Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Work and Play
Today I had a great day. I had a combination of great work and fun with some people that I truly enjoy. I spent the afternoon with the staff who will be moving west with us to start South Bay Church. Tonight all of our families and several others who plan to go ate dinner together and spent time hanging out. Today reminded me of a tendency in my life. I often times like to work, work, and work. Often times my choleric tendencies move me away from fun and enjoyment of life. Sometimes I find myself so focused on trying to reach a goal or strive for what's ahead that I can miss the current moment and what God wants me to experience at that point. This can cause me to miss times of laughter and joy with my family and people that are important in my life. Currently I feel like God is reminding me of the importance of balancing my work and focus with activities that help my mind relax and help me to enjoy life. I want to grow in ability to experience joy in each circumstance as it comes. May God give me the ability to enjoy this summer and times I will have to share with my family and other important people in my life.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Giants!!
Earlier this week I was reading the story of David and Goliath from the book of first Samuel. I was thinking and meditating about these few verses:
I Samuel 17:34-39
But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off.
Every person and every organization has giants. Giants are people, problems, challenges or even tasks that stand between your current reality and where God wants you to go. Giants have a tendancy to mock God and his reputation, they cause fear in our hearts and most of the time prevent us from doing the very thing God desires of us and individuals and as leaders.
Here are some key insights thinking about this passage and giants that we face:
* One must face the giants with a passion for God's name and through His strength.
* If you face the small giants (bear and lion for david) you are more likely to face the big giants.
* Giants don't move if they are not removed.
* Facing giants requires skill.
* When the biggest giant is defeated the smaller ones run.
* You can't face a giant in someone else's armor.(credit to archie jackson)
Best insight of all:
The one who faces the giant and wins becomes the leader, the one who runs from the giant loses his or her leadership!!
I Samuel 17:34-39
But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off.
Every person and every organization has giants. Giants are people, problems, challenges or even tasks that stand between your current reality and where God wants you to go. Giants have a tendancy to mock God and his reputation, they cause fear in our hearts and most of the time prevent us from doing the very thing God desires of us and individuals and as leaders.
Here are some key insights thinking about this passage and giants that we face:
* One must face the giants with a passion for God's name and through His strength.
* If you face the small giants (bear and lion for david) you are more likely to face the big giants.
* Giants don't move if they are not removed.
* Facing giants requires skill.
* When the biggest giant is defeated the smaller ones run.
* You can't face a giant in someone else's armor.(credit to archie jackson)
Best insight of all:
The one who faces the giant and wins becomes the leader, the one who runs from the giant loses his or her leadership!!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Loyalty and Disloyalty
Tomorrow we will have our very first South Bay Church staff meeting. As a part of our staff development we will read a book called "Loyalty and Disloyalty" by Heward-Mills, and share key learnings and insights with one another. I have very intentionally chosen this book to be the very first for our team. Here is why: I believe loyalty is one of the most significant ingredients to the strength and longevity of a team. Every pastor of a large healthy growing church that I have been around has a strong team of loyal followers. In addition I have handfuls of friends in ministry who have been burned time and time again by less than loyal people. So we will focus our initial times together on building trust and making sure that we are willing to take bullets for one another. The Kingdom of God is a dirty playing field. Everyone is going to experience pain and rejection as they lead, but I do think that we can make some specific decisions to emphasize the significance of loyalty on our teams and remove people who display any level of disloyalty to the leadership of the church. Pray that God would bless Filipe Santos, Archie Jackson and myself and we work together to build a strong nucleus in our church that is tremendously unified around the vision God has placed on our hearts.
A South Bay Church Miracle!!
So sometimes miracles are big and sometimes they are small, and our road to starting South Bay Church has been filed with both. I want to share with you our most recent miracle, but you must humor me and track with a little story so the miracle gets full effect!
So in the process of selecting a web address for South Bay Church it was very important to me and our team that we find a simple url. For example not something like, "www.visitmysouthbaychurch.org" or "thisismysouthbaychurch.com"... So on and so forth. Well when we began to look at web addresses earlier this year southbaychurch.org, .com, and .net were all taken. So knowing that I wanted an easy to find address I called the church who owned soutbaychurch.com asking them to give it up, they would not, and I called them again hoping they would forget I had called, after the 3rd time I figured I'd try for .org. So I entered into negotiation for southbaychurch.org. After having a "domain brokerage" company assess the site they determined that it was worth almost $700. Because this is such an important part of reaching people who are far from God we were willing to pay the $700 to get the site domain. Whatever it takes!! The girl who was working our account stopped returning my calls and emails... Because we were finishing up at Breakthrough and going on family vacation this administrative task was put on hold.
Yesterday after returning from vacation, I called the domain brokerage back to get the ball rolling so we could acquire the site. I finally spoke with a young man named Matt and he assured me that he would help me get everything finalized. Well, within an hour Matt called me back and said that the domain was now available and the company who previously owned the site had let it go! So, I hopped online and purchased the domain for $6.95!!! Don't tell me that wasn't a miracle. Say AMEN! Praise God right now where you are for that one! That was God's mighty hand saving us $693.05 so we could use it on something else to reach people who need Jesus!!
It is a great encouragement to me to see the hand of God at work! I hope you can rejoice with me as we see God grow South Bay Church from a handful of people and big vision to reach the San Francisco Bay Area!
So in the process of selecting a web address for South Bay Church it was very important to me and our team that we find a simple url. For example not something like, "www.visitmysouthbaychurch.org" or "thisismysouthbaychurch.com"... So on and so forth. Well when we began to look at web addresses earlier this year southbaychurch.org, .com, and .net were all taken. So knowing that I wanted an easy to find address I called the church who owned soutbaychurch.com asking them to give it up, they would not, and I called them again hoping they would forget I had called, after the 3rd time I figured I'd try for .org. So I entered into negotiation for southbaychurch.org. After having a "domain brokerage" company assess the site they determined that it was worth almost $700. Because this is such an important part of reaching people who are far from God we were willing to pay the $700 to get the site domain. Whatever it takes!! The girl who was working our account stopped returning my calls and emails... Because we were finishing up at Breakthrough and going on family vacation this administrative task was put on hold.
Yesterday after returning from vacation, I called the domain brokerage back to get the ball rolling so we could acquire the site. I finally spoke with a young man named Matt and he assured me that he would help me get everything finalized. Well, within an hour Matt called me back and said that the domain was now available and the company who previously owned the site had let it go! So, I hopped online and purchased the domain for $6.95!!! Don't tell me that wasn't a miracle. Say AMEN! Praise God right now where you are for that one! That was God's mighty hand saving us $693.05 so we could use it on something else to reach people who need Jesus!!
It is a great encouragement to me to see the hand of God at work! I hope you can rejoice with me as we see God grow South Bay Church from a handful of people and big vision to reach the San Francisco Bay Area!
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