I’m Getting Older

· Categories Personal

This feels like a post I should make on my birthday, but that’s still 7 months away. This is actually something that came from my twitter account (FOLLOW ME HERE) earlier today.

I wrote in successive tweets:

I was confronted in the last 24 hours with the fact that I’m getting older. Here’s how I know:

1) I’m shrinking. I used to be a lot closer to the 6ft mark on the gas station door height measuring sticker

2) In a mtg this morning a man was casting a very big vision and I felt his timeline for accomplishing it was too ambitious (hate this one)

3) I was ticked last night that I missed the 2nd half of the previous days “Deal or No Deal” episode to see how well the guy did

I would also add:

4) The difference in time between when I wake up now and when I went to bed in college is rapidly decreasing

5) I made a reference to a show the other night, and most of my high school students hadn’t been born yet when the show was on the air

There are many more I’m sure, but what are some things in your life that point to the fact that you’re getting older?

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Stay Where You Are

· Categories Church, Leadership, Personal, Student Ministry

My friend Eric Brown wrote a GREAT POST over at CREATINGCOLOR.ORG recently about staying where you are. He writes:

Often times our lack for intentional investments steals our attention towards bigger and better dreams, rather then, the community you live in…Living life investing into next opportunities most of the time will sour influence…So here is a question:

“What would happen if you invested into one idea and one community your entire life?”

It’s a challenging read from a great guy. Give it a look!

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Dream Day

· Categories Personal

Tomorrow I am getting to do something that I have to do every few months to stay sane! I’m taking a dream day.

Now the name is a little misleading, because I’m not going to sit around and daydream all day. It’s a refueling, planning, preparation day (with some dreaming involved).

Each of these days looks different. In the past I have taken dream days at a coffee shop and stayed there for 7-8 hours just writing things in a book or typing on my laptop. Another was at a camp up in the mountains. You get the idea.

Tomorrow’s version will take place between here and Asheville, NC (where I will be speaking on Saturday). It is my plan to map out the rest of the 2010 events and series calendar, series development for the next few months, some staff and volunteer development issues, and spend some quality time talking and listening to the Lord.

It serves as a Sabbath of sorts for me, and allows me to push from reactive leadership and ministry to proactive.

How do you make that move from reactive to proactive?

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Cornestonempn.com

· Categories Church, Student Ministry

Yesterday our College Pastor, Justin Walker, unveiled the new name, brand, website and philosophy for college students here at North. You can visit the site at cornerstonempn.com and read about some of the others things mentioned above.

Justin came on board with us back in June. Since then he has gotten married to his high school sweetheart, Amanda, and started in the Masters of Theological Studies program at Candler School of Theology at Emory University.

I’m so excited about what is happening in this community of students, and what the future holds for them. There’s nothing earth-shattering about this approach but it is very different in intentionality and philosophy of success than what we’ve done in the past and what’s being done for college students in other places.

Justin’s contact info is on the website if you’d like to dialogue with him about this new endeavor.

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Unfinished Sermons

· Categories Christianity, Student Ministry

Last night was a powerful night. We started a new series called “The Price is Right” and will, for the next few weeks, be looking at the cost of God’s “free” gift of grace.

The talk last night was a typical week 1 message. I defined some terms (grace, mercy, forgiveness, etc) to make it easier for us to all move forward together in the remainder of the series. I then looked at Romans 6 and to the flagstone verse of John 3:16 to really understand what grace was all about and how we are supposed to respond.

I was very transparent in a story from my past about getting into credit card trouble in college and my parents “bailing me out”. They extended grace to me by paying for my mistakes. I described the difference in my use of a credit card and my friend’s use of his dad’s “in case of emergency” card.

I talked to our students about the difference in genuine struggles with sin issues and temptation vs a flippant attitude about the grace of God.

I then confronted these 2 groups of people that I felt like were sitting in the room listening to my talk. Those who were genuinely struggling with sin issues, but sincerely trying to overcome them with the help of the Lord were only swiping “daddy-God’s” credit card of grace in case of emergency, and I encouraged them to keep fighting, keep chasing, don’t give up.

But there are those who swipe “daddy-God’s” credit card of grace often to fulfill their own desires and on a whim. Then they come to Him on Sundays and Wednesdays and hand Him all their receipts and ask Him to pay the bill. They do this week after week after week. I stated that for these people, “you may have misunderstood the point of Jesus coming to earth.”

The band came back up and sang “Decode” by Paramore (one great lyric: “How did we get here when I used to know you so well? How did we get here? Well I think I know.) Then I closed us out.

- I didn’t bring our students to the altar.
- I didn’t have them repeat after me.
- I didn’t “finish” the sermon.

Instead of putting a big bow on the end of it, I left it for them to “finish” on their own.

Is that safe for students?
How do you feel about that?

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A Difficult Day in Ministry

· Categories Church, Leadership

I wrote this post as a draft on the day of the following event a few weeks ago, but have held it until now. I maintained the present tense of my original entry.
—

Today I had what was by far one of the most difficult days I have ever experienced in ministry or otherwise.

I was a part of some conversations where 2 people I have worked closely with in Student Ministries and that I care for deeply were told their positions were being eliminated.
Neither of them have done anything wrong.
Both of them are hard workers.
But as part of a larger evaluation of our organization it was decided that their positions (along with several others in our church) were no longer needed in their present form.

The decisions were not made because of financial troubles at the church. The decision was made after the launch of our new ministry vision and an effort to evaluate our current ministries, which in turn led to a look at personnel.

That look revealed that we were overstaffed in comparison to other churches our size and in relation to our total budget. That’s the easy part of the process. The next parts became more difficult.

After identifying the problem, now you have to start looking at actual positions filled by actual people.

Our pastor, Dr. Mark Walker, and Executive Pastor, Dr. Kirk Walters, led this process well and have, in my opinion, treated the departing personnel with dignity and compassion both personally and financially.

With that being said…some people I love got some bad news today and I hate it for them!

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