Archive - March, 2010

Quotable Tuesday

I attended the Catalyst One Day event in Chicago last week and had some great take aways that I am chewing on right now.  Today’s quote comes from Craig Groeschel as he talked about momentum, and busting barriers in people’s mindsets:

“To reach people that no one is reaching we must be willing to do things that no one else is doing. To do what no one else is doing, we cannot do what everyone else is doing.”

I was raised in a church culture that said the more ministries we had going the more successful we were.  Sometimes it even seemed like a goal was to add more and more things just to say that we were doing “such and such” a ministry.  All the while, we never evaluated (at least not honestly) the ministries we already had to see if we should continue doing them because they were being effective. I am convinced that many churches try to do so many things that they do not do anything as good as it can be done.

Basically, Craig was saying we can reach more by doing less… what do you think?

Friday Links

What a beautiful week it has been here!  It is finally starting to warm up!  Here are this weeks (short list of) links that really had in influence on me.  I hope you enjoy them!

Catalyst One Day

I am headed out the door to go to the Catalyst One Day – Chicago event. Chicago is one of my favorite cities, so I will enjoy the drive, the familiar surroundings, and hopefully some good Chicago pizza!.  The event is being held at Willow Creek Community Church, which I have wanted to visit for a long time as well.  I lived near the city for 12 years and never took the opportunity to go check it out – my mistake!

I am also fortunate enough to get to take my wife with me for this event which is possible because I won a ticket from Scott Hodge and The Orchard Church (thanks again guys!).  It will be a great day of learning and encouragement! It will be a great day of connecting with other leaders.  It will be a great day to be with my wife.  Bottom line: It will be a great day!

Quotable Tuesday

I am going to try something on Tuesdays starting today.  I love to read.  With my reading I come across a lot of good quotes that motivate, inspire and convict me to serve Jesus better and to love people more.  I want to pass some of those along here on my blog.  I tend to share these quotes, and many more on Twitter if you want to follow.  I hope they will motivate, inspire and convict you as well.

This first quote I read on Scott Hodge’s blog a couple years ago.  It inspired me to continue charting a course that I felt God wanted me to be on in ministry.

“Until you get your focus OFF of the people who are disgruntled, unhappy, unsupportive, and resistant to the direction God has called you to go, and ONTO those who are excited, supportive and on board, you will NEVER gain momentum and see a new culture created in your church.”

What are your thoughts about this?

Ok, a big announcement: I am going…

…to be a grandpa… yes, I am for real.

Jordan and Daniel informed us over the weekend that we were going to be the world’s youngest grandparents.  We are excited and already praying that this little one will make a difference for Jesus in this world.  Pray with us for that.

Proverbs 17:6 “Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.”

Friday Links

Here are some great posts from this last week.  I hope they are of value to you as they were to me!

That’s all I got this week!  Have a great weekend!

Friday Links

So, I did not get to really blog this week like I thought I was going to.  Still have some thoughts up there that need to come out, and I will try and get them down on this digital paper here soon.  For now, here are some more great posts from this last week that are worth your reading!  Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

That is all for this week!

Happy Birthday Josiah!

My oldest boy turned 17 today!  He is quickly becoming a man… a man that loves Jesus, loves other people, loves to work, loves music and plays some mean drums!  I am proud of him!  Happy birthday son!

Friday Links… On Saturday!

I got busy early yesterday.  I had to be at work at 10am, which is not tremendously early, but, it was my first real day at work in quite some time since being let go from my “real” job of being a pastor.  (I could go on for a bit on that last part of that sentence, but I will wait until later for that).  Anyways, I had a different routine than what I have been used to, and forgot all about posting the links for the week, so I will do that now. Oh, and I have some thoughts that are working in me that will have to come out here in the next few days, so I will get back to regular blogging… I hope!  For now, enjoy these links that I thought were either good, thought provoking or both!

  • Carlos Whittaker talked about The Problem With Being Safe this week.  Short, but really good!
  • I really appreciated Perry Noble’s post on Experts.
  • I believe we all have divine appointments that God sets up in our life. Pete Wilson tells us a cool story about one of his Divine Appointments.
  • Tim Stevens had a great post on Making Decisions In The Midst Of Chaos.  Every leader needs to read this!
  • I appreciated Mark Waltz’s words in his post “How Did I Miss It?” this week. I was in the First Wednesday service that we had, and was moved by the service, by Jason Miller’s words and the Arts Team led by Trace Rorie.  Go to Mark’s post and read it, and then watch the video either there, or here:

40 from Granger Community on Vimeo.

I hope you all have a great weekend!