
Two Simple Words
The appropriate response to that kind of generosity is to say thank you. You can't possibly pay for the hundreds of hours volunteers give you, and you can't give the hours back. So as simple and trite as it may seem, it really is the only fitting response.

Four Ways For Sure
Obviously there's more to expressing gratitude than a quick thanks. People have a sincerity meter that registers empty thanks a mile away. Here are four things to keep in mind when communicating the appreciation you really feel.

Be specific. When you say thank you, include details. There is a huge difference between saying thanks and saying thanks followed by a detailed description of what you caught, saw, or are aware the other person was doing.

Be public. Over the years we have learned the value of story telling--the value of spending a few minutes in front of your leaders telling success stories that communicate vision, but more importantly, express gratitude. Public gratitude expresses a high level of value and can result in an even higher level of loyalty.

Be aware. You have to develop a mindset that looks for behavior to reward. Listen for stories two or three levels away in your organization and call or write to say thank you. Even though you didn't observe the act, you communicate, "I didn't see it, but somebody else saw it and they are talking about it. What you did is significant."

Be honest. Don't say you liked something you didn't. Remember, what gets rewarded gets repeated. Also, don't attribute something to someone that she didn't really do. Rather than being encouraging and motivating, you're communicating that you really weren't paying attention. So when you say thank you, be honest and don't overdo it.

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Church Publishing

Ok, pastors, if you are wanting to publish a book or booklet for your congregation and you want it to look like a real publication and not something you printed off your office copier I found a site for self publishing that seems easy to work with. www.lulu.com is a site where you can upload your book and then print as few or as many copies as you want. Printing only one copy of course is more expensive, but really not bad. A 100 page,perfect bound, paperback was about $6.50 or so. Anyway, just a heads up for you who want to publish something quickly and cheaply.

Tribes

Just finished reading Seth Godin's book Tribes. If you have an idea, but don't know how to go about creating a buzz about it or getting it going. I highly recommend this book. It is not a how-to book, but it is very much an inspirational book that will have you thinking outside the box, or maybe throwing out the box by the time you are done. Taking risks is what has made this country great! Seth's book is a great challenge to get back up and take a few of those risks that you may have been wanting to take but are to intimidated by fear of others reactions to get up and make happen. Enjoy reading it! If you want to check out his writing style, I have his blog link over in the blogs I like section. Have a great day!
PS. It is short and only takes about one evening to read.

Something Different

Ok, so normally my blog stays clear of politics. Today however, I noticed something odd. For some reason, I read CNN's list of unemployment rates by state from highest to lowest. I saw that Michigan's 9.6% rate is only slightly worse than my home state of South Carolina's 8.4% But then I decided to check something out. The lowest 5 unemployment rate states voted republican in the last election. Meaning, the people who know how to keep jobs and help people stay employed voted against our current president. In contrast, out of the 8 worst states for unemployment, 7 of them voted for Obama. One may have nothing to do with the other, but I thought it was interesting that while we try to figure out this economy problem and find ways to find jobs, we have turned to the man elected by those who quite obviously don't have a clue when it comes to job creation and maintaining an employed citizenry.

Empty or Full?

There are times in church leadership when we feel like we are trying to pour out of an empty glass. It is in those times that we most need to spend less time doing and more time with God! Only HE can give us the spiritual fill up that we need to be able to pour our lives into other people without ending up with an empty tank. If you are anything like me, as life gets busy, it becomes harder and harder to spend time praying and in God's Word that isn't related to the job part of the ministry. (Yes, I am speaking to myself.) Do whatever it takes to carve time in the schedule to spend quality time with God every day so that we are pouring out from a glass that is overflowing rather than almost empty. Have a great day with God!

Praise in Sorrow

If you read my last post about the accident, it turned out that the fatality was a student from our school. A young lady named Tiffany lost her life which causes many of her friends and her family to be in mourning. There is a silver lining. I looked up her facebook picture just to see if she was who I thought she was. (Not someone I knew well, she was a name and face I recognized on campus.) Her "Status" was that she was praising God that her father had finally accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart as his Savior. For those unfamiliar with facebook, "Status" is a one line post about you that comes up on your profile page. It is updated often by users. This particular status post was from the night before her accident. The great news here is that she will see her father again in eternity now!

This Morning

This morning on my way to work, I heard the news pop in at the top of the hour on my favorite radio station. One ten second news blurb suddenly caught my attention. It was a fatal car wreck, but the part that grabbed my attention was that it is the street corner by the school where I teach. I still don't know who died, but it made me think. People die every minute in this world, but it often isn't until we are or, like in the case of the wreck this morning, could be affected by an event that we really take notice. That hit me like a ton of bricks! How often do we overlook people who represent souls going to hell just because they don't directly affect our lives? Those people are somebody to someone, and God's will is that none should perish! Let us get the blinders off and reach out to people beyond our circle of friends and family. (In this blog, I am mostly preaching to myself...if you are along for the ride, bless you!)

Stepping out of the box

If you keep up with my blog, you know that I work with small group ministries at my church. Recently, in recruiting new leaders, I talked with a couple who I thought would make a great pair to host a new Home TEAM(our name for small groups). They were interested, and then pitched an idea to me. "What about a group for blended families?" I was pleased with their initiative and so we began working out the details. During those weeks, I did some checking because honestly, I know nothing about blended families beyond watching the Brady Bunch when I was a kid. There are no step or half anybodies in my family. I came across some interesting statistics. 30% of marriages in the United States create a blended family situation. As we know, the divorce rate in the church sadly is no different than outside the church, so chances are that there are blended families in any congregation. As I began reading about some of the issues they face, I realized that what started out as an idea from one couple who want to be Home TEAM leaders could end up being an incredible ministry! As I look around my own church, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that at least 20% of our congregation are in some kind of blended family situation, and the reality is that I am probably very low on that statistic. I am writing as someone who knows nothing of the struggles these families face except from what I have read. Many pastors and church leaders are like me in this respect, so maybe this blog entry will trigger a new idea for your congregation. Have a great day!