Life Goals

I've bee challenged recently by Mark Batterson to write down my life goals. I am currently finishing his new book "Wild Goose Chase.". I will be posting a few thoughts on the book this week as well as a few of my life goals.

All We Can Do Now is Wait

Wow! Where do I begin. I think back three years ago when my family went through 2 of the worst hurricanes in history. After Katrina devastated our coastline and we led the largest distribution effort on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 10 weeks, a friend of ours who I will be playing golf with this very week rewarded our family with a getaway because of our efforts. He noticed the burnout in our eyes, and realized we needed a break after working over 100 hours a week for over 2 months. Long story short we chose Cancun only to ride out Hurricane Wilma (155 mph winds for 40 hours) in a shelter for 10 days. I'll save the details, but to be honest I have never wanted to quit ministry so bad in my life. As it is, I spent the 2nd half of this week in preparation for Gustav and who knows after that (Hannah). Now all we can do is wait. I head to ATL tomorrow and catch a flight to FLA monday. We are asking that you pray for the people of the coast of MS and LA this week. If you see someone in your town this week, maybe buy them a tank of gas or serve them in some way. Thanks so much for your prayers and support. Ill keep you up to date on our status.

Gustav - Three Years after Katrina

As many of you know Friday marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina that obliterated New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Well here we are watching Gustav and waiting in limbo to see what our next move is. Please pray for us about the following things:

1. Peace for the people of our area. Not only a peace but also a turning towards God that is not just temporary.

2. The church - In 2005 following Katrina Jesus was lifted up because of the service of the church across America.

3. Wisdom for our leadership as we will make decisions as to whether to cancel retreats etc. scheduled this week.

4. A weaker storm than expected. If it has to make landfall, let it be mild.

Please forward this to others in your circle of influence as well as those who helped during Katrina. Thanks for all of your prayers and help.

Making the Tough Decisions - Part 4

I've been discussing over the last several days how to identify and deal with people with ulterior motives. Tonight I want to briefly focus on...
3. The Legalist - Ill just illustrate this one with a story. We had a worker in our church several years back who was constantly saying how it was disappointing to him that few Christians could say the 10 Commandments. He proceeded at one point to ask me if I could say them, and as I did, he got on me for not saying them in order, and not quoting them in the KJV. That was the end of that discussion for me, but as I look back I would have done something very different. As I look at his verbiage, I realize now this was his attempt to spiritualize himself. My pastor always says "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." My response to him instead of attempting to quote them to him would have simply been to say "when is the last time you served someone in need?" Several weeks later he passed me on the road with a cigarette in his hand. I'm not here to beat him over the head about that issue, but give me a break. These were the people Jesus dealt with the most in His day. They were called Pharisees, and Jesus wasn't very gentle with them. Since that time that man and his family have changed churches three different times.

Sunday Night Reflections

• Really excited about all the new faces I saw today. You can tell school is back in full swing.
• Had missions emphasis today and was presented with a website where we can see realtime decisions merged with Google earth all over the world. You can get the feeds by signing up here... http://www.godrev.com/ and click realtime decisions. This pumps me up...seing people all over the world accept Christ.
• Kicked off brand new Financial Peace class tonight. I love to see people getting excited about getting out of debt and making plans to invest in the kingdom for the long haul.
• Got a slammed week. Put the finishing touches on "Momentum" our back to school retreat. Probably need a few "Rockstars" to make it through.
• One week and one day til I fly to TPC Sawgrass where I will play both courses in 2 days. Real excited about Julie speaking while I am gone. Promising everyone I will hit as many shots on 17 as it takes to stick one on the green.
• Killed the brand new "Shed" BBQ in town. Lives up to the Food Network expectations.
• Will pick up tomorrow on "Making the Tough Calls" here on the blog.
• Will finish "Wild Goose Chase" this week. I'm sure it will live up to the hype.

Making the Tough Decisions - Part 3

I have been discussing making the tough decisions to confront improper motives. So far we've dealt with the "Good Ole Boy" and the effect they can have on a church.
2. The Critical Spirit - Unfortunately these people don't introduce themselves by saying let me be critical for a second and then rant and rave for 20 minutes(that would actually be a better way to handle it). Many times they mask their criticism in comments or hints that further their own agenda, but appear to make them seem like they have genuine concerns about the church or people within it. For instance...I had a lady who was a youth worker at the time talk to me about how she wanted to see our students grow more in their faith. She believed God had so much for them and wanted to help out in anyway possible. Well Duh...All youth workers should feel that way. What she was really saying and you have to trust me when I say it all came out in the wash is that she didn't think the church or myself was doing enough to "disciple" students. Here is rundown of the events that followed. She and I met about possible scenarios to "do a better job." Unfortunately when it was all said and done I refused to let her daughter lead a Bible study under my authority because of her rebellion and promiscuous relationship she had just been involved in. I was to blame apparently for her daughter's poor choices and now that she had attempted to get her life back on track, she was to be the spiritual hero(not on my watch). This led to a downward spiral of gossip about the ministry, that was still masked in spirituality. When I finally hit it head on, which was about two weeks too late, I was told, and I quote "you are not a pastor, you are an evangelist"(whatever that means). She went on to say "If you were, you would leave the 99 and go after the one" which was her daughter that was angry with me. I gently(ok not really) looked her in the eye and said to her that in order for me to leave the 99 and go after her daughter, she must first be willing to admit to me that her daughter was lost(because that is the premise behind that parable), and if that is the case, what the heck are you doing asking if she can lead a Bible study. Deal with the firmly, and deal with them quickly, because their mask of spirituality can lead many others astray and you will have clean up work to do.

"The Gathering"

Tonight was amazing...Jam packed again and nearly 80+ students responded to a very deep response time. The band well...still growing!!!

Making the Tough Decisions Part 2

This is part two of dealing with and removing difficult people. I watched from the time I was a teen how pastors and leaders dealt with difficult people and learned quite a few things, but in the last 8 years of I have been dealt my fair share as well. Here are just a few.
1. The Good Ole Boy - This can be one of the most difficult people to deal with. In fact you can mistake them for a close friend and even confidant. They shower you with love and praise and make you think they will go to bat for you in any situation. Be very weary of over zealous praise from anyone (unless its the sweet grandmother that has been by your side in ministry for years). I learned this several years back. My wife and I moved to a new location and there was a particular individual who went out of their way to help my wife find a teaching job as well as make me their best friend. I even helped coach a baseball team with him. Little did I know he was noting my every move and would bring it back up to haunt me when decisions were made about ministry that "he just didn't agree with." I found that what appeared to be my "buddy" nearly choked me in a meeting, ended up nearly splitting the church I was serving at the time. These people must be dealt with firmly and leaders cannot live in fear of what may happen if they deal with it head on. If this guy is going to split the church, he has a better shot at it the longer you let him/her linger. Take the bull by the horns and deal with it. Make sure you are surrounding yourself with strong enough leaders that can also see through the "praise trap."

Speed Walking

Are you serious...It really is an olympic sport. If you want a good laugh check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2urNVmKnEaQ&feature=related . Had to get that off my chest.

Making the Tough Decisions

I'm so tired of rain I don't know what to do. Finally got a chance to cut my grass today when I noticed a patch of weeds beginning to take over a few of my bushes on my property line. My immediate action was to pull it out. After all it would be foolish to leave it. It wasn't easy but after a few tugs I succeeded. Unfortunately as pastors and leaders we leave weeðs around too long. There are people within our ministries that attempt to undermine authority or at the very least have questionable motives. It may be a staff member or key leader, but they must be removed. If it can be done so gently that is more often than not the best way. However there are times that a leader must exercise their authority and apply whatever actions necessary to remove that spirit. Over the next few days I will be giving a few more thoughts on this topic.

"Stoked"

This past Wednesday we had our annual Re-Launch of The Gathering Youth Church after taking a few weeks off for July. Not only was the room jammed to capacity, but it is like a totally different ministry than last year. Several years back we gathered our core leadership team together because we realized that we were losing our juniors and seniors. We made it a point to focus on the freshman and sophomores over the next two years to see what would happen as far as our graduating classes go. We were amazed when last spring we graduated our largest senior class ever, more that four times larger than any previous year. With that however comes many challenges. Although we have several of those now college freshman hanging around in leadership roles, we also lost many who went off to college. Among them were our worship leader of 4 years, lead guitarist, drummer, keyboard player, and back-up vocalist, not to mention the student leaders we also had to let go of. I have to admit I was a little concerned about how things would go. With me back on the keyboard (which is never a good thing), and all underclassmen filling the other roles, I was "stoked" to see how well things went. The energy was at all time highs, worship simply rocked, and to top it all off it was our largest re-launch ever. We have more youth leaders, student leaders, and the largest kick-off ever. Were "stoked."