I Dwelt In The Darkness

As some of you may have picked up on over my past few confession posts, I've kind of had a hard time lately.

In fact, it has not been just lately. It all started in July of 2007 when I had to turn in my resignation. Honestly, them asking me to resign was the best thing that could have ever happened for me. Only problem, is it was the start of what I felt has been the darkest nine months of my life.

It is interesting that I say that because early in 2007, I spoke two messages called God Dwells In The Darkness. You can read some more of my thoughts on that here, here, and here. Sometimes it's easy to get up and preach a message than to live it. I had thought I had gone through some dark times before, but had no idea what was to come.

Throughout this whole process I have kept my faith. There were times I wanted to pack it all it. There were times I wanted to shout at God and blame Him. There were times I didn't want to even set foot in a church. When you are hurt by a pastor and church as hard as we were hit with (twice in three months)...you might feel the same way.

So this has been one of the darkest moments in my life and all I have been able to do is stand...and when there was nothing else to do I would stand some more (Eph 6:13).

And after all that standing the result is that my faith is now stronger...I am more resilient...and I am pumped for what the future is about to bring (James 1:2-4). The sunrise has broken through the darkness (Psalm 112:4). The snare has been broken (Psalm 124:7).

God, over the past two weeks, has used some people to pump my confidence back up. I was beginning to question myself seriously. A huge thank you goes out to this guy, this guy, this guy, and this guy specifically for little things you have done over these past two weeks. You have allowed God to use you to breathe life back in to me. I could not say enough about my wife standing firm beside me as well.

I also have a huge, huge, huge announcement coming, hopefully next week. I'm so pumped and excited. It is a great opportunity we have accepted for our church plant. So stay tuned as you may hear about it very, very soon. Thanks for being patient through my confessions and for reading.

As a side note, this blog throughout this time has continued to grow. My hits have gone up around 25% and subscriptions have just about tripled since December. Thanks for being a loyal reader here. And now I'll turn this blog back over to bringing you ministry content that will help you minister more effectively.

[Photo Credit to flikr.com]

March Madness Bracket Challenge

As a quick update on our Making Difference Makers Bracket Challenge I'm here to let you know as of tonight we have 18 entries. I'm pumped about it. I got some great friends on board all of which are going to...and I'm sorry to say it....GO DOWN.

Why? Simple...I picked the best bracket.

Join our group (ours is public so there is no password) and all you have to do to play is enter your final bracket picks by tip-off of the first game on Thursday, March 20.

Here are some of the pastor bloggers already on board:

Randy Reed
Terrace Crawford
David Turner
Youth Pastor Adam
LittlePastor
Chris Day
Jeremy Mathis
D'Art
Charles Alkula
Dave Holt
Matt McKee
Gary Priddy
Tyler Madison

There are a few others on there that I don't have links to. Don't forget this Thursday starts the action so join in and get your picks selected.

Click [HERE] to join the action.

I've Been Not So Good

I had a stream of thought going for confessions. It's amazing though what a weekend of not posting can do to you. You kind of lose that stream.

I do have to confess...I'm the poster boy for male church toughness. I really suck at not opening up to let people know what I'm really going through. I am great at encouraging others but when asked my patented answer is "It's going good."

So this month I feel like the past nine months have finally caught up to me emotionally. First, I let two different people make decisions that affected my family and I, and I took it personally inside. I have had some really negative internally conversations. I've partly been depressed. I allowed these events to shape who I was viewing myself and in more ways than one have wanted to do nothing but retreat from the world.

Ok, now that I've run off practically everyone of my readers...let me give you my plan for rising above this. I'm now beginning to go on the upswing from this.

Run To God
Adam and Eve ran from God when they first sinned. They ended up hiding from Him. I don't want that to be me. I want to run to God. I want to run to His arms. In fact through this whole set of events God has been the one that has been faithful.

Speak His Word
A couple of weeks ago I had someone post a comment on this blog that reminded me of a Scripture that I quoted often in the past. When you quote Scripture it comes alive. It moves you from your current to where God wants you. It feeds or fuels your faith.

Admit
I am admitting here that I have blown it in this area. I am going to still find it hard to say things are not going good when people ask but I'm going to be better at it.

Keep Moving Forward
Don't let your past or events in your past hold you back from reaching your God potential. God is the "God of what is to come" as well. Allow your events to mold your faith in Him. Keep moving...keep going...keep volunteering...keep ministering. Keep doing whatever is necessary to move forward. Satan can't rob you of your calling but He will try to rob you of your confidence. If he can steal that he can in essence stop your progressing of doing that thing that God has destined you for.

These aren't the only things I'm doing but they are a start and I'm recovering. God has been revealing some things to me and some other events are transpiring that God is using to bring back the confidence in me.

What do you do when your not so good????

Weekend Update

I'm bugging out for the weekend and not sure if I will be posting until Monday. I may or may not...so you might want to check unless you subscribe through a RSS subscription reader like Google Reader.

On Monday I will be returning to my little confessions and then back on my Madness in Ministry posts.

Here are a few early days of blogging posts that you may not have read and will enjoy during the duration:

• Do Ministry On Purpose
• Building Team Leaders
• Ministry Planning
• Keep Moving Forward Part's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Funny Stuff

• Evolution For Dance
• Cell Phone Linebacker Video Series we created to bring awareness of not having your cell phone on during church. Part 3 is my favorite
• D Factor Blooper Video Series - another of our creations...part 3 and the bloopers are my favs

[Photo credit at flikr.com]

Confessions And Prayer

Today, I'm hijacking my blog and changing directions. Why? Well...because it is my blog. Now before you change gears and tune out I am going to tell you that I'm going to get a little transparent over the next few posts or so. When done I'll get back to our Madness in Ministry series.

I need your prayers. One of my problems is I feel I can handle things alone. I'm great about telling other people they need others, but I try to be tough. I try to stand in faith alone. I try to get the answer or the solution all by myself. I am one of those guys that will tell you I'm doing good when life is feeling pretty crappy. Am I the only that does that?

Is this turning into a confessions post now?

Here is what I need prayer for:

Due to the "choices" made by others I had to resign last summer from the youth pastoral position I was serving in. There was no warning. There was no time to prepare. It had to happen then.

Because that was thrust on me, it put my family in financial jeopardy. We could have probably looked elsewhere for a ministry position, except that I have felt called to the South Texas area.

Within a month we began partnering with two other couples to plant a church. Things were beginning to get into a routine and the church was actually growing. Within two months we were averaging 43 people. Until my partner decided to have a secret meeting with our other board member whom he was close friends with and elected himself Senior Pastor Supreme.

Needless to say after that failure things were still hard financially. I ended up falling into a teaching position at a charter school for at-risk teens. Actually it has been great being here. It has given me even more of a passion to reach out to this community.

Only thing though is financially we have never been in the place we were before the resignation last year. In fact, we have slowly been getting behind.

This year we have been in the process of launching a church once again in the midst of all of this. This time we are doing things differently. I really want to be in a place financially to be able to focus and not struggle during this plant.

My intention here with this post is not to tell you my oh so sad soppy story. My intention is to get off the island. If you are a friend and/or loyal reader of my blog here, I would like to ask you to be in prayer for us financially. This week we have had a rough week. I'm believing to pay off some debts to position us financially for what God wants to do here.

We also have a tremendous opportunity presented to us that could be huge for the church we are dreaming of launching. I want to be clear in knowing God's will. I have been praying and meditating on it for about a month and after a meeting last night I feel it is the direction for us to take.

So two prayer needs: 1) Financial needs to be met, and 2) Security in knowing God's will in an opportunity for our church.

Hanging In and Hanging On

How many times have you asked someone how they are doing and got the answer, "Hanging In There"?

Maybe it's a South Texas thing.

Often in the church landscape there are many churches that have that attitude. I have also seen the same within some of the departmental ministries.

Then there is the flip side. Those same churches are desperately hanging on to the few people they have. In fact, they work harder on doing that than on reaching out.

Folks hear me out...God doesn't want either one of those.

As a person, as a pastor, or even as a church...God didn't call us to hang in there. He called us to be overcomer's. It is our God designed destiny to overcome this world. Stop hanging and start overcoming.

As a church, switch your focus from hanging on to people to reaching out and fulling the mission God gave the church.

If more churches would stop hanging on to people as they are just hanging in there until something happens, they would begin to rise to the occasion. They would find they don't have to work as hard to keep people.

I have a fundamental belief that people do want to be part of something that is moving and happening. This is why there is a fear by existing pastors when a new church starts up in their area. They are fearful they will lose their little flock when they are missing the huge harvest just waiting for us.

Just some thoughts I'm dealing with myself....I'm going to stop hanging...WHAT ABOUT YOU?

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[Photo credit at flikr.com]

The Madness Of Ministry 2

Literally, there are days when if feels like madness. Or am I the only one???

Maybe it's just the pressure I put on myself, but in ministry there is a mad rush some days. With the pressure to be excellent, innovative, creative, over-the-top, grow fast, time is slipping by.....well, needless to say I wish I could be laid back and under achieving, patient and maybe be able to sit back and just wait for God to do it all...BUT...I see through scripture that God works through our actions. Therefore it is important for me in all this madness to manage my time.

There is so much to time management so I just going to touch on a few points.

Balance In Life
It is important that you have a balance in your life. Work at work...be home when your at home. Now for me, that is hard. I often let work come home. I also work a full time job and we are launching a church as well. It is easy to let things get blurred and take over the other areas. Keep God at the center of everything.

Plan Your Time
If you don't plan your time someone or something will plan it for you. You will be at the whim of everything that could possible get in your way.

A simple way to plan is break your mission into key objectives. Next, create goals that will reach each of those objectives. Now, write out all the tasks needed to achieve those goals. Take those tasks and fill your calender according to your schedule. I know you can't possibly plan for every little thing that might happen, but you will effectively set your calender by the tasks that need to be accomplished.

Cut Out And Delegate
Those things that do take up your time and get in the way of your performance, cut them out. You are the one that can answer that. Look carefully and prayerfully at what you do every day. Take a day and write out what you do every 15 minutes and see what takes your time.

As a pastor or ministry leader you should also delegate the tasks that other people can do. If you don't you are robbing your people of the joy of serving. Delegating is part of leading. If you want to better manage your time learn to delegate.

What are the things that are keeping you from managing your time? What are some tips you may have for others?


Don't miss any part of this series:

• Part 1 - The Intro
• Part 2 - Time Management
• Part 3 - Leading People
• Part 4 - The Fishbowl Syndrome
• Part 5 - The Pressure To Produce

Did you find this post helpful??? - make sure you share it with a friend

The Madness Of Ministry 1

With one of my favorite times of the year looming on us, that being March Madness, I thought it would be pertinent this week to talk a little about some of the pressures of ministry. (For those that live under a rock, March Madness is the college basketball playoff time.)

I'm not sure if I'm the only one or this applies to everyone else that reads, but I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to produce when it comes to ministry. I feel what we have is the greatest product/message in the world. On top of that is what Christ did for me in my life. Jumble all that together with my personality and what you got is this mad rush to do the absolute best that I can to represent and spread this message across our community and the world.

Let me give you, as an example an average week when I was a youth pastor. Now I have to preface this by saying I never let not having a budget stand in my way of doing something.

Weekly Basis:

• Prepare A Message
• Develop or Find Creative Elements For Message - Example 1
• Edit Video For Video Announcements
• Create PowerPoint For Message
• Create Note Handouts For Students
• Invites Weekly through Myspace, Text Message, E-mails
• Send Out A Weekly E-Mail Newsletter To Students/Parents
• Record Talk Show Podcast
• Edit Podcast And Upload
• Pray, Read, Study
• Prepare For Sunday School - The Pastor felt I should do one each Sunday even though I thought it was an area to get leaders involved.

On A Monthly Basis:

• Create Series Graphics, Marketing Materials For Students
• Create A Monthly Pre-Service/Promo Video...we changed it every month for variety...it included announcement slides, countdown, and then a monthly promo video
• Create A Series Promo Video
• Upload Files To Internet
• Contact Students
• Visioneer
• Prep, Prepare Leadership Lesson, Have Leadership Meeting
• Recruit Leaders, Prep Existing Leaders, Check On Tasks Assigned
  

Should I even go into more? This is not even an exhaustive list.

Needless to say I put a lot of pressure on myself to do things well even when we had no budget. I have always been the type to produce something from nothing.

In the coming days, we are going to talk about time management, leading people, leading with everyone looking at you, and just the pressure in general. I hope you jump in the conversation with some comments on the madness you may feel there is, as well as some of the solutions.

What are some of the pressures you have in ministry???

Don't miss any part of this series:

• Part 1 - The Intro
• Part 2 - Time Management
• Part 3 - Leading People
• Part 4 - The Fishbowl Syndrome
• Part 5 - The Pressure To Produce

To not miss any of our helpful posts - make sure you subscribe to our feed.

March Madness Update

I know this is a little out of the ordinary for Making Difference Makers but part of our purposes here is building community in the blogging world. What better way to build community than through competition.

So each year on yahoo's fantasy sports they do a March Madness bracket challenge. It is so easy. You join our group (ours is public so their is no password) and then all you have to do to play is enter your final bracket picks by tip-off of the first game on Thursday, March 20. Oh yeah then you get to sit back and get whipped by "ME".

I've had a few takers so far for the "MDM March Madness Challenge" and I just want to let you all know that I'm taking you down.

Here are some of the pastor bloggers already on board:

Randy Reed
Terrace Crawford
David Turner
Youth Pastor Adam

And not to be left out ladies, even my wife is in on the action. She reminds me that she's beaten me every year but I got a feeling this is my year.

Click [HERE] to join the action.

And not to be left out...we also have some NASCAR action going on as well for all you race fans.

If you want in on either of these just leave me a comment with your email telling me and I'll send you an invite. Or just click that link above to join in.

To not miss any of our helpful posts - make sure you subscribe to our feed.

March Madness

Do you enjoy March Madness like I do???? I created a Making Difference Makers Yahoo March Madness "Bracket Challenge".

If you are a pastor, youth pastor, ministry leader, church volunteer and you enjoy the college basketball march to the final four then join the challenge and see if you can be the top picker in this years brackets.

I have set up a group in yahoo [here's the link] that will track the scores and each weekend I'll be posting the leaders here.

This Sunday is selection Sunday so go ahead and join in now and get ready to make your selections.

Just thought I would break in and create a little community building. Are there any takers out there? Think you can pick the brackets better than me?

I dare you...join in...take the challenge...and spread the word.

I'm really throwing down the gauntlet...this will be for all the bragging rights. Tadd you got the guts, what about you Mark...Perry...John (you into March Madness or just the UFC)...how about you Dave, Adam, Paul, Russ, Troy, Boyd, Dave, Dave, Terrace, Gary, Chris, Jay...or anyone else out there???????

Let's get it going.