Lord, grant me the grace to be free from the excesses of this life.
Let me not get caught up with the desire for wealth.
Keep my heart and mind free to love and serve you.
Source: Sacred Space
Archives
All posts for the month February, 2010
- Tonight was a night of up and down’s
- It was also a night that as a pastor, you sit back and marvel at
- I wrote 5 different sermons for this week, and actually used the one I wrote in my head this morning
- Amazing how God constantly speaks when you sit in a passage for awhile
- Had a fill in drummer that never played at Revolution
- Blown away by the talent and gifts of all the people who attend our church
- And everyone’s willingness to pull the rope and move Revolution forward
- We blew a sub during warm-ups, so that’s not awesome
- Tonight I talked about the fact that “God uses people who are humble and willing to do whatever, whenever”
- That really encompasses so many Revolutionaries
- Way to go
- I shared tonight that Katie and I are in the process of international adoption
- Got a lot of questions about it, but a lot of encouragement about it as well
- It is scary and exciting at the same time
- Here is a great book to check out if you are curious about it
- If you missed tonight, you can listen to it here
- I feel like it has made a huge difference practicing my talks each week
- What a difference
- We also did baptisms tonight
- Love seeing people take that step and hearing how God has changed their life
- Love when we do baptisms at church
- Love hearing the stories of life change and how God has worked in people’s lives
- And I get to be a part of it
- We announced tonight that our next partnership class is going to be on March 21st and we had 14 people sign up tonight
- Crazy
- Love how many people want to step up and call Revolution their church home and be a part of what God is calling us to in Tucson
- If you are new to Revolution, on March 7th (next Sunday) we will be having a Newcomer’s brunch
- This is a great time to hear about Revolution and meet some of the staff and leaders of the church
- In case you missed them, here is my week in pictures
- I’m meeting with Luke Simmons this week
- Really excited about connecting with him and learning about some of the next stages Revolution is going to be going through as we grow
- Been making a concerted effort recently to be connecting with leaders who are just a little bit bigger than us to learn how they got there, what to avoid and what I need to know
- Very enlightening
- Been reading 2 books this week that are convicting and eye opening: The painful side of leadership (Every leader needs to read this book) and Adopted for life (It is impossible to read this book, stay a Christian and not adopt, so convicting)
- Rev Up starts next Saturday
- Help us spread the word to every student 6 – 12 grade that you know
- It is going to be awesome
- I am blown away by all of the things happening at Revolution right now and all the things coming up
- I’m out stuff to say
- Night world
- Great post from Scot McKnight on Criticizing the church.
- A theological resource from Acts 29 on how to develop leaders.
This past week at our elder team meeting, we started with celebrations. At Revolution, we start all of our meetings with celebrations. Whether it is a weekly staff meeting or creative team meeting. We always start positive and celebrate what God is doing at Revolution. It is so easy to critique and get negative, it is a great way to change how we think and how we look at life.
This past week, I started off by saying, “Let’s look at little celebrations, what are some little things that God is doing at Revolution.”
The reason? At churches, we are prone to look for just the big things. We want to see 100 people baptized, 50 small groups filled up, double the amount of people we had last week. None of these things are bad, in fact, those are huge things to celebrate. The problem is that the weekly life of a church often doesn’t look like this.
We leave a service disappointed because attendance or giving was down and miss that someone became a Christian, a marriage was saved, someone gave for the first time, a second time guest came back, someone decided to sing a long for the first time or someone takes communion for the first time. We miss all of these because we are looking for the big thing.
How would our churches and our lives change if we celebrated the little things. We celebrate little things with our kids. Think about potty training. Gavin, our two year old is potty training. If I celebrated the big things I would wait until he is potty trained and staying dry throughout the day and the night to say anything. But because I’m celebrating the little things, any day or night that he is dry is a win. Going to the bathroom on his own is huge (he gets an M & M for it).
What if our churches were the same way? We celebrate any and everything regardless of the size. God moves in big and small ways. They are all miracles and they all need to be celebrated.
Saturday, we will continue our series on the book of Nehemiah (and if the weather cooperates, have a baptism afterwards). If you haven’t signed up yet and would like to be baptized, email Christe LePeau and she can get you all the details.
We are looking at a small section that has incredible relevance to our lives, Nehemiah 5:14 – 19 (if you haven’t grabbed a study guide yet, you can download it here).
Many people get stuck in the spiritual journey, but why? Why do some people seem to do great things for God and see God move in powerful ways in their lives and other seem to never get off the ground? Is it just luck? God’s plan? Or is it us?
We’ll look at the one thing we need to guard against to see God move in our lives and use us to do great things. Not only as individuals, but as a church. Some churches seem to reach hundreds and thousands of people and others close their doors, everyday.
Why? Doesn’t God want all of his followers to grow and all churches to grow?
There is one thing that prevents this, and that is what we will look at on Saturday night.
So, do whatever you have to do to get to Revolution this Saturday night (and don’t forget to bring a friend with you)!
Remember, we meet at 5pm at 410 S. Pantano Rd.
See you then.
A funny thing about life, leadership and leading a church is that opposition is inevitable. What is even more interesting is that opposition, while inevitable, won’t kill you. It won’t destroy your marriage, your life, your family or your church.
The only thing that can destroy you is you. The only thing that can destroy a marriage is the two people in a marriage. The only thing that can destroy a church are the people in the church.
When faced with opposition, temptation to quit or to sin, we have to decide to give in to that. We can fight or we can throw in the towel. Many marriages end, people quit dreams, churches split or close for a variety of reasons, but the final reason is always: they decided to give in.
Is that a generalization? Yes. Is that simlistic? Yes. But it doesn’t make it any less true.
I believe that life, marriage, family, dreams, church, leadership are hard. But not impossible. The greater your dream/vision, the greater the opposition and the harder the road. Staying married is harder than getting divorced. Raising kids is hard. Having integrity is hard.
Remember, no opposition can take you, your marriage, your family or your church down unless you let it. Things can only implode from the inside out.
“I believe in the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.” - Charles Spurgeon (quoted in Humility by C.J. Mahaney)
