Kevin Presseault

What Are You Afraid Of?

2012-01-30T10:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at Greenbelt we wrapped up our series called Resolutions: Living the Life You Know You Should. This has been a really great series to get us to look closely at our lives and ask ourselves why don't we live the life that we want to... but we just don't seem to be able to make the necessary changes.

I concluded the series talking about being FEARLESS.

Let's face it... if we were really honest with each other, everyone is afraid of something. It could be big things like death, illness, injury, or lost of employment. Or it could be little things like afraid of letting people down. Regardless of what fear you have... the truth is, we all have them.

And I believe that's why the Bible has so much to say about being FEARLESS. From beginning to end the Bible is constantly telling us that we don't need to be afraid.

Fear will constantly get in the way of the life that you want to have. Fear will always cripple you and keep you stuck. And that's a biblical concept that's true whether you believe in God or not. That is just the way human beings are wired. It's the way our flesh just works. Even when your head and heart know something is possible... the stomach just doesn't want to follow sometimes!

For the church, this is can flat out stop the work that God wants to accomplish through a congregation. Whether it's being afraid of change, afraid of what people will think, afraid of taking a risk, afraid of spending some money, afraid of connecting with your community.

The apostle Paul reminds the church that we don't need to be afraid. In 2 Timothy 1 we reminds us that we have to live as who God already made us! We don't have to strive to become something better. God has already given us we need to be fearless - His Spirit! "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline." We don't have to live in fear because we have been given a spirit of power and of love!

So what are you afraid of? What seems to keep holding you back? Are you letting a spirit of fear try and replace the spirit that God actually gave you?

Resolutions - Generosity

2012-01-24T10:44:00.001-05:00

Resolutions - Humility

2012-01-17T11:05:00.001-05:00

Prayer for 2012

2012-01-09T08:59:00.002-05:00

This time of year is always a period of reflection for me... looking back on the past year, all the blessings, all the learnings, all the challenges... each of these have helped to shape me into who I am today.

Last year was one of huge blessing for my family and I. We've been settling into a new life here in a new city and new church. We have SO loved being part of Greenbelt. Living in Ottawa has really felt like being back home. Making new friends and new ministry connections was slow at first and now we're really thrilled where we see so many great relationships developing.

Last year was a big one for me to trust God in all areas of my life. Since that was my main prayer for 2011 it's really neat to look back and see all the places where God showed up. Not all areas where perfect... but He has shown me so much and constantly reminded me that I can rest in Him and trust that He will provide!

This year is going to bring more change into our family. We just feel that in our bones. Don't worry... we're not moving again, but things are moving around at the church and we're just seeking God and listening to what He would have us do. This year I feel probably more than any in the past I'm going to REALLY have to rely on the power of Jesus' resurrection... that same power that raised Jesus from the grave is the power that is going to accomplish all that God wants to do in my family.

Each year I do the One Year Bible Reading Plan. This is going to be my 7th straight year doing it. In 2011, I didn't finish all that strong getting through my reading... so I'm jumping into this year with a much stronger commitment to get through the entire Bible as my personal devotion this year. Each year I start the Bible reading with a short, one sentence prayer. That becomes my major prayer for the year. This year my prayer comes directly from Philippians 3:10

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.

This is going to be an exciting year! I pray that it will be for you as well!

Christmas is Forgiving

2011-12-07T15:08:00.000-05:00

Fifty Books I've Loved and Learned From - Book TWO: Man in the Mirror

2011-12-07T10:33:00.004-05:00

All my writing time has been going into papers for school... With the semester winding down (and the fact that I need a BIG break from school) I'm back on this topic of the books that have most influenced my life. In this list of books, I'm not including the Bible. That is the book that has changed me the most... so it's implied in this list :)

When I was a brand new believer in Jesus Christ at the age of 28, to be honest, I really didn't have any clue at all what that meant... what did it mean to be a Christian husband, employee, and guy in general???

In 2001 I was at a men's breakfast... it was a real miracle that I was even at the breakfast since it was in a completely different city than where I lived at the time. I met one of the leaders there, shared my story with him, and he gave me a copy of the book Man in the Mirror by Patrick Morley. I got home that afternoon and read the entire book in one sitting! This was EXACTLY what I'd been looking for!

Morley's book covered every single issue that I was dealing with. Work. Family. Finances. Friendships. Struggles. They were all there. I quickly learned what kind of man I wanted to be!

This book influenced me on the type of church that I would go to... I was looking for a church where I could relate to other men on this same journey.... This book got me to join my first men's small group... This book got me to become a leader in men's ministry... this book encouraged me to dig deep into scripture... this book encouraged me to be all that I can be in Christ! I'm absolutely convinced there's no way I would be a pastor today if I was never given this book.

Even after 10 years I still have my original copy of that book. It's highlighted like crazy. It's falling apart at the seem. But I still flip through it every 6 months! It has become a very important part of who am I.

I hate to think where my life would be if I wasn't given that book at that breakfast 10 years ago. That's why for years I've been giving away copies of that book to Christian and non-Christian men whenever I can.

Over the past 10 years Patrick Morley has been a spiritual mentor to me. I'm so grateful for his ministry and his books. If you've never read any of his work you definitely will want to start!

Greenbelt Online - You Free Monday to Help Me??

2011-12-02T13:07:00.004-05:00

If you have between 45-60 minutes to spare on Monday, you could really help me out.

My church is preparing to launch an online church experience in the New Year. We're really excited about this technology and the potential to bring the love of Jesus to our city and around the world.

I'm looking for people who could give me some simple feedback on the online church that we're going to set up. I'm especially interested in the opinion of people who don't normal attend church... or have never experienced an online church service... No matter what you're background is you could be a HUGE help to me.

So... at noon and 7:30pm EST I will be logged on at http://live.lifechurch.tv experiencing their church online. I would love for you to join me for one of those two times. Simply sit back and enjoy the experience. Then email me at kevin@greenbeltbaptist.com and tell me that you were there... I'll send you an email with 2 very simple questions. Everyone who helps me out by answering the questions I'll send a $5 Starbucks card!

If you'd like more information about this please don't hesitate to contact me.

Blessings!

Passionate Followers

2011-11-29T09:44:00.001-05:00

More Than Rules

2011-11-04T12:38:00.001-04:00

Here is week 5 of our Not a Fan series!

Fifty Books I've Loved and Learned From - Book ONE: Confessions of a Pastor

2011-10-25T14:06:00.004-04:00

I've completely stolen this blog topic idea from my good friend Joel Bennett. Joel is a great ministry coach and mentor and I strongly encourage you to check out his site.

I'm a big reader... and I've been incredibly blessed/challenged/stretched/broken/encouraged over the years through some fantastic books. So, like Joel is doing on his Facebook page, I decided I would blog about the 50 books that have had a big impact on me. Now, before we start... let me just flat out say, the Bible is really NUMBER ONE! That's a given... these are the fifty books that come AFTER the Bible :)

BOOK ONE: Confessions of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel

I actually stumbled on this book during a pretty low point in my ministry. I hadn't been in ministry all that long... maybe a year and a half... and I was already feeling myself heading towards a burnout. I was losing my joy and passion for Jesus and for the church... and I couldn't explain why.

Then God gave me the answer. Like Pastor Craig describes in this book, I had become a full time Pastor and a part-time follower of Jesus. I had let all the work of the church replace the only thing that is truly important - God's amazing love and grace! This open and transparent account of Pastor Craig's journey was a HUGE blessing to me. It allowed me to drop the pose... of trying to live up to some unattainable position of being the perfect Pastor. This book taught me to me. It's OK for me to be weak. It's OK for me to not know all the answers. It's OK for me to be imperfect.

It was in reading this book that set the path for the type of Pastor that I wanted to be. Sure. I work hard... I try and give it my best. But ultimately it's all in God's hands and I will follow Him and trust Him more than in myself.

The Comfortable Cross

2011-10-24T06:58:00.001-04:00

Fan or Follower?

2011-10-03T13:52:00.001-04:00

A Place for Everyone - Week 3

2011-09-27T13:57:00.002-04:00

I was away for school last week and didn't get a chance to upload the conclusion to our A Place for Everyone series.

Five Years Ago Today

2011-09-15T15:50:00.003-04:00

This is just REALLY hard for me to believe...

Five years ago today I worked my last day in the computer industry. Five years ago today I said goodbye to incredible people and an incredible career... and followed God on the craziest, roller-coaster of my life: I went into full-time pastoral ministry.

Five years?!!?! Where does the time go?

These past five years have really been incredible. I've learned so much about myself, the church, my family, and more importantly, about God! There have been times that were incredibly exciting. There were times that were incredibly challenging. There were times when I thought changing careers was the dumbest move ever. But way more often were times when I wouldn't trade a thing in my life for a billion dollars!

I've been reflecting a lot on the last five years this week (maybe even a little bit too much since this Sunday's message is still in its outline phase!). Looking back on the work that God has done in me and through me just gets me INCREDIBLY jazzed about everything that is ahead. God is going some great things here at Greenbelt and it's so exciting to see!

I can't wait to reflect back on the next five years!

A Place for Everyone - Week 2

2011-09-13T12:25:00.003-04:00

This week we kicked off recording our messages on to video.

Video Testing

2011-08-30T16:39:00.003-04:00

Our church is in the process of going from audio sermon recordings to full video. I'm pretty pumped about this and looking forward to finding more ways that integrate technology to help people connect with God and with each other.

This post is mainly so we can test out how embedding the video on our site will work... the sound will be much better with the actual sermons. This was my practice run through of last Sunday's message on Esther.

Furnace Faith - Esther from Greenbelt Online on Vimeo.

Playing on the Line

2011-08-02T09:39:00.006-04:00

This past weekend I went camping with my wife's family. They all LOVE camping. Me... not so much. It's kind of become the family joke that camping is just not my thing... but do love spending time with the whole family so I go as much as I can.

When we head to the beach we only really have one rule for the kids. If no adult is in the water they are NOT allowed to go pass the roped off area. The lake has this big section of the water roped off to show everyone where it is safe to swim. The section that is roped off is huge, probably a couple of hundred meters of great water to play in.

What struck me yesterday was how every single time the adults are out of the water and we force the kids back into the roped area... well... where do they end up swimming and playing? RIGHT ON THE ROPE! They spend the entire time sitting right on the line! And of course you know what happens... one of them eventually crosses over the line... and immediately makes up excuses. "Someone pushed me over the line", "I fell over the line", "It's not my fault". This both made me laugh and drove me crazy. Both as a dad and as a pastor.

What is it about the line that makes us want to go right up to it???

I talk to so many Christians who seem to have no problem living their lives right on the line. Whether that's how they handle their money, or their view of sex, or how they treat people, or their view of sin. They are totally happy living their lives right on the line.

And then they're quick to make up every excuse in the book when they cross over it! Someone pushed them. Someone tricked them. Lots of excuses but not a really understanding of the problem.

They shouldn't have been anywhere near the line!

I think what happens when we spend to much time playing on the line is that we forget that it's there. We can't see the line because we're standing on it. So it's incredibly easy to step over it into dangerous waters.

I don't believe God put lines in our lives in order to keep us from having a fun filled life. I don't believe God is a cruel parent trying to ruin all of our fun. I firmly believe that God loves us so much that he only wants what is best for us. Just like I know that my 10 year old son isn't a good enough swimmer to get back to shore if he gets stuck in a strong current, God knows that we don't have the strength to deal with the temptations that can linger on the line.

That's why I love how the apostle puts in it 1 Corinthians 6:18. He says "Flee from sexual immorality." He doesn't say stay put, you'll be OK because God loves you and will protect you and not let you bare more than you can handle. He says to GET THE HECK OUT OF THERE! Run away! Get off the line! Run from it and don't be anywhere near the line!!

Regardless of how long you've been walking with Jesus, every single person, given the right situation, is just one decision from doing something stupid. Whether that's bad choices with your money, cheating on your spouse, lying to your employer... whatever it may be for you... if you spend too much time playing on the line you may not even notice when you step over it.

I just spent the last 3 days trying to get my kids off that rope. I did that because I love them and I want them to be safe.

How long has God been trying to tell you to get off that rope and back into safer water? I pray you'll listen to him.

Happy Birthday Sam!

2011-07-14T12:49:00.001-04:00

Today is an awesome day in the Presseault household! 8 years ago today the most amazing baby girl was born! Samantha was brought 8 years of awesomeness to our family.

I so proud of the young lady that she is. I love her sense of humor and her heart for singing and music and worshipping God!

Happy Birthday Princess! I love being your Daddy!

The Best Thing about the 4th of July

2011-07-05T09:12:00.001-04:00

That was the day that my son Cameron was born. He is such a great kid! I'm always so proud of him. He's funny, kind, smart, helpful... And we see Jesus already doing great things in his heart.

As a 10 year old it's AWESOME seeing him volunteer at church to help out the toddlers... He started volunteering in our church's nursery and he does such a good job there.

I'm also SO grateful to a few teen guys who have taking my son under their wing and are spending time with him. The impact that they have on him is so big and i'm incredibly grateful for how they are modeling being a Christian young man to him.

Happy birthday Cameron! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

5th Anniversary

2011-06-17T15:06:00.004-04:00

Gee! How did I miss this??? A few weeks ago was the 5th anniversary of when I started this blog. That's pretty crazy! Hard to believe it's been that long already! I've actually been blogging 2 years longer than that... my first blog was running on a Lotus Notes/Domino server using the very awesome Blog template from OpenNTF.org. Now that DEFINITELY feels like a lifetime ago!

I've been reevaluating what I want to make available on this blog... Blogging used to be a great outlet for me since I love writing and didn't have many opportunities to do that. Now, I'm writing a 35 minute speech almost every week. Which, I just learned this week, is way more than what professional speech writers for politicians have to do :)

I'd like to start blogging more about how my sermon prep is impacting me... and how other Pastor's sermons are impacting me. Now that I speak a lot more than I need to listen, I need to make listening a much more important part of my journey with God. Sure, I listen to lectures for school, I listen to leaders to become a better pastor... but I want to have other voices speaking into my life just for the sole purpose of drawing closer to God. Not to learn something or do something... but just to know God better.

So, I'm hoping to be blogging more and more regularly... we'll see where God brings it.

Oh! And I'll still have some geeky stuff in here from time to time :)

Pray for Boldness

2011-06-17T09:56:00.002-04:00

Do you ever get bored of just going through the motions with church? This may sound odd for a Pastor to say this... but it's very easy for me to get bored with church. Why? Because I worry that sometimes the way we are living our lives as Christians here in our 2011 Canadian culture just doesn't match up with what I read in the New Testament. It gets way too easy to evaluate how the modern day church is doing spiritual by looking at the number of people who come and enjoy what they experience... it's much more difficult to evaluate life change and transformation.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been studying Paul's letter of Philemon. Paul wrote this letter to a wealthy slave owner named Philemon asking him to welcome back as a brother in Christ the runaway slave Onesimus. This isn't normally a letter that we preach all that much on... maybe it's because it doesn't contain any deep theological view of God or Christ... or maybe we're just uncomfortable with slavery being so openly talked about... Whatever the reason... I think we need to be preaching from this book much more often! Over the past couple of weeks I've just be AMAZED at how much this little letter is bothering me as I examine my own life.

One thing I love about the apostle Paul is his boldness. There's is no need to try to figure out his priorities in life. He's an open book and is very bold in telling people his view point. And God blesses that! Despite being put in jail and being beaten and nearly killed... Paul remains bold in his calling to preach the Good News of Jesus.

We see this same boldness in all the Apostles. In fact, they flat out pray for this boldness in Acts 4:29.

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

For me, church starts getting boring when we're constantly praying for safety, comfort or blessings from God. I'm not saying we shouldn't be praying for those things... but there is just seems to be something missing when we are not praying that we, as God's people in this world, for the boldness to live and share our faith. It seems to me like God shows up and in the biggest, most spectacular ways when we pray that we will be bold.

To be honest, I'm not all that interested in safety and comfort. I want God to rock my world! I want to see God do HUGE things here at my church, in my family, in my community, in my city, in my country and in my world. I'm not satisfied with just putting on a church service that people enjoy coming to. God is so much bigger than that!

Paul had the guts to make big BOLD requests of Philemon. He had the guts to ask him to go against everything the world around him would have told him.

And the question I ask myself this week is, do I? Do I have the guts to be just as bold? This is why I'll be praying like the apostles prayed... I'm praying that I'd always always always have the guts to speak God's word with boldness... in a spirit of care, love, support and encouragement.

How about you? You bored? Maybe you should join me in praying for boldness and we can see together just what God might do! :)

YouVersion Updates

2011-05-25T13:45:00.002-04:00

I LOVE YOUVERSION! It is my favorite app on my iPad. I just love how easy the YouVersion team has made Bible accessible for so many people all around the world!

A bunch of new features came out today. You can read about them all HERE.

I'm thrilled to see the YouVersion Live events are now a part of the iPad app. I've been playing around with the events to see how we could use this for our sermon notes and helping people get connected here at Greenbelt.

If you're not using YouVersion on your mobile device yet I would strongly recommend you go and download it right now! Check out www.youversion.com and click the mobile button at the top of the page and download yours for free!

If We're Still Here on Sunday...

2011-05-20T12:32:00.003-04:00

I've had a number of conversations with people, both Christian and non-Christian, about all the news coverage surrounding the idea that this Saturday, May 21st, has been calculated as Judgement Day by a guy named Harold Camping. And to be honest, I've kept my opinion on this matter to myself. But I do want to say something to the people who truly believe that they will be seeing Jesus face to face on Saturday... and they may be struggling with the fact that it's Sunday.

I just want you to know that God loves you!

I'm sure you're feeling very confused... I'm sure you in a place of doubt and hurt... You may be feeling betrayed or even lied to... I want to simply remind you that God hasn't abandoned you nor has he forsaken you. God loves you so very much!

Please don't let the fact that it's Sunday, May 22nd, taint your opinion of God. Please don't let it taint your view of Jesus Christ and what he did for you by paying the price for all of your sins on that cross 2000 years ago. Please don't let it cause you to distrust the church and her leaders and pastors.

God loves you so much. You will be with Christ for eternity as his follower... it just didn't happen the day you were hoping for.

I want to encourage you. If you're confused, if you're angry, if your family is hurting over this, please find someone you can talk to. If you're here in the Ottawa area, feel free to join us at Greenbelt this weekend. We're not going to mention the event this Sunday, or tease you or anything like that. We just want to be here to love you and support you in this confusing time.

Or just drop me an email and I'll help you find a church and some people who can talk to you and support you through this.

God loves you... never stop believing that!

Preach the Hard Stuff

2011-05-19T16:00:00.004-04:00

This Sunday I'm preaching about money. I love preaching about money. In fact, I love preaching about all the tough issues in the Bible. Why? Because they make me uncomfortable. And I love when God makes me uncomfortable... that's usually when he's going to do something interesting in my life!

Last week I was away for a week class in seminary. During one of the class another pastor shared how he doesn't do any preaching on issues like sex or money because the families in his church don't want to hear those topics. And to be honest that shocked me. The idea of picking and choosing which parts of the Bible we will teach just because we don't want to upset people seems to be very unbiblical. I don't see Jesus avoiding the tough conversations because the crowds didn't like to hear that stuff. I don't see the apostle Paul avoiding dealing with hard issues to make sure that the people listening are happy with the message.

Even sadder is the reality that this pastor is not alone. I've met many others who feel stuck the same way...

For me, it's the hard stuff in the Bible that really build my faith. When I look at the pages of scripture and measure my life agaisnt God's standards... that just brings me to a great place of being able to worship such an incredible God who would come to earth and pay the price for each and every one of my sins by dying in my place on a cross.

I want a better understanding of how to manage my money biblically. I want to pursue sexual purity and deeper intimacy with my one and only wife. I want to love ALL people, not just people like me, more and more deeply... like the way God loves them. And it's hard... and sometimes it's uncomfortable. But for me, that's the awesome part of the journey!

I truly believe that there are people (Christian and non-Christian) who want to know what the Bible truly says... they want to know what we Christians truly believe and what we love... they want to know that we're not perfect and that we struggle just like they do... they want to see something authentic... not just hear touchy feel good sermons and music...

We pastors need to love the hard stuff. We need to let the hard stuff in the Bible transform us and challenge us and get us excited. We need to preach the hard stuff. We need to trust God more and more to help us live the hard stuff.

And if we get fired for teaching the truth... then just band together and plant a new church... the people will come where the truth is encouraged and taught :)

The Art of Online Ministry by Dana Byers

2011-03-28T12:07:00.005-04:00

This morning I just finished reading the pre-released copy of the free ebook "The Art of Online Ministry" by Dana Byers. Dana is the president of Blue Door Ministries and passionate about church online and using modern technology to reach people with the message of Jesus all around the world.

This short ebook serves as an EXCELLENT guide to the world of church online ministry. I've always considered myself somewhat a tech expert. Working in the computer industry for 13 years before becoming a pastor kind of brings that tech experience with me. But to be honest, online church was a bit of a challenge for me... not so much as to "why" churches should do it (after all, I became a Christian thanks to an online ministry in 1998 and believe that every church should have a strong internet presence!) but the issue for me was "how" could churches do it. Was this a ministry just for the big, mega, America churches... did this require people with tech skills or passion for outreach to leave their small family church for the larger, more equiped churches... or could small to mid size Canadian churches have an impact in this area of ministry as well? Would it take years of development and ten of thousands of dollars?? Should it just be left to the few who are doing it incredibly well?

Dana answers all of these questions and more! This guide encourages any church of any size to consider how God may use them in this area of ministry. She does a fantastic job of clearly spelling out all the ins and outs to create your own church online experience. The cost and difficulty of such a ministry is WAY less than most of us would probably have guessed. Her incredibly heart-warming and encouraging ebook is definitely a must read for anyone who is considering starting a church online ministry. Each step of the process is clearly explained, from tech needs to volunteers to follow-up.

Even if you're not considering it, this ebook is well worth checking out for two reasons. One, it may help clarify any concerns or criticism that you may have about church online experiences. And second, it may just be the starting point that God will use in transforming your church to having a much larger impact all over the world through church online.

You can learn more about Blue Door Ministry by checking out their website at this link. The ebook will be available on April 1st.

Now I'm praying about getting a few people around my office table and seeing where God may be leading our church in this area of ministry.

Time to Play?

2011-03-16T09:47:00.004-04:00

I've been praying and thinking a lot about play time. That may sound a little weird coming from a 39 year old... but I do. Play time is on my mind a lot because it's definitely something that I don't seem to have a lot of time for these days.

I'm a big believer in the Sabbath - the spiritual discipline of taking time off and resting and just enjoying God and life. But lately my Sabbath keeping has seemed to be either spent getting work done around the house or school work or catching up on stuff to do at the church. Now that I'm reflecting on it... I don't think I've honestly taken a Sabbath rest since our vacation in January. Not cool!

Now... I hear all about these pastors who have great play time. I hear about it in the conferences they speak at and in the books they write... and I can't help but wonder - is it just the big church guys who are able to pull this off? Is it when you finally have a huge staff that more play time becomes available? Is it when you have a Christian best-selling book that you have the money and time to have more play time?

When I talk to the pastors in the circles that I run in (and I admit... it's a pretty small circle) I get the sense that very few of them have a regular hobby or passion that recharges them. Is the small to mid-sized church pastor stuck in a pattern that we all know we shouldn't be in but have no clue how to get out of it?

I've been reevaluating how I spend my play time. Two things have hit me. And I say this JUST FOR ME - you are not allowed to use this to critic how someone else uses their spare time.

First, I've come to realize that video games are not a good play time for me. Because of my limited time I convinced myself a number of years ago that playing video games once everyone is asleep is a good use of my time and allows me to geek out and relax. Well... I've come to realize that video games in NO WAY help me relax. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They stress me out! I get frustrated and annoyed... they prevent me from getting a good night sleep... and they give me the false sense that I'm being refreshed. Some mornings I wake up even more tired than when I went to bed!

Second, I've come to realize the best play time for me is either something very quiet or interactive with other people. I love to quietly paint my little metal soldiers. I love a good social gathering of friends. I love to hear from God in the stillness. I love to experience God through the love and laughter of other people. A good balance of quiet play time and interaction with others is key for me. And the hobby time I've been doing doesn't hit either of those... they are usually loud and alone.

Even though I've been bad at keeping my Sabbath lately - I'm excited about what God has taught me in this time. And, even though I know it will be a struggle, I'm excited about this reevaluation of how to ensure a healthier play time in my life. I definitely don't have all the answers on this one... but I know that God does and he'll lead me through it!

How about you? Are you able to keep a healthy play time in your life? How do you balance it? Especially you pastors of small to mid-size churches, do you struggle in this as well? I'd love your feedback and suggestions on how to improve in this area!

The Jealous Pastor

2011-03-07T16:45:00.004-05:00

I was away for a seminary course recently. On my long drive home I had a bunch of Andy Stanley leadership talks from Catalyst. I figured I'd listen to have 5 or 6 of them on my 6 hour car ride. Well... the first one I put in just gripped me... and I listened to it 6 times straight! In fact, I'm still praying and trying to process everything that I heard from Andy on the CD and what God was saying to my heart.

His talk was called "State of the Heart Leadership: Four Habits of a Healthy Leader". He based this message around what Jesus told the religious Pharisees in Mark 7 "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" Andy then talks about how four types of leaders come out of our hearts: The Guilty Leader, The Angry Leader, The Jealous Leader, and The Greedy Leader.

These really hit me and challenged me... and made me look deep into my heart.

I talk a lot about the importance of guarding our hearts... because it's so important to watch what gets in there. It's also very important to understand our hearts because we can be quite shocked about what comes out of there. I don't know how it got there... but without guarding my heart I can so quickly become The Jealous Leader.

It's weird how that comes out... it's usually when I'm tired... or when I start to have a little pity party about something. Like while I was away at seminary... I was exhausted from the classes and in the middle of the night I suddenly found myself angry at my high school. Why you might ask? Well... because there must have been some Christian kids in there... and why didn't they invite me to their youth group??? If they would have done what they were supposed to do and reach the other kids then I could have because a Christian 20 years sooner! That would have meant that I would have gone to Bible college and then to seminary and now I would find myself with 20 or more years of ministry experience.

And in the middle of the night when this just comes out of nowhere... I pray to God "What is in my heart that makes me think that way???? God forgive me!" I'm so grateful for my entire life and every part of it! I wouldn't have changed a thing! Yet... somewhere deep down is this jealous thought... if only... then maybe I'd be something bigger or better or whatever.

That's why I SO love where I'm serving now. We put such a big push on celebrating all that God is doing in other churches! We pray regularly for the other churches in the area. We pray for their pastors. We pray for the people there. We celebrate with them and we pray with them in their struggles. We are so excited when we hear all that God is doing all over the city. I love working with other leaders and people who think that way. I love the big picture of God's work.

So being away at seminary for a week was great to get into some deep Bible learning... but probably the best thing I learned was in the car ride home. To be reminded to watch my heart.

Andy ended the talk with this question so I'll end with it too - How's your heart?

Learning The Gospel

2011-02-28T10:44:00.004-05:00

WOW! The Christian world seems to be all abuzz talking about "Universalism" . And I'll admit... up to a couple of weeks ago, I had no clue what that even meant - and I won't be explaining it or debating it here. Feel free to Google it and read more about it yourself. In the last 2 weeks I've had more conversations about universalism then probably any other theological idea.

So I guess it's no coincidence that in October I scheduled on our preaching calendar here at Greenbelt a 3 week study on the book of Galatians called "Learning the Gospel" If you're not a believer in preparing your preaching calendar six months in advance because it stifles the spirit of God... well... here's a great example of how praying on this topic for the past 4 months has aligned with exactly where God has brought us. I love it when God does that! This series will be exploring who Jesus is, what does our relationship with him really mean... and why it makes a difference in the world that we understand the gospel.

I'm sure this will create some pretty interesting conversations in our Community Groups. If you attend Greenbelt and you're not in a group I would STRONGLY encourage you to get into one. Check out this link on our site for information on how to join one.

I'm praying for a great three weeks!

My Week so Far

2011-02-23T17:30:00.005-05:00

This week I'm back in my old hood of Kitchener-Waterloo to attend a course at Heritage Seminary. For those who don't know, I'm currently working on getting a Diploma of Pastoral Studies and Leadership and then I'll be taking 10 other courses in order to get an "equivalence" of a Master's of Theology. I couldn't go directly into the Master's program because I never went to university... but that's a whole other topic.

I love seminary. I do. No, really. I do. I read about a lot of pastor and how they describe seminary as "the cemetery"... and I guess I can see some truth to that. But I just love learning... and the courses that I'm taking at Heritage really encourage and grow my faith.

I do find myself in a tension though... part of me wants to learn... and the other part just wants to get out there and bring the love of Jesus to people. While I enjoy sitting around all week discussing the minute details of the Prison Epistles... a part of me just wants to cry because there are so many hurting and suffering people out there and there's so much work to be done and I just want to roll up my selves and get it done!

So my week at seminary has been great... love what I'm learning. But by 2pm I feel like I'm going to jump out of my chair if I can get out and DO SOMETHING!!! So we'll see what the rest of the week will bring :)

Monday Mind Dump

2011-02-14T10:18:00.002-05:00

Gotta be honest... most Monday mornings I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I've heard other pastors call it a "spiritual hangover". Maybe that's the term I should start using :) Cause this weekend was an awesome spiritual roller coaster!

On Friday evening my wife and I attended a pastors' dinner and conference put on by One Way Ministries. It was great to be a part of this... Being the new kid in town it was a tad awkward at first not knowing anyone... but then we found a few familiar faces so we didn't feel completely isolated :)
The conference itself was a preview of the Love and Respect conference which will be coming to Ottawa in November. I'm a big believer in the material covered by Love and Respect... in fact, I use the principals in all my discussions with couples. This was a great refresher of the material for me... but... man oh man was I ever uncomfortable sitting there for 1.5 hours for the first session. Maybe I had the only broken chair in the entire place... or I ate too much cheese cake before the session... but I could barely sit still for that long.
Saturday we had a great morning at home just relaxing and playing with the kids. Then we spent the afternoon with great friends from Montreal and we hit the Rideau Canal in Ottawa for some winter fun.
Sunday was a great service. Our worship team did a fantastic job. My message on I Believe in God but Trust More in Money was incredibly hard for me to preach. But God really showed up in a big way! The feedback I've heard so far has been incredibly encouraging as God works on people's hearts when it comes to their money.
Finally, we closed off the weekend by meeting with a young couple and walking them through some pre-marital prep. I LOVE meeting with couples about to get married. I consider it such an honour to be a part of that HUGE part of their lives. It's incredibly humbling to me that God has choses us to walk side by side with other people and to be a support to them.

Great weekend! My head is a little sore this morning from the "spiritual hangover" but I'm excited for what's going to happen this week!

Practical Atheist

2011-02-02T09:58:00.003-05:00

Over the past few weeks our church has been doing a preaching series called Practical Atheist. This is based on the book The Christian Atheist by Pastor Craig Groeschel. I've been blown away by how God has worked in the hearts of so many people over the past few weeks. Mind you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pastor Craig's ministry has had such a huge influence on my personal walk with Jesus so just is just a continuation of that blessing.

This week we're probably going to hit the hardest topic for me to preach on, I Believe in God but I Pursue Happiness at All Costs. I'm going to be using Jesus' parable of the sower and look at how our pursuit of happiness causes us to miss out on truly how God wants from our lives. This topic hits me right between the eyes as I'm being open and honest with God about what allow to be entertainment or how I go about trying to be happy. Do I allow myself to be entertained by sin? Do I pursue the world's view of happiness more than God's view? Does my pursuit of happiness lure me away from Christ and his plan?

Should be an interesting Sunday. I'm praying God will do a great thing in everyone's hearts.

DC Universe Online - First Impressions

2011-01-20T18:25:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged about anything Geeky... guess I've been spending way too much time doing house renovations :)

This past weekend I picked up DC Universe Online, the new massively multiplayer online (MMO) game based on the super heroes and villains from DC Comics. These heroes and villains include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, Catwoman and many other that I've loved for years!

I've only been playing it on and off over the past few days... but I thought I'd share my initial thoughts of the game. So here they are in no particular order.

First off, I just LOVED the Collector's Edition of the game. Since I was trading in a number of my used games at GameStop, I actually had enough trade in credit to pay the full amount of the Collector's Edition. I've never bought a collector's edition of a game before... just never saw any value in playing a extra $20-30 for a game. For this one, I'm sure glad I did! The collector's box comes with this great statue of Batman and it looks fantastic in my office at the church (feel free to poke in any time and check it out). It also came with a couple of comic books and a great book showing the artwork that went into the design of this game. As a comic geek who loves great superhero art, all of those items where a big hit with me.

I have NEVER gotten into an MMO game before. I did try to play World of Warcraft a while back... but it bored me to tears spending most of my time just walking back and forth between different quest locations. So I guess, as a complete newbie to the world of MMO games... some of the assumptions were lost on me and I had some initial early difficulties.

For example, I found no where in the documentation that comes with the game what the different between a PvP and PvE server. Now, just a simple Google search taught me that they mean Player vs Player and Player vs Environment... but you think they could have put that simple instruction in the manual and save me having to find my laptop.

I did have a REALLY hard time installing the game. It took almost 5 hours from beginning to end... now... I get that I was installing on the first Sunday that the game was available... and that Sony was having a bunch of server problems that night... so I can forgive that :)

Building my superhero was quite fun. I thought the interface was pretty easy to use. Only took me about 15 minutes to create my hero and then I jumped right into the game.

I find the graphics and sound to be really good. Not the best I've ever seen or heard... but it's really good and captures the comic book feel that I love.

So far I'm greatly enjoying the story. Nothing like fighting off Brainiac and Gorilla Grodd in the first few missions.

Overall my first impression of the game is quite positive. Will I play it long term... not sure. But I'll definitely be enjoying the 30 days and a couple of extra months from my PlayStation Network account that has some extra funds in it :)

If you want to find me and battling evildoers with me, I'm on the Redemption server and my hero's name is Shepherd.

My Gift to my Heavenly Father

2011-01-13T13:11:00.005-05:00

I love Thursday afternoons!

Since starting here at Greenbelt as the Teaching Pastor I've worked something new into my regular work week. Every Thursday afternoon I run through my Sunday sermon several times, sometimes as many as four.

When I originally started this I thought it would simply help me to deliver a better sermon on Sundays. I never realized how much this would help me personally and spiritually. This has really turned into a wonderful relationship building experience between me and God.

As I start the first run through, I feel like a little kid who's made a home made Christmas present for his dad. Sure, it's not perfect. Sure, I may have colored outside the lines or cut it all out crooked... but I gave it MY ALL! I tried my best! And I can't wait for my dad to have it. I look forward with anticipation to give this gift to my father. I just know that he's going to love it! And every week, I just feel it in my heart that he's well pleased with my gift to him. And he takes that gift and does much more with it than I could have possibly done with it on my own!

I'm SO thankful for the relationship that I have with my Father... that he loves me so much and he loves the gifts that I present to him. Every Thursday I leave the church feeling encouraged and supported and loved by my Father!

Man I love Thursday afternoon! I got another gift all ready for him so I'm heading to the sanctuary to give it to him now :)

Prayer for 2011

2011-01-10T12:39:00.002-05:00

2010 was a crazy year for me. God took our family on some pretty crazy emotional and spiritual rollercoaster rides. I'm grateful for all that he did and taught me this past year. And I'm excited for this New Year ahead.

Since 2005, I've been reading the One Year Bible. This allows me to read the entire Bible in the course of the year. I also prayerfully consider how I want God to speak to me in while I read the Bible. I come up with a short sentence prayer that I then pray each time before I start my reading. I've been amazed at how each of those prayers have played out in my life as I spend time with God in his word.

The emotional ride of last year makes total sense when you realize that my prayer during 2010 was "Break my heart for what breaks yours". I don't think I've cried in 10 years as much as I have this passed year!

I'm preparing a six week preaching series based on the book The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel.... and already God is really speaking to my heart on this topic. Our first weekend will be called "I Believe in God but I Don't Really Know Him" and one of the verses I'm using is Psalm 63:1-4

God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

This is how I want to experience God each and every day this year! I want to draw closer and closer to God throughout this year (and every year!).

So for 2011 I'll be starting my One Year Bible reading with this simple prayer:

"God, I want more of you in each and every area of my life!"

Looking forward to this year's adventure!!

Tis the Season

2010-12-16T15:03:00.003-05:00

Our family Christmas celebrations start this weekend. That is just so incredibly weird for me to get my head around that. Already?!?!?! The past couple of months just seem like a blur... must be from all the drywall dust and paint fumes from my recent basement renovations :)

I'm looking forward to celebrating with loved ones over the next couple of weeks. I'm excited to have family coming to the church to see the kids' Christmas play. I'm pumped for our very simple Christmas Eve service. I can't wait to see the looks on the kids' faces when they open their present on Christmas morning... they are going to LOSE THEIR MINDS!

But even more I'm just SO incredibly grateful for all that God has done in my life this year. It wasn't a easy year by any means. We had tough decisions and hard choices to make... but God has been so faithful in all of this. It had a lot of stress. It had a lot of tears. It had a lot of stress (did I say that already??) But through it all we experienced a TON of God's grace and peace.

This Christmas season has already been such a great reminder of all the blessings I have in my life. I'm so thrilled to remember and celebrate that with the people we love.

What I'm Reading Now

2010-12-01T09:21:00.003-05:00

I love reading. I read a lot. Actually, let me rephrase that. I USED to read a lot. Seems I've lost my reading groove since moving to the Ottawa area. Between getting settled at the new church, doing basement renovations, and living out of boxes my reading has really dropped. This month I'm making reading a priority again. I usually have a few books on the go at the same time, so here's what I'm reading now.

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley. I have a number of friends who work for grace based ministries... so over the years I've been given multiple copies of books on the topic of grace. This one blows them all away!! I've actually restarted this book and will be going through it more slowly (I may even blog about what I'm learning). I love Stanley's understanding of God's grace in the Old Testament. I've seen very little (if any) references to the Old Testament in the other grace books I've read. Grace isn't just a New Testament theology but at the core of who God is. This is a great book that everyone should read.

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears. I picked this book up during the summer and only read the first few pages. I strongly believe in importance of sound doctrine so I'm looking forward to getting back into this one.

The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper. I read this one in my Intro to Preaching class in seminary. As a Teaching Pastor I want to improve in my preaching as much as possible. Looking to be refreshed and encouraged again by rereading this one.

The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel. No one speaks into my life as much as Pastor Craig Groeschel does. His sermons and his books just pierce me and have a huge impact in my walk with Christ and in my service to God. I so appreciate his honesty and openness. He encourages me to do the same in my life and in my preaching. Our church will be studying this book in January and I can't wait to see what God will do in those six weeks.

How about you? What are you reading these days? Any books you'd recommend?

YouVersion Live

2010-11-17T15:41:00.003-05:00

I've been using YouVersion as one of my primary ways to read and study the Bible since October 2007. I use it to search for texts when prepping sermons. I use it for my daily Bible reading plan. I use it on my Blackberry so that I always have a Bible with me.

And now I'm playing around with YouVersion Live to see how we can integrate that to our Sunday morning services.

Why? Because I want to encourage people to get into reading the Bible for themselves and not just listening to me reading it to them every Sunday :)

I love how with YouVersion Live we can create Events and have people point there with their smart phones for seeing the key Bible passages, polls, prayer requests forms and whatever else we can think of to tie in to the weekend service.

In order to play around with this I've created an event for this coming Sunday. You can access it here. Have a look at it and let me know what you think.

Encourage One Another

2010-11-11T08:44:00.004-05:00

This Sunday I'm continuing our series on LIFE and living a life of encouragement. We are looking at the life of Barnabas and how he encouraged the early church. I'm reminded this morning of the verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:11

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

I am SO grateful for the men and woman who have encouraged me in my life. Especially those who have encouraged me in my spiritual walk with God.

I remember too well the criticism I received from some people when I shared that I thought God was calling me to leave the IT profession and become a pastor. They were critical that God wouldn't use a new believer like me... or someone from my background... or someone without a masters degree and education. It was quite a discouraging and doubtful time. Was I just being conceited and prideful wanting to go into ministry? Was I not walking with God closely?

But I had many others who were INCREDIBLY encouraging. Yes, they questioned. Yes, they challenged. But it was done in a spirit of trying to build me up and to encourage me to constantly seek the will of God. Those prayers and discussions with friends and mentors were life changing! I'm the man I am today because of their encouragement!

So, who are you encouraging and building up? How have you been encouraged? How are you encouraging the people around you?

How do you improve your preaching?

2010-11-10T10:55:00.003-05:00

I'm in the process of looking at my education and growth for next year. Going to seminary part time while working full time here at the church is an AWESOME way for me to continually grow and allow God to work on me to improve me. I'm also a big reader. I love reading different types of books to get better at ministry, pastoral care and leadership. And I like conferences and seminars.

These are all great ways to learn and grow... I find that most of those help in a general leadership/pastor kind of way... but I'm finding it difficult to find resources to help me in my primary responsibility as a pastor here.

Most books and conferences are hitting on leadership and specific ministries (evangelism, small groups, etc). I'm finding very little in the way of becoming a better communicator and speaker.

I served as the Teaching Pastor. My key role is, obviously, teaching Sundays. The local Christian bookstore has nothing on improving preaching... the conference circuit doesn't seem to offer anything on it... and the few websites I've found basically just say to listen to other preachers in order to get better (which I do. I have a great list of preachers that I try to listen to regularly).

So I'm curious... if you're a teaching pastor, or if you preach regularly, what do you do to improve in this area of your ministry? What's helped? What books, conferences, or workshops to you use to grow in this?

Mo Pastors Facebook page

2010-11-01T13:42:00.003-04:00

You can follow along and see the moustaches from the Pastors who have joined our team to raise awareness and support for prostate cancer by checking out our Facebook page.

I'm sure it's going to be a fun good time of laughing and supporting one another as we join together in this great cause.

Movember is going to be a great month! Be sure to follow along!

Thoughts on a GREAT Weekend!

2010-11-01T12:00:00.002-04:00

This weekend was just awesome! Really was! I'm kicking off this week just pumped up and thanking God for all I was blessed with over the course of the past few days. Here's just some of the thoughts on this weekend.

My parents came to visit so my step-dad could help rebuild my laundry room. I love doing reno work... but I'm not all that good at it. So it's great to have help from my step-dad with this stuff! We had quite the weekend redoing the plumbing and the electrical work for the washer and dryer. I learned a ton and feeling like I'm ready for any leaky pipes in the future :) It looks SOOO much better already and I can't wait to do more laundry.
It was just so nice having dinner with family every night this weekend (Fri and Sat with my parents, and Sun with Danielle's sister). I'm so grateful for the family that God has blessed me with!
This Sunday we had a family service at Greenbelt. It was great to have the kids join us for the sermon part of the service. I looked at Moses and the veil that he wore to cover his glowing face and compare that to how, sometimes as Christians, we put on masks to try to look like the rest of the world. It was great to get feedback from both kids, teens and adults on how God really touched them during that sermon!
I just love my wife and kids so much. We had a blast (even though it was FREEZING!) last night. My kids were both dressed like Avatars and looked great!
I'm just so thankful for the people that we've been connecting with here in our new home. I'm feeling so blessed to be here and part of what God is doing in this part of Canada.
This Sunday I'm kicking off a new series on mentoring. I'm taken the talks that I did a few years ago at a men's retreat and reworking them for our church. Praying that God will work in a big way through it.
Kicked off MOVEMBER! I'm growing a moustache to raise awareness and support for men's cancer. This is new for me and feeling great about being a part of this.

Today I'm praying that God will just do great things all around me.

Movember: Growing a Moustache for a Great Cause

2010-10-28T16:08:00.004-04:00

Sometimes what starts as a laugh turns into something more...

To be honest, when I first learned about Movember yesterday, I chuckled and thought that was it. But after praying about it and chatting with my family, I'm totally sold on this and excited to be a part of it!

The 'Mo', slang for moustache, and November come together each year for Movember.

Each Movember men are challenged to change their appearance and the face of men's health by growing a moustache. The moustache is our ribbon, the means by which we raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, my commitment is to grow a moustache for 30 days. Funds raised benefit Prostate Cancer Canada.

Why am I doing this? To be honest, and it's kind of sad to admit this, when it comes to health issues I'm incredibly ignorant. Even though I serve as a pastor and come along side people in times of need, I'm totally clueless on medical issues and things like that. I knew nothing about prostate cancer at all. I've not even given my own personal health much thought past trying to exercise more and eat less poutine.

I’m doing this because 4,400 men die of prostate cancer in Canada each year affecting kids and families and one in six men will be diagnosed during his lifetime.

I'm doing this because Jesus calls us to be an example. And I felt I should be an example in this area of men's health.

I've also thrown the gauntlet down and have challenged other Canadian pastors to jump on board and to join our team. I'm looking forward to connecting with other Ottawa pastors and pastors across the country as we rock awesome moustaches for a great cause. If you are a pastor and want to join the team, email me and I'll send you more information.

If you would like to sponsor me in growing my moustache for prostate cancer then click this link HERE.

I'll be blogging my moustache journey here on my blog with pictures and video updates. Please prayerfully consider support this... or at least praying for all the Canadian men and families affected by this form of cancer!

For more information about Movember Canada click HERE.

Masks

2010-10-27T13:45:00.004-04:00

I gotta admit. I love costumes and getting dressed up. Always have... and probably always will. I dream of the day when I'll have this incredibly cool costume that would win me all the prices at every Comic book convention... but I digress.

I've been reading a lot this week about Moses and his veil. In Exodus we read how Moses' face would shine because of the glory of God... but then it would start to fade.

It's been challenging to me to think how do I allow God's glory in me to fade. Is it even possible? If I have the spirit of God in me, does it ever fade? There are times when I feel my life is shining bright with God's glory... and others, well, not so much.

This Sunday I'm preaching on this text and Paul's comment on it found in 2 Corinthians. I'm looking forward to unpacking it and sharing with the entire congregation since this will be my first Family Service at Greenbelt (normally the kids grade 1 to 5 go to KidZone). I'm always amazed at how sometimes it's the simple and familiar stories in the Bible that give me the interesting challenges and thoughts...

How do you reflect God's glory?

Loving Our Neighbours

2010-10-21T09:09:00.003-04:00

This morning in our men's community group we discussed the parable of the Good Samaritan and Jesus' reminder that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our being and to love our neighbours as ourselves. We had a great discussion about what that looks like in our culture and how it impacts some of the difficult issue that come up in people's lives.

Our talk really hit home in my heart this morning... especially being in a new community again. Before, in our previous home, it was VERY easy to make connections with our neighbours since everyone was pretty much a young family like ours. We could easily connect just based on the common ground we had with the age of our kids. In fact, every evening a large number of families would meet up at the park across from our house and the adults would socialize while the kids played.

Now, we find ourselves in a new city. And we moved into a community where, as of yet, I have not seen a single child. The house is nearly 40 years old and a lot of the residents are the original home owners. So all the kids have moved out. That creates an interesting dynamic. We don't have a lot in common with our neighbours any more.

It's easy to just allow ourselves to fall into the North American mold of independent living and not even knowing the names of the people who live right next door to us. Personally, I hate that. That just doesn't seem right to me. Even before I ever believed in God I've not liked that style of living. We've definitely lost something in our style of living that other cultures still embrace so openly.

So, I'm starting to pray for all my neighbours and that, even despite the differences, God will integrate us in that community for his glory.

How about you? How do you connect with your neighbours?

Go Waste Some Time

2010-10-20T10:31:00.003-04:00

I've been doing a lot of reading on Sabbath keeping in order to prepare this Sunday's message. I've been skimming through Mark Buchanan's book The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. GREAT STUFF!

I particularly like the chapter called Play: Stopping Just to Waste Time. Why? Because he recommends to his readers to go and read a comic book! Ok. That's not the only reason. Play is such a big part of our lives as kids... and somewhere, somehow that goes away with the increased demands on our lives.

It's interesting how it even affect how I play with my own kids... We love family game night in our house... but I find myself so scheduled with it sometimes that it can actually take the fun out of it. I begin to stress about it when we've passed bedtime... or if there are other things on my mind... or worrying that I should be finishing the basement. In those times, play just doesn't feel like play. It feels like obligation.

God has given us permission to not be productive 100% of our waking hours. He has given us this incredible world to enjoy. He has given us friends and family to enjoy. He has given us himself to enjoy. I definitely want to get better at wasting more time :)

How about you? How does play recharge your soul?

Get Some Rest

2010-10-14T14:31:00.003-04:00

This week I've been yawning like crazy. I've been having a hard time getting a good night's sleep and feeling a little restless. Normal, I'm sure, considering the recent move and all the renovations we're doing around the house...

Next Sunday I'm preaching on the importance of keeping Sabbath. Not as a legalistic, religious tradition... but rather as a privilege and as part of our wireing as people created in the image of a Sabbath keeping God. I'm learning a ton re-exploring this topic.

I've not always been a good Sabbath keeper. This past year I've gotten a lot better at it. This afternoon, while studying, I was just reminder of what Jesus told his followers after they've been doing the work of the ministry like crazy. Jesus told them in Mark 6:31:

"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

I love that Jesus didn't say "Go somewhere by yourselves and get some rest" but rather he wanted them to come with HIM and get some rest. That is just such a great reminder to me. Sabbath isn't just about taking a day off from working, but rather, it's being intentional about spending that time with the Creator of the Universe. God wants us to spend our time with him.

Looking forward to my Sabbath tomorrow and spending that time with Him!

How about you? How are you doing at keeping Sabbath?

Be Joyful Always?

2010-10-13T10:42:00.003-04:00

I'm always amazed at how it's the little, tiny verses in the Bible that really seem to stretch and challenge me the most.

This week I was reading 1 Thessalonians... and verse 5:16 really hit a cord in me.

Be joyful always.

Very small. Very simple. Easy to skim over. But how am I doing in that area of my life? Am I joyful always? In every situation that I find myself in, am I joyful? Or do I allow myself to get grumpy and crabby? Is my joy only situational? When things are good and I'm content, I'm joyful?

How can I work at always being joyful? The next two verses give the answer: pray continually; & give thanks in all circumstances!

Pray for me is not simply a 20 minute prayer time in the morning to kick start my day... but rather a continuous conversation during the day. Sure, from time to time, I'm doing most of the talking... but when I find those quiet moments during the day when I can just chill and listen then I find myself more joyful and more open to what God is doing around me.

I'm SOOOO thankful for all that God has given me. I have an incredible wife. I have fantastic kids. I have great family and friends. I'm thankful for the churches I've served in and the one where I currently am. I'm thankful for the new friends we've been making here in Ottawa. I'm thankful for the work that God in doing in this city.

When my prayer times get eaten away but other stuff in life... and when I start taking things around me for granted... then I start losing my joy.

This was a good reminder to me this week. Pray continually and give thanks in everything. Then I'll be joyful all the time.

How's your joy this week?

What Are You Expecting Today?

2010-10-07T09:02:00.004-04:00

This morning in my Men's Community Group we very briefly touched on the question "Do you live each day expecting great things from God?"

Do I? Do I expect God to show up in mighty and miraculous ways today? Do I expect great things today... or is it just another day... just another sermon to finish... just more emails to answer... just more phone calls to make.

I choose to live my life trusting in the incredible and powerful nature of God! I know that God can show up in the big events and the tiny details of life. I know God is great and he is doing great things all around me.

I'm expecting something GREAT today! How about you?

Getting Settled and Rested

2010-09-27T11:13:00.003-04:00

Hard to believe we've only been here in Ottawa for a full two weeks... with the amount of work that's gone into getting our home set up you'd think we've been here a lot longer! :)

Kids are settled into their new schools. Danielle has started her new job. And I'm learning the ins and outs of the church here. Last night was a nice quiet evening... even though there was more work around the house that I could have been doing, I simply relaxed and got caught up on some much deserved rest.

It's funny how rest just doesn't come naturally to me. There's a something in me that just wants to keep working. With a basement to finish and repairs around the house I could easily be busy all my waking hours. Yesterday was a great reminder for me to take time to just relax and listen to God.

In my message on the Journey of Obedience yesterday I touched on Exodus 15:26

"If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees..."

How am I doing listening to God? How good am I at hearing his voice in my life? In the craziness of life it's way too easy to forget to stop and listen... and this leads us down the path of disobedience... Taking that regular time to just be still and listen to God... taking Sabbath to spend time praying and playing with my family... those are a really wonderful time for me on my journey of obedience.

I'm incredibly grateful for how God has worked in our family during this time of transition. Moving is not easy. Leaving friends is not easy. But God is faithful when we are obedient to his voice.

How are you listening to God's voice and being obedient to Him?

The Journey

2010-09-20T13:29:00.002-04:00

Life is full of different journeys. Some journeys bring us to far off places. Others are journeys of transformation... journeys that when we reach the destination, we are no longer the same.

Yesterday, I began a new 4 week preaching series called The Journey. A lot of it has come from the journey that my family and I have been on over the past few months. Just last week, we moved from the Waterloo-region to our nation's capital, Ottawa. This was a journey that had us on our knees a lot in prayer, and LOTS of discussions with mentors and friends. The journey was exciting, nerve-racking, sad, joyful, confusing, and faith building. It's quite amazing all the different emotions you can go through when God is prompting!

I kicked off the series talking about our Journey of Faith and the questions that can hinder the journey that God wants to send us on. Who am I? Who are you? What if? Why not someone else? These where the questions that Moses asked God at the burning bush before his journey to free the people of Israel began. They are also the questions that I asked myself MULTIPLE times while we were on this journey to move and start a new ministry.

In Hebrews 11, the Bible tells us that it's because of faith in God that Moses was able to handle his journey. And it's that same faith that will get us through our journey as well... no matter what that journey is, it's all about faith in Jesus Christ. He is there with us at every step of the journey. I've definitely experience that over the past few months. Though several times God felt incredibly silent I know for a fact that he wasn't absent! And my faith is stronger today because of it.

Next Sunday, we're going to look at a Journey of Obedience. Not always easy to be obedient in our world... so I'm sure God is going to be teaching me a lot on this over the course of the week.

I've said this in different venues... but again, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who walked with us on this journey. Thanks to everyone in Elmira and Waterloo and at LifeSpring who supported and cared for us in this. Thanks to everyone here in Ottawa and at Greenbelt who prayed and encouraged and helped. We appreciate everyone so very much!

Crazy Week

2010-07-12T10:05:00.001-04:00

This past week I had the honor and the privilege to be a part of different people's lives.

First on Monday I performed a funeral for the grandfather of a young man who is connected to our church. Then I Saturday I officiated the wedding for my cousin.

It's such a blessing to be asked to be a part of these occasions. In times of sorrow and joy God's hand is all over the situation and it's so cool to see that at work. I've had so many wonderful experiences meeting new and fascinating people through these two events. My thoughts and prayers are with each and every one of them this week.

To be honest, I'm still floored that God would use just an average Joe like me for this type of work... it just reminds me SOOOO much of how incredibly God's love is for me and for all people! I never want to take the gift that he's given me for granted....

Happy Birthday Cameron!

2010-07-04T07:57:00.002-04:00

Today is my son Cameron's 9th birthday! That is SOOOO hard to believe!

I'm so proud of the young man that he is. He is developing such a caring and generous heart for people and the hurting. He is also a real hoot to hang out with! He's constantly cracking us up with his wit and humour.

Happy Birthday Buddy! Love ya tons!

One Prayer Wrap Up

2010-06-28T10:14:00.002-04:00

Hard to believe the month of June has come and gone! At LifeSpring we wrapped up our One Prayer series yesterday, and I gotta say it was probably BY FAR the best series since I've been at this church! Here are just a few of the highlights from the past month.

Yesterday's prayer time was AWESOME. Great to hear people confessing their sins and asking for God's blessing as we begin the new At The Movies series next week.
Don't know what the amount was... but I'm guessing by the weight of the collection basket that our special One Prayer offering was more then our regular giving! Can't wait to hear how God will use that gift for his glory.
Our Celebration Pastor Intern has done INCREDIBLE work with our worship and tech teams! Sunday mornings feel like a completely different place!
The teaching during One Prayer was incredible. Craig Groeschel, Steven Furtick, Dino Rizzo and Kevin Thomas are incredibly anointed men of God! Their messages challenged and encouraged everyone to be Unstoppable!

These are just a couple of the things in my head this morning that I'm praising and thanking God about.

Back to Summit

2010-06-03T10:27:00.004-04:00

This past year I used a Life/Ministry Coach to work with our leadership team to take the teachings from Willow Creek's Leadership Summit and make them applicable to our team and ministry.

Here's why.

As a pastor it’s not always easy to invest in the church's leaders as much as I would like to. Sending the team to a yearly conference may ease that guilty conscience a little, but doesn't have very long term impact on the lives of the leaders or on their ministry in the church.

Participating this year in Back to Summit has made a huge difference in our church! Instead of being simply great motivating talks from some of the world’s best leaders, we were able to make each message applicable to our personal walk with God and to shape and strengthen our church for the future.

Working with Joel has greatly increased my effectiveness as a leader in the local church. Through our times together prepping for the Back to Summit sessions, he has been able to help me develop my ministry goals and strategies in order to bring the session alive for my leaders. I’m a better pastor because of Back to Summit.

After going through Back to Summit with my team, I wouldn’t be able to simple attend the Willow Creek Leadership Summit without this follow-up ever again. The combination of the conference and the coaching is by far the best bang for our ministry dollars and a fantastic tool for building up the local church!

You can learn more about Back to Summit from Joel's website HERE. I would strongly encourage EVERY church to do this next fall!

Trust and Obey

2010-05-04T15:27:00.002-04:00

I'm not a hymn guy. AT ALL! In fact, good old fashion hymn-sings are flat out scary to me. Remember, I didn't grow up in church and the "classics" are not classics to me... they are completely foreign to me.

Anyways, that's a rant for another day :)

This afternoon I do have the song "Trust and Obey" floating around my head. Here is a great updated version of this song if you're not familiar with it (if reading this on Facebook, click this LINK).

I'm really learning a lot lately about trusting and obeying. I'm learning more and more how little answers I actually have to a lot of big questions, in ministry and in family life. I'm learning more and more that with every step I take in faith God is with me in it! I may not know exactly what He has in store for me, but I know that I can keep on walking, trusting and obeying Him!

And that's a really cool spot to be!

God isn't impressed with my leadership skills or my plan. He's pleased by my faith. That's it! And that's the area of my life that I find He is growing more each day. My faith in Him allows me to trust and obey.

Like the songs says, there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey!

Why I Participate in One Prayer!

2010-04-13T11:25:00.006-04:00

This morning I was challenged with the thought of why does my church participate in One Prayer? Not only that, I pushed even further as to why should we record my preaching message and submit it to be potentially used by other churches participating in One Prayer?

I have wonderful people in my life who stretch me and challenge me. I'm so appreciative of their love and support as I seek God in all areas of my life and ministry... and this challenge this morning really pumped me and and encouraged me.

Are my reasons for participating in One Prayer to build me up? Or my reputation? Is it so I can play with the "big boys pastors" as well? Or so I can be cool? Is it because I have big church ministry envy? Or because I have secret pastor-crush on Craig Groeschel? Great... I'm guessing now my reputation is completely shot and that's the only statement everyone will remember LOL! :)

I participate in One Prayer because it gives me a much BIGGER picture of God! Let me explain.

I pastor a little church. We have an average adult Sunday attendance of around 40. We have only 1 staff. We have no building. We have only 2 ministries, our Sunday celebration (which includes Sunday School for kids) and our mid-week Small Groups (which include outreach and service). Nothing sexy or fancy about it. We don't draw the big names or the big crowds.

We have great people who love God... who are going through life like everyone else. Who are dealing with problems like everyone else. It so easy for our problems to feel big. And we can get stuck if those problems are bigger than God in our heads...

In a little church, ministry problems can feel huge and scary. If we have money problems there's no support staff to let go, we lose the only pastor we got. If a key volunteer leaves, we lose the entire ministry. And so on and so on... We can so easily get stuck in our little problems.

And I hate that! Why? Because GOD is SOOOO much bigger than our little problems - in our lives and in our church!

When we see God for who he truly is, we can move mountains!!! When we have Unstoppable Faith we can truly experience the peace and love and mercy and grace and joy of an incredibly powerful God! With Unstoppable Faith we can overcome any issue or sin that is in our life. With Unstoppable Faith we can overcome any ministry challenge. Because GOD IS HUGE!!!

I'm praying that again this year that One Prayer will encourage my church to see God as way bigger than the things we are dealing with in our personal lives and in our ministry. And if spending a few hundred bucks to bring in a video guy (because we're a little church and we don't have video guys...) to record the service so that maybe, just maybe, it could be a blessing to other churches around the world, well, that's a very SMALL price to pay for the HUGE blessing One Prayer has been to us.

So, yes! I'm pumped and excited to be a part of One Prayer. I'm pumped to preach this weekend on Unstoppable Faith! I'm pumped to use other video teaching from around the world in June to encourage and equip us.

I'm pumped to see God's church, your church and my church and churches around the world, move mountains! I'm pumped to see the church be Unstoppable!

Facebook

2010-04-08T08:43:00.003-04:00

No surprised to anyone that I'm a big tech and computer nut. I love playing around with new technology and learning on how it can be leveraged to make the church more effective in reaching more and more people.

On the LifeChurch.tv blog is a FANTASTIC article on their plans for creating campus pages on Facebook! You can read it by clicking here. I love this! I think their points are bang on.

I've played around with a basic Facebook page and would love to get ours to a higher level of functionality and use. So... any Facebook experts out there wanna help get our page done? :)

PUMPED for Easter!

2010-04-01T10:52:00.002-04:00

Easter is the BIG DAY for me! Not Christmas! Why?

Because Christianity isn't worth the price of the paper my Bible is written on if the Resurrection didn't happen! It's ALL about the truth that Jesus is ALIVE!

If it was just about a good, moral teacher being born in a manger it would all mean nothing.

It's about an empty tomb! It's about a Saviour paying for my sin! It's about his ascension to heaven to advocate to the Father on my behalf.

It's all about Easter! AND I'M PUMPED!

I've been praying for BIG things to happen this weekend. I'm trusting James 1:6 when it says "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

I've been asking and believing God is going to work in the hearts of people BIG TIME this weekend!

Hope you believe that too!

Spiritual Momentum in My Life

2010-03-30T11:16:00.005-04:00

One of my big take aways at last week's Catalyst ONE DAY conference was how am I ensuring spiritual health in my life. As a pastor, it's so easy to run myself ragged and crazy trying to meet all the needs that I see around me. Ever since I've gone into ministry I've let my calendar control me... I've been at the mercy of not enough time to complete the big tasks because of the distracting tasks.

I was really inspired when Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley shared what their weekly schedule looks like. I was inspired that I really need to put a schedule together so I can really ensure my spiritual momentum and physical health. The guideline is just a guideline... not written in stone... obviously life happens and I'm very flexible with that... but I'm praying this will help manage expectations at the church and create margin in my life for God to do great things in my heart!

So here is the work in progress of my schedule. I'm no expert in doing this so feel free to comment and help me work out the details :)

Each day from 9 am till 10 am is a time of prayer and reading God's Word for MY benefit, not for meeting or sermon prep! The day ends at 4:00pm which gives family time and margin for any necessary evening meetings.

Monday AM	Church Admin / Integration / Draft Order of Service for Sunday
Monday PM	Mentoring (for myself and others every other week) / Sermon Outline
Monday EVENING	LifeGroup / Ministry Team Meeting
Tuesday AM	Staff or Elder meeting (every other week)
Tuesday PM	Sermon Prep
Tuesday EVENING	LifeGroup
Wednesday ALL DAY	OFF for Family! Untouchable
Thursday ALL DAY	Open day to meet with individuals, leaders, ministries
Thursday EVENING	Ministry Team meetings as needed
Friday AM	Leadership development / Outreach
Friday PM	Finish Sermon
Friday EVENING	OFF
Saturday AM	Leadership Development / Outreach as needed
Saturday PM	OFF
Saturday EVENING	Sermon Review
Sunday AM	LifeSpring Celebration
Sunday PM-EVENING	SABBATH with Family. Untouchable

How about you? How good at keeping margin and balance in your ministry?

A Year Already

2010-03-29T10:10:00.002-04:00

Hard to believe, but this week marks ONE YEAR since I've been the Lead Pastor at LifeSpring Christian Fellowship. Where does the time go???

I am incredibly humbled and blessed to have the privilege of pastoring this church. God has really been stretching me, challenging me and growing me as I serve here. Hopefully he's been doing that to the people who attend LifeSpring as well :)

Here's a couple of things that I've learned over the course of the year that have really grown me spiritually:

I care less what people think about me. Now, this may sound harsh... but it's SO true. My role is not to get people to like me... my role is to help people grow spiritually. The spiritual gift of shepherd is to love people so much as to not leave them as they are. If I was just concerned with having people like me then I would be too scared and nervous to speak God's truth. It is impossible to pastor a church while concerned that every body likes me. Truth is... I can't make everyone like me! I can't please 100% of the people at LifeSpring 100% of the time. And if I spend my time worrying about that fact I would end up burned out and washed out. I preach, prayer, serve, and work for an audience of ONE... the only one who matters, Jesus Christ!
Little Faith = Little Results. When I expect little things then I shouldn't be surprised with little results. When I pray for big things I should expect God to work in big ways! It's pretty easy to just accept that things are the way they are in a small church... it's easy to get caught in the lie that God isn't a work in a big way. I've been seeing God do great stuff, at my church and all around me. I'm BLOWN away by how he works through all different parts of his body, the Church. And this has really increased my faith!! I know God is up to BIG BIG things all around me. And I celebrate those a lot more now than I did in the past!
Change Matters. Why would we expect our church to produce different results when everything stays the same week after week? But that is so true in the church world. We expect revivals and tons of new people to just magically show up... without us doing anything. In just a short year, the little changes we've made at LifeSpring have already produced BIG changes. I'm excited to see even more new and creative ways to do our ministry come out this year and to see all that God will do through it! As I embrace change I see God working in my heart to change and transform it in new ways.

As we're praying and planning for the future I see a lot of great things ahead. I also see a lot of challenges. But I know that God is with us and there is no reason to fear what He wants to accomplish in us and through us.

Back from Catalyst!

2010-03-26T15:41:00.003-04:00

WOW!!!! That's all can say right now! Yesterday experience at Catalyst was just incredible! And I gotta admit... God really wrecked me! I've never felt closer to God than I did on my knees yesterday, crying in his presence!

I'm still processing all that God had to say to me through this event. I'll be blogging about it next week as it all becomes clearer.

I'm so grateful to everyone involved in putting on Catalyst One Day! Thanks to Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel for just bringing it!! I was so encouraged and minister to.

Picked up Craig's new book, The Christian Atheist. Started reading it this afternoon! Was awesome to meet him and others from the LifeChurch.tv team. Their ministry has been such a wonderful blessing to me in my personal walk with God. When people ask who pastors me, Craig Groeschel is on the top of that list.

Praising God today for all that he has in store for me and my journey with Him!

(Picture of Danielle and I with Craig Groeschel. Gee... why does Blackberry bother with a built in camera when all the pictures always come out so bad???)

The Christian Atheist

2010-03-19T11:23:00.002-04:00

I'm so looking forward to reading Craig Groeschel's latest book! I'm hoping that I can pick up a copy of it next week at the Catalyst One Day event.

Check out this video promo of the book!

March Book Suggestions

2010-03-18T11:58:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple of books I'm recommending this month! Check out the video below (if you're on Facebook you can see the video HERE).

You can order the books here:
The Prodigal God
Switch

Happy Anniversary!

2010-02-27T18:33:00.003-05:00

Today is my 11th wedding anniversary to my awesome and incredible wife Danielle!

I consider myself so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful friend and partner as my wife! I'm blown away by the wonderful person she is... and to be honest... I'm STILL shocked that he settled for a geek like me :-) It's an honor and a privilege to share our lives together!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I love you SOOOOOO much!

Six Things... Actually Seven #4

2010-02-22T17:22:00.002-05:00

Took a bit of a break on this...

In Proverbs 6:16-19 we read about the things that God hates. Here's number 4:

A Heart that Plots Evil

I can hear your sigh of relief. COOL! I don't plot evil. Are you sure about that???

Sometimes our definition of "evil" may not be the same as God's. Sure... we see acts of evil in the world all the time. Crime. Corruption. Slavery. Abuse. Genocide. Murder. Those are pretty easy to detect, and I'm pretty sure none of us have done those...

But in Matthew 5 Jesus shows us that our rules and guidelines are not the same as his. Jesus tells us that just looking at a woman with lust is adultery, not the act of sexual infidelity. He tells us that thinking angry thoughts about people is murder, not simply the act of taking another person's life. His definition of "evil" and "sin" are a LOT harsher than what we would call evil.

So, don't be too quick to say that your heart doesn't plot evil. I know mine isn't! When I'm jealous of the pastor up the road because his church has it all together. When I'm angry at people who let me down. When images flash across the TV screen quicker then I can change the channel... all these things are a potential for plotting evil in my heart!

That's why I'm SOOOO grateful for the godly men in my life who hold me accountable for my integrity. I'm so thankful for the time and prayer that they pour into me! Without their love and support who knows what plots would be brewing in my heart!

How about you? What do you have in place to ensure that your heart isn't plotting evil?

Book Reviews

2010-02-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd try something new on the blog! Video book reviews.

I'm a big reader... and I want to read even more this year! I'm a big BIG believer in the concept that as the pastor learns and grows than the church will learn and grow! Reading has been a huge part of my ministry this past three years and I'm know that God will continue to teach me more and more.

So check out the video below. If you're reading this on Facebook, click this link HERE.

Here are the books mentioned in the video.

The Imperfect Board Member by Jim Brown

Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing

by Geoff Surratt

The Prodigal God

2010-02-16T11:19:00.003-05:00

Starting on February 28th, I'll be preaching for five weeks on the parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15. Now... five weeks may seem long for just one little parable... but this simple little story that Jesus told to religious leaders has HUGE impact on us as followers of Jesus.

I've been reading the book The Prodigal God from Timothy Keller and just LOVE IT! I took my leadership team through a message by Keller at the Willowcreek Leadership Summit last month... and now we're going to go through it in much greater detail as a church.

I'm praying hard and excited to see all that God will do in us and through us as we explore this parable in our Sunday Celebration and discuss it during our mid-week LifeGroups. It's going to be GREAT!

This would also be a excellent time to invite people who are quite skeptical about the Christian message!

Silent Day of Prayer

2010-02-11T07:44:00.003-05:00

Been a busy and crazy week... I'll get back to my look at the 7 things God hates next week...

But first, I'm REALLY reminded of the importance of being still before a Holy God and just listening quietly for his direction and will for my life.

One day a month, my wife and I go to Loyola House in Guelph, Ontario for a full day of silent prayer and contemplation. I'm just amazed at how refreshed and pumped up for ministry I am after these quiet days. My creativity and energy are HUGELY increased just by spending one day a month in total silence!

This new discipline has been great and I strongly recommend it to every one, especially church leaders! In fact, I'd love to incorporate this even more into my regular weekly routine. Maybe a day a week just quiet and still with God! How much more would God accomplish in me and through me if I did that??? I'll have to give that a shot to find out :)

So today I'll be praying about a number of things:

I've been presented the possibility of visiting an orphanage in Thailand in May. Praying about that BIG TIME!
Praying for LifeSpring and what God wants us to be focusing on as a church this year.
Praying for my family and friends who I would just LOVE to see turn their struggles over to God!
Praying for my kids! They're just awesome and I know God is going to do big stuff through them one day.
Praying for my marriage. My wife is the best and I pray for our marriage all the time to keep us close and protected from what the world would throw our way!

Looking forward to being still today!

How about you? How do you find time to just be still and hear from God?

Six Things... Actually Seven #3

2010-02-04T09:06:00.003-05:00

According to Proverbs 6:16-19 there are six things, no, wait... seven things that God hates. As a father of two young kids this next one is really hitting home.

#3 Hands that Kill the Innocent

It's obvious by just watching the news or internet news feeds that the world is just crazy and children are exploited and mistreated all over the world. Abuse, malnutrition, sex trade, slavery, extreme poverty... all of those are a sad, sad reality for children everywhere.

But something a little closer to home is hitting me as a middle-class Canadian dad.

How do I, as a dad, kill the innocence in my children??? No. Really. Is there anything that I do in my life that kills their innocence?

In Luke 17:2 Jesus said that it's better to be thrown into the sea with a large rock tied around your neck than causing a little child to fall into sin. That's a pretty tough statement! In our culture today, kids are exposed to so many things that they really shouldn't have access to. The games, the TV shows, the movies... it seems like they just get exposed to the violence and sexually content earlier and earlier every generation.

Just last night, I had decided to take my 8 year old son to see Avatar... and a part of me wonders this morning, just how much of his innocence was "killed" last night... seeing how bad people can, how we exploit people for our own greed.

Maybe I'm reading too much into these little verse... but my children are the most important thing in my life. God gave them to me to care and nurture and to see them grow into a godly man and godly woman. I pray each day that I'm not a part of killing their innocence, but rather that God's love and grace would be very clear to them because they saw it in their earthly father.

How about you dads? How are you reflecting the love of God into your kids?

Six Things... Actually Seven #2

2010-02-02T11:02:00.002-05:00

Continuing to look at the six things, I mean seven things, that God hates according to Proverbs 6:16-19. Today we see one that appears pretty obvious...

#2 A Lying Tongue

So God hates it when we lie. Is there any surprise there? But I find this remember quite challenge this morning... not that I really consider myself someone who lies a lot... but how easy it is to stretch and not be honest about how things are going in order to make myself look better than I am.

We all do it. We want people to think we have everything all together. We want people to think we're smart enough and talented enough. And the last thing we Pastors want is for people to think that we don't have all the answers :) So we lie. We keep information to ourselves. We don't really let people get to know the real us. When we live that way I think that way, pretending to be better than we are, I think we distance ourselves from God and how he wants us to be living.

So may prayer today is that God would get rid of my lying tongue. That I would speak his truth in love and grace each and every day. And that my life would reflect the love and grace of Christ is all that I say and do.

How about you? What's God telling you today about your lying tongue?

Six Things... Actually Seven #1

2010-02-01T09:49:00.004-05:00

This morning in my One Year Bible reading I was really hit with the reminder in Proverbs 6:16-19 on the six things, no, wait... seven things that God hates. This was VERY powerful in my heart this morning... so, for for the next six days... no, seven days, I want to blog about each of the six, I mean seven, things.

#1 Haughty Eyes

The proverb starts with saying that God hates and even detests haughty eyes. Now, I admit... I had to look the word "haughty" up in the dictionary. Here's what it said: disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious. Ouch!

This is a powerful reminder of how God wants us to treat everyone! We all can quote how God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son... we love the idea the God loves us... but do we love the idea that God has called us to love everyone??? Even the people we don't like???

So, this morning I'm praying for my eyes... and the eyes of everyone in my church! Do I have haughty eyes? Do I allow myself to look at people with disdain? Do I allow myself to be scornfully arrogant? Do my eyes look contemptuous?

Or do my eyes reflect the love and grace of a awesome heavenly Father who loves everyone? When people see my eyes do they see the eyes of Jesus?

My prayer for today:

Lord, don't allow me to live with haughty eyes! It's better to enter the kingdom of heaven blind then with two good eyes that cause me to sin! Help me Lord to look at people and situations the way you do, with love and grace! And I pray for our church that we would be a people with eyes that reflect you and who you are!

How are your eyes today?

It's that time of year!

2010-01-04T10:24:00.002-05:00

WOW!!! 2010! Can't believe it's actually 2010 and I STILL don't have rocket boots or a flying car! What's the deal with that! :)

For the past number of years I've challenged myself (and everyone else who reads this blog) to really get into reading your Bible regularly! I just don't know how Christians in our North American culture can walk closely with God without spending regular time in his Word...

This will be my sixth year doing The One Year Bible. Some years are better than others for getting the entire Bible read... I usually end up around 85-95% of the Bible read each year doing this method. This year I'm going for %110!

Also, I like to start each of my reading times with a short prayer. I pray the same thing each and every day for the entire year. It's been pretty amazing to see God work through those simple prayers. Here's the list from the past few years:

2005: Give a passion for God's Word, his people, his world and his service.
2006: Hear God clearly and direction in career and family
2007: Built a stronger servants hearts and use me to build your kingdom
2008: God use me to accomplish what I could never do without you
2009: Stretch me. Ruin me. Heal me.

And my prayer for 2010 is: God, break my heart for what breaks yours!

I'm sure this one will give me a LOT of sleepless nights :)

So the challenge is on! Get out your Bibles and start reading!

Avatar ROCKS!

2009-12-22T16:14:00.004-05:00

Ok. It's been a LONG time since I've reviewed a movie on my blog... mainly because I haven't seen too many movies worth reviewing. James Cameron's Avatar is well worth some of my time to blog about! This movie was just plain awesome!

First off, I gotta say. I have 3D movies. Whenever a kiddie movie comes out in 3D I always make us go to the non-3D version of it. Within 20 minutes of the 3D movie I start a killer headache and just find that it does absolutely nothing to make the movie any more enjoyable.

Avatar has COMPLETELY changed my viewpoint on this technology! The entire movie is just breath-taking! In fact, in some scenes I actually felt vertigo and clutched to my armrests. It felt like we were a part of the story! This really sets the bar incredibly high for any other fantasy or sci-fi movies. Cameron has brought movies to the next level again! He did it with Terminator 2's liquid terminator, the T-1000. He's done it again with Avatar!

I've read a bunch of reviews that said that the story was the weakest point of the movie. Sure, it's a simple story and obviously predictable... but I JUST LOVED IT! It had action, humour, love, tears, and just about everything else that makes a great story! I love stories about the underdog overcoming a larger power. This definitely has that. I also really loved the flat out idea that we are destroying our planet. I'm not normally a political tree-hugger... but the truth is, our planet isn't doing well. We've been given a responsibility to care for it... and we're doing a pretty bad job of it. Avatar paints a bleak future that we've screwed up our world so bad that we have become the locusts of the universe and just consume everything we can get our hands on.

The characters were great. I just loved the journey of the main character, Jake Sully. Going from spy to saviour of the Navi People. Each of the characters really carried the story along. In a movie like this, it would be easy to just get lost in the effects, but the actors were just as great. I even forgot that I was looking at computer generated characters at one point! It just looked like actors in makeup.

Avatar is a MUST see movie in my opinion! It just doesn't get much better than that for your money buck. I'll definitely be going again during this Christmas holiday! Now... gotta find a nearby IMAX screen for my next outing.

Love Praying in my Chair!

2009-12-21T21:05:00.006-05:00

I'm sitting in my favorite chair, admiring my Christmas tree, enjoying an herbal tea, and ignoring my sermon notes on the floor. I'm doing the most important work I can think of instead - praying!

I'm so thankful that I can sit in this chair and just relax and pray! It's such a joy for me to pray for friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, and strangers! This year my prayer life has been a little more up and down then I would like... but it has gotten much more specific in how I pray for people. God has really been doing a number on my heart. I go from feelings of incredible joy to deep sorrow as I pray for specific needs.

Just today I spent time in this chair praying for old friends, new friends and people I have never met. Life is just happening all around me. Blessings, joys, laughs, sadness, hurts, lost. God knows all this and wants us to be coming to him with this.

If ever you want someone to pray for you I consider it an honor and a privilege to do so. Just send me a quick note and I'll be praying for you! Praise or request. Big or little. God wants us to pray about it all!

I'm a firm believer that prayer is the most important thing I do as a Pastor! I just love praying for everyone at LifeSpring. Even if God were to grow the congregation to 2000, I would be praying for every single person there!

Iron Man 2 Trailer!

2009-12-16T21:31:00.002-05:00

I SOOOO can't wait to see this movie!!

Beauty in Diversity

2009-12-15T16:08:00.004-05:00

This past summer I did a research paper for the Hermeneutics course I was taking at Heritage Seminary. The goal of the paper was to show that I had learned concepts taught in the course on interpreting a difficult text from Scripture. One of the best things that I learned in that course and during my research paper was just how AWESOME God is!

How did a course on interpreting ancient, biblical texts and a research paper on 1 Timothy 2:12 (yes, I like stirring up hornets nests!) do that??? It was just an awesome and beautiful reminder to me on the work that God is doing all around the world through his church. And he is doing this through SO many different types of churches! I just find that there is a beauty to this diversity in the churches!

Over the past year I've had the wonderful and humbling privileged to meet so many different church and ministry leaders from so many varied backgrounds, theological viewpoints and church models! And what is SOOOO cool about all of them is the work that God is doing. God is moving in all of them! I just LOVE learning from each of them and hearing their stories about all that God is doing in their ministries.

I think that's why I so pumped about seeing different types of church models to learn how to partner with each other. The goal is not to point out who is right and who is wrong, but rather to have a hermeneutical humility (a term I learned in my course) when we deal with people that do church different then we do.

In my research paper I read a great article by Craig L. Bloomberg where he said this:

There is no legitimate place in this debate to impugn fellow evangelicals who differ from one another by using pejorative labels “liberal” or “fundamentalist,” simply because of their views on this topic. All of us who speak and write on gender roles would do well to begin and end every address with the caveats, “I could be wrong” and, “I respect the right of fellow evangelicals and evangelical churches to come to different conclusions, and I will cooperate with them rather than combat them for the larger cause of Christ and his kingdom, which so desperately needs such unity".

I work real hard to keep that attitude when meeting anyone different than myself. I make myself available to cooperate with churches who come to a different conclusion then me. I think that's what unity is all about. We can disagree on how the details but be united in who we are in Christ!

Diversity in types of churches, for me, is just how God is reaching very different types of people! And that's what it should be all about.

Celebration Pastor

2009-12-14T12:56:00.003-05:00

I'm pretty excited about all that God is doing at LifeSpring these days! There have been a number of ups and downs (and sometimes feeling like it's a pretty crazy roller coaster!) but it's been just great to see how God is working through all of this.

I'm really excited about the idea of bringing on a new, part-time staff member at LifeSpring! We're beginning the process of looking for a Celebration Pastor. The goal is that this pastor would be equipping and building up people to bring the Sunday Celebration service to the next level. This would then greatly free me up to focus more on our LifeGroups (our home groups) and outreach to the community.

We're praying a lot that we're on God's page. The last thing we want is for God to bless our plans. We only want to do what he's called us to do and to do the things he's called us to do!

If you know of anyone who might be interested in this 20 hour a week position, have them contact me and I'll send them the full description of what we're looking for.

'Tis the Season!

2009-12-01T12:01:00.004-05:00

'Tis the season to be incredibly busy!

WOW! I'm always amazed at just how crazy this time of year gets. Family activities start ramping up. Christmas shopping and planning start causing sleepless nights. Seminary papers are becoming due. Ministry work seems to start hitting about 100mph.

And in all of this... we're supposed to hear that still quiet voice of God telling us how much he loves us.

So... in this very busy time of year I'm being VERY purposeful on spending that quiet time with God. Everything else can wait. The key to hope, peace, joy and love is a good, healthy walk with God. Without that everything else that I try to do is useless! Without that quiet time with God I'm useless as a husband, father, friend, brother and pastor. Without God's love pouring into me and flowing out of me this time of year can easily turn me into a Scrooge or a Grinch :) Not very good role models!

How about you? How are you ensuring that the busyness of this time of year doesn't wear you down?

Promise Keepers Weekend Thoughts

2009-11-16T17:57:00.004-05:00

This past Friday/Saturday I was in Mississauga for the annual Promise Keepers Canada National Conference. I love going to this! It's always a highlight of my year. There is nothing in the world like gathering with 4000+ men to worship God and grow as men.

This year was great. Two men who I greatly admire were part of the speaker line up: Pat Morley and Craig Gross. Both of their ministries have been a real blessing to me over the years.

There was just one thing that I wish I could see at a Canadian National conference.... and that would be Canadian speakers! I love hearing what God is doing around the world... but I'm really pumped about what God is doing in my backyard even more! When US speakers keep saying "I don't know what it's like here in Canada, but back home..." I find it a tad disappointing. I want to know how men are doing here. There has got to be some gifted speakers in Canada that PK can get up there on the stage. I think getting a higher concentration of Canadian speakers would be an encouragement to pastors and churches across Canada.

All in all it was an AWESOME event! The talks were great. The music was top notch! The time hanging in the hotel that night was fun. Looking forward to next year!

Ignite!

2009-11-13T13:55:00.005-05:00

I'm currently reading the book Ignite by Nelson Searcy.

Nelson is the Lead Pastor of The Journey Church in New York City. He also heads up the Senior Pastor Tele-Coaching Network that I'm a part of this year (by the way, if you're a Senior Pastor you REALLY need to sign up for this Network! I've been learning SO much over the past few months. You can do that here.)

I'm really loving this book on the importance of evangelism and how to be more effective at equipping and preparing our churches to reach more and more people. Nelson really hits the nail on the head when he reminds us that, as senior pastors, the temperature of our church's evangelism falls on us. If we are not evangelistic and reaching out to people in our communities, then neither will our church. I love this quote:

Make sure you haven't become so consumed with doing church that you have left the work of bringing in the unsaved to the people in your congregation.

Love this! Isn't that so true? We get so busy in "doing church" that we sometimes forget to BE the church! We forget that our ultimate goal is not about building our church but inviting more people into the kingdom of God.

This is why I'm beginning to put much more time in my community involvement. I want to be able to share my stories with the rest of LifeSpring in order to be an encouragement to them as they do the same. I'm excited and encouraged already by the people that I've been meeting and the stories that I'm learning!

How about you? Church leader, how are you making sure that you're a part of process of keeping the evangelistic temperature of your church boiling hot?

Remembrance Day

2009-11-10T22:29:00.003-05:00

I may not agree with the wars (or the reason for them) going on in our world right now... but I certainly have a HUGE respect for the men and women who give up their own lives and sacrifice so much in their own lives so that I have the rights and freedoms that I have in this part of the world.

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in Canada. I'm remembering my grandfather who passed away when I was in college.... and honoring those who serve my country. Last Sunday we played this song by Shawn Hlookoff during our Celebration service. Very powerful and beautiful song!

(If you're reading this on Facebook click this link for the video)

Running After God

2009-11-09T09:41:00.002-05:00

This morning I spent half an hour on the elliptical machine at the gym. I was listening to a GREAT message from Andy Stanley on my iPod. The message was incredibly uplifting, powerful and got me all pumped up. It got the heart rate up faster then I normally do on that crazy machine.

But something hit me as my heart rate was approaching 160.... no... it wasn't a heart attack.

I began asking myself is this what ministry feels like sometimes? Are we as leaders running this fast pace, getting our heart up to the collapsing point... but in reality we aren't even going anywhere? Are we running so much after the work of God that we forget to slow down and remember that God is running after us and wants to do a work in us?

That was a great reminder to me this morning... I can't run after the work of God. I'll never be good enough, strong enough or talented enough. I can't do everything no matter how hard I try. But if I remember to slow down, God catches me! I can rest and trust in him for every area of my ministry and my life. He takes care of the work that needs to be done! He takes care of all the details. I just need to slow down and go where he leads.

I love going to the gym :-)

Too Many Books... So Little Time

2009-11-02T21:27:00.002-05:00

I love reading. I read a lot. But lately I've been feeling a tad disappointed that I'm not reading all that I would like to be reading.

I read a lot for different areas of ministry. I have five books that I'm going through right now in that category. But... I have 13 others that I would love to get through before Christmas...

I have 2 books in fiction/fantasy that I would love to read... they were Christmas gifts from last year! That's pretty sad! I gotta free up more time to read novels for fun!

I have a bunch of reading for my seminary class as well. Love that! I'm a few chapters behind though...

At least I'm up to date on my comic book reading :)

I'm a big believer that one of the best ways to grow as a person is to always be learning. The trick for me has been to keep a balance on the type of stuff that I'm reading. I'm thinking of working on a reading plan as part of my New Year's resolution this coming January... we'll see how that goes.

Would You Really?

2009-10-22T17:45:00.002-04:00

Today I want to celebrate all that God has been doing in his church through men and women who have had the guts to follow His call and direction... especially when it would have been really hard and had great cost to do so. God has done some AWESOME things in the world because of people who were willing to challenge how the church works and to do what needed to be done... even though those decisions wouldn't have been popular or even considered acceptable.

Could you imagine what would it feel like to be called by God to be the first church to do something radically different from every other church in your community? What would you do? How would you even consider this if there were no books, no conferences and not a single other church doing this that you could study? You were completely and totally on your own on how to make it happen...

Would you protest the most powerful religious organization and make a list how it should be updated? Someone did that!

Would you be the very first church to bring in a different musical instrument? Someone did that!

Would you be the first church to allow mixed races to worship together? Someone did that!

Would you be the first church to consider meeting in a movie theater? Someone did that!

Would you be the first church to consider not building a church building but rather build a coffee shop? Someone did that!

Would you be the very first church to do video teaching? Someone did that!

All throughout history God has expanded his kingdom because men and women had the guts to do something that no one else was doing. I love how Craig Groeschel, pastor of Lifechurch.tv puts it:

"In order to reach people that other churches are not reaching, you have to do things that other churches are not doing!"

That is so true. It was true in the past. And I believe it's even more true today!

So... would you be willing to be one of those churches? Would you be willing to be one of those leaders? It would be HARD! It would be lonely! It would come with a great cost, either financial or personal! And you may not even live to see the full outcome of what you started.... but would you? It's an easy question to say yes to... until we're actually called to it...

Would I?

Wrapping Up Our Wild Goose Chase

2009-10-16T21:21:00.004-04:00

This Sunday at LifeSpring we're wrapping up our series "Wild Goose Chase" based on the book by Mark Batterson.

This series has been INCREDIBLY exciting for me. It's been a real blast to teach on this topic that was so important in my own personal spiritual growth last year! It was sooooo cool to see people at LifeSpring get excited about it as well. It was so amazing to see people working through their own cages in order to start getting out of them and truly desiring to live a life of following and trusting the Holy Spirit. It was so humbling seeing people getting excited about what God wants to be doing at our church. And it just floored me that God started bringing new families to our church through this series! GOD IS SO AMAZING!!!

I just gotta shout out a HUGE thank you to Mark Batterson for writing the book and the team at Threads Media for putting together the small group curriculum! You guys rock!!!

I'm actually going to be kind of sad when this series wraps up.... it was the first full sermon series that I've ever preached! I love when God stretches me and gets me to do something new!

After this Sunday I'll be taking a 4 week break from preaching. This is so that I can chase that wild goose as we really get cracking on our leadership restructuring! I'm praying that God is going to do some huge things in the months ahead.

To everyone at LifeSpring, CHASE THE GOOSE!

So Nice to Go Home!

2009-10-15T13:13:00.005-04:00

It's kinda weird how important "going home" is. You know... that feeling of going to that special place where your childhood memories are so strong it just gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling.

For my wife and I, we don't really have that "home" to go to. We both moved around growing up. My parents now live in a house and town that I never lived in. Our family is spread out and all in homes and towns that we never lived in. So when we get together it's great... but it just seems to be missing that "going home" feeling.

On Sunday, I finally felt that "going home" feeling again. It was by visiting our church. I didn't tell anyone we were coming. The last few trips to Ottawa/Montreal we were unable to work out a visit and I didn't want to risk having to cancel and then telling people why we weren't coming.

Sitting in Westview Bible Church again just brought out so many wonderful memories! This is the place that we started attending after I come to faith in Christ through an Internet ministry. This was the place where Danielle came to Christ through the Alpha ministry. This is the place that both of us were baptized. This is the place where we were nurtured and cared for as new believers and encouraged and pushed to try new things. This is where I really fired up my passion to see men become all they could be in their families. This is where we dedicated our daughter Samantha. This is where Danielle and I renewed our wedding vows as Christians. This is where I preached my very first sermon (I remember it well - it was terrible!). This is where we served as leaders for the first time. This is where we learned that God could do so much more in our lives if we would just be fully devoted to his plan!

Sitting there seeing old friends, people who cared for our family, who poured so much into us and our kids was just awesome! Every handshake, every hug, every smile was just so warming and pumped me up!

I may not have a childhood home to go back to... but I have a wonderful spiritual home to visit! I'm so grateful to the pastors and leaders at Westview for all their prayers, encouragement and friendship over the years! I wouldn't be the man I am today without each and every one of them!

I Stand Amazed

2009-10-06T14:47:00.002-04:00

God really does amaze me!

No really. He does. Each and every day! Why? Because everything that goes on around me is just flat out amazing! I'm amazed by how awesome everything in creation is. I'm amazed at the incredible love and grace that was shown to the entire world at the cross.

And I'm just amazed that God would use me, a complete nobody, to be a part of the work that he is doing in the world. I can't believe that I get to pastor a church. I can't believe I get the opportunity to learn from such wonderful professors at seminary. I can't believe I get to share my heart and what I'm learning with other leaders in the church. Who am I to equip people who've been in church leadership longer then I've even been a Christian??? I truly stand in amazement of all that God is doing around me and in me.

I can't believe we've been at LifeSpring for six months! We're does the time go?!?! I'm standing in total amazement in all that God has done in those six months and I'm SOOOO pumped and excited for the years to come!

Here's one of my favorite songs that really tell how I feel!

If you're reading this on Facebook click this link to access the song.

40

2009-09-28T11:44:00.003-04:00

Last week was a great week. God has been doing so much in my life to stretch me and teach me and transform me into the man he wants me to be!

I was reminded of a very powerful reminder in a very simple song. One of my favorites songs of all time is the song "40" by U2. You can watch the video below or click HERE to link to see it on YouTube if you're reading this on Facebook.

This song came to mind as I was working through a bunch of stuff over the last few weeks. What I love so much about this song is the fact that it's taken right from the Bible. "40" is just a few verses from Psalm 40, which has become over the years one of my favorite Psalms.

What I love most from this Psalm is some incredible reminders on who God is and what he does for me.

The psalm opens with "I waited patiently for the Lord". I LOVE THAT! Sure, life is hard sometimes. Sure, sometimes I wish things would go exactly the way that I want. But I know that God hears my cries. He turns to me and hears them! Sometimes I just need to be patient. I know he's heard me in the past and he'll hear me again, each and every time!

It continues with "he lifted me out of the slimy pit" and "he set my feet on a rock". We've all gone through slimy pits in life. Some of us might be going through them right now. God picks us up out of those pits and puts us on that solid rock. That solid rock comes from the salvation that God provided in Jesus. I love this reminder that my rock is solid... and even though I might feel like I'm stuck in the mud and slime... my feet are secure on that rock!

"Many will see and hear and put their trust in the Lord." When we live a life of standing firm on the rock, people see it. All around us. We can chose to act and live like we're still in the slimy pit... or we can live in the reality that our feet are on a rock... and many will see and find themselves pulled out of their pits on put on this rock as well.

What a great reminder going into this new week. I think I'm going to listen to some U2 for the rest of the day :-)

Stretch Me. Ruin Me. Heal Me.

2009-09-21T21:38:00.003-04:00

Remember January? I do. Every year for the past five years I've been doing the One Year Bible Reading. I've been a little slack on keeping up on the exact date in my One Year Bible... but I have been reading lots of other scriptures to make up for it. So, I won't have read the entire Bible this year like I have the past four years... but I have been doing my regular praying.

Every year I come up with a short prayer to start my day with. In this article I shared what my prayer for 2009 was. After reading the book IT by Craig Groeschel I followed his advice and have been praying every day that God would stretch me, ruin me and heal me! And boy oh boy has he ever been doing an awesome job of that! :-)

I feel like God has taught me SOOOO much this past year. He's been teaching me so much about following him, about being a husband, about being a father and about being a Pastor. I'm definitely far from perfect (I can hear you're shouts of AMEN from here!) but I'm trusting God more and more that he is going to continue to do everything that he wants to accomplish in me and through me!

God continue to stretch me beyond myself. Continue to ruin the things in me that keep me from following you completely. And heal in me the wrong attitudes and emotions that prevent me from loving you with my whole being and loving everyone around me as myself!

Great Day to Geek Out!

2009-09-15T11:01:00.004-04:00

YAAAAYYYY!!! I've been waiting for today for a year. The new video game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 hits the store today. I LOVED the first one. I thought the game was fantastic, even on the Wii which is no where close to a hard core gaming system. The story was better than pretty much every single Marvel movie that has come out in years! I was hooked on the story from beginning to end!

To make Alliance 2 even cooler in my geeky opinion is the fact that it's based on Marvel's Civil War storyline. Civil War was the reason I started reading comic books again after a 12 year absences. To have one of my favorite stories put into one of my favorite video games, is a fanboy dream come true :-)

Also today, X-Men Origins: Wolverine comes out on Blu-Ray. Sure. The movie wasn't great. In fact, how Wolvie got his adamantium skeleton and claws and how he lost his memory was just plain dumb. But it was still a pretty fun movie with lots of high points. It's definitely worth adding to my new Blu-Ray collection.

Now... let's see... between preaching for the next 5 weeks, starting school, and doing senior pastor coaching... I should have time to play the game and watch the movie in about 3 to 4 months :-)

Monday is the New Dreaming Day

2009-09-14T11:37:00.004-04:00

This week I'm working on a new schedule. Kids going back to school will do that. Also, my awesome, amazing wife started a new job today. So in order to ensure that we have our weekly Date Day together, I'll be taking Thursdays off instead of Monday from now on.

Now, on Monday mornings I'm fried. Really fried. Some Mondays, especially after doing everything to get ready for Sunday Celebration, preaching and then our LifeGroup that evening, I feel like my brain has been hit by an angry bus. And because that bus was so angry, it backed up to hit me again :-)

I love taking time every single week to pray and dream about what God wants to do. I dream about what God wants to do in my life and my relationship with him. I dream about what God wants to do in my family to stretch us and grow us closer together. I dream about what God wants to do our the church that I pastor so that everyone will continue to grow in their spiritual journey.

Monday mornings with a fried brain makes a great time to pray and dream! It recoups me from the week before and gets my heart and mind excited about the coming week.

This morning I've been praying for my family. I've been praying for the people in our LifeGroup. I've been praying for the leaders of LifeSpring and their families. I've been praying about how God wants to stretch me. I've been praying about this CRAZY idea that God has put on my heart about writting a book (I'll blog more about that one... soon).

I love journaling my dreams for my life and our church. As I look back over the doodles and notes that I've scribbled over the last few months I'm just blown away by how much God has done in my life! It's such a blessing.

I love Mondays. :)

Let the Chase Begin!

2009-09-10T09:34:00.002-04:00

I'm really pumped for the next six weeks at LifeSpring. Starting this Sunday we'll be studying the book Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. This book was HUGE in my personal walk with Christ when I read it last November. I had the opportunity to meet Mark at The Sticks conference last year. His talk and this book really put a passion in me to see the Spirit of God really work in my life. I'm excited to preach for the next six weeks on this topic and to have each of our LifeGroups get deeper into the topics in their home meetings. We'll also be providing new Bible study resources in order to help people get into God's Word more in their own private time. It's going to be great!!

For me personally, following the Wild Goose hasn't always been easy. In fact, sometimes it's just flat out hard! As a pastor, sometimes hard decisions have to be made. Sometimes people are not going to like you or agree with you. Sometimes you have to have difficult conversations with people who you really love. Sometimes what you say gets misinterpreted. Sometimes all the details of the church just seems so overwhelming. But, what I've learned the most this past year comes right out of Mark's books. And it's this, "since when did it become safe to follow Christ? Maybe it's time to come out of the cage and live dangerously for the cause of Christ".

Being on this Wild Goose has been the most exciting journey of my ENTIRE life. Leaving a successful career was crazy. Moving to Elmira to be an associate pastor was crazy. Resigning from such a wonderful church like Woodside was crazy. Becoming a lead pastor in a small church plant was crazy. And yes, some of the stuff we as a leadership team want to do going forward is going to be crazy :)

BUT THIS IS THE PATH OF THE WILD GOOSE!! So that's the path that I'm going to stick with! God has never left me! He doesn't abandon us half way down the trail. He has been right there with me through this entire adventure! It is HIS Spirit that is able to accomplish all this stuff. I've never felt so blessed. I've never felt so excited. I've never felt so terrified!

I'm praying like crazy that all of us at LifeSpring will chase the goose this year. Let the chase begin!

Love is Here

2009-09-03T09:56:00.004-04:00

This morning I was sitting in my favorite chair, reading my Bible and praying to God and just struck by all the wonderful love that I have in my life.

I'm loved by an awesome and holy and just and powerful and all-knowing God. He loves me so much that he would come to this earth and pay the ultimate price to bring me back to him. That is so mind blowing!!

I'm loved by an wonderful and fun and caring and godly wife. I still wake up in the morning in shock and awe that such a great woman would be married to me!

I'm loved by two great kids! They're caring and thoughtful and funny as can be and bring such joy to my life.

I'm loved by great family members. I'm loved by great friends.

Sometimes when I'm struggling and stressing out over leading a church and a family it's easy to forget about all this love and only focus on the stresses of life. But love is here! It's all around me ALL THE TIME!

This song was playing in the background during my prayer time and just pumped me up to hit this day running. Hope it does the same for you!

(If you're reading this in Facebook, click this LINK to see the video)

One Prayer 2009 Update

2009-09-02T12:25:00.003-04:00

In June, our church partnered with nearly 2000 other churches around the world in One Prayer. This was such a huge blessing to our church to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves and I'm looking forward to being even more involved with it next year!

Just received an awesome email from the One Prayer team with an update on how One Prayer went and an exciting opportunity for pastors who participated in One Prayer. You can check out this announcement by watching this video from Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor of LifeChurch.tv.

I love the idea of the God is... book! In fact, I'll be submitting a chapter for consideration. I'll be using my God is... Jesus message. And who knows, maybe with a LOT of prayer that will be my first work published :)

It's so amazing to see what God can do with his church stands together! LOVE IT!!! My most heart felt prayers go out to the guys and gals who came up with this One Prayer idea!

Love Everyone. Pray for Everyone.

2009-08-31T12:42:00.004-04:00

We're back from our little family vacation. We had such a wonderful time of relaxing and just spending time together connecting as a family. We played games, went to beach, watched movies (my kids are now Back to the Future junkies!), read books, and just enjoyed all the blessings God poured out on us that week.

I spent some great time with God and I'm really excited by all that I see him doing in my life privately and what I see happening at our church. I really feel that God is going to do some great things.

One of the things that hit me in my quiet time is how grateful and thankful am I of the previous church were I served as the associate pastor. While studying the book of Colossians I was reminded of one of the qualities of the senior pastor that greatly admired. He was really great at keeping us on track to love and pray for people. He wouldn't let us as a staff get frustrated and annoyed with people but always pulled us back to love and pray for everyone. I REALLY admired him for that, especially since I know he must have had his fair share of frustrations and annoyances in ministry.

In ministry it's WAY too easy to get annoyed and frustrated, especially when it may look like your church isn't doing well, or when there are lots of struggles. Colossians really reminded to continue praying for everything and everybody! Paul didn't let the struggles in his church get to him... and neither will I.

Paul said "We always pray for you" and we as followers of Jesus must follow that example. Always pray for you!

What a Week!!

2009-08-21T16:33:00.002-04:00

WOW!!! This was the kind of week that really PUMPS ME UP as a church leader! I was meeting with leaders from our church, leaders in the community, leaders from leading nation wide ministries, members from our church and people from the community. And all I can say about all of it is:

WOW!!!

God has some pretty big plans for us as a church this fall. I'm so excited and encouraged by all the wonderful comments and feedback from everyone I'm talking with. I'm so excited to put our regroup efforts into place to really help us be a church that is bringing Jesus to people! I'm so excited.... and so humbled to be part of such a loving and passionate group of people.

Next week I'm relaxing all alone with my wife and kids. I'm so looking forward to just hanging and playing with them next week.

Then when we get back it will be to hit the ground running! Talk to you then!

God is Awesome!

2009-08-14T09:27:00.000-04:00

Late last night as I was sitting in the hot tube (yes... I spend a lot of time in the hot tube when I stay with my parents... LOVE IT!) all the lights were off and I was staring up into the sky. The night was perfectly clear and the beauty of the stars was just filling the sky! I could see the Milky Way stretching from one end of the sky to the other. It was just amazing to be still in the water and take in the wonders of God's creation!

Then my parents and I sat back in our lawn chairs to watch a meteor shower. We only saw about 5-6 shooting stars... but it was pretty cool anyways.

This week has been great for getting a bunch of writing done and sermons prepped. I was so thankful for the chance to be here and just take in all of God's awesomeness!

I was reminded of this...

How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth! - Psalm 47:2

Looking forward to heading home in the morning!

Neet Dream the Other Night

2009-08-12T09:10:00.002-04:00

One thing about being up at my parent's place is the very weird and realistic dreams I have here. Maybe it's all the fresh country air or my blood being thinned out from all the time in the hot tube... not sure what it is but had an awesome dream the other night.

I dreamed we were just about to start our Sunday celebration service at LifeSpring. We meet in the community room of a local hockey arena that can sit around a hundred. Well, in the dream, just before we started, a few guests started showing up... and then more... and then even more. While the worship team started even more showed up that I was running around setting up chairs for everyone! I was preaching on the Greatest Commandment (which I'm actually doing this coming Sunday) and during the message ALL of the 200+ visitors accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour! Then we spent the afternoon baptising all these people and then trying to get all of them into LifeGroups to meet during the week!

Pretty cool dream! I love those dreams that just feel SOOO real. Every detail of it was accurate... right down to every detail of our meeting room. LOVED IT!

So that dream really is pushing my prayer time and leadership to the next level. Instead of praying for a small impact in our community I'm praying that HUNDREDS of people will come to know Jesus through the ministry of LifeSpring and the other churches in the area!

Reading and Writing Week

2009-08-11T16:37:00.003-04:00

I'm up north at my mom's place with the kids this week... they are enjoying a fun filled week with their grandparents while I enjoy the quietness of this place to get a lot of writing done! I'm hoping to get a research paper for school finished and get a few sermons done for the spring. Both projects are a blast but are really frying my brain! :) That's why I'm thankful for the quiet, forest surroundings here... and the hot tub (which I'm going to jump in as soon as I'm done writing this!)

A part of me loves getting into the books and studying some tough stuff that Scripture brings out... but there's another part of me that wants to write my own book and call it "Who Cares??" I'm writing my paper on 1 Timothy 2:12 (Google it if you don't know it and you can imagine the arguments that this stirs up!) With all the opinions on egalitarians and complementarians I just can't help but wonder if it really matters... I mean... really... am I going to go to hell if I allow a woman to preach in my church... or will I go to hell if I don't??? Will God cast me out of his kingdom for not landing on the proper side of this issue? Will he cut my church off and remove his spirit from us???

I don't think so... I've seen great churches with women leaders (pastors or elders) where God is doing fantastic stuff through those leaders. I've also seen wonderful churches that hold to a "men only" structure of leadership... and God is going great stuff there as well! So which is right? Does it matter?

So a part of me wants to throw all these books in the lake (and it's not that far from here!) and just go out and hug all these authors for the great work that God's has called them to and for working so hard on this issue. I would also love to hug the ones who critique the other side's view point in a loving and humble way! Those guys and gals really make me respect them with that Christ-like attitude! That should be at the heart of any debate.

And another strange part of me wants to learn as much as possible about both sides of the debate. Why? So I can love them both even more! :)

What if we flipped this...

2009-08-05T08:21:00.003-04:00

I recently read that the average church in North America allocates about 5% of their total budget on Missions and Evangelism. The rest of the money goes to pay staff and buildings and equipment and programs for church members like children and youth.

I can't help but wonder what would the world look like if we flipped that around... what if 95% of our church budgets went to reaching out to a lost and hurting world? What if our programs were not just about building ourselves up but were all about teaching us to obey everything that Jesus commanded so that we would go and make disciples of all the nations? What if 95% of churches' money was being poured back into our communities through the lives of people radically transformed by the message, power and love of Jesus Christ?

I wonder what that would look like... probably like the church I read about in my Bible.