Live Blogging PDYM the Conference Session 3

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Live Blogging Session 3

Doug Fields: Evangelism

  • An evangelistic student ministry will have evangelistic adult leaders
  • Evangelistic leaders  NEVER stop ringing the evangelistic bell
  • You can either be a “best friend” or you can be a leader
  • No one values what you value as much as you value it.
  • Evangelistic baby steps create momentum
  • There is not just one way to be evangelical in your ministry
  • R: Reveal
  • E: Extend an Invitation
  • A: Ask if you can share your story
  • C: Communicate the How and Why of beginning a Relationship with Christ
  • H: Help them
  • Changed Lives are Evangelistic
  • Allow students to own the responsibility of sharing Christ with their friends

Popularity: 1% [?]

Live Blogging PDYM the Conference Session 2

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Live Blogging Session 2

Doug Fields

  • Purpose Driven Ministry has Godly leaders.
  • If your Ministry is bottle necked take a look at your ministry, it may be because of you.
  • Discovering God’s Purposes Begin with God’s Word. (The Great Commission & The Great Commandment)
  • You have to own the Purposes of your ministry, no one will bleed it like you!
  • If we push people to be evangelistic, we have to be that way ourselves
  • Biblical Purposes will clarify a ministries existence
  • There are several ways to say the same thing
  • Biblical Purposes will minimize conflict in your ministry
  • Biblical Purposes will help create excitement
  • A ministry guided by Biblical purposes is not easy to build…but its healthy
  • People unite under a vision that is bigger than their own
  • Will your ministry pursue Biblical Purposes?
  • Evaluate: Do the people in your ministry get the Biblical Purposes for your Ministry? (Leaders, Students, Parents, Staff, Etc.)
  • You cannot fit all of the Biblical Purposes into one Program. Make sure each Program/Process has 1 Primary & 1 Secondary purpose
  • A lot of churches are using a discipleship method on students who are being forced to be at church, so it doesn’t work.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Live Blogging PDYM the Conference Session 1

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Live Blogging Session 1

Doug Fields

  • Food is a value in student ministry at Saddleback
  • Their Student Ministry was not built around theater seats and a Refinery Student Building
  • Student Ministry should be simply built on a dependence of God’s Power
  • There are a lot of Small Values for Student Ministry:
  • #1 Be Faithful in the Small Things
  • #2 Have Small Faith
  • Saddleback could give their new building back and still do student ministry
  • Value a God who is Sovereign
  • Value providing Students Opportunities to serve where they are gifted and passionate
  • Value Volunteers
  • Value Longevity, people not giving up.
  • Value Relationships:
  • Value an Intimate Relationship with Christ
  • Value Relationships with Parents
  • Value Relationships with other Leaders
  • Value Relationships with Students
  • Saddleback does not want you to be like them, they want you to be who God wants you to be.
  • What is important to you right now in ministry?
  • Do people know what’s important to you?

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Popularity: 1% [?]

Killing Cockroaches by Tony Morgan

killing-cockroaches-reviewIf I could describe Killing Cockroaches by Tony Morgan in one sentence, it would look something like this. I would run a commercial and on one side I would have Tony Morgan and on the other I would have John Maxwell. Tony would start off by saying “Hello, I’m a Mac” John would follow “…and I’m a PC!

Don’t get me wrong, I love John Maxwell, he is Mr. Leadership, and I am sure Tony has learned a thing or two from him, but I also love my Grandma, but she would have a tough time telling me how to relate to my generation. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and here are a few reasons why:

  • 18-34: That’s Me! I am 28 years old and Killing Cockroaches is a leadership book that spoke to me, kept my attention, and has a huge focus on helping the church reach my generation.
  • Simple: Its clean and its in an easy to read format. I hate books with small fonts with the spacing all scrunched in together. A book with 234 pages worth of reading content ends up being more like 568 pages. Tony uses bullet points to keep your attention on the important principles or thoughts he wants to keep your attention on, oh yeah, its a leadership book and it has no graphs!
  • No Chapters: Huh? No Chapters. Yeah, that’s right. You could just keep reading all day if you are a chapter a day kind of reader.
  • Interesting: I am a slow reader. I like to take my time and I like to highlight things that speak to me or that catch my attention. My white page book is now yellow :) Here is one huge reason why I would read another Tony Morgan book over another John Maxwell book. Tony kept my attention. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve laid down because it was boring. Its kind of like why people are leaving our churches…its boring!
  • Sandwiched: All through the book you get sandwiched  in by great stories. You’ll be reading about Tony duct taping his rented Mustang hood down, and then out of nowhere, he hits you with some thoughts and principles that are relative to you as a leader, whether you are a Mac or a PC.
  • New Ways to Say Old Things: A wise man once said that there is nothing new under the sun. He said that before the iPhone was even created, pretty profound. Tony says a lot of new things, because they come from his personal experiences, but he also reinforces principles that will never change, but he says it in new and creative ways, so leaders can re-think how they are implementing or practicing those principles.
  • Leadership Empowers: Tony mentions in the book that you are not a leader if you feel you have to be say something to be heard. There are several articles in the book where Tony is silent and allows other big time leaders to share their thoughts, struggles, and wisdom on leading. I love that he gave up so much of his book to allow others an opportunity to invest into our lives.
  • My Favorite Quote:If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted.Sir Francis Bacon – This reminded me of what Craig Groeschel said in a recent conference: “To reach the people no one else is reaching, we have to do what no one else is doing.” I love these quotes because it reminds me that we can never quit learning, we can never stop adapting, because there are people we need to be reaching with the Gospel.
  • Open Ended: Alot of the book is left open ended to give you the opportunity to think about what is being discussed or to answer the questions being asked. I like being able to be involved in what I am reading.

I loved this book and highly recommend that you buy it and read it if you have not done so already. Tony Morgan blogs at http://www.tonymorganlive.com. You can subscribe to his blog and stay on top of his thoughts on leadership and ministry. You can also follow Tony on Twitter by Clicking Here.

To purchase Killing Cockroaches on Amazon Click Here. Its also available on the Kindle. For a further review of the book Click Here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Off the Blogs: This Thursday Night

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This Thursday night, February 26th I have the opportunity to volunteer at the Off the Blogs event taking place after the One Day Catalyst Conference. Here’s the details:

When: Thursday, Feb 26th – 7:30 PM

OFF THE BLOGS is a night of conversation with three of the most influential bloggers in the ministry world, Jon Acuff, Anne Jackson and Carlos Whittaker, hosted by Pete Wilson with worship by Aaron Keyes. OFF THE BLOGS is a special evening of authenticity and truth. A night to take off what doesn’t matter and celebrate what does.

Cost:

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here. Registration is free for Catalyst ONE DAY Atlanta attenders. Just pick up a wrist-band at the registration area.

Where:

3372 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30326

OFF THE BLOGS will be held at Christian Church Buckhead at 3372 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, GA (click here for directions)

I hope to see you there! For more information, visit the Off the Blogs website: http://www.offtheblogs.com


Popularity: 3% [?]

Transitions

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2009 is going to bring some exciting things! I can see some major transitions that will be taking place in the coming months and then I know there are transitions that will surprise me that I do not see coming. Some of the changes and new directions are HUGE and many details still have to be worked out before I can even talk about them with clarity. So today, I’m wondering, when you’ve had a specific upcomign transition, how did you approach it, or how do you approach it? Or, what is something valuable you have learned through a major transition in your life? Maybe it was a change of career, or a major move, a bigger step in leadership, an addition to your family, etc…Join the Conversation, today I want to learn from you…I’m all ears!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Are You Killing Your Church?

Rick Warren writes in the Purpose Driven Life…

What happens when one part of your body fails to function? You get sick. The rest of your body suffers. Imagine if your liver decided to start living for itself: “I’m tired! I don’t want to serve the body anymore! I want a year off just to be fed. I’ve got to do what’s best for me! Let some other part take over.” What would happen? Your body would die. Today thousands of local churches are dying because of Christians who are unwilling to serve. They sit on the sidelines as spectators, and the Body suffers.

1 Corinthians 12:7 (NLT) says…

A Spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

Rick points out in the book that we are do not serve to be saved, rather we are saved to serve. One of the reasons Christ gives us new life is so that we can die to our old selves and live as Christ has called us to live. As Christ Followers we are given gifts and according to 1 Corinthians that gift’s purpose is to help each other.

Join the Conversation: Are you killing your church by sitting on the sideline and not serving? Or are you using your gifts and new life to help your church thrive by helping others, what does that look like in your life?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Walk On – ESPN Video

This is an inspirational story about DJ Gregory, who had a dream to walk every hole of every golf tournament; you’ve got to watch this!!! It’s about 12 minutes long, but well worth your time.

Kevin Carroll’s formula to be successful in achieving your dreams is as follows:

Dedication
Responsibility
Education
Attitude
Motivated

Join the Conversation: What do you dream to do/accomplish in life? What do you have to overcome to accomplish that dream?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Connecting Discipleship with Ministry

I am blogging at the PDYM Blog today. I will be posting once a week there now, so if you have any ideas for topics please let me know! Here is an excerpt of my article, head on over to the blog and join the conversation there, I would love to know your thoughts on the subject…

Hopefully we all have a strategy to lead our students into a growing relationship with Christ. Some may use the programs (Sunday School or small groups) that are in place at their church to emphasize spiritual growth, while others may emphasize growth outside of “programs” by utilizing tools such as the H.A.B.I.T.S. material.

How much emphasis do you put on involving students in ministry within your discipleship strategy? Is it a key element or do you hold back some of your service projects and ministry opportunities for your more spiritually mature students? READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

See you there!!!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Vetted

You probably only hear the word, vetted, every 4 years. Wikipedia’s definition is this: Broadly, vetting is a process of examination and evaluation. Specifically, vetting often refers to performing a background check on someone before offering them employment. In addition, in intelligence gathering, assets are vetted to determine their usefulness.

On Saturday, as soon as Barak Obama chose his running mate, Joe Biden for the coming election, the pundits immediately started sharing their opinion’s about his choice. Some were praising the choice, while others started questioning whether or not Barak properly vetted Joe Bidden. Why all of the questions? Well, Joe Bidden has a history of saying things that are not so popular or proper. He made what could be considered as racist remarks about Obama, saying he was the first ‘clean’ ‘articulate’ African American in contention for the democratic parties nomination, he said that ‘you have to have a little Indian accent to go into a Seven-Eleven convenient store…I’m not kidding,’ as well, he point blankly said that his now running mate was lacking the experience needed to be President and that the office of President was not the place for ‘on the job training.’ Biden later blasted Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience and comments he made concerning Pakistan and Iran. The fear for democrats who support the election of Barak Obama is that something will come out about Biden or that he will say something that could potentially ruin Barak’s chances of being elected.

What if, John Edwards was the chosen running mate for Barak Obama, and Obama chose to select Edwards as his running mate 1 month ago? The experts this weekend were saying that some candidates are not vetted as much as others because they have already been vetted as Presidential candidates, therefore they feel that Biden may have had less vetting than someone who did not run for President this year, but what if the same process had been taken with Edwards? The recent news about Edwards’ affair would have sunk Obama’s ship, as would any issues with Biden if they were to come about.

As I was running the other night, I could not help but to think, have I been vetted? Have I vetted myself? Is there anything in my life that if it were discovered would potentially embarrass my God, my family, my church, or my employer? You are probably familiar with the situation with Michael Guglielmucci, who was made famous quickly with his song Healer and the story that went a long with it. However as Michael quickly stepped into the spotlight he started getting vetted, and it was found that Michael had something in his life that did not match up with the character of the Lord he sang about. Brad had a great post HERE concerning the story, and this post is not to cast criticism on Michael because we all have sin in our lives and we have all failed, though our failures at times fall on different levels. This post is to point out that when we don’t vet ourselves and allow Christ to vet us by examining our inner most secret areas, someone will, and in the end Christ will take a hit, our families will take a hit, our churches will take a hit, our friends will take a hit, Christianity will take a hit, and we will lose all credibility and trust we have ever gained.

Join the Conversation: Have you vetted yourself lately? Most importantly, have you allowed Christ to vet you lately?

Popularity: 1% [?]