Month: March 2009

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The Elite 5000 Club for Twitter!!!

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As of yesterday afternoon around 6:30 p.m. I was officially inducted into the Elite 5000 Club of Twitter. That’s 5,000 updates not followers 😉 THIS update got me there! Okay so I’m not sure there is an Elite 5000 Club for Twitter, but there should be, and all of the club members should get a certificate or a ribbon or something. I think if you put all of my tweets together, I may have the makings of a short book; of course I would have to subtract all of the tweets to the psycho people out there, that was just wasted keystrokes!

So how many updates do you have on Twitter? Will you be joining me in the Elite 5,000 update club any time soon? I’ll save a ribbon for you!

Don’t have a Twitter? Get One HERE and if you’re looking for someone to Follow to get Started, my Profile is HERE.

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There’s Been A Leprechaun Sighting

In Honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would repost an old post from last year where there was a Leprechaun Sighting in Alabama:

And then there’s the Leprechaun Sighting remix (You’ve gotta watch this one)…

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A Thunderous Roar

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This past weekend the CSRA Youth Ministry Network hosted the 2009 DNOW for our local area. Typically each student ministry that participates in the local DNOW schedules a fun activity on Saturday morning/afternoon for their students to have a little fun as a group. This year we wanted our students to definitely have fun, but we wanted to use this weekend where we had 700+ students’ attention to engage them in opportunities to live beyond themselves and to invest in the lives of other people. After all, the theme was “Your Kingdom Come” and it seemed very appropriate to initiate service projects for the students to participate in.

I am a firm believer that a huge part of our spiritual discipleship has to do with our engaging in ministry and actually doing the things that we’ve been told in scripture to do. Studys have proven that the stuff we learn has been retained in our memory based on 1 part data and 6 parts emotion, essentially we remember what we experience. Therefore when we talk about discipleship, I don’t think we can remove elements that provide experience in what we are learning.

Saturday night was dynamic! The praise coming from this group of students sounded at times like a thunderous roar. In all of the local youth events, I cannot remember students so in tune with who God was at that moment in their life. I truly believe that Matt Papa is anointed and we had the privilege of having his band lead us in worship, but I mostly believe Saturday night had a lot to do with the response from earlier in the day where students were engaged in what God is all about, living sacrificially and loving other people.

I believe this picture with my buddy Steve White best sums up what the day was all about…

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UNLEASH Live Blogging Session 2

Live blogging the 2009 Unleash Conference

Session 2: Perry Noble

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How to Stay in the Game…

  • Exodus 33
  • Some say church work is easy/going to be easy
  • People in the church can be the meanest people on the planet
  • 4 Questions Every Leader Needs to Wrestle With:
  • 1. Who Is With Me?
  • If you want people to buy into you, buy into your people
  • Satan doesn’t want to split your church, he wants to split your staff
  • If you think you do as much as the Senior Pastor, you don’t have a freaking clue!
  • Senior pastor’s carry a weight the staff and members could never imagine!
  • The sheep don’t lead the shepherd,the pastor is called to lead
  • The Pastor will be the one standing before God at the end of the day.
  • 2. [God] Am I Pleasing You?
  • (Vs. 13) Moses just wanted to know God and for God to be pleased with him
  • We cannot expect God to lead us publicly if we are not yielded to him privately
  • Pastor, Are you a prostitute or are you a prophet?
  • If your goal is to please churched people, you’ll lose every time, they are the ones that killed Jesus. If he could not please them, we cannot!
  • A) Do I understand that ministry is received not achieved? [Rick Warren]
  • The mercy of God is that he knew our screws ups before he called us, yet he still called us!
  • B) Am I placing limits on me that God has not placed on me?
  • Ministry leaders, you can do, exactly what God has called you to do.
  • Don’t dare limit yourself when the unlimited power of God lives in us.
  • 3. Will I See You?
  • We kiss toilets all week long and then we try to kiss Jesus
  • We cannot provide a Jesus light ministry, where people leave feeling good about themselves, but there is never transformation.
  • When Jesus is preached, there is conviction of sin and people brought to repentance!
  • Moses wanted God presence. Do WE REALLY want God’s presence as leaders?
  • Do you want ATTENDANCE or REPENTANCE?
  • You don’t need to close the back door to the church…
  • The church is a body…if you close the back door to your body…
  • When was the last time you as a pastor was desperate for the presence of God?
  • 4. What’s Next?
  • No matter where you get in ministry, continue to ask, What’s Next?
  • Exodus 33:18 “Now Show Me Your Glory!”
  • What Does God Want to Do Next In Your Church?
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UNLEASH Live Blogging Session 1

Live blogging the 2009 Unleash Conference

Session 1: Perry Noble

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  • 2 Kings 7
  • There are language differences between the North and the South
  • Shagging in the South means to “dance” – in the North it means “bow chicka wow wow”
  • There’s been a major breakdown in communication between Jesus and his church.
  • Matthew 16 – Jesus said I will build my church and Hell will not overcome it.
  • The Communication breakdown is, instead of asking Jesus to build his church, we are asking him to build our church.
  • We’ve stripped the bride down of her wedding garments and placed cheap lingerie on her to make her a cheap slut!
  • 3 Questions for the Church:
  • 1. Are we willing to embrace change? (Vs. 3)
  • The # of Christians is declining and its the church’s (corporately) fault. We’ve been unwilling to change!
  • Every denomination has been declining for 30+ years, if it were our money we would have done something about it!
  • We have to be willing to embrace change.
  • Everyone can look at other churches and call the change they need to make, but can you look at your own church?
  • Most people cannot change because they are married to an idea, not to Jesus
  • Churches have a choice, change or die. – God had to kill off an entire generation before he could take the Israelites into the promised land.
  • Grandparents would you give up your life for your grandkids? How about your music in church? We are losing a generation because people want change.
  • You cannot manage, orchestrate, or create a move of God…it just happens.
  • Acts 1:14-15; Acts 2:41-
  • You’ve got to be comfortable being uncomfortable – (My note) YES!!!
  • You think this freakin’ building just dropped out of the sky? Do you think we just prayed about a youth building and it just appeared?
  • You have to make financial changes!
  • Church planters don’t let money guide your decisions, let Jesus.
  • The Pastor cannot do everything – If the church is going to be effective the pastor has to get out of the day to day operations of the church.
  • New Spring’s youth went from 200 to 800, because Perry hired a Godly youth pastor let him hire a team and moved out of the way.
  • If you think a video screen can stop the anointing of God on a man’s life who is called to preach, your God is too small. Multi-site does not stop a move of God.
  • The church has to stop competing with one another and start completing one another!
  • 2. Are We Willing to Work? (Vs. 5)
  • The church is more willing to pray about something than actually doing it.
  • Is there anything in your church that you are manufacturing energy for in your church?
  • We are worried about hurting someone’s feelings but Jesus was not (See Matthew 23)
  • Is there anyone on your stage that cannot sing?
  • Pastors: A) Have people who investigate the obvious.
  • Pastors: B) Ignore the Jackass
  • You’re only as deep as the last person you served.
  • Do you think when Jesus was dying on the cross he said, “Now my people have someone to preach their funeral?”
  • 3. Are we serious about reaching the world?
  • Terms that get overplayed in church:
  • Contemporary = Our pastor wears a sweater vest, our pastor gets his underpants from Victoria Secret, and we treat him like our boyfriend rather than our King.
  • Blended = No one in our church actually possesses a set and will proclaim where we stand, so in an effort to keep everyone happy we reach no one.
  • Missional = Most overplayed term in the church. No one is showing up, so we sought out a term to disguise our disfunction.
  • Emergent = We’re a bunch of spoiled former church kids who have a problem with authority, even the authority of the Bible, and because of their movement Hell is going to be fuller because we’ve sided with Satan in questioning the Bible.
  • Perry, “I’m obsessed with numbers because I was one of those numbers”
  • If numbers is not important then why are Numbers all through ACTS?!?!
  • The church for years has been cruising around, but it is like a sports car, they have so much power in them, if they would just stomp it, God would use them for things that would blow your mind.
  • Don’t compare yourself with New Spring, because he probably wants to do greater things with your church!