Doing a Lot of Praying

I truly believe that pray is the most important thing that I can be doing as a leader in my church. Prayer is the most powerful way to ensure that I'm walking closely with God and that he is truly working in my life and in the life of the church where he placed me.

It is very sad when the busyness of church ministry seems to squeeze out that quiet and personal time with God. Why does that happen? I talk with so many leaders who really struggle with making that time with God a priority in their lives. It happens easily in my life... too many late nights ready ministry books or going to meetings or meeting with people... and then suddenly I'm sleeping in and not starting the next day on my knees in the presence of the awesome God I serve.

I'm more and more determined to make this time with God the priority. In fact, I'm going to be guarding that time even more! No early meetings. No breakfasts with people. I'm busy. I've got appointments booked with the creator of the universe every morning... he trumps everyone :)

I'm also, each morning, praying by name for every person in my church. Sure, you're saying, that's easy for me to say since we're a little church... but I'm truly committed to the fact that life change will not happen in everyone's life unless they are prayed for daily! And if God grows this church, then that just means that I'll be spending even more time with him every morning. All in all, that sounds like a win-win scenario to me :)

I'm pretty pumped with all that God is doing already... and I'm sure spending even more time with him in prayer will do even more then I could ever accomplish on my own!

Explosion!

Did I mention that I LOVE the fact that I don't preach every single Sunday at our church? If I didn't... well... I do! :)

By only preaching 50% of the our Sundays I find I'm able to spend so much more time working on the vision and mission of the church. I'm able to meet more regularly with our leaders. I'm able to make so many more connections in the community, like other churches and ministries and social service groups. I absolutely love this! And the fact that LifeSpring has some great relationship with other churches and ministries is a huge blessing when they come and participate in our Sunday Celebrations, either by teaching or leading worship.

Since I'm not preaching for the next two weeks I'm going through a reading explosion! I've got multiple books on cell church ministry that I've been meaning to get through. So now is the time! Our goal as a leadership team is to ensure that our ministries are focused on the mission of LifeSpring and living out our values. Getting through these books in the next 2 weeks will really help in these discussions.

So, I'm doing a lot of reading and praying and dreaming over the next few days. And I'm TOTALLY pumped about all that has been going on at LifeSpring since we've started there in April. I already see some great things happening... and trusting God big time that even more amazing stuff is yet to come!

BOOM!

Happy 8th Birthday Cameron!

Today we're celebrating our son Cameron. The big guy turns 8 years old today. I remember him being born like it was yesterday. Hard to believe how fast the time goes!

He is being such a great young man! I'm so incredibly proud of him and he brings so much joy and laughter into our family.

Happy Birthday buddy!

One Prayer Interview

Over on the LifeChurch: Swerve blog they are interviewing pastors who have been participating with One Prayer this year. I think this is an awesome way to get to know some leaders better... so I figured I'd answer the same questions that they are asking....

1. What is the biggest leadership lesson you’ve learned over the past year?
This year, God has really been showing me that leading is hard! And it may not win you a lot of friends :) There is such a delicate balance between leading people and pleasing people... Luke 12:48 is really hitting home these days, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." I'm learning more and more when it's time to push God's plan forward... and when it's time to let everyone around me catch up... and praying that I'm doing well with everything that God has entrusted to me :)

2. What is God showing you personally?
God is REALLY rocking my world lately! The more I submit and follow what he wants, the more it's stretching and challenging my thinking. God is showing me more and more that it's all about Jesus... and nothing else! It doesn't matter what makes me comfortable or what I prefer, but rather it's all about Christ and the mission of seeing more and more people be made whole through his power. And if God has to break me a little (or a lot) in order to make that happen, well, I'm totally OK with that!

3. What is the top ministry challenge you’re currently facing?
Right now my biggest ministry challenge is managing expectations. Being a cell-modelled church, which was planted by more traditional modelled churches, creates some fuzzy confusions on what the focus should be. I'm learning a lot about this and it's going to be really cool working with our leadership team and congregation over the next few months as we regroup and refocus.

4. What do you do for fun?
I love hanging out with my family. I have the greatest wife and kids in the world! I'm also a total movie nut... that's how I justify the LCD TV and the Blue Ray player! :) I also love playing board games with friends. I'd like to be able to say that I go to the gym for fun... but I actually hate that... I just do that because I don't want to be a fat pastor! :)

5. What books are you reading?
I'm currently reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan, The Principal of the Path by Andy Stanley and Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis by Dr. William J. Webb.

Crazy Love!

Gee... this one post a week is getting sad... gotta get the writing juices flowing again :)

Just started reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This is the kind of book that really gets my heart pumping. How am I really letting my love for God and his love for me to radically transform my life? Am I quick to just give God my todo list... or do I spend enough time listening for his voice and his plan for my life and ministry?

My wife and I are doing this book as part of our personal devotion time. We're praying a lot for God's love to make even more of a difference in our lives!

This is going to be part of our focus at LifeSpring during the summer as well. We're going to be studying the book of Mark. Why? Because I really want us to understand the heart of God by looking at how Jesus lived out his live and his ministry. Jesus said "if you've seen me, you've seen the Father". I praying that this examination on the crazy love of Jesus, a love so crazy that he would do things that religious people wanted to kill him for it, will transform us to love the world with the same crazy passion.

Can't wait to start this one!!

I'm NO Writer!

Wow! I'm really being stretched and challenged this week. I do love that... but this one is REALLY highlighting one of my biggest weaknesses.

And that weakness is the fact that I'm a terrible writer!

I'm currently working on a paper for my seminary class on Biblical Interpretation... Researching and writing papers is probably the hardest way for me to learn. My brain doesn't process information that way... I've always done the poorest in classes that require a lot of reading and writing. I like to think it's because I'm bilingual - which means I'm bad at writing in both French and English :-)

I am definitely a learn by doing kind of guy. I learn by playing with things, taking them apart and putting them into practice in my life. I learn by trying and making mistakes. I learn by being dropped into the fire or the lion's pit and then getting out of it. Sitting in front of Microsoft Word with a stack of books on my desk and wrestling with the English language and footnote styles and proper grammar... man oh man this is like a slow and painful torture.

And the sad fact is... I'm just working on a THREE PAGE PAPER! I haven't even begun to think about the TWENTY-FIVE PAGE PAPER that's due at the end of August.

I'm hoping Jesus comes back before that paper is due! Maybe he'll give me an extension :-)

Coffee Time Tonight

If you read this blog or follow me on Twitter or Facebook it's probably no surprise that I like coffee. I'm always available to get to know people and chat over a cup o' Joe. I think I've had my best theological and ministry discussions over coffee (or after a game of Warhammer!).

Tonight and for the next 2 weeks, Danielle and I will be having a coffee and tea drop-in open house so the people of LifeSpring can come on by and get to know us better. We're very excited about this church that God has brought us to and we're looking forward to getting to know everyone even more.

The drop in is from 7pm to 9pm. Looking forward to seeing you here.