Thursday, July 16, 2009

velocity core team

This morning we gathered together to pray, hear from God's voice, and discuss strategy for helping students become fully committed to Christ.

I love the excitement and passion in our students to see Velocity truly be used by God and reach their campuses. It is going to be pretty incredible to look back a year from now and celebrate all that God has done.

This morning we focused on living beyond ourselves and developing the attitude of serving both others and on ministry teams.

The truth is we all have a role to play in the Kingdom, and it's not about us at all. I believe that's both in filling opportunities at a local church and then somewhere in the community. I'm currently looking for the right opportunity in the community now. We are representatives of Christ and are responsible for being lights for the King.

Here are the lessons we learned from Scripture today:
  1. Selfishness always disappoints.
  2. Make followers, whenever and however.
  3. Stand out, and fade out.
  4. Become greater by serving greater.
  5. Serving is the best way.
Would you pray for God's continued guidance and empowerment in and through Velocity?
We so desperately need Him.

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posted by Seth Henderson at 2:50 PM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

vietnam missions trip

This past year Lacey and I were apart of a church planting internship in Dallas with Northwood Church and Glocalnet. It was such a great learning experience, as this is what we feel is God’s plan for our lives is in the future. Our time at Northwood was more challenging to us than we thought possible and helped us grow deeper in our relationship with God and our commitment to see holistic transformation take place in individuals, a city, and a place in the world through God’s power through the local church.

As a culmination of this internship with Northwood, I am traveling to North Vietnam this October 20-31 on a short-term missions project with a number of other volunteers. Northwood has been working in Vietnam over 10 years developing areas such as business, education, and healthcare for the entire country, while at the same time building relationships and seeing God transform lives. During our time, there will be teams working with orphanages, installing a computer lab at a school and providing training for other areas of education, and developing businesses and leaders for the country.

The need is great, but the rewards from our work will be much greater. However, this trip will also be a huge challenge. I am writing this letter to ask for your support in any way possible. I understand that support through prayer is as equally important as financial aid; so, I am asking for both. I know that my trip will be more successful with the support of family, friends and the people I love. The total cost of the trip will be $3,000, which will cover airplane tickets, housing, food, and local transportation. My first installment is due August 1 and all money is due September 5. Each donation is vitally important. Please pray and allow God to challenge you to support this trip with your finances.

Donations are tax deductible if made payable to Northwood Church. Please mail donations to Northwood Church 1870 Rufe Snow Drive, Keller, TX 76248 and note my name. It will then go towards my account. Also, remember our team in your prayers in October, as there is sure to be spiritual and physical strain on the team. Pray that this trip will be effective and purposeful in meeting the needs of the poor and oppressed, the hopeless and orphaned.

Thank you for your support and care. I appreciate your interest and encouragement. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for our team and the Vietnamese people that we will be working with.

Also, if you have not already done so, consider joining my Facebook group to follow along on this journey.

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posted by Seth Henderson at 12:37 PM 0 comments links to this post

Thursday, May 28, 2009

the church and the kingdom

Earlier this year I wrote this about what God has been teaching me: "I'm understanding in the smallest way the Kingdom of God. God wants to enter into, redeem and reign over every person, every culture, every community, and all creation. Come thy Kingdom in my life." Personally, I don't want to reduce God to just the church, and sadly that happens all too often. While he is (and should be) greatly involved in the church, there is a larger domain - one that includes every domain/area of society, including the church. And as the body of Christ, we have been released, mandated, and commanded to carry Christ and His Kingdom into the world.

Reposting this from Alan Hirsch today.
In my writing I came across this quote today by theologian Richard Neuhaus (who died earlier this year). It is worth considering because of the implied association of the Church with the Kingdom of God.

"Alfred Loisy the 19th century historian was right in saying that Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God but what appeared was the Church. The disappointment was and continues to be severe. But the great irony is that today we alleviate our disappointment with the contemporary Church by pointing back to the New Testament Church --which was the great disappointment to begin with! Our restless discontent should not be over the distance between ourselves and the first century Church but over the distance between ourselves and the Kingdom of God to which the Church then and now is the witness.(my emphasis added)" - -- R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 33.

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posted by Seth Henderson at 3:47 PM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

creating personal spiritual momentum

This is my last set of notes to post from Catalyst One Day. I appreciate Craig’s heart and attention to this topic, especially a “leadership” conference. It really is the foundation to be used in the fullness of God’s Spirit. I’m slowly learning to put this thought into consistent practice.
  • “I will do today what I can do, to enable me to do tomorrow what I can’t do today.”
  • The long-term vision will be accomplished through today’s contribution. (While I know this is true, I sometimes have a hard time practicing this, especially when I can’t/ don’t see the correlation between now and then)
  • Do something to defeat your dark side.
  • Create artificial deadlines.
  • Delegate what someone else can do.
  • Do something only you can do.
  • You are the only one who can stay broken for Jesus.

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posted by Seth Henderson at 9:46 AM 0 comments links to this post

Monday, May 25, 2009

busting barriers with mindset changes

Organizations love to settle because it’s the easy thing to do. They settle not only in practice, but in paradigm as well. You sometimes have to change the way you think to get something different. Here are some notes from Craig Groeschel, session 2 at Catalyst One Day last week.

1. Think differently about your church culture.
  • If you don’t like the culture, it could be your fault. People are a reflection of the leader.
  • Do you need to do something privately to gain credibility publicly? (This is a principle I had to learn this past year)
2. Think differently about programming.

3. Think differently about the mission.
  • We can’t allow someone to hold back the mission of the church. Will we give priority to people pleasing or the mission?
4. Think differently about people leaving the church.

5. Think differently about limitations.
  • Old mindset-We can’t because we don’t.
  • New mindset-We can because we don’t.
  • One of the greatest gifts to your ministry may be what you don’t have.

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posted by Seth Henderson at 9:32 PM 2 comments links to this post

Friday, May 22, 2009

deep in the heart of texas

When I came to Dallas in 2003 to go to SAGU, I never imagined I would still be here in 2009. So much has happened that I wouldn't know where to start, but looking back I do see God's hand guiding. I didn't always see it in the moment, especially over the past 2-3 years, but I certainly do now.

In all the chaos and in all the mystery, I have found God revealed more. One of my core prayers is for God to continue to reveal the mystery of the Gospel of his Kingdom in my life. And he has done so.

This past year we have had a great opportunity to serve alongside some of our closest friends and help them start a church. When we made the decision last year to move to Frisco, we knew it would only be a short season and did our best to communicate that to them up front. Zach and Mandy have been so gracious and supportive in allowing us to discover God's immediate plan for our lives, and we wish them and The Crossing nothing but God's best.

Lacey's already written about it, but on June 1 we embark on a new journey, although it's not all that new. The culmination of preparation over the past 6 years (SAGU/ The Oaks, Harvest Time, The Crossing, and the Glocalnet Internship with Bob Roberts) has led us to this point. Through mutual friends, Nathan and Ricky, I connected with John. We will be joining the Gateway family in San Antonio/ Helotes to lead the student ministry and facilitate their new church planting internship.

What a challenge, but we are anxiously looking forward to our new endeavor. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around some of the possibilities. I would appreciate your prayers as we take the next step in our journey.

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posted by Seth Henderson at 11:00 AM 2 comments links to this post

gaining and sustaining momentum

The first session of Catalyst One Day in Dallas kicked off with Andy Stanley hitting on momentum. One of the things I appreciate about Andy is that his approach is both systematic and spiritual.
  • Momentum creates a new set of problems that makes it difficult to sustain.
  • What will my level of tolerance be for a lack of momentum?
  • Andy’s definition of momentum: Forward motion fueled by a series of wins.
  • Components of momentum: new, improvement, and improving.
  • Momentum is never triggered by tweaking something old. It is triggered by introducing something new.
  • People have a hard time letting go of bad ideas, so the new must be noticeably better than the old.
  • Good stories can support bad ideas, but everything must be evaluated, including the good and the great. The clock is ticking on its success.
  • If momentum is slipping, you can rarely regain it by simply doing what you did to create it in the first place.
  • What is God blessing and can a specific reason God is blessing it be identified?

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posted by Seth Henderson at 9:29 AM 0 comments links to this post

Monday, May 18, 2009

catalyst one-day in dallas






Super excited about Catalyst today for a myriad of reasons:
  1. Andy Stanley- never heard him live, so I can't wait.
  2. John and Drew- first time to officially hang out with them while a part of Gateway.
  3. Steve Fee- I first heard Steve lead worship at a Passion One Day in 2003. Incredible then and incredible now.
  4. It's in Dallas- actually about 20 minutes from our apartment. What a short trip to a great conference.
  5. It's Catalyst. Never been, so I get a little taste today.
Craig Groeschel and Andy will be sharing some thoughts about church, leadership, momentum, and more. And Craig has bit hittin' on some core questions on his blog lately that I'm glad someone in his position is publicly asking, because a lot of other people are. I'll post some notes later.

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posted by Seth Henderson at 7:23 AM 0 comments links to this post