Lead Well

"We don't know!" That's what a Rainbow exclaimed Wednesday night during the Mpact Award Ceremony when asked what their club colors are. It provided a great laugh and little bit of embarrassment for the parent and his teacher. It reminds me of a truth about working with kids that you know if you've been working with them for longer than 6 months. They'll say just about anything and tell you they remember nothing. It's a problem for teachers all around that brings frustration and sometimes laughter, but that doesn't mean we should just give up. On the contrary we should keep working because the message does get through...eventually. The truth is, as we all found out shortly after the Rainbow's proclamation, is that the kids did know their colors and what they mean. If you're working in children's ministry, you're training kids to have a life-long faith. Sometimes we think it's going to be this big meaningful thing we've p...

Recently, I was given the opportunity to preach to the adult congregation.  I spoke on the five ways God helps your faith grow and how my church makes them happen. They are: Practical teaching - Hearing the Word and doing the Word are two very different things.  It is essential to our spiritual growth to learn how to apply what we learn about God and His ways to our lives. Private disciplines  - Prayer, studying the Bible, serving, sharing the Gospel.  These are all disciplines that every christian should have in their lives and the more they practice them, they stronger their faith grows. Personal ministry  - Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:2 that we are the Body of Christ.  Everyone has a place to serve in the gifts and abilities that God has given us.  Therefore a follower should be actively serving or looking for a place to serve. Providential relationships  - In each followers faith journey they can point to one person who set them on ...

Over the last several weeks we’ve explored four major problems with the church and what we should do about them . After digging into these issues, we’re left with the question, “Is this even possible?” The answer is yes, but getting there may be harder than we’d like to think. In Good to Great by Jim Collins, the author,  introduces the Stockdale Paradox. To better explain this paradox, I would like to quote the story told on pages 83-85 of the book. “Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking United States military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner of war camp during the height of the Vietnam War. Tortured over twenty times during his eight-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973, Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to see his family again. He shouldered the burden of command, doing everything he could to create conditions that would increase the number of prisone...

We spend our lives following God. Doing His will and still bad things happen to us. It just doesn’t seem fair does it? Didn’t God promise us joy? Aren’t we under his covering as His children? Doesn’t he want to bless us abundantly? Why would God allow this to happen? We’ve all asked ourselves these questions before and many times there are no answers. Then the answers we do get, seem hollow and cliche. The fortunate thing is that we are not alone. People all throughout time have asked these questions. Just a cursory reading of the Bible would show this. Adam lost two sons. Noah watched all the people of the world die. Joseph was sold into slavery and jail. David was hunted and almost killed. Jeremiah was thrown into a well and left to die. Paul was given a thorn in his flesh. Jesus was crucified on the cross. There is one thing all of these men had in common. None of them wanted to go through what they did. Even Jesus, the night before he was crucified as...

We’ve all felt it. The impatience that comes when we ask God to do something, and it doesn’t happen immediately. ”He’s the God of the universe with infinite power.” We think. “Can’t he just answer this one small request?” Unfortunately, many times God’s promises don’t work that way. They take time to happen. In today’s world when we hear that, we think, “Ok, so… a year?” When in actuality, God thinks much more long term. The Bible is full of promises. Some happened immediately, but many more took years, decades, even thousands of years! We can’t microwave our faith. We can’t pray a short 5 second prayer with all faith and earnestness and expect God to move mountains. Many moves of God take much longer and a whole lot more time in prayer. Here are some reasons why God may not answer your prayer immediately. You’re not ready. Just like Joseph wasn’t ready to become ruler over his brother’s when God gave him the promise, we may not be ready to receive what God has for ...

This Wednesday, I had the great opportunity to work in the nursery and watch 7 babies.  While I have a hard time holding a conversation with a 9 month old, (I’m sure you moms are old pros) I did enjoy my time there.  While in the nursery, I found the scariest baby doll. One of our toddlers asked, “what is wrong with this baby?”  Our nursery worker said she didn’t know but we should pray for it, and they did. While we know God is not going to fix the freaky eyes of this baby doll, our volunteer took a seemingly insignificant moment and turned it into a teachable one.  Many people think that nursery is just babysitting someone else’s kids, but it is so much more.  Our nursery workers have the unique opportunity to lay the very beginning foundations for faith, love, and community.  Everyone one of you serve a vital role in the children’s ministry.  Not everyone can do what I do, and I can’t do what all of you do.  As Paul said in 1...