Sabbatical Time
By · CommentsToday is the first day of a four week sabbatical I am taking after a series of life events that have caught up to me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Basically, I am tired in all three area and need time to unplug and rest. Someone asked me what a sabbatical is. One of the easiest ways to explain a sabbatical is to think of the word sabbath. Sabbath in the Bible was the day of rest God took after creating and he commanded that man should take a day of rest (sabbath) each week. A sabbatical is an extended time of rest from work, or a hiatus. Some people use sabbaticals to do research or write a book, I am using it to rest and seek God as we are about to enter a new season of life and ministry.
About one month ago Julie and I found out that our youngest daughter Emily, who is eighteen is pregnant. For those of you who know what my “occupation” is (pastor), you can imagine the shock. When I think about it, it would be a shock for any parent to find out that their teenage daughter is pregnant. After the shock of hearing the news, I admit to feelings of anger, disappointment, fear and one that surprised both Julie and I was numbness. We did not know what to do or say. It was like that for several days as we just loved on Emily and let her know that we were there for her and would be through her pregnancy.
Almost immediately she told us that she wanted to keep the baby and raise it in a loving home. We thanked God that the little girl with pigtails had grown into a beautiful young woman who cherished the life of the unborn child within her. As parents, we have taught our daughters that we are pro-life, believing that life begins at conception and is precious in God’s eyes and that each life has a purpose to fulfill. Emily and her baby’s father participated in sinful behavior by having sex outside of marriage according to the word of God, the Bible. She understands that and is truly repentant and sorrowful. As we have loved on her we have told her and others what’s done is done, forgiveness has been given, now lets focus on Emily’s health and the health of that little boy she is carrying.
After we found out about her pregnancy, we all agreed that we needed to share this information with our church publicly. On the Sunday we shared, 5/17, Darin, the worship pastor at Bridge Church spoke on carrying one another’s burdens. After his sermon, I shared the news of Emily’s pregnancy and Julie and Emily joined me up front. As I read a statement that Emily had prepared, people, one by one began to come up front and encircle our family. Our friends were demonstrating grace to Emily in a way she had not experienced outside that of God’s direct grace to her.
Planting a church from scratch three years ago has also taken it’s toll on our family. Activities such as week after week of setting up and tearing down, hosting mission teams, organizing, meeting, strategizing. vision casting, administration, traveling extensively and speaking around the country just to name a few of the responsibilities. It has been a joy to plant and nurture Bridge Church and I would do it again tomorrow if God opened the door, but I would do many things differently.
So, keep us in prayer over the next for weeks as we take this time of rest.
Bearing With Others
By · Comments“Bearing with” means not to hate, hurt, gossip about, mind their business or malign anyone. God does not want us to live someone else’s life. God has not appointed us to straighten out other people. He has not elected us a bully. God expects us to lovingly put up with one another.
If we do not love them there will be nothing but friction. It is the principle that guides husbands and wives. They lovingly put up with one another. Certain things get on each other’s nerves but love provides the lubrication so that they are able to grant latitude. They overlook great many things because there is love between them. If there is no love, friction will become so abrasive that the marriage will split apart.
We lovingly put up with peculiarities. We all have some quirks (you should see Darin Avery when he is playing golf and is teeing off); all of us have our peculiarities. But we are so close to our own peculiarities that they do not seem peculiar. We despise in other people the same peculiarities that we have ourselves. We can recognize them in others, but we have a blind spot to them in ourselves. Love enables the wife to overlook the fact that her husband has two left feet.
When we forgive, we are participating with God in something that is extraordinary and of divine origin. God invites us to be participants with him when we forgive our offenders. We participate in his love, his interests, his character. He’s at our side when we forgive.
Your nuts if you believe me
By · CommentsToo many people follow other people who have no idea what they are doing. The old saying, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then” really encompasses this truth. Seth Godin writes about this “blind leading the blind” over at his blog-
I’m the first person to admit that compared to you, I have no idea what I’m talking about. You’re there, doing what you do, and doing it with skill.
Let me be really clear: My job is not to tell you what to do. I don’t know what to do. You do.
Not just me, of course. Everybody with a blog or a book or an interest in your success. Don’t do what they say. Listen to their questions instead.
My job is provoke you into asking hard questions. Ask those questions to your boss and your co-workers and yourself. It’s easy to show that self-aware decisions and thoughtful strategies outperform blind stumbling.
I don’t have a lot of patience for this list of seven rules or that manual of how it’s supposed to be or the step-by-step road map you can purchase today only. I think you’ll do a lot better if you get optimistic about the future and cynical about pat answers at the same time instead.
Honor One Another
By · CommentsTo “honor” means to ascribe worth to a person and/or give recognition of another’s worth.
In 1776, colonists signed their names to a radical document that would change the world, the Declaration of Independence, knowing that they would probably give their lives because they put their names on this document. The final sentence says this, “And for the support of this declaration and with a firm reliance and the protection of the divine providence [that’s God] we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
That’s called commitment. They pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. What have you committed that to in your life? That’s the power of commitment, because today the United States is the most powerful and influential nation in the world.
Today’s scripture, Romans 12:10, suggests that we push others ahead of ourselves. We show each other honor, not disgust or any such attitude. We are glad when others are promoted. We are thrilled when others are blessed. We push others out front, not behind us. To be devoted means to be permanently linked to one another. It is a fervent commitment.
Even the secular world understands the value of recognition of those who serve others. Corporations and small businesses have seen a tremendous increase of productivity and improved morale in the people who work for them when proper recognition is given to sacrificial service. They have seen the destruction that comes when recognition for sacrificial service is replaced with reward for productivity. Appreciation for sacrificial service builds up, rewards for productivity breed unhealthy competition then quality of service is replaced with quantity of mass production.
Scripture tells us in several places to give honor to those who are worthy of honor. But I also think it is worth mentioning, not everyone is worthy of honor.
Some examples of those commands:
Honor the Lord Your God – Exodus 20
Honor your father and mother – Ephesians 6:23
Husbands, honor your wife – 1 Peter 3:7
It’s May Already!
By · CommentsGeez – it’s May already and it has been several days since I have blogged! Kind of mellow today, listening to Jim Brickman and our daughter Sarah is coming in for the weekend from Wright State University. I am so proud of both of our daughters, Sarah and Emily – God has blessed us tremendously.
Navy Seal Creed
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One of my best friends sent this to me as an encouragement today. If you are a leader in organization who truly cares about the people you lead and are willing to serve them, I hope this will be an encouragement to you as well.
The Navy Seal Creed
“My loyalty to country and team is beyond reproach. I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow Americans, always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves. I do not advertise the nature of my work, nor seek recognition for my actions. I voluntarily accept the inherent hazards of my profession, placing the welfare and security of others before my own. I serve with honor on and off the battlefield. The ability to control my emotions and my actions, regardless of circumstance, sets me apart from other men. … In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates and accomplish the mission. … I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity. My nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.”
Be A Cheerful Leader
By · CommentsLeaders are to be encouragers, not discouragers. The job of leadership is to give people a lift not to let them down. This is why cheerfulness is an important characteristic. If you want to be a leader, then you’re going to have to work on this. Some of you by nature are not naturally cheerful. Some people get up in the morning and say, “Good morning, Lord!” Others getup and say, “Good Lord! It’s morning!”
Some of you are just not naturally cheerful. But you can work on it. You can develop it. I would encourage you, if you want to be a leader, practice smiling. I do this every time I get in the car on Sunday morning. And I don’t feel like it at all! I’m still stiff, not woke up, but I start smiling. But you can smile yourself into a good attitude. The doctors tell us that there is actually a biochemical change when you start smiling, hormones are produced in your body.
How do you be a cheerful leader when you work with the kind of people you work with? How do you be a cheerful leader when you’re tired and worn out? Nehemiah in the Old Testament is a good picture of how. What is the secret of this leaders life? He says it in a simple phrase in chapter 8, “This day is sacred to the Lord. Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah was cheerful in spite of all the opposition he had. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness depends on happenings. Joy is internal. It is not based on circumstances. You can have joy in the midst of tragedy. You can have joy when you’re absolutely fatigued. “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”
What you say, what you do and who you are – Seth Godin
By · CommentsFrom Seth Godin’s blog:
We no longer care what you say.
We care a great deal about what you do.
If you charge for hand raking but use a leaf blower when the client isn’t home
If you sneak into an exercise class because you were on the wait list and it isn’t fair cause you never get a bike
If you snicker behind the boss’s back
If you don’t pay attention in meetings
If you argue with a customer instead of delighting them
If you copy work and pass it off as your own
If you shade the truth a little
If you lobby to preserve the unsustainable status quo
If you network to get, not to give
If you do as little as you can get away with
…then we already know who you are.
Nothing Happens Until Someone Provides Leadership
By · CommentsThat is a law of life. Look at history. The Civil Rights movement was nothing until a man came along named Martin Luther King and said, “I have a dream” and he provided leadership. The NASA space program was nothing until a guy named John Kennedy said, “We’re going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.” A man by the name of Ray Croc said, “I want fast food at a convenient price in a clean atmosphere” and he invented an entire industry called fast food. In your own family — you have family problems… nothing happens until somebody in the family assumes leadership and says, “We’re going to do something about it.” Everything rises or falls on leadership. Most problems can be traced to a lack of competent leadership. The greatest problem today is a leadership shortage. The greatest need is trained leaders.
In the book of Judges there were seven cycles — up and down, up and down. The last verse of the book Judges 21:25 “Every man did what was right in his own eyes. There was no king in Israel.” Where there is no leadership, people do their own thing. There is instability.
Principle of Cooperation
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Encouraged teamwork. Whenever you’ve got a project of any size and you need to organize it, realize that we accomplish so much more together than we do as individuals. B.C. Forbes, the guy who founded Forbes magazine said, “You spell success, T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K.” Cooperation is a key principle that’s built into good organization.
“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, thinking together is unity, working together is success.” Together we can do things we can’t do as individuals. Geese can fly 72% farther when they’re in formation than when they fly off by themselves. Who taught them that? God did. When we cooperate together, when there is teamwork there is great growth. Cooperation is a greater motivator than competition. It lasts because you feel like you’re together on a winning team. People influence each other. They influence the people they’re next to for good or for bad.
The wisest man ever to live, Solomon wrote in Ecclessiastes 4:9-10, “Two can accomplish more than twice as much as one. The results can be much better. If one falls the other pulls him up. If a man falls when he’s alone, he’s in trouble.” Who’s going to pull him up. When you’re building an organization, a business, a church, a social club, a lay ministry you follow these principles: keep it simple, work with those who want to work, make specific assignments, allow for ownership, encourage teamwork.
Leadership Law: Good organizations provide a supportive climate of trust and teamwork. That’s a mark of a good organization. They provide a supportive climate of trust and teamwork. In the Bible, when referring to Christians in the church, the phrase “one another” is used 58 times. It’s as if God’s saying, “Get the message! Help each other!” There is no such thing as Lone Ranger Christians. We are together in this. We’re a team. There is tremendous power in cooperation. God can overlook almost anything in a church: poor facilities, no facilities, poor doctrine. The one thing God will not overlook is disunity. In the first ten chapters of the book of Acts in the New Testament, ten times it says, “they were of one accord… of one heart … unified.” When you have unification like they did in Acts you will have the power of Acts. Thee is power in teamwork. Working together in this atmosphere of trust and teamwork. “Snow is a beautiful demonstration of what God can do with a bunch of flakes.” Individually, I can’t do much and you can’t do much, snowflakes are pretty frail. But if enough of them stick together they can stop traffic. I can’t do much. I can’t make an impact on this area by myself. You can’t make an impact on this region by yourself. But together, we’re making an impact. That’s teamwork.