Archive for February, 2008

The Bus: Part 1 of 3

So I’m reading this book right now called Good to Great by Jim Collins and it’s totally rockin my world.  I am doing this deal of setting aside time to hear from God.  I was inspired to do this by JR Lee, pastor of Freedom Church.  Anyway, I’m trying to create this expectation in my life of hearing from God and I feel like I can do that by seeking HIM in everything…reading books, reading my bible, my circumstances–everything.  So, anytime I do something I try and see what God wants to teach me at this point in my journey. 

All that leads me to this entry…The book says that good-to-great leaders understand three simple truths.  The book says that good-to-great leaders first would get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off) and then figured out where to drive it.  I’m going to comment on this stuff over the next few days…

Truth #1-”If you begin with “who,” rather that “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world.”

That is so true.  It’s much easier to make adjustments and shift when you have the right people on board.  In my opinion, the people who need to be on board are the people who have “bought” into the mission God has placed on your church.  So many times, there are people on board that want to advance their own agendas, all the while putting HIS on the back burner.  It’s tough to do things differently because you will hear the “church killer” statement, “we have never done it that way before.”  As you can tell, I’m not a fan of that statement.  I think it’s to restricting and it doesn’t allow for movement or even growth sometimes.  Because of our changing culture, the way we “do” church has to sometimes change.  We don’t change the message, but how we communicate it will change.  We have to have a “whatever it takes” attitude to reach those disconnected from God and having the wrong people on the bus will sometimes kills the work.  You must have the right people on board who recognize changing directions will sometimes be necessary….The right people get and believe in the vision and are in it for HIS glory and agenda to be advanced, not their own.  They know that change can be good and a new direction might mean being more successful in the cause of taking Jesus to the people….bottom line, the right people get it! 

 Wanting to hear your thoughts,

Brian

Thursday Throwdown

-FCA was pretty good this morning.  I got to hang out with some middle schoolers and that is always pretty cool.  They are very “interesting.”

-A lot of birthday’s over the next couple of weeks.  My brothers is today (Happy Birthday!), my wife’s is saturday, brother in law is in about 10 days and my dad’s is in about 11 days.  Luckily, we don’t eat cake at all of these because I would ruin my amazing figure (ok, so that was a joke…i’m fat and ugly)

-Can I say that I’m not a fan of legalistic traditions in anything, especially the church.  I wish we could stop placing rules on people before they even walk in the door.  Let’s try to extend some grace…After all, HE did to us!

-Our actions speak louder than words-Enough Said!

-I’m pumped about what God is doing in my life right now…the circumstances that i find myself, the obstacles i encounter, and the end result…i honestly have no idea what God wants to teach me thru some stuff, but i’m embracing it because i’ll be a better husband, dad, servant, and leader because of it!

Update

Read Entry below so this one makes sense! 

The ole bait and switch move at Jiffy Lube right by my office won’t happen anymore.  I drove by it this morning and they had taken down the $24.99 Oil Change sign…I guess they decided the sale should be over!

Bait and Switch

Alright, so i just took my car to a “no wait” oil change place and they had a sign on the street that said oil change for $24.99.  As i pull in, the guy asked me had i ever been there before and i said no…he smiled, looked at his co-workers and screamed, “he’s never been here before.”  He then proceeded to tell me the oil change would be $36.99 and you can imagine my surprise.  I asked about the sign that was posted only 15ft away and he said, “oh, i forgot that was up…ok, the price is $24.99.”  You see where I am going with that.  He tried to pull a little bait and switch on me….Luckily I was paying attention.  As I stood and waited on my no wait oil change, i thought about in churches how we advertise so much, yet often provide so little.  We hype up stuff to get people in the door but don’t deliver on expectation.  We talk about this amazing life that can be lived thru Jesus yet people don’t even see us living that life.  I’m not saying don’t hype stuff up.  I’m not saying keep the expectation low.  I’m saying to set the bar high, raise expectation, get people excited about what’s coming….but DELIVER!!  Be on your game and knock it out of the park!  Not just in a worship experience, but in all aspects of life and ministry!  Don’t just try to get someone in the door, have something for them when they get there.  Have something that doesn’t have them walking away saying, “man, that totally wasn’t what they said.”  I guess, just deliver what you say you will….deliver Jesus!

You’ve heard this before

our actions speak louder than words…very true…why then does it seem that we constantly forget that?  why do we always do things that screw us over and make us look stupid because how we just acted doesn’t line up with our speech…i’m not even talking about just in church world…what about the husband that says he loves his wife yet one day when something doesn’t go his way he treats her like crap (i’m guilty).  what about the best friend that says y’all are bff’s (i can talk like a teenage girl too) and then when the going gets tough, is no where to be found?  what about the leader that stands and speaks one thing yet lives another?  now i know, we are all human and all screw up…i think the problem is we screw up a little to often…i realize the opportunity of influence God has given me by calling me to pastor…i know that i have to be on my game and very aware of how i act as it relates to what i say…i can’t tell someone to behave one way while i act another…i just want to be focused on looking for Jesus in everyone, and trying to treat them the way HE would…bottom line on this, there are many areas in our life this applies…we need to be focused on not living a double life…what rolls off our lips, should translate into life.

 A work in progress-

Brian

is it our desire?

I am at a point in my journey right now that I have to be focused…I have to have my ears open…I just have to be on my game!  I am trying to go throughout each day with the expectation that I’ll hear from God….I don’t know how I’ll hear from him, but I just want to hear from him….through my circumstance, through music, through other people, through reading his word, through whatever; I just want to hear from HIM.  I was listening to this song today by Jeremy Camp…I started to evaluate my desires and what is most important….This goes with what I have adopted as my life verse…read it and listen to the song…what are your desires?

Absolutely Retarded

I am a little in shock right now. I just got a phone call from an employee of the company that runs our HOA! If you don’t know what HOA’s are, you aren’t missing out—they kinda suck. Anyway, this guy asked me did I still have christmas lights up…my response, “no bud, never had any up this year to start with. Why?” He said he had received a complaint that the house at my address still had christmas lights up….I thought you have got to be kidding me….first of all, i question the brain activity of the person who complained and secondly, who gives a rip? I’m glad that person took a few minutes of their day and wasted it complaining about something that was false…congratulations on that chief…..now, i know you are probably saying i have wasted a few minutes posting this blog ranting about the situation but I would disagree….my hope is this, if you are the one who complained about the lights (that aren’t even there), please email me. I would totally love to talk with you and discover how your brain works.

Unleash

This is a one day deal I’ll be at in a couple of weeks.  It’s taking place at Newspring Church in Anderson, SC.  The main sessions will be lead by Perry Noble who is the Pastor of Newspring.  I’ll have a couple of break-out sessions and I’m hoping to learn a lot.  I’m also pumped about meeting some new people, hearing others stories, and just being around some great leaders.  This will be my first time going to something like this so I’ll probably feel like a kid starting 9th grade who just moved into a new school district….I think there is supposed to be about 1500 ppl so it should be pretty cool!

unleash_web_resources.jpg

Song

I really like this song and just wanted to pay tribute to the ones who give me the opportunity to even write on this blog….To the soldiers, I salute you!  Thanks for wearing the uniform so I don’t have to.  to the the families who watch their soldier leave, thank you for the sacrifices you too make!  Bottom line, thank you for being a hero!

Coaches

This morning was pretty cool….I was over at Sprayberry High School and I got a chance to hang out with a few coaches….I was originally going to hang out with some students at FCA but ended up with the adults…The cool thing was that we held a bible study…I was excited to be there and enjoyed the opportunity to hear their hearts for Jesus and their desire to grow closer to him…The important thing for me was they recognized their area of influence and they expressed their desire to glorify the king in all that they do…it was just refreshing to see coaches/teachers/leaders share the same passion for Jesus and students as me…Props to FCA for their work in schools across the country and it’s a privilege for me to partner with them!

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