A Driving Lesson

I was driving to work today and the sun kept messing with me. The road I drive in on curves back and forth a lot and so I just couldn't seem to get my visor in the right sopt. One minute it was perfect and then the next I had to lean over to one side of the car to block out the sun. It seemed like every 10 seconds I was trying to readjust so I could see. And whenever that happens I get irritated at the sun. Why can't it just stay in one place? Why does it have to keep moving and distracting me?
In reality the sun doesn't move like that. It is always constant. And, it has a right to be there. My problem is I move around a lot and sometimes I don't want to see the sun. I want it there, but I don't want it as the focus. It got me thinking, how many times in life do I get irritated with God because He is being contstant and faithful and I want to focus on something else. How many times does God show up in my time, money, relationships, when I wish He would just take a back seat so I could do what I wanted to do. My life curves a lot more than it should and as a result I can easily get irritated with God for being faitfhul. I bet if I didn't drive on such a curvy road the sun would be in the perfect spot to bring light, warmth and joy to my life.

Here's to hoping we can learn to drive straighter so the Son is a delight in our lives.

Sleeping Well

In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Psalm 127:2

I have been finishing up the Psalms over the last week. I came across this verse and it stopped me in my tracks. I think of all the people who have trouble sleeping because of fear, worry or thinking too much. Some of us work so hard that we end up consumed by work. We think about it too much, we let all of our emotions be affected by it and it affects everything we do and are. I think some of us are hiding in our work and some of us have let our work overtake us. Some of us can't sleep because we are scared to death. Scared of the dark, scared of our past, scared of the future. Some of us don't sleep because we are trying to do God's job instead of trusting Him to do it.

As I read this verse it makes me wonder if our lack of sleep has more to do with our choices in faith than anything else. God has promised to give sleep to those He loves and He loves YOU! That may mean, if you are not sleeping well, you can fix that by seeing what is out of alignment in your soul and not just your neck or bed.

I hope you can honesty say this next verse sometime this week:

But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Psalm 131:2

Sowing in Tears

5 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

Psalm 126:4-5

I love this Bible verse. The first time I ever caught the meaning was when I read the illustration attached to it (http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/g/giving.htm Go down to the first one under Lengthy Illustrations).

I was thinking this week that community is really hard to create and frustrating sometimes. Leading in community can even be harder. We want people to know Jesus and be a part of something special, but our society and personal decisions makes that difficult. Sometimes it is easier to walk away than to walk towards. But this verse reminds me that if I want to return with joy with a fruitful harvest I have got to be willing to do the difficult and painful things. I have to walk in tears at times if I am ever going to see the return I long for.

For those of you who are leading a community, whether you are a LIFE Group leader, host, elder, minister, mom or dad, know that the tears that you willingly shed now will indeed bring joy in the future. Go out weeping when necessary so others can can home to Jesus and to Christian community.

FAITH

I was talking with a few people the other day about hope and hurt and how to live when you do not feel something. Specifically, how do you forgive yourself so God can forgive you and how do you let someone else love you when you have trouble loving yourself. The answer we came to was: You don't. You let God love you even if you cannot. You let God forgive you even if you cannot forgive yourself. We need to learn to live in God's truth whether we feel it or not.

So many people think faith is believing what you understand. I think real faith is believing even when you do not understand. To trust God when it doesn't make sense is real faith. To say you do not understand how this hurt can turn out for good and yet to still follow God is the kind of faith God is looking for.

I hope you can have enough faith to believe God today. A faith that goes beyond what you feel and know.

A Leadership Lesson from a Motorcycle

I had something neat happen this morning. You might not think it is all that neat when I explain it, but I think it was really cool.

Let me set the stage first. Recently, I have been talking about getting a motorcycle again. I bought one after my parents died and had it for a couple of years. I ended up getting rid of it while I was in Chesapeake, VA because we didn't want to haul it back to Colorado. As I talked with my wife about getting one initially she asked me to wait until she got a job. I moped a little, but pressed on. THEN, Nancy got a job at the school. Right away I decided it was time to get a bike. Nancy asked me to wait until she knew what she was going to get paid. I moped some more. I had 2 or 3 days of moping and then in the middle of worship one day God really convicted me that I needed to quit throwing a fit because I wasn't getting my way right away. I shared in a sermon when talking about repentance that God had convicted me to repent of my mopiness. I needed to get over the idea that a bike would make me happy. What some people heard me say was I felt like God didn't want me to have a bike, but what I was trying to say was the bike wasn't the thing God was trying to teach me. He had to be enough for me either way.

So, after Nancy and I sat down and went over the numbers of our finances she said she was okay with me getting a bike. I didn't go right out and get one though. It was important to me to wait until Nancy was comfortable with it. Nancy said she would prefer we didn't add to our monthly payments so we could work on debt reduction. I asked her if I could sell the Durango and get something that reduced the monthly payment by what the bike would cost if she would be okay with that. She said sure. I went out and sold the Durango and got a car that saved us about $150 a month in payment and gas and the car has 40,000 less miles than the Durango had. And then I went out and got my bike.

Now, back to this morning. A friend of mine called up and asked if he could come in and talk with me. I said sure and he shot over to the office. He walked in and said, "Let me start by saying I love you." I knew something rough was coming. And then he expressed how he was concerned because from his perspective I had said God was leading me to not buy a bike and I did it anyway. It really bothered him, his wife, some other family members and a few friends. He asked me, very kindly, if I could explain to him what was going on. We sat and talked for about 20 minutes with him asking me some questions and me givng my honest response. His concern was 1) that I had disobeyed God, 2) that I had taken a knock on my leadership and 3) that maybe I had done something to make life hard for my wife. We had a great conversation. I explained what I thought and felt and that I could see how some people whould struggle with my decision. He said thanks and we parted ways.

See, the reason I think this was such a neat thing is that I have a friend who loves me enough to confront me if he thinks I am in the wrong. And when he did it he didn't do it in a way that was rude or forceful or judgmental. He came in and explained his concern and then listened. I am sure we don't see it 100% eye to eye, but we are both okay with each other. I have a lot more respect for him because I know he will talk to me instead of about me. I know that he loves me more than he loves my happiness and he will do what is best for The Oasis, me and my family.

Being a person in leadership you do get scrutinized more. You can throw a fit and say no one has the right or you can understand that other people are watching and listening and you need to be careful how you live. In hindsight, the wrong I committed was not in getting the bike or not getting the bike, but in how I presented the idea and what it appeared like to others. As a young leader I have to remember when I share personal struggles I am inviting others in to help me overcome them. If someone tries to hold me accountable and I get irritated or insolent with them I am missing a great opportunity. What a gift to have friends who will do the dirty work to help me keep my life and leadership effective.

Friend (you know who you are) thank you for loving Jesus' will for my life enough to confront me and listen to me. Thank you for doing what was difficult to protect The Oasis, my family and me. I love you for it.

Caleb Garnder Update

I just thought you guys would want to know about Caleb. I talked to Shawn yesterday via Skype (free computer phone thing). He was as tickled as a dad can be. He said when he got back from Mozambique where he was getting things settled so they could fly back to America he found Caleb laughing, making eye contact, eating and a lot closer to himself. He said he got to tickle him and listen to him giggle. Shawn and Sarah are ecstatic. They know they are still on the road to recovery, but as Shawn said, "My baby boy is back."

Shawn and Sarah should be back in the US sometime in the next couple of weeks. Their plan is to stay for several months so Caleb can rebuild his immune system. They are trying to decide what their next step is after that. Please pray for wisdom and opportunity for the Gardners.

PS - If anyone has the emails I have been sending I would love a copy of them so I can make a journal of the whole experience for Shawn and Sarah. It is an incredible story that God is writing.

Letting your always change to God's ALWAYS

I love reading the Psalms because they are so honest. I came across Psalm 22 today. As I read it I had several of my friends who are dealing with post-combat issues in mind. The whole Psalm talks about suffering and even begins by asking where God is at. But sprinkled throughout are verses like this:

3Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

19But you, O Lord, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

24...he has not hidden his face from him but has LISTENED to his cry for help.

In verse 3 I see David fighting the fear and frustration by simply remembering what God has already done. Remembering is a healthy weapon against fear, depression and frustration. Nothing is a hopeless cause when you look at what did in other hopeless causes.

I see David dealing with the feeling of giving in when he reminds himself that God is his strength.

He remembers that while it feels dark and lonely God always hears, ALWAYS!

I was talking with some of my combat vet friends recently and one of them said, "It will always be this way. It is never going to get better." And I know that he really feels that way. It isn't that he doesn't believe in God or love Him. It just feels like it will never change. I see David crying out to those guys and saying, "Your always isn't God's ALWAYS. God ALWAYS changes things. God ALWAYS hears. God ALWAYS cares. God ALWAYS redeems. God ALWAYS restores."

If I could tell you one thing today it would be to listen to and look for God's ALWAYS when yours is too much to bear.

Listening

I used this quote recently for a message about what you need to do when you come to faith in Jesus to ensure you grow.

"Value your listening and reading time at roughly ten times your talking time. This will assure you that you are on a course of continuous learning and self-improvement."
Gerald McGinnis, President and CEO of Respironics, Inc.

It struck me as really true. If the early years of my faith had been spent listening instead of talking I bet I would have become a lot stronger Christian. I wonder would would happen if we all decided to listen more? I bet the Church would become exactly what God has always hoped for.

Here's to those who will listen more this week as they seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Sorry it has been a while

I just got back from a trip to South Africa to visit my friends, Shawn and Sarah Gardner. Shawn and Sarah have 3 kids - Ben, Olivia and Caleb. Caleb got critically ill while in Nampula, Mozambique where Shawn and Sarah live and minister. Caleb had to be medivaced from Mozambique to Johannesburg, South Africa for medical treatment. When he first arrived there the doctors were not sure if Caleb was going to live. In the midst of that news I felt like God was putting it on my heart to go and be with Shawn and Sarah. I didn't really have an agenda, I just felt like I needed to go be family to them. As I expressed this to a friend, Jason, he said he would like to do the same. I was talking to the men who are on my management team later that day and they said, "Ask God. Make your desire known to the people you know and see what God does." I thought that was a great idea. Within 4 hours I had collected enough to pay for my ticket and to help Jason get his ticket so we could both travel to see the Gardners. That was on a Thursday and by Tuesday we were flying to South Africa.

First lesson - When you feel something deep inside and you do not know if it is God or just a thought do something that lets God reveal Himself. If I had not made my desire to go known my friends would not have been able to minister to me, Jason and the Gardners the way they did.

Second lesson - Make a commitment to pour yourself into others in Christian community and you will never be alone. I was able to do something I was completely incapable of doing because of the people who are in my life. By committing to other people and trying to develop community with them I was allowed to do something incredible through them. They became the hands and feet and the resources that sent me.

Third lesson - Bring pillow on a 19 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg.

When we first got to South Africa Caleb was improving some, but the new concern was that he was going to be brain damaged, or even brain dead because of the lack of oxygen he experienced for a time in Mozambique. Shawn and Sarah tried hard to wrap their minds around what that would mean. At times they thought too much, at times they were able to rest in the arms of a loving Father and at times it was all just too overwhelming. We were able to sit with Shawn and Sarah and talk about grief and joy and the impossibilities that God brings. I was able to share the comfort God brought o me when my parents died. We were able to talk about sometimes thinking less. We talked about how healthy honest grief can be and how our Father in Heaven hurts with us. Sometimes tears of hurting can begin healing.

Fourth lesson - Sometimes faith is not trying to understand all of the possibilities, but simply trusting in the God of the impossible. Shawn and Sarah showed a tremendous level of faith when they were able to say no matter what the outcome was, they knew God was not only with them, but for them and for Caleb. Faith is not believing everything will work out, but that God is good enough to make up the difference when we just don't see it.

The last email I got from Africa was from Pam, Sarah's mom. This is what she wrote: Yesterday I spent 8 hours with Caleb Allen and he giggled when I shook a rattle for him, kicked out his little feet as fast as he could, giggling and smiling. Some involuntary I'm sure, but it sure warms the heart of a tired grandma.

Shawn, Sarah, Pam, all of us are witnessing God do an incredible thing. It is not just in healing Caleb, but in what others have seen through these circumstances. One lady wrote how she could finally trust God completely with her kids as she has watched the Gardners go through this and read their responses. Some have said they finally understand that Christianity is not religion but community that not only goes, but sends others thousands of miles away to be the loving embrace of God. Some are relearning how simple faith really is. And some of us are just reminded that the little joys, like feet that wiggle, are the more important things in life anyway.

I want to thank all of you who have been a part of this moving of God. Thank you to those who have prayed. Thank yout o those who have given to send others. Thank you for letting your own soul be drawn into the story that God is writing.

I thank you God for such a beautiful idea called the Church. May we remember who you made Her and us to be and may we make a new commitment to her today.

Is It Even Worth It?

The last couple weeks for Nancy and me has been crazy. I haven't had a full day off in somewhere around 21 days. On top of that our finances have been a mess. We decided to work our way out of debt and wouldn't you know it as soon as we did the wheels came off. My insurance is fighting me on some medical bills, our Durango went on the frits, school started, we made a mistake in the checkbook and on and on. It can get pretty overwhelming sometimes. And it is normally times like these that make you wonder if it is all worth it. I mean, why try so hard to follow Jesus, why sacrifice so much financially, why spend so much time investing in this Jesus thing when sometimes it is so rough.
Let me tell you why. After attending LIFE Group Tuesday and expressing our frustration with life one of our good friends came by Wednesday morning with some flowers for Nancy and a great card. It was her way of saying thank you for being a part of our lives. And then, I get a phone call this morning from a good friend I have been praying will come to Christ. He said he was just calling me to tell me that he knew God was really working in his life right now and wanted to thank me for being there. WOW! He is close to making a decision to give his life to Jesus and be baptized.
See, life is a balance. You can avoid a lot of the heart-ache, keep all of your money, have all of your time and end up with nothing at the end of the day. OR, you can let God refine you, let the devil fight you, give what God has called you to give and struggle to help others see Jesus and end up with the best life possible.
I am so thankful for God that He refines me in His fire because I get to see Him work in ways I never would otherwise. My challenge to you today is to have the courage to ask God to turn up the heat for the sake of His purposes today.

A Routine Prayer

A friend of mine, Joe, recently shared a part of faith that I have never learned before. He was speaking at the men's camping trip and he told us about a thing called the breath prayer. It is something that has been used for centuries by Christians to remind them of important Christian principles and help them to focus in prayer. The way it works is you pick a task you do regularly and you decide to say a specific prayer every time you do it.
I have experimented with breath prayers twice now. The first time I decided that I would pray, "Lord, you are the light of the world. Shine through me." every time I thought or said anything critical. Sounded like a good way to change a bad habit. You cannot imagine how much of last week was spent praying that prayer. It was really powerful for me because it began to bring to my attention just how many things I say and think that are not "light". I was surprised at how many things I say that I do not even mean. By the end of the week not only did my behavior begin to change, but I began to see my attitude change also. I noticed that grace was a lot easier. I had a lot more compassion for those around me. I also noticed how much more I enjoyed life.
This week I have decided that every time I walk through a new doorway I am going to pray, "Jesus, You are the doorway to wisdom. Please make me wise." Man, there are a lot of doorways. I should be one wise guy by the end of the week. Ha!
At the end of the day it may seem a little weird to you, but I can testify that it has made an impact on me. I think sometimes we we think we are better than we are and paying just a little bit of attention helps us see not only who we really are, but also a better way to live. Adding Jesus into the routine of my day has been anything but routine for me. Take a chance and see what God has to say to you.

How Important is Sunday REALLY??!!

Being in ministry I get to see faith and the Church in a very unique light. I get to exeprience faith personally and I also get to see faith lived out in other people's lives. It is that perspective that gets me into trouble a lot. You see, asI watch the decision people make and the results of those decisions I get to see what works and what does not. I also get to see what fruit a decision brings. And seeing that makes me want to say something, because a lot of our unfruitfulness as Christians has more to do with our own decisions than it does everything else in life.
Let me give you an example. I noticed this weekend that we had quite a few families gone from church. Some of the people who were gone were out of town for their summer vacation and some of the people who were gone were out of town for other things (dog show, work, 4H, etc.). There is even an expectation among ministers that the summer is the "low" time for church attandance.
Now, our faith is not based on our church attendance. Just going to church is not going to save you. BUT, our faith is affected by our church attendance. When everything else in life is just as important as church it says something. It says that my faith is a part of my life, but not necessarily the most important thing in my life. That may be a decision we make subconsciously, but it begins to affect us. We do not grow at the level that we need to and so we end up like the plant with shallow roots that can't survive (Matt 13). By attending regulalry I am commititng to grow my roots depe with other people.
It may say that making money is more important than making a life. I see guys who miss to go do some extra work to pick upi extra money. I would encourage them to trust that God will provide enough for faith and finances. Commit to Him your faith and He will provide for your finances.
It says to our kids that they need to balance out faith with fun, recreation and work. I think we are setting a lot of our kids up to have the same problems we have in faith. When we choose not to go to church to go to one more sports things or dance thing or event it says to them that church is important, but not necessary. Your kids may end up struggling to grow in faith, because you made the choice to make church optional instead of necessary for growth.
It says that the church is for me, and forgets that like any family, you bring something just by showing up. When you don't come because of some lesser event in your life you may be forgetting that not only do you attend for what you get, but what you give. Most ministers would tell you that one of the hardest parts about Sunday is trying to figure out who is going to show up so they know what kind of ministry they will have that day.
The worst thing you can do as a Christian is to bring balance into your faith. If faith is equal to everything else it is not the kind of faith that will grow you and change you. The problem for a lot of us is that we want our fun or work or kid's events to have as much right to our schedule as our faith. And when that happens we undermine our faith and we end up unfruitful.
I wish I could express to you how many Christians I know who end up struggling in faith or dissatisfied with church who have created the problem themselves. They have not committed themselves to be a part of the community of faith that God made them for and so they never get to be known at the level that they need to be. They attend church, but attending something doesn't develop intimacy. When you commit to a group of people and you are a regular part of their life you get to know them and when crisis or celebration hit they are right their in the middle of it to walk with you.

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25

Some Help from Ty

I am sitting here with Titus, my youngest, and we decided we would write our post together today. He starts out by saying he wants everyone to know that he is excited that his brother and sister are going to be getting out of school today for the summer. He is excited because they are excited too and they get to spend more time with the family.
Ty is also pretty excited about going on vacation because we get to go to Estes Park and Colorado Springs and we get to have lots of fun. We are going to go swimming, eat at Chik-Fil-A, play Bingo, go hiking and play with our new Rubix cube.
He says that is pretty much all he has to say.

I have a friend who coaches me professionaly who has been working with me to take some time off lately. He has been encouraging me to take a vacation and to schedule one day a month to get away to just fill back up. Because of his encouragement I decided to take this week off and spend it with my family. It has been really nice so far. I have worked field day Monday and Tuesday at the school. I got to go to LIFE Group last night which is always a tremendous blessing to me. Today, we are going to our kid's awards assembly and then get ready for our trip. It is nice to not have responsibility every once in a while.

In my prayer time recently God has slowly been revealing a thought to me that I am trying to understand enough to share in the message. It is based on the idea that the problem with many of our churches and our faith in general has to do with the fact that we do not share in a common suffering. Many of us have come to Christ trying to make it as easy as possible when coming to Christ should require a wholesale change of worldview and mindset. We should all have gone through a common suffering as our lives were changed. Check out Philppians 3. I will be working on these thoughts for a message a week from Sunday. Here's praying it all falls into place.

Have a great week and enjoy those around you. Love, Mike.

The Least of These

Have you ever been one of the least of these? Jesus taught that whatever someone does for one of the least of His servants they have done for Him. I have always thought about how to be one of the ones that does stuff for the least of these. I would look for opportunities to serve people that I saw whether they were a freind or a complete stranger.
This week I was the least of these. Nancy and I were working outside on my day off (Friday) putting in a garden. As we worked with the tiller (something like riding an angry bull with a blade underneath it) I looked over and noticed that our lilacs were being overtaken by weeds. It is funny how quickly the weeds grow up in your garden and your life if you don't take precautions. I decided to call my brother, Will, and ask him how much it would cost me to put down a six foot strip of fabric and rock around the dog kennel and the lilacs. He told me the amount and I said I would order it in the future. He told me to just come by his house and pick up the fabric and to order the rock on his account until I got the money together. I felt pretty blessed to have a brother who would be willing to make a financial sacrifice because I thought I needed to improve something at my house.
So, I finished the garden and waited for the rock to come. It showed up about 3-4 PM and I went to work putting down fabric in the wind and trying to get rock on it before it blew away. I was using the kids as weights on the end of each piece as I ran to get 5 gallon buckets of rock. I worked for about 1 1/2 hours and then had to get ready to go to some friends' house for dinner. I had only finished one side and had a bunch more to do. Since I have a bad shoulder right now I was feeling the effects of lugging 5 gallon buckets of rock.
We had a great dinner with our friends, Shawn and Tia (Tia made a mean roast), and they found out we were putting down some rock. Shawn offered to come over the next day (his day off) and help me put down fabric and rock. He had just finished putting 40 tons of rock down at his house the week prior. I told him not to worry about it. He insisted. They were both concerned about my shoulder and helping me get the work done. Finally, Tia said Shawn was showing up to help the next day whether I invited him or not.
I was absolutely humbled by their concern for me, blown away that they insisted to help rather than take the first opportunity to get out of helping and then how hard Shawn worked. He sincerely put himself comepletely into making sur eit was done and done well. there were a couple of times I was just going to be done and he insisted we spend the extra time getting it just right.
I realized in that moment that Shawn and Tia love Jesus and because of that they love me and my family. It felt really humbling to be one of the least of Jesus' people, but it felt really good to be loved to.
My desire for you this week is twofold. One, serve Jesus this week by finding someone in need and helping them. Don;t take the easy way out when they say you don't have to. Sincerely invest yourself in helping them. Two, let other people serve Jesus by serving you. Don't let your pride stop them from blessing you.
From one of the least of these - love ya.

A Few Thoughts on Leadership

Leadership is tough business. I have always been interested in it, though. I was the bossy kid who would try to take charge if no one else was willing. I have tried to lead lots of people and things in my life. I have tried to lead while in the military, tried to lead toddlers in children's church, teens in a youth groups and adults in church. I have led in small groups, advertising, launching a church, working with a staff. I have led in my house and tried to lead at times in my family. I have had the opportunity to lead a lot of different places.

The modern day approach to leadership is not necessarily the healthiest form of leadership. Many times it is either totally authoritarian-based (because I said so) or it is comepltely based on making as many people happy as possible. Neither one of these approaches is healthy to use on a regualr basis. The person who leads out of authority is a weak leader. They are not leading out of skill, but out of right. I would venture to say very few people have the "right" to lead, and usually the people who never demand that right are the best leaders. On the other side, the person who only does what everyone agrees with is not a leader. They are a politician who is simply carrying out the public opinion. You have to know what leadership is, if you are a leader and how to lead.

True leadership is leading where the person, group or organization needs to go no matter what without crushing them in the process. That is really hard to do. Sometimes you end up appearing like someone who doesn't care because you do what is right and not what is popular.

The single hardest person I have had to learn how to lead is myself. It is hard to do what is right sometimes because of what it costs you personally. You can strain or lose friendships. You can end up isolated. You may have to pay a higher price to get the right thing accomplished. Other times it is hard to lead because you just want to push through and get the job done. It is way easier to do it yourself than to develop someone else, but it is not better. Good leadership develops as many people under and around you as possible.

I am not a great leader, but I am a growing one. I have learned the value of investing time in bringing other people up instead of just doing it myself. I have learned that what you allow today will impact tomorrow and 10 years from now both in your own life and in your organization. I have learned that most people are slow to accept change and there needs to be a healthy balance between helping them come to a place they can move forward and moving forward when it is time.

I have a learned a lot about leading myself so that I have the credibility to lead others. I have to be willing to see my own sin and shortcomings first. I have to invest the time to do what is right even when no one else will ever know. I have to lead well even when I am tired. I have to live righteously even when I am at the end of my rope. I have to lead with hope or other people will never follow. I have to learn how to discipline without punishing. I have to love the people that disagree with me and remember they most likely are not trying to be cantankerous.
And the number one thing I have learned is I have to be faitfhul no matter what the cost and never let go of love. If I forget to love the people I am leading than I am not a good leader from God's perspective. Love sometimes is tough, but it is never mean.

I hope you will see where God wants you to lead so that you can grow into the man or woman He has called you to be.

My kingdom all for a corn dog

Yesterday was my daughter's (Sissy) birthday. When we first moved to Pueblo West I decided that I was going to surprise my kids on their birthdays by bringing them lunch from one of their favorite fast food restaurants. The first year i put a can of soup in my oldest's lunch box. When he got to lunch that day he was trying to figre out how to open a can of soup and heat it up when I walked in with lunch. I have made it each time for my oldest son's and my daughters birthdays. Yesterday I had a bunch of appointments so I wasn't able to bring Sissy lunch. My wife said she was almost in tears when she heard I couldn;t make it. Talk about breaking a guy's heart. I told her I would bring her lunch today.
I just got back from having Sonic with Sissy. I even smuggled in an extra corn dog for Dave. On the way back I stopped to give my wife a kiss and to say hi to my youngest son. Man, life is good.
Its funny because brining them lunch really doesn't take a whole lot. I miss a little bit of work, eat some relatively unhealthy food and have to drive a bit, but it is worth it to see the look of joy on their faces. The other kids look on like I brought them tickets to Disney Land for a week or something. It is neat to see the faces of the teachers too as they try to figure out why I am there. Some of them will just come out and ask me and I love telling them it is a special day and so I brought lunch.
Remember, the most significant thing you do today or this week may be something that doesn't cost much money or time and yet makes the day of someone else. Imagine how much better life would be if we worked harder at finding the simple things to bless each other with and less time complaining. I hope you find a way to show one person in your life how much they mean to you today.

Sticks and stones...

I have had a few people in my life recently who didn't care for me much. One of them has decided that I am a heritic (intentional false teacher) because I disagreed with him about some Bible stuff. Another one of them didn't like some of the decisions I made that affected them personally. And the human side of me has this desire to be justified. It wants to convince as many other people as possible that I am a great guy. And the way that plays out for me is like this: I either end up in a conversation about those circumstances or I bring them up myself and then I quickly explain my point of view. I do it in a way that no one could ever accuse me of gossipping or speaking maliciously about someone, but the real intent of my heart is to raise myself up and dimisnish the other person.
I have been confronted lately with this idea that I am not so important that someone can't say anything bad about me. When I look at the life of Jesus I see Him choosing to love for real and not just on the outside when He is insulted. They beat him with sticks and tear him apart physically and emotionally. Its not just that He doesn't respond, but He doesn't bring it up again either. He just keeps going. As a matter of fact, in 1 Peter 2:23 it says, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." There was a time in the life of King David as well when a man was cursing him (2 Samuel 16:5-12) and a friend of David's wanted to go kill the man. David tells him not to, because maybe he deserves it. And even if he does not deserve to be cursd, God sees everything and He will do what is right.
I guess I just want to share the idea that when we are offended we think we need to defend ourselves. But I bet in most, if not all, of those circumstances we are forgetting that God is the One who's opinion matters and we should not think so highly of ourselves that we get irrate when someone speaks poorly about us. If you can remember that God is watching and entrust yourself to Him then you will be able to "...guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.' (Prv 4:23)
Love ya.

Good Friday?

Man, it is FRIDAY! But I do not mean the, "Yippy, it's Friday!" type of Friday. I mean the Bible day of FRIDAYwhen Jesus was crucified. If you remember, FRIDAY was the day He lost all of His friends, the day He was put on trial, mocked, beaten and eventually crucified. FRIDAY is the day that all of the hope of the disciples was crushed. FRIDAY was the day that defeat was certain. FRIDAY was the day th devil danced on grace and thought he had one. FRIDAY SUCKED!
Over the past several days we have seen FRIDAY come at us at full speed. We went form having a really neat worship service planned with the band to have 6 of the 8 band members unable to particpate on Sunday morning. Some are dealing with family crisis including death, some have been crushed by sickness, some have had their hearts attacked and some just have circumstances that make it impossible for them to lead as part of the band on Sunday. Yesterday was the culmination of FRIDAY when we found out that Allen, our worship leader, was in the hospital again. He and his family have paid a huge price physically since coming to work with us. We have had to decide how we are going to have a worship service without a band. Talk about a challenge. Everything would say we will fail miserably on a day when we will have our best attendance for the year. FRIDAY is bearing its teeth and grinning.
On top of the things with the band, I have watched as each one of my staff members has been thrown into FRIDAY. Angie has seen her family attacked having to deal with a couple of deaths and a lot of sickness. Meghan has struggled with sickness that landed her in the hospital once as well as dealing with her new house/old house. Matt has been struggling with sickness, family grief and heartbreak with some friends. FRIDAY has hit hard and is trying to convince them that all is lost.
And for me, I have seen every one of my three siblings struggling. There has been deaths in their families, grief, sickness, serious family issues and marriage stress. I feel for how much they have paid. FRIDAY is in full swing.
I tell you this fo a reason. FRIDAY was followed by SUNDAY!!!! FRIDAY defeat was certain, hope was crushed, the pain was too much. BUT THEN SUNDAY CAME ROLLING AROUND THE CORNER! Jesus showed back up from the dead and let the world know that all that was lost on FRIDAY was made brand new on SUNDAY. What evil tried to secure on FRIDAY was thrown in an empty tomb since Jesus had risen from the dead. The battle turned and God accomplished every single thing He desired.
What a better position to be in this FRIDAY then to see no possible way out and no possible way for success. EASTER is about God turning the tables on Satan and showing that FRIDAY only sets the table for SUNDAY to come in victory. Here is to believing that this SUNDAY will be the Easter of the Bible played out in Pueblo West. Man, I love SUNDAY!

The Apprentice - AD

I have a confession to make - I like watching The Apprentice. I know it is a corny show, but I really enjoy the different tasks they are given to do. I love seeing the different ideas and considering what I would do if I was given the same tasks and deadlines. Some of the things they create are really neat and then some of it is just horrible. The things about the show that drive me nuts are how badly they treat each other when they feel threatened and how much they look up to "The Donald". The entire show is about pleasing Donald Trump at all cost so that you can become his next apprentice. There was even one episode where one girl was seeking wisdom from the Bible and another girl was mocking her for it and saying all she really needed was to study the stuff that Donald Trump had written.
It got me thinking about how that applies to Christianity. Discipleship is the same thing as The Apprentice. It is based on the idea that you would do whatever it takes to become like your teacher - in the case of faith, Jesus. In the time of Jesus, rabbis (teachers) would call together a group of men to study under them. It was a great honor to be selected as an apprentice. It was the apprentice's (disciple's) job to learn absolutely everything they could from their teacher and to become like them in every way. The apprentice was working at becoming just like his teacher. It wasn't a matter of merely considering their teaching, but learning how to apply it to their life.
Now, I don't think we see it the same way today. We are called to be disciples of Jesus which means we should be committed not only to learning all of the things that Jesus said and did, but applying them without hesitation in our lives. But modern day discipleship is hard to find in most of our lives. We talk about not having enough time to read or being too distracted to pray. We go to church when it fits our schedule and we make decisions based on our desires. I think modern day discipleship is missing all of the qualities that makes an apprentice an apprentice. And that means we will never become like our Lord and Savior unless we change something.
True discipleship would mean we take the teachings of Jesus and apply them based on their value and not based on our availability. We make ourselves 100% available when we become an apprentice of Jesus. We put his priorities in front of ours when we decide to sit at His feet. Now I'm not saying it is easy, but since when did anything really good in life come about easily. Can you imagine one of the apprentices telling the Donald, "But you don't understand, it's hard." Of course it is hard. The world has taken the easy road and it has led them to be corrupt and pain-filled and lonely. Jesus has talked about the hard way and it is filled with life and love and joy and peace and hope.
Here's to looking for a few people to apply for the newest reality show - Aprrenctice - A.D.

Alaram Clocks and 3 Ply

Just a quick note. I was thinking the other day about alarm clocks. When were they first invented? It had to be in the last 100 years or so. Do you realize we are the first people to actually wake ourselves up on a regular basis, no matter if we have gotten enough rest or not? How messed up is that?
I get a chance to watch TV once or twice a week and I am amazed at how many ads there are for sleep medication. Maybe the reason we are all so tired, stressed out and struggling to rest is because our bodies are in revolt. Can you imagine how silly we would look to people who lived 200 years ago? We set an alarm clock to wake us up so we can go to a job where we do not normally produce anything. We rush from there to a place to eat food that a stranger prepares. We go from work to the gym to run in place since we did not do anything physical at our jobs and then we rush home to take our kids to activities where we hope to meet neighbors who live right next to us, but we have never spoken to. Weird.
If I am ever elected KING we are going to have a national ban on alarm clocks. We are going to take the first month to rest and then we are going to use all the conveniences of life to actually give us more time for each other. That and we are going to have a global ban on anything less than 3-ply toilet paper.

Wrestling with Marketing

When I first got into church planting I heard and read a lot about how you need to be super creative in your approach to marketing so you can get as many people to come as possible. The idea was that you didn't want to preach anything too overtly Biblical the first Sunday following a marketing piece because you might scare people off who were interested in church, but not so much in studying the Bible. I took this advice and wrestled with it for over a year. There were several times I got into heated debates with people in my church planting management circle because I kept stating that I think people are sincerely interested in learning about Jesus. Eventually I decided to try it their way out of respect for them and an awareness of my own stubbornness.
Our first marketing pieces had monkeys on them. We were so creative and over the top that we actually scared several of the people who received them. We had people come who had a great sense of humor, but who were not all that interested in growing in Christ. (Free principle for you - you can overthink yourself and be too creative at times.) We still preached Biblical themes the first series we preached, but they were more topical in nature and we were very aware of not being to exegetical (teaching straight from a passage). We had an okay response. But what we found was we had people who stayed who liked the topical feel and were not all that interested more intense Biblical teaching. We also saw that some of the people that were interested in specific Biblical teaching, but not the topical stuff went to look elsewhere for a church. We ended up with a very young church that struggles at times with personal growth and authority.
With this new marketing campaign that we are currenlty doing we have decided to start it off with a series on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Our thinking is if we are marketing a church to a community we want to draw in and retain people who are interested in learning about Jesus and the Bible. We want the lost to come, but not at the expense of helping them actually growing to know Jesus and walking with Him. We want those who follow Jesus to come and to be fed so they can go back out and help other people find their way back to Jesus. (Another free principle - no matter what anyone tells you, you keep people with what you won them with. If you win them without the strategies you want you will struggle to ever get them to buy into those values. Be wise in what you are at first, because it determines who you will most likely be from then on.)
So, I guess the things I would like to share is that 1) I beleive that people are sincerely interested in understanding the things of the Bible so they can decide whether or not to follow Jesus. I think most people avoid church because it is churchy. They are looking for a place where they can learn and have a good time. Be the church like Jesus envisioned it and you will never lack a crowd to preach to. 2) You get the exact crowd you market to. If you market to people who do not like church that is the kind of church you are going to end up with. If you market to traditional people who do not like change that is who you are going to get. There are a lot of different kinds of church and that is okay. Just make sure when you market that you consider carefully who you are inviting to become the core of your community. 3) Monkeys are funny, but maybe a little over the top for your first big mailing. 4) The Bible is an incredibly inspiring, powerful, humorous book that leads to real life-change. Do the hard work to understand the Scriptures so you can teach them in a way that draws in the hearts and minds of the modern audience. If you study the Word you will never lack something to say to the lost and saved alike.
Now go out there, have a blast and help people meet Jesus. Now that would be the best life ever.

Pinky and the Brain Gravy Style

So, you might be wondering why such a mild-mannered, well-behaved and stoic preacher like myself would title my blog "Pinky and the Brain Gravy Style." Let me explain. Pinky and the Brain were 3rd century philosphers from Rome who believed that each man had a destiny to fulfill in life. This destiny was to improve the well-being of society....Okay, not really. Actually Pinky and the Brain are two of my favorite cartoon characters. Brain is constantly plotting to take over the world and Pinky is always messing Brain's plans up. I decided to call my blog "Pinky and the Brain Gravy Style" because my whole life is spent trying to take over the world in one way or the other (coffee aroma-ed bean bags just might have done it) and finding great humor in all the different ways I seem to mess that up. Sometimes I stumble on some pretty neat truth and other times you might wonder if I made it out of the 1st grade, but at the end of the day hopefully something you read will help you grow closer to Jesus and live a better life. I know I am thoroughly enjoying mine.