Vision

“Vision asks leaders, ‘What do you see?’ To answer that question, leaders identify needs unmet, hurts unhealed, and tasks undone. Through visioning they see the gaps between what is and what could be.”

This quote (forgot where it came from) hangs on my office wall. It reminds me to look for the needs and hurts of individuals within whom I serve - children and families. It also helps me to remember to focus on the importanat tasks that need to be done. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the work of something and forget what the vision of it was to begin with.

Significant living in each day

Just started a book, “Butterfly in Brazil” by Glenn Packiam. It’s about using your life today, in the here and now, to make a difference. One qoute in the second chapter stood out to me and has been on my mind since I read it.

“We can’t bottle up our passion, energy, and dreams of action until we’re on the right stage. If we try, we will get there only to find out that all the greatness has leaked out. If we try to save our vision for the perfect day, we’ll lose it.”

The chapter goes on to talk about if we wait for us to arrive at that moment of greatness - when we complete school, when we get that job, when we go on that mission trip, etc. we are living the moments as stepping stones. We will only be living each moment at half speed and God wants us to take what is stirred in our hearts today and live in the here and now. Instead of waiting for great things to happen, we should ask God, “:What should I do about this idea now.” When we wait for the moment of greatness to happen in our lives, we miss the opportunity in every day to do something significant.

Check your language

On of my biggest pet peeves is to listen to pastors or teachers who speak in “christianese.” The language that Christians use. We need to understand our audience, whether children, teens, or adults and make sure we’re not using our elite country club language in explaining spiritual truths to them. Make sure the terms you use aren’t unique to the church or Christianity. Remember the adage - KISS - “keep it simple stupid.” Assume that someone in the group you’re speaking to is a non-Christian and you are probably confusing them with terms like “consecration” and ”living body.”

pride.

I’ll admit that something I struggle with is pride. So often I’ll go through the day, crossing things off my mental to-do list, patting myself on the back for making it through certain situations or accomplishing things, that I forget to really give credit where credit is due. Without Him, my Savior, I am nothing. I can do nothing. I would be nothing. I tend to get caught up in the day to day living that I so often make it through the day and try to remember if I even prayed before I ate lunch. I’ll get greedy over “my time” and not spend time reading my Bible or talking to God, the creator of time. I forget that He’s the one who makes the minutes happen and gives me another hour to live. Something great will happen in my ministry - a child who “got it” or good attendance at an event and quickly I will think that “I did good or worked hard for it.” I forget that God gives me ths talents and resources to do what I can accomplish. He moves in the hearts of individuals. I am nothing without Him. My prayer is “God make me less and help me to see You more.” I want to daily know that I am nothing without the grace and life of my Savior.

thirsting…

I love the picture spiritually of thirsting. I don’t know why, but it is something I can totally relate to. I go through seasons where I am content with being complacent. But then other seasons, like the one I’m entering into righ tnow in my life, I can feel myself thirsting for God. A true yearning to know Him intimately, to need Him, to run to Him. I think the heavier the complacent patch we go through, the further we travel from Him, the more apparent the thirst is.

Unfortunately, one thing I have to work on is when I thirst for God, I scan my bookshelves looking for just the right book to inspire me. A book written by a great author to teach and convict me. Why don’t I just pick up my BIble instead and read from THE Author? In thr thirst, the Word of God is the quenching water. It nourishes, soothes, and saturates our soul.

 

Rough ministry patch

It’s been kind of a rough ministry patch the past month or so. I’ve been totally swamped busy, but today I was realizing that even more so than busy with a to-do list a mile long, I’ve been heavy with the hurts of those close to me.

Within the past month we’ve had a wonderful ministry friends suffer a miscarriage, a dear friend lose his youth ministry job, and close ministry friends deliver a baby 7 weeks prematurely that has been in ICU for a week (so far). Today I was actually questioning God, seeing that all these friends are in ministry, as to why it was happening.

I am a great believer that when adversity strikes, it usually means that God is gearing up to do something BIG and Satan is trying to attack. I have felt it in my own life, I have seen it in the lives of others. But this type of pain I’m seeing is a movement of God, trying to show something, grow us, teach us, mold us, and to bring us to Him through it. It could be Satan attacking too - trying to test the resolve, the steadfastness.

Whatever the reason for the suffering in the lives of these closest to us, it has made for a few rough ministry weeks. Ever just feel so heavy and burdened for those you love? I do. But its a feeling I don’t want to lose either - compassion, love, concern. I want my heart broken with the things that break God’s and I know that these things do.

I don’t even know the point of this post! But just felt the rambling thoughts… 

 

running a million directions

Currently I am running a million directions trying to meet deadlines for many things. We have huge transitions this week with our classes, ages, and classrooms. New teachers starting. New large group environment starting. Our weekday preschool program is finishing up its second school year and we have record enrollment for the summer program we’re offering with 10 new teachers being hired and orientation next week. Not to mention I am deaning a week at our state’s Christian camp for elementary age in 3 weeks and writing curriculum for it.

Honestly, I am feeling slightly overwhelmed. I need to delegate better. Does anyone else struggle with that? I have some key individuals who are awesome at helping where needed, but it is a weakness of mine. But that aside, what do you do when you feel overwhelmed and your to-do list keeps growing??

Change…

It’s that time of year again, kids are getting out of school, being promoted grades, and everything at church changes. At least at ours it does!

This week will mark the new classes for kids in the Children’s Ministry. We don’t do any hoopla for “promotion” - personally, I think that’s silly. But we are having to redivide all our preschool classes due to growth and lack of facility space. We are simply at capacity in most of our preschool classes.

Change like moving kids, starting new classes, recruiting new teachers, implementing curriculum with new ages, moving fixtures and materials, etc. drives me to do what I do. I love the energy, work, and time that go into making things better for everyone. Sure it’s a lot of work this week and next, but in a few weeks we’ll be able to step back and see what the implication of the change bring. I’m excited about what God does when there is change happening.

Why is it that so many run from change rather than embracing it? In times of change we are stretched and we grow. God moves.

Smaller is not an excuse!

So as a church leader, when you attend a conference or something at another church, if you are not a mega-giga, huge church. you have the potential to walk away feeling discouraged and deflated. Often you think, “Well, I can’t do that! We’re only  __(fill in the blank)__ people!” I’ve felt that way many times. But I can’t use it as an excuse anymore, and that’s what it is.

We attended a church this evening that was about half the size of our current church, Ridge Church in Charlotte. However, being there and seeing the excellence they used to execute a worship experience it could have been a church of thousands. From the moment we pulled in the parking lot, we noticed the climate in which they crafted everything they did from music in the parking lots to themed decor in the lobby for their message series. Their staff was available, informative, and friendly - both volunteer and paid. Their children’s environments were the best that I have seen done in a church, and in a church of many many more. Not to mention the quality of the adult worship experience and everything that goes into that.

It was evident that bringing people far from God, close to God is the heartbeat of Ridge Church. If a family walks in on a Sunday and feels uneasy about leaving their child in the preschool class, they may totally miss the message God has opened their heart and mind to hear. Or it could be something that serves as a distraction. It was so very refreshing seeing a church that is smaller (they are only 6 months old!) doing things wayyyyy better than most larger churches do them. Money wasn’t the factor. Resources weren’t the factor. Just a climate of excellence and detail.

So the next time you think you can’t do something in your ministry because the size of your church or ministry, I urge you to think again. Evaluate places that can be done better. Think about what the non-Christian or first time visitor sees and feels. If you can - take a trip to Charlotte. Be a learner from other churches of all sizes. They keep us fresh, they keep us on our toes and something can be learned from a church of any size. Don’t make more excuses.

Relevancy?

Some thoughts spoken by Louie Giglio ar the Orange Conference have been on my mind for a week now. He was talking in our last main session that the church has made relevancy the idol of the contemporary church. That we need to focus on cultural transcendence rather than cultural relevancy. The bottom line was that He IS. If we focus on He Is and bring Jesus into everything we do, we will always be relevant. Once we look to culture for relevancy in the church, we are already out of step. It was an interesting challenge, especially coming from a church leader that I would say has followed the course of relevancy in his ministry.

After thinking about it this past week though, I see the truth in it. How many days go by without hearing with word “relevant” in your church?  When we describe our message or worship, we describe it with this term. As leaders in the church, we sometimes think that if what we do is just relevant with non-Christians, then they’ll relate and see Jesus in a new way. BUT….they won’t be able to see Jesus in a new way if we’re leaving Jesus out of it.

I believe that we need to find new and creative ways to relate to individuals. We need to tie what culture gives us into our teaching. Psychology has a term for this - “creating schemas.” Much like an index card system we have in our minds of past experiences, as we approach something new, we try to assimiliate it into what we’ve already experienced. This maximizes learning. In the church, presenting things in a relevant manner acts in such the same way. It draws connections from what is familiar and known to what is being taught. Not to mention, how people spend their time. If we’re going to “compete” for people’s time and attention, then we’d better “bring it” and a message worth hearing.

However, if in the name of cultural relevancy we leave Jesus out of it, they won’t see Him anyways. They’ll see the church being just like everything else they encounter day to day. What sets you apart in the name of cultural relevancy?