The Turkey Story

Had the opportunity to hear and meet Earl Creps today. Pretty cool that he knew the pastor of the church where I was associate pastor at in Maine. He articulated what I know really was on all of our minds - how do we reach our community with the truth and reality of Christ. Earning the right to be heard was one of the paramount points in what he had to say.

Forgive my shameless segue into what we are doing at the church I pastor - but in many ways, it has earned us the right to be heard. In the summer of 2005 I was praying that God would help us reach our community. I believe he led me to camp out on the roof to collect turkeys during the Thanksgiving season. This year will be our third and biggest year - and God has opened doors of connection to have greater influence. Our goal is $50,000 this year - and I'm just crazy enough to believe that we will reach that goal.

What A Great Day!

Yesterday at church we sponsored Jersey Sunday. For two weeks prior I had been preaching a series called "Facing Your Giants" with clips from the movie "Facing The Giants". So many people showed up this week wearing mostly Steelers jerseys (which really grated this Ravens fan - ha, ha), and a few other teams, and a few people wore NHL jerseys. It was really cool to see people so excited about a particular day. The cool part was that the Mpact Girls clubs took a picture of me in a Ravens jersey and a Steelers jersey and put cans out in the local stores in town and at the church, and whichever can had the most money, that was the jersey I would wear to preach in. Do I need to tell you which jersey won?

Out Of Focus

Pastoral ministry, by its very nature is a complicated thing. In smaller works, many times the pastor is not only the spiritual leader, he or she is also the facilities manager, the handyman, the motivator, the idea person, the organizer of many things - and at the end of the day, you may have done a great deal, but not gotten anything accomplished. I feel your pain. I've been in ministry for 14 years, only three of which are at the helm of a church. I have learned much in the past three years, of which, if you are going to get things accomplished in your life and at your church, the following things must happen:
1. God must be at the helm
2. You must prioritize what needs to be done (in order)
3. Let the list guide you (and don't allow distractions)
4. People are important to God - they must be important to you
There are days that I'm not very focused, and many little things get started, a few get finished, but I don't come home that day feeling as if I accomplished much. But when I set a goal for a day and focus on that, it makes for a better day.

As a pastor, we can be dictated to by phone calls, walk-ins (people stopping by to ask if you saw the cobweb in the back corner of the sanctuary), other people's deadlines, and any other of a million things. I have learned that those that are successful love people and love God, and keep focused. That doesn't happen by an angel coming to you and bopping you on the head - it comes by self-discipline and a heart after God. What do you think?

HonorBound

I have to give Kudos to my HonorBound coordinator, Bob Weakland. He set up our trip to Lutherville, MD, this past weekend. The speakers were awesome. Barry Black, Chaplain of the US Senate, was as powerful as he was articulate. Erik Rees (from Saddleback), Greg Vaughn (Letters from Dad), and Sam Rjifkogel (pastor in Grand Rapids and former evangelist), all presented powerful messages that challenged the men to become all God intended for them to be. The messages will be posted on the PennDel District's website under the HonorBound ministry. If you missed the event, listen and enjoy!

Focus

One of the more challenging aspects of being the lead/solo pastor is that so many things vie for your attention. Administrative work, phone calls from people wanting to come preach, managing the day to day operation, hearing from God and casting vision, damage control, etc. - I don't need to tell you that all of these things can cause you to lose focus.

Learning to say "no" to some things, delegating tasks to others(even though they may not do it the way you would), developing priority lists (and sticking to them) are all ways to regain your focus. As one wise person said - Don't work harder, work smarter. Focus is so important - an incandescent bulb can illuminate a room, but it can't cut steel - take the light and focus it - it becomes a LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)capable of doing serious damage to a piece of steel.

I don't want my life to amount to "This little light of mine . . . ", when God has so much more when we focus on what He wants for us to do.

Turkeys

So many people have asked me of late if I'm going to do the turkey thing again. For those of you who know me, you know what I'm talking about. For those who read this blog and have no clue what I'm talking about - check here.

Truth is, I'm certainly interested in reaching out and helping those in need, and I enjoy meeting all the great folks who stop by and donate. I am praying about what God would have me do. It is so important to go when God says go and stop when He says stop.

So, pray with me for God's direction. And if you'd like to be involved if I do it, let me know.

Turning Inward

When we as individuals for one reason or another turn inward and stop having a heart for those who don't know Christ, we stop bearing fruit and being salt - and the Bible has a great deal to say about those things. This video encourages us to not let that happen in our lives.

Dream Killers

H.B. London, sharing about Joseph and his colorful coat, spoke last night about things that rob you of or hinder your dream. One facet that I have thought about is that in order for Joseph's dream to come to fruition, he had to go through the pain to see the promise. I'm pretty sure during the whole false accusation thing and being forgotten by the one whose dream he interpreted, he wasn't thinking, "Oh this must all be in the plan of God." But God had character issues to put in place in his life so that he would be ready at the appropriate time.

Concerning the things that discourage us and try to kill our dream, sometimes we must pass through things that appear to cause our dream to die, but all the time your dream is like a seed planted in the ground - it has to die so that God is the only one who could cause the life to spring forward out of it, and get the all the glory from it.

Paul didn't get the answer he wanted either about his thorn in the flesh, but sometimes there is grace in the thorn - if God removed it, you may never become all that He intended for you to be.

While things may come to kill your dream, it is only because God will resurrect that dream at the right time in the right place so that He will be glorified!

The Lone Pastor

I'm just old enough to remember watching "The Lone Ranger." The guy, except for his trusty sidekick Tonto, did everything alone. The trouble with that is that if he ever got hurt (which he never did), who would know and who would be able to help?

Being at the Ministers' Enrichment this week, I am again reminded of the danger of being "The Lone Pastor." We need each other, we can learn from each other, we can pray with each other, we can fellowship, laugh, and encourage each other. And if we ever get in trouble (and you know that all of us get discouraged and struggle from time to time), we have others that we can call that can pull us up.

So if you are donning your mask and riding off into the sunset, think again - remove the mask and be real, and connect with others that can pull you higher.

Hi Ho Silver!