connection made
I made a good connection today with a new professor here at SAGU. He teaches in the Media Ministries Department but used to be on staff at a church in Indianapolis.
We started talking about ministry, specifically church planting and how I want to plant, and he is going to get me in contact with a couple of good connections. One guy is a worship leader who wants to plant downtown Indianapolis. The city is actually one I have thought about before, so I got pretty excited.
Plus, he asked me if I were interested in traveling and checking out the cities, and of course I said yes. That would be real fun.
Things may be in the works for some direction of some sort...
Labels: personal
one night coming soon
I've been so busy with work lately that I have barely had time for any personal space... and that includes blogging.
One thing that I'm extremely excited about is One Night.
Coming on September 27th, One Night is a big outreach push for Seven that happens every year. It's always so huge.
This year will be no different with pre-One Night parties taking place at homegroups. Nothing does the trick for buiding excitement, momentum, and anticipation more than having a pre-party for an event.
We are pushing to make this the biggest homegroup ever in every term possible. Ultimately, it's not about the event on Wednesday night; it's about students getting saved and serving God.
I can't wait to see what God does through One Night.
The fall has officially begun.
Labels: seven
the weight of ministry
I love ministry. I love to influence and help people. I love to lead. And I love to serve God.
I'm beginning to feel the weight of leading people though. I can't go into details but in the past week or so I've had to deal with issues in my zone at Seven that to say the least, honestly have not been fun. I understand that's part of it, and I accept that responsibility.
But I'm learning to just give stuff to God. And I don't mean just say I'm giving it to God. If I'm really giving these issues to God, then it means I don't carry the weight, He does.
I'm thankful that He can handle and carry what seems too much for me.
Labels: christianity
creating space
My life is pretty busy now, but I know as I get older it will only get crazier. I never want my life to move too fast for the speed of my soul. And the scary thing for me is that sometimes that happens all too easily.
Since I recognize this as a weakness, I'm trying to correct it now and stay on top of it so it doesn't really hurt me later on in life.
Over the course of the next month, I'm really focusing myself in three areas:
1. spiritually
2. physically
3. mentally
I think as a leader, but even more importantly a believer, it's important to continually be growing. I never want to just be maintaining my life or just be making it by. I don't want my life to be constantly catching up with me. I want to be full of passion, growth, and vibrancy in every area of my life. I never want to simply exist.
If all I'm doing is maintaining, then I can never effectively lead. And this includes leading myself first and foremost.
But if I am growing, I can grow others.
It's funny how simple life is sometimes but ironic how much work simple is.
Labels: christianity
planning homegroups
I'm really excited about a role I took on at Seven a couple months ago. Michael and I are planning homegroups to equip our homegroup pastors to free them up and also to provide a better quality across the board. We want to raise the standard and provide the best environments for our homegroups to succeed as possible.
The plan is to be three months ahead and to work on a cycle. This will give us a lot of planning time and leverage to produce our plans with a lot of quality. What will happen is each homegroup pastor will receive the outline of the next two months. It will just be the basics, but it will give them an idea to know where everything is going. The direction for the month will be there so they can pray and prepare spiritually to lead their students to that place. It will also allow them to creatively plan what they need to plan and free them up to better lead our students. We have so many leaders who are college students who work and have a lot going on. Sometimes it can be very tough not to wait to the last minute to rush and prepare for homegroup that night. This is going to help with all of that.
We have come up with four plans:
1. design-every aspect of the entire night is planned out for them to follow.
2. draft-a rough sketch has been created to follow, except for the talksheet.
3. discussion-each homegroup will be equipped with the talksheet to lead.
4. direction-a focus for the night will be given.
Starting in September this will all go into affect. September is a big month for us with our huge outreach One Night on the 27th. The goal is to make sure everything is communicated and the vision is caught.
I struggled with planned homegroups for a while. I know places that do it, but when I led I never wanted to be restricted to what I was given. But I'm seeing so many benefits to leading homegroups this way.
This homegroup planning is going to take us to another level of effectiveness. Labels: seven
credential exam
I completed my Assemblies of God License Exam yesterday morning. It took a good two hours to complete all the questions. I went through it pretty slow though because my hand was hur-ting. I haven't written that much at once in a long time. Not sense the hand-writing note days of high school. I'm pretty sure I did well on it.
My interview is in October, and then I should be a minister.
I honestly don't care about the title, but I wanted to get it out of the way and under my belt.
Labels: personal
new template... again
Yeah I did change my design up again. I don't actually know anyone who can design blogs, so I'm stuck on all the free templates. And because of that I keep running into little things I don't like. On the last template, no one could even leave comments for some reason... they were all messed up.
I think I have this one down for now exactly the way I like it.
Enjoy the new look.
andy stanley's greatest decision
Tony Morgan has been blogging about Willow Creek's Leadership Summit. Here is a summary from Andy Stanley's talk. What an incredible perspective on family and ministry. As a husband and a future church planter, this one hits home. It will definitely be printed off, remembered, and practiced.
Andy Stanley, senior pastor from North Point Community Church, took the platform for session three. He talked about the best leadership decision he's ever made. He made a deal with God. He explained it something like this:
God, I don't have time to build a ministry and take care of my family. I'll give you 45 hours per week as a church planter. If you can build a church on 45 hours, I'm your guy. I'll let you build as big a church as you can with that 45 hours, and I'll be satisfied with that. But I'm not going to cheat my family.
Andy decided to cheat the church before he cheated his family. With his wife, he decided to be at home by 4:30 every day. That meant he left work at 4:00.
Andy explained that God has never commanded him love the Church. He was commanded to love his wife. He was never commanded to build the Church. Jesus said he would do that. Instead, we get it backwards. We try to go build the church, and we pray that God will take care of our family.
How did this decision impact Andy's leadership?
1. It forced him to play exclusively to play to his strengths. Focus on the things you're good at. The less you do, the more you accomplish. You're not very good at very many things. Only do what only you can do.
2. It forced him to prioritize the success of the church over my personal success. He had to say no to lots of other opportunities. It forced him to focus on the main thing God has called him to do. North Point has his undivided attention.
3. The value has forced the organization to say no to many things and maintain a sustainable pace. That protects Andy's time, but it also obviously also protects his staff's time. We need to create a "to don't" list. The value led to a decision to shut down the church the final weekend of every year to give all the volunteers and staff members a weekend to be with their families.
4. This value elicits incredible loyalty from the staff. Andy tells all new employees not to cheat their families.
This is a hard decision. People will be angry. We can't fall into the "If I don't, it won't get done" trap. How many hours you work won't make or break your career.
Charles Stanley said, "Never violate the principles of God in order to gain or maintain the blessing of God."
Jesus has promised to build his church, and he's done a great job. We're just a small part of it.
Who or what feels cheated by you? Are you willing to make the tough decisions to make that right?
Labels: christianity
funzilla night 4
I know it's a little late, but I wanted to still update on the last night of camp.
There was so much energy filling the auditorium Thursday night, despite everyone being dead tired (I know I was). People were crowd surfing when Reggie was playing his saxophone and having so much fun. But even with so much energy, it was just a real sovereign night. When Reggie spoke, he told the story Sir James Douglas. This is the guy who led the Scottish revolt after Robert the Bruce died.
After Robert the Bruce died, James Douglas carried Robert the Bruce's heart into battle with him. He used it as a reminder of his king and it served as motivation and inspiration to fight for his people.
Reggie used Pastor Dan to issue a challenge to leave camp and "carry the heart of our King" into battle. It was a deeply powerful moment for all of Seven.
As we broke into our homegroups, people were being moved by God's spirit to reach friends, families, and schools. It was quite possibly the most powerful night I have ever been a part of.
God completely transformed the lives of so many students at Funzilla. He answered prayers and he showed himself so real. Last thought though-a powerful week of camp doesn't prove anything.
"God, we need you to help us live life for you."
Labels: seven
funzilla nights 2 and 3
Night 2 at Funzilla was very spiritually heavy. I wasn't in all of service because I was doing security patrol, but I was in there to hear Reggie speak and to pray with some of my students. We broke into our homegroups to pray individually with students. We were specifically dealing with past pain and hurts caused from parents or certain situations. I took my old hg in my zone because their hg pastor wasn't there. We went outside and just begin to open up and be vulnerable with each. I believe God really moved some students past their past.
It is so incredible to serve the most powerful God. Night 3 was full of this spiritual energy where God just swept through like a tidal wave and no one was left untouched. There is just so much power when we pray in the name of Jesus. Even just those last five words carry so much authority to bring peace and healing and freedom.
I honestly cannot express what God did last night. It was supernatural. It was powerful. And it was real... so real. Everything that happened last night was so that students could know God-and I mean really know God. If students were to ever draw a line in the sand towards God, He would remind them of last night.
I specifically prayed with this one student for a couple of hours. It was cool to see how much God was changing the deepest parts of his life. We cried, we smiled, and we sat still in God's presence-the greatest place to ever be. I really tried to just dream over this guy to see him for who God could make him for His kingdom. I know God was doing the same inside of this student while he just laid in God's presence.
I don't want to go into a lot of details, but in April Lacey and I experienced some spiritual attacks-I'm going somewhere with this. Ever since then it's been really tough. In the back of my mind it replays and I lived with this subtle fear. But more than I ever have before, last night I understood and experienced God's authority over everything. I was reminded again in a greater way that God is not weak to change our lives. I prayed with two students who were demon-possessed. Yeah, crazy huh? I had been around it a little bit a few years ago but never played a part like I did last night. But these two students experienced the freedom that Christ won on the cross last night as he set them free from "their demons."
Well after curfew students stayed to just worship God, and as I set in the auditorium watching, I was spiritually exhausted but in complete awe of God. He is so great and all-powerful. I'm so thankful that I serve my God. Nothing can compare to his greatness. Nothing can compare to Him.
Labels: seven
funzilla night 1
Last night was really, really awesome.
You could feel God so strong during the worship set. Students were all over the room going hard after God. There was just this passion to have God and to worship Him for who He is.
It was a smooth transition from worship to the speaker. Reggie Dabbs is the camp speaker this year. It's pretty cool because Lacey knows him really well. His joke is that he "changed her diaper" when she was a baby. Lacey's dad and Reggie go back a long ways, and she has done dramas at a lot of camps for him in Texas, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma. So through her, I knew who he was but had never heard him speak before.
It's funny because he did exactly what he said he was going to do. Make it feel like he was in the living room talking, joking around, and then... bam! the punch. Mixing humor, fun, a personal story, and seriousness all into one, Reggie reminded students that sin may be fun but it has hurtful consequences. Everyone has pasts that haunt us and we are constantly reminded of, but we can overcome through Christ.
Students literally piled up in front of leaders after the sermon to be prayed for. It was incredible to pray with several students from my zone. God really moved in their lives. There was one guy who I hadn't seen in so long, but who randomly signed up for camp last minute. I was so happy to see him. I actually text him a couple of weeks ago to say "hi" but his phone had been taken away (apparently he didn't get the text).
There was so much energy in the room the entire night. God showed up big time and changed so many students' lives. I love that nothing is too big for our God. He is not too weak to deal with any problem, and his love is not too small to reject our mistakes.
After service, it was night security patrol time. We rounded up over 400 students back to their cabins, checked in with all the dorms to get a count, and broke up a few water balloons/shaving cream fights. You can't not expect water balloons at camp, especially on the first night. No runaways to report of on night one. Labels: seven
