- My vehicle on Friday afternoon lost it’s air conditioning on the way home from the conference.
- Wouldn’t have been so bad if it didn’t start raining and then hailing…the windows were fogging and I couldn’t get any air to them because if I put the window down I got drenched.
- Funny how just a few weeks prior to that I was at an amusement park and paid to get on rides where I’d get drenched but for some reason riding in my car I wasn’t willing to do the same thing.
- In any case, the car is in the shop today for repairs.
- After the 10:30 services were done yesterday I was talking with the Bricker’s and Jill shared with me that their 4 year old Chase is still repeating something I said to him a few months back. I said, “Chase you’re a mighty man of God.”
- They said that on Saturday they were at a picnic where he was telling that to everyone….just then he comes running up and says to me, “do you remember me…I’m a mighty man of God.”
- Just then Dirk Detweiler goes walking past holding his son Luke and I said, “Look there’s another mighty man of God.”
- Chase looks at me and says, “I’m the mighty man of God.” I said, “Well there can be more than one mighty man of God.”
- He looks back up at me and says, “Nah he’s the baby man of God.”
- Hysterical!!! But parents it’s also a reminder that you’re kids are listening to what we say to them. If you say, “You’re stupid.” “You’re not as good a your brother.” “You’ll never be able to do that.” “You’ll never amount to anything.” “Why can’t you be more like _______?” etc…they here that and will begin to live it out…but if like I did with Chase you speak something positive into their lives, they will begin to identify themselves that way.
- I’m so thankful for my grandmother who would tell me bedtime stories about a little boy named Gilbert who could do and achieve anything he wanted to. In her stories there was never an obstacle too big or challenge too great that Gilbert couldn’t overcome.
- Today my confidence in who God is and what He wants to accomplish through little old me is off the charts because she spoke a positive word.
- So be careful what you say to a child…encourage them, build them up. As I discovered, it’s not hard to speak something that changes how a child begins to see themselves.
- In fact, why don’t you volunteer to help with Vacation Bible School or in one of our Children’s Ministries on Sunday mornings?
- You see it’s not always about teaching or even helping…it’s about being a role model and a positive influence.
- A friend of mine used to say that in almost every area of life we are over-trained and under-motivated. So go motivate a child to live fully for Jesus and to become our next pastor, president, astronaut, school teacher, etc. and to do it all for the Glory of God!
- Wow that got long…I’ll post some more thoughts tomorrow.
Archives for June 2008
Inside Today’s Experience
- Interesting day!
- Speaking over in the sanctuary at both 8:15 and 10:30 meant things were in some ways more hectic than normal but at the same time things went smoothly.
- Uhhh, I woke up at 6:30 so I could get over to the church to get ready for the 8:15 service. With both Earl and Scott gone and me being out of my element it meant that a lot of preparation had to be done for all 3 services beforehand and by people not used to doing it. All in all it went very well.
- The 8:15 crowd especially was glad I dressed up for them.
- We had 2 professions of faith over in the sanctuary today…yeah God.
- I’m really proud of the sanctuary team. One of the take aways from our strategic planning meeting back in March was that the flow needed to be better in the sanctuary and it certainly was better than I’ve ever seen it. Great job by Scott getting everything ready and for the team that executed it.
- Back over at United, I had very little to do to get ready this morning…great job by our team picking up the slack so I was very relaxed.
- We had one light acting goofy today which was a little nerve wracking because I couldn’t remember if that one was used as a spot for any of the songs…luckily it wasn’t.
- I loved the message by Ed. He was hard on his home congregation but it is something all of us can learn from….hey WAKE UP.
- Best line…Eutychus fell out of the window….You’d of cussed to if that happened to you.
- I listened this afternoon to a rough cut of the special the girls did after the message….even in a rough cut it was awesome…way to go team!
- Hey speaking of…Dave can really tear it up on the lead guitar….great to have him be a part of the team.
- Big thank you to Galen for doing the announcements…even if he was speechless. Hey that video for the new series certainly does have curiosity up now doesn’t it?
- It had been awhile since I had to preach twice on the same day. I had forgotten how much “personality” each message gets. In other words, the Spirit leads me to say different things in both that are geared specifically for those that are in attendance….not sure if that makes sense but it’s neat to know the Spirit is speaking exactly what He wants.
- For having gotten up early and preaching twice, I actually feel better than most Sunday afternoons…may not need a nap.
- Tonight our small group will get together to eat dinner and hang out.
Unplugged Conference Re-cap
- I really enjoyed the Unplugged Conference.
- The tagline was less conference and more conversation. Because of that they limited the attendance to only 50 people.
- It really reminded me in some ways of my days working for Purpose Driven. I always enjoyed speaking to the big crowds that would show up, but 1 or 2 times per year there would be a smaller crowd and by the end you felt like you knew everyone…this was very similar.
- In fact, by the time it was done, I think everyone had a chance to not only spend some time with everyone else, but also time with our two presentors.
- Mark Batterson and Jud Wilhite are two of the greatest leaders in Christianity today and they briefly shared over the two days the 5 biggest challenges that leaders face (Having the Right Motives, Creating and Communicating Vision, Still Having a Personal Life, Being an Effective Leader, Being Creative), before opening it up to Q&A after each session.
- Here’s my top 5 quotes from each:
- Mark:
- Our plans sometimes have to fail in order for God’s plans to succeed.
- God doesn’t reward what we do but the motives behind why we did them.
- Too many times we do ministry out of memory instead of creativity.
- Every “…ology” is a branch of theology because it’s studying what God has created.
- Don’t just be a consumer of culture, ask yourself how God is speaking through it.
- Bonus Deep Thought: Everything says everything about everything.
- Jud:
- Our churches are either battleships manned by people ready to fight the enemy or they are cruiseships where it’s all about my comfort and please feed me.
- Success is the greatest enemy you have of future success.
- You can have either growth or control but you can’t have both.
- Fall in love with the journey, not the summit.
- One problem with the church is that everyone thinks that they are an expert but yet they have never actually led one.
- Bonus Deep Thought: There is no there, there.
- Mark:
- As you can see from the picture, I had a great seat to take it all in.
- The conference itself was held in the basement of the coffee-shop that National Community Church owns.
- The walk back and forth to the hotel was a bear in the heat…especially when I had to lug my laptop and suitcase.
- The coolest part of the conference was on Thursday night when they took us down to the National Mall for a picnic and a Cornhole Tournament. My team got eliminated in the first round…that’s alright it just meant more food was available.
- Afterwards a few of the guys I know and I walked all the way back to the coffee-shop…whew I was soaked, but we arrived just in time to be able to spend about 1 1/2 hours with some of the team from National Community Church.
- I tried to up-date the blog a few times, but so many people were competing for a limited amount of bandwith, that most of the time I couldn’t even get connected. The one time I did, when I hit submit, I lost connection and therefore lost the entire post…ahhhhhhhh!
- All in all it was a great time catching up with some old friends and making some new ones. I was able to wrestle with and get counsel on a lot of things I’m dealing with personally and ministry wise so the time and money spent were well worth it!
Urgent Prayer Request
I grew up living next door to two of my cousins and a third who is our age lived in the same town and we’d see him at least once a week. I love those guys like you wouldn’t believe and we’re all grown now but yet still like kids on the inside.
One of them, Deron, was expecting a baby boy to be born in a few months but on Monday little Carson was born two months pre-mature. Of course he’s tiny (3 lbs.) and a respirator helps his breathing. I just found out from my mom that he has taken a turn for the worse. Please keep Carson, Deron and Megan in your prayers as well as the rest of our family.