Work to maintain it

I find innovation inspiring.

I approach pioneering with a sort of fearful sense of engagement and enthusiasm.

this morning i was reminded that there are parts of life that we have to approach and engage that are every bit as important as innovating or pioneering. Every bit as important as inspiring and motivating people to commit their lives to missional living is quite simply the work of maintaining peace.

you can't ignore or leave behind every person who disturbs the peace.

You have to watch your own attitude, measure carefully your responses and work for peace.

1 Peter 3:8-12

Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters.s Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude.9 Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.10 For the Scriptures say,

"If you want to enjoy life
and see many happy days,
keep your tongue from speaking evil
and your lips from telling lies.
11 Turn away from evil and do good.
Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
12 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right,
and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the Lord turns his face
against those who do evil."s

Peace everyone!

Just scratching the surface

In March of 2010 my wife and I are planning on going to Turkey. They tell me that Turkey has vast networks of caverns tunnels underground. Literally an underground city.

Recently i had a video sent to me that contains some information about Social Media. I feel like I have been exploring a city online all the while having no idea how deep this thing goes.



source info is found here.

http://socialnomics.net/2009/08/11/statistics-show-social-media-is-bigger-than-you-think/

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A Light to the Nations

This morning i was reading Isaiah 49 and verse 6 jumped out at me.

It's going to be a prayer for me over the summer.

6 He says, “But that’s not a big enough job for my servant—
just to recover the tribes of Jacob,
merely to round up the strays of Israel.
I’m setting you up as a light for the nations
so that my salvation becomes global!”

I'll tell you that there are days that pastoring a small church feels like an enormous Job.

And it's not that it's a small church that's a problem to me. I'm not one of those with a complex about that kind of thing.

The thing that i have a complex about is the Job. I love that our church has been a place where those who have fallen out of favour with church can come and find a community of Grace.

I think there are a lot of reasons people stray from Church and perhaps as many why people stray from God. Not all of those reasons tell a good story.

Some are sad and some are... sad.

I have often thanked God for being able to round up the strays of Israel. But i have a heart for something greater.

A Bigger Job.

Leading Church in a Flat World

Leading Church in a Flat World

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What does a win look like?

A couple weeks ago we called our ministry team leaders together for a training event where we talked about what a win looks like.

The greatest take home for me was the realization that i obviously haven't done enough to teach our leaders what a win looks like.

I realize that the language of metaphor can make it hard for teachers to get the kinds of answers they are looking for but still i am embarrassed to tell you just how hard it was for our folks to come up with good answers to the question:

What does a win look like in your ministry?

This morning on the Catalyst Blog they posted a great article by Matt Keller.

as always you can read the whole thing by going to their site but let me summarize here.

In order to See the Wins, you must…

1. Play your own Game. Comparison is a deadly game. You were called to pastor in your city, your town and your church for a reason. Every church has a unique vision to fulfill and people to reach. Embrace your church’s game plan. Play your game, not someone else’s game.

2. Set Realistic 1st Down Markers. We fail to see the wins when we set unrealistic 1st downs.

Each of our ministries have a hundred different factors that play into whether we win or lose on a daily basis. We must get real about what’s possible in our churches. Create 1st downs according to your reality.

3. Redefine True Wins. How often have you fallen into the trap of measuring wins by one of the three B’s: “Butts, Budgets, and Buildings?” True wins aren’t measured in any of those areas. A true win is life-change, one story at a time. It’s fixing a single mom’s car, or seeing one teenager commit to moral purity.

4. Celebrate True Wins. As the leader of your church, your primary responsibility is to identify where your church is winning on a consistent basis. It is your job to talk about those wins and celebrate them as often as you can. At NLC, we start every leadership meeting with the question, “Where are we winning?” This question engages our leaders to look for wins. It also forces them to connect the dots between what they do and the stories of life-change happening all around.

When you live in a ministry world, you must be able to know when you’re winning, otherwise you’ll burn out. Around Next Level Church, we have a statement that keeps us in touch with the wins on a daily basis:

“If you don’t celebrate the small stuff, you’ll never celebrate!”

It’s time to see the wins and start celebrating!


What a great article from the guys at Catalyst and Matt Keller.

Matt's info is below.

However you are serving Christ's Kingdom, go out a look for a win and celebrate changed lives and love shown.

Matt Keller is the author of The Up the Middle Church, a book written for leaders and leadership teams of churches that find themselves living an Up-the-Middle reality. To purchase copies for you and your team go to: www.UptheMiddle.com. Matt is also the lead pastor of Next Level Church in Fort Myers, FL, a church that began in 2002 with 4 people in a coffee shop and now serves over 1,000 people weekly. (www.NextLevelChurch.com) Matt blogs at www.MattKellerOnline.com.

Energy management

Had a really interesting conversation with a chap at Joppa this morning about Energy conservation and management etc. Not sure he was an environmentalist as much as he was a guy who gets the complexity of energy management and how it affects various interested parties.

We had a great rabbit trail on the damage that Organized religion does in various parts of the world...

glad the whole "so, what do you do" part of the discussion happened much later.

Made me think about the different reasons people have different discussions.

What is going on in your life or circle that makes you care about the environment or conservation? Anything?

short on time?

Ok so i was reading this and was challenged some by hearing how much effort Jim Collins puts into tracking how he spends his time...

It said he keeps "a running tally of how he’s spending his time, and whether he’s sticking to a big goal he set for himself years ago: to spend 50 percent of his workdays on creative pursuits like research and writing books, 30 percent on teaching-related activities, and 20 percent on all the other things he has to do."

i recently did up a time sheet to try to better answer the questions, what does a pastor do with his time?

It didn't help. There are so many different areas and tasks and responsibilities - it almost seemed to muddy the waters more.

This year I am going to set some of those goals for the coming year or 2 and categorize things a little better so I can make sure i am spending my time how i should.

Sharing the love of God

the more i think about the last post the more i think it strange that we have to relearn how to love people, and how to share God's love with people.

have we been living in another world so long that we have forgotten how to be social, how to be caring, how to be human?

Missional Living

At our church we have this cute little bookmark with the title: I will live the mission.

So i stumbled on this great little post by Jonathan Dodson @ thresurgence.com

I want to make sure I give credit where it is due by directing you to go read the whole thing there instead of here.

Here is a snapshot of what it means to live missionally in simplespeak.

* Eat with non-Christians
* Walk, don't drive ,around your neighborhood when possible.
* Be a "regular" at your local coffee shop, restaurant, market, hair cut, etc
* Hobby with non-Christians - find extra curriculars that you enjoy that you can do with all kinds of people
* Develop relationships with your co-workers and pray for them
* Volunteer with a non-profit once a month, and bring your family, friends and small group too!
* Instead of watching TV or playing XBOX, participate in city events, get in the mix
* Serve your neighbors - like weeding and fixing their cars.

so go on. Click here and read the whole post. It's better than my bookmark

Need to fire someone?

Becoming a missional church can be a long, difficult process. Like any change, you can expect pain of various kinds, especially the relationship variety.

One of the hardest lessons for many leaders to learn is that following a vision will pretty much always mean leaving behind those who aren't interesting in going with you.

I read a post today that took this hard truth to a new level.

Listen to what he said, "Here are four of the many reasons why I passionately believe you need to review your customer list, and tell some of them that you “have to let them go.”

read more from Scott McKain

Catalyst West Coast Live Blog