Ava is 4

Hard for me to believe that Ava is 4 today. Here is what she looked like on day 2. 

This is a picture from her first birthday party she went to, it was a princess party.

One of the things I started doing this year is writing a letter to each of my kids are there birthdays. I am compiling them and will give them to them on their 18th birthday. It is a way of chronicling their lives from my perspective. It really is a neat practice as it allows me to think through the last year of their lives, what I see in their personality, passions, how God is forming their heart. A way of telling their story. I think this is a powerful practice for Dad’s to do that they can pass on a heritage to their kids.

Here are some highlights of this year:

• Friends have become very important to Ava
• She is always asking about Karen, Abby, Andrew and every other person she comes into contact.
• You can start to see the soft heart that God is forming in her.
• She likes to include others
• She sees needs that are in her world. A few weeks ago she saw a bunch of trash on an empty lot in our development and she asked if we could clean it up as a family, so we did.
• She started praying this year. I love hearing her pray for what is on her heart, her friends, family, etc.

What I hope this does is when our kids are 18 I don’t know where they will be, where they will stand with God. I want to chronicle where they came from in hopes that it will affect where they are going.

Links of the Week

1. Ed Stetzer on What a pastor does. There is a lot of confusion on what a pastor should do, because many of the opinions have little to do with what the Bible calls a pastor to do.
2. Craig Groeschel on The benefits of hiring from within, the downside of hiring from within, how to hire from the outside and the disadvantages of hiring from the outside. I would prefer to hire from within, takes a lot of surprises out of the equation, but sometimes hiring from the outide is the right move. Great thoughts to keep in mind.
3. Bert Decker on the Power of story.
4. Sam Rainer on College majors and church attendance. This is a fascinating study that shows depending on your major in college will dramatically affect whether or not you attend church while in college.
5. Winfield Bevins on Missional Christianity.
6. Bert Decker on Obama, the Teleprompter and Authenticity. A must read for any communicator, great reminder about authenticity.

This Weekend: The Making of a Man of God

This Saturday we are kicking off a brand new series Elijah and it is my first week back to preaching in a month. I can’t even begin to tell you how pumped I am about this series.

It is going to be awesome.

Saturday we’ll be looking at how God works and speaks, whether that still happens, how to do something great with your life and how integrity fits into all of that.

You don’t want to miss it.

Go here for more information and here to use an e-vite to invite a friend.

See you Saturday at 5!

What a Pastor Does When He Doesn’t Preach

For the month of July I have been blessed to have the month off from preaching. What many people think when they hear that the first time is “I’m off for a month.” That is not the case.

Ironically, pastors do more than just preach.

Really, they do (or, at least they should).

One of the things that makes being a pastor different from other jobs is what it takes to do that job. While every job is mentally, relationally, and physically draining and some jobs add the component of being emotionally draining, there is an added component to being a pastor:  the spiritual side. This can be the toughest to balance and recover from when this drains. For a pastor, one of our main jobs is to help people with their spiritual journey, provide guidance, preach, counsel, give push back that it is easy to dry up because of the effort this takes. A pastor needs time to pull back, spend extended time with God, praying, journaling, reading scripture, listening to refresh. This is something every older pastor has told me as the number 1 reason they made it to the end of being a pastor.

A pastor also needs a break from preaching, this is good for the pastor, as well as the church. It gives him time to refresh and it gives the church to hear from other voices (from inside and outside of the church).

This month for me was filled with extended time with Katie and the kids, reading, connecting with other pastors and people in our church, researching for future series, as well as writing our partnership class, projects that take an extended amount of time.

One of the things that can be different for a pastor compared to other jobs is that it doesn’t end. You never stop being a pastor. You get phone calls in the middle of the night, you are always “on,” you can end up counseling or helping someone at any moment. It consumes all of you. If you aren’t careful, you are only friends with people who attend your church.

One of the ways to pull back from that is to take a break from preaching, to get away and rest. While this is difficult, almost to a person, every older pastor I have talked to has told me that to make it to the end, you need extended time away, regularly.

I am grateful for our team and elders who enabled me to take this break and not worry about our church. We are blessed to have some unbelievable leaders.

What taking a break also does, it makes you incredibly excited to come back to preaching. Don’t miss this Saturday as we are kicking off a brand new series Elijah!

Thoughts from Rev. Benjamin Formee on Money & Debt

For our last series, we made some videos of me as a TV evangelist.

We showed this one the second week of the series about debt.

We showed this one the third week of the series about the myths about money.

Go here to see the other videos we’ve made at Revolution Church.

Partnership Class

We’ll start talking about our partnership class this Saturday at church. It will start on Wednesday, August 26th (this will run while our small groups are on their break) and run every Wednesday until September 16.

At Revolution, partners is the word we use for membership. We’re not fans of the word member (makes church feel like a country club).

This will be a 4 week class that will be required (eventually) for almost all of our volunteers and something we want as many people in our church as possible to go through.

Here is what it will cover:

1. God and the Bible (Who is God? What is the Trinity? How did we get the Bible? How do you read the Bible?)
2. Jesus and the gospel (Who is Jesus? Why did he come to earth? What is the gospel? Is heaven and hell real?)
3. Church and stewardship (What is the church? How am I gifted/wired? How do I use those in my church and city?)
4. Mission and structure (Why does Revolution exist? How are decisions made? How do we do church?)

I cannot begin to tell you pumped I am about this class. We have spent months working behind the scenes on writing, researching, planning, praying, writing some more, debating.

I think this will be one of the most important things that we do as a church.

Leadership is…

Leadership is the willingness to put oneself at risk.
Leadership is the passion to make a difference with others.
Leadership is being dissatisfied with the current reality.
Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses.
Leadership is seeing the possibilities in a situation while others are seeing the limitations.
Leadership is the readiness to stand out in a crowd.
Leadership is an open mind and an open heart.
Leadership is the ability to submerge your ego for the sake of what is best.
Leadership is evoking in others the capacity to dream.
Leadership is inspiring others with a vision of what they can contribute.
Leadership is the power of one harnessing the power of many.
Leadership is your heart speaking to the hearts of others.
Leadership is the integration of heart, head, and soul.
Leadership is the capacity to care, and in caring, to liberate the ideas, energy, and capacities of others.
Leadership is the dream made reality.
Leadership is, above all, courageous.

- Taken from Leadership Gold by John Maxwell