Tag: Leadership

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Watch Out for the Devour

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. 1 Peter 5:8-9 [Full Context]

I admit, I’ve been on a personal journey to confirm that what I was taught at a younger age is correct and to affirm what I believe Scripture teaches for myself, so I still have ‘Aha!’ moments…a lot! I had a pastor who used to push down people’s throats that the “man of God deserved double honor,” so we were never allowed to question him. Later in life I learned that this statement was pulled out of context. 1 Timothy 5:17 says that an elder who directs the affairs of the church WELL deserves double honor in his compensation, especially those who preach and teach…key word…well, this has nothing to do with questioning an Elder when they have fallen off the reservation!

Anyway, all of that to say, my eyes were opened tonight at 1 Peter 5:8-9. I find it interesting that it is written to “Elders” and “Young Men.” The warning is to “Stay Alert!” that our enemy, the devil, prowls around seeking who he may devour. Sure, this is applicable to all Christians, but it is specifically written to Elders and young men. A friend contacted me this week. She found out that her former pastor has been involved in a sexual affair. I was heartbroken for that man, his family, the church, their people and their leaders. It seems to be coming to the surface more and more. What greater victory could we as pastors and church leaders give Satan than to dishonor God in our calling? To abuse our office? To open ourselves up to devour?

Notice, the verse says, seeking who he may devour…I went through a marriage course by Bruce Wilkerson with my wife. He used the analogy of a traffic light. We all give off a signal. Red light, I’m not available. Green light, I’m looking…I’m open & available! Satan is prowling to see if your light is lit up green, and if it is, you’re open to attack! Pastor, Elder, young man…if you are married, you better be putting off the right signals. It goes beyond sexually too. It’s applicable to any moral and ethical standard that the Bible calls us to.

Pastors are highly competitive people. I wonder what would happen if we stopped looking at each others’ ministries to see what one another is doing and how many we are running, and started devoting ourselves to prayer for one another?

…Stay Alert!

Thought?

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God, Hurry Up!

I loved today’s entry from Oswald Chambers. I find myself too often wanting God to hurry up and fulfill the vision he’s given me, whether it be for my family, for my church, or for myself personally. I’ve had a new hunger and longing lately, one that I’ve never had before and today, I think I see that it is God getting me into shape for the goal he has for me. I’ve heard similar things from some of our New Passion team. They are longing for God to show up in a fresh and powerful way; first personally then corporately. I’m excited that God has us on the same page and I cannot wait (although he wants me to wait) to see God continue to unfold his plan in us and through us.

Check out the devotional from today:

Visions Become Reality

The parched ground shall become a pool . . . Isaiah 35:7

We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.

Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.

God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.

The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.

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Ten Signs a Leader Is “Losing It!” By Perry Noble

perry-noble1Ten Signs a Leader Is “Losing It!”

By Perry Noble

My friend Latasha posted a link on Facebook to Perry Noble’s blog post from earlier today. This post is 100% spot on. Perry absolutely nailed it. If you have ever experienced a leader who has “lost it,” you’ll easily recognize these ten signs. Most importantly, these serve as a warning sign to each of us as leaders, when our ministries or organization become more about us and more about our success than Jesus’, these signs will start popping up in our own lives. I believe when this happens, we either have a choice to repent and turn from these ways or hide them and continue to pretend that we’re making it about Jesus, when in reality, it’s all about us. Check the ten signs out:

I’ve been reading through the OT lately and have been challenged by the downward leadership spiral that Saul went on…here are TEN signs from his life that point to a leader “losing it.”

#1 – The ministry he leads moves from being about the name of God to the name of the leader. (Compare I Samuel 14:35 with I Samuel 15:12!)

#2 – He gets impatient with the process that God is taking him through and thereby tries to “make something happen” rather than waiting on God’s timing. (I Samuel 15:5-10)

#3 – He makes self centered leadership decisions that slow down the people he works with rather than empowering them. (I Samuel 15:24-notice the references to himself in this verse.)

#4 – He refuses to completely obey God because it places him in uncomfortable situation. (I Samuel 15:1-9)

#5 – He allows fear of man to trump his fear of God. (I Samuel 15:24)

Click Here to go to Perry’s original post to read signs 6-10

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How Did Jesus Lead?

leader_colored-peopleWe had our first PassionKidz meeting last night to start a conversation about our next steps in our Children’s Worship Environment at New Passion. We opened the night looking at 4 ways Jesus led His movement while on Earth, check them out, and then join the conversation by adding your thoughts:

1. Jesus Mobilized (Mark 1:17) Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me…”
Jesus invited others to join him on his mission. At New Passion, that is part of having a passionate relationship with Jesus. When we are passionate about the things Jesus is passionate about, we’ll do the things Jesus did. One of the ways we aim to increase our partners in ministry is to invite others to be a part of what Jesus is doing. Relationships are the key. We want to start by inviting those we are the closest to.

2. Jesus Taught (Mark 1:17) “…and I will show you how to fish for people!”
Jesus didn’t call the fishermen to come join him on his mission so he could throw them to the wolves (or the Pharisees) to be eaten alive. Jesus called them and said he would show them how to fulfill this mission. I think too often the church finds someone who breathes oxygen and has blood running through their veins and thinks they found a solution to their volunteer problems. The church must be about equipping its leaders and volunteers to fulfill the mission Jesus has them on. Our goal at NPC is to equip and teach our people, so we are all running together.

3. Jesus Empowered (Mark 6:7) “And he [Jesus] called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority…”
Jesus had a specific mission he was here to fulfill, but part of that mission did not include him staying here physically to fulfill every role himself. He empowered and trusted the people he mobilized to join him to carry the mission out. He gave them all the authority they needed to accomplish the mission he called them to. I think the deadliest problem in the church today is “leaders” who micromanage every detail of the church. They have to know everything that’s happening and they have to have their fingerprints on it. Jesus gave his people the ability to carry out his mission without standing beside them holding their hand…and yes…they failed and they messed up…but he kept teaching them and preparing them for the day they would not have him. At New Passion we desire to empower our leaders & volunteers to fulfill the role we entrust to them.

4. Jesus Reproduced (Matthew 28:19, 20) “…Go and make disciples…Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”
Jesus told the disciples to Go and make disciples. When we make a baby, we reproduce ourselves. Jesus had already reproduced himself into the life of the disciples, he now was telling them to go and reproduce him [Jesus] into the life of others. He said, “Teach these new disciples…” He didn’t tell them to bring the disciples back to him so he could teach them, he told his reproduction to continue to reproduce. Once again, it goes back to Jesus empowering his followers. At New Passion, we hope our people become so passionate about the mission Jesus has called us to and our vision of leading people to a passionate relationship with Jesus, that they cannot help but reproduce themselves into the life of the people around them. Life change produces life change…and that’s how God will use NPC to change the world. Life Change.

Join the Conversation…What’s Your Additional Thoughts?

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New Passion Turns 6-Months Old

sixmonthsThis is an exciting Sunday for me.

New Passion turns 6 months old this weekend! Wow, how time flies.

These last 6 months have been incredible, its been complete with our set of difficulties as well as many successes.

We started the church with a launch team of 21 adults and 14 children. Trust me I heard the “concern” for the size of our launch team and I experienced the push back from the so-called experts who happened to never launch a church, and I even wonder if they’ve ever even heard from God. I saw the perplexed looks I got and felt the doubt surrounding me.

It is a good thing we have Jesus on our side and what Steven Furtick would call a “Crack Smoking” launch team, because all we had was a call from God and a vision to lead people to a passionate relationship with Jesus. We had very little equipment (and the majority of what we are using is borrowed), we had very little money (we even had to get a loan), but we had a people who love Jesus passionately and love people.

In 6 months we’ve seen many people begin a relationship with Jesus, many people who have signed up to be baptized (Coming Soon!), our launch team has grown from 35 people to a church averaging 80-85 every week. More than just seeing visitors come check us out, we are seeing them hang around, and several have plugged in to serve in a ministry environment. Our finances have been trending up, the best news is, we’ve never done without, in fact, we have totally paid off our loan. Our new, small church provided Thanksgiving meals for over 20 families and provided a complete Christmas for 4 families, and recently helped pack a local mission’s food pantry with non-perishable foods. I see this as a sign that our people are embracing the vision of our church. We’ve heard stories of life transformation and experienced some amazing things from God. Just this past Sunday, we had a family offer our church .4 acres with a house on the property to help move New Passion towards a new home once our school lease is up. I can list story after story of how God has blown my mind in these last 6 months, no man or organization can take credit for New Passion. God is building it in such a way that only he can receive the glory.

I was checking out what one could expect from a 6 month old baby…because that’s basically what we are, check these 7 things out:

  1. Developing New Skills & a Desire to Use Them – Like a baby, we are pretty uncoordinated with some stuff. However, every week we are improving and as we improve and  develop our skills, you’ll see vast improvement in what we offer to our community and our people.
  2. Exploration – A baby likes to touch, taste, and see new things. They are curious little rug rats. I have said before, we are an experimental church. We want what we do to fit us like a glove, we don’t want to try and be someone else. Sure someone may look at us and say how they would never do it that way…Awesome! That’s why we are doing that way.
  3. Ready to Crawl (Not Walk) – Although a baby at 6 months may be able  to stand or sit up straight, they are not ready to walk. Although some of our natural abilities may allow us to be strong in some areas, as a church, we are keeping it simple on purpose. We don’t have the structure or the finances to do too much too soon. We are okay with taking it slow.
  4. Stimulation Through New Activity – A baby is stimulated through lights and color and sound. We want to make things different and provide different experiences for our people. This goes back to experimenting, but also in unleashing new avenues to live out our HEART in the community and around the world. This does not mean a bunch of programs, but new and different experiences in what we are already doing!
  5. New Strategies – As a baby gets older, there comes a time to change strategies for eating and sleeping, to help adapt with how they are changing. As we grow there will come a place to start new strategies or adjust the ones we already have.
  6. Try new foods – A baby cannot drink milk all of its life. Baby books encourage trying new foods while avoiding others. We always need to be aware of what we can handle and what will hurt us in this stage of our church. We can get new ideas from other places, but we must filter it to make sure it is healthy for our city, our people, and our vision.
  7. Teeth – Some 6 month old babies have them and some don’t! If a 6 month old has teeth, its time to make sure they are properly taken care of. There are some things that we do well and we need give extra attention to  those areas. We need to make sure they are funded properly with a solid team of volunteers.

A lot of these areas build on each other and are connected. Personally, I have to pace myself and remind myself that we are only several months old and there are things we need to improve on and with time, we’ll perfect them. We must crawl before we walk, but while we are crawling, I challenge our people to be passionate about what Jesus is calling us to and to give our all to his plan. I cannot wait to see what happens in these next 6 months!