In this podcast I share 6 things you can do to help you keep your New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Ask for God’s help.
2. Bathe it in prayer(check out my review of the Circle Maker)
3. Develop a detailed plan-check out the Daniel Plan, You Version, and Dave Ramsey material I discuss.
4. Share the dream and the journey with someone else for accountability
5. Be disciplined by God’s power
6. Trust God for the results

I’m a big believer that music feeds the soul.  Feed your soul angry or depressing music and you will find your mood matching it.  Some music is great to work out to because it’s rocking and motivating.  Who doesn’t want to run or hit the weights when “Eye of the Tiger” is playing?  I look for music that pushes me to fulfill my purpose with passion.  For some time, Passion has been putting out some of the best worship music around.  I’ve yet to purchase a bad Passion album and(though I was late to the party) “Here for You” might be their finest effort.  Only on a Passion CD can you find such an all-star collection of worship leaders and musicians from Crowder to Tomlin to Redman.  The Wisconsin youth camp I spoke at last summer featured most of these songs during the week.  We became very familiar with them and Loftland did an amazing job leading us.  There are 2 very different songs I want to highlight and encourage you to check out.  The first is Set Free(I’ll cover Spirit Fall next week).  It’s a great upbeat anthem whose theme can be summed up in the first line:  ”Joy, joy unspeakable joy.”  Here’s the chorus:

C’mon, C’mon now, we’ve got a new song.

C’mon, C’mon now, a song of liberty

Let the world hear heaven’s melody

This is the song of the heart You’ve set free!

I know.  I know.  Most would not consider this deep theological truth, but does it get any deeper than being set free and letting the world know about it?  The bridge gets me every time as well.

And we’ll dance, dance, dance in Your freedom

Oh, Your glorious freedom

Forevermore, Forevermore

Again, we’re not talking about rocket science type theological truth.  However, think about what it means to dance.  Most of the time we don’t dance because we’re too embarrassed.  Most of us default to the Elaine Benes kicks and it’s all downhill from there.  When I’m singing this song, and the beat and the Spirit and moving, it’s hard not to dance.  And there’s something about dancing in the freedom of Christ that says, “I’m not ashamed.  I’m not embarrassed.  Not only am I dancing right now, but I’m gonna keep it going forever.”

Have you watched the news lately?  The world is singing a sad song.  It doesn’t realize that it’s yearning for a Savior to make things right.  People are looking to Christians and the church, but they don’t hear a new song.  They don’t see people with something to dance about.  Maybe that’s why, year after year, church attendance slides.  In the past decade, over 100 churches of 1000 people or more were planted, but it doesn’t seem like it’s making a dent.

Now, more than ever, in the face of discouraging news, humbling stats, and the outcry of a dying world, we need to sing our song from the top of our lungs.  We need to dance like our souls have been redeemed and our lives have purpose.  I don’t know what you’re New Year’s Resolutions were for 2012, but I will start with 2 easy ones:
Sing Loud.  Dance Free.

I’m a huge fan of Mark Batterson.  Chase Your Lion dot com came about after I read In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day.  It completely changed my life.  As a matter of fact, when my wife and I were praying and considering our current pastorate I was content to stay where we were at.  My wife asked,”So, everyone else needs to Chase Their Lion, but you get to play it safe?”  Needless to say, she was right and we haven’t regretted our decision.  The latest book from Mark Batterson,The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears, is another winner. The Circle Maker draws from 1st century story of Honi, the Jewish Circle Maker, who prayed for and received rain from the Lord during a severe drought.  The book challenges believes to dream big, pray big, and trust big.  The point isn’t to get in your circle to change God, but to allow him to change you while you’re in the circle.

He emphasizes that God is not a genie in a bottle whose wish is our command.  As a matter of fact he writes

His command better be your wish. If it’s not, you won’t be drawing prayer circles; you’ll end up walking in circles.

We live in a society where God has become little more than a short order cook:  on call for us 24 hours a day to serve up our hearts desire. Perhaps that’s why so many people today are walking in circles(just like the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness).  We aren’t praying for God’s will as much as we’re praying to will God.

Here’s another challenging thought from the book:

The more faith you have, the more specific your prayers will be. And the more specific your prayers are, the more glory God receives.

I’m starting 2012 by praying some very specific prayers and walking in obedience to see them through.  I believe that the God who designed the human eye is uniquely qualified to hear our prayers down to the smallest detail.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012, The Techology Show will be interviewing Mark Batterson about The Circle Maker and other happenings at National Community Church.  Check out http://www.thetechologyshow.com/live Wednesday at 9 am EST to submit your questions and win a copy of The Circle Maker!

Here’s our first interview with Mark:

Chazown by Craig Groeschel

A while back, I picked up Chazown: Define Your Vision. Pursue Your Passion. Live Your Life on Purpose.by Craig Groeschel.  You know I had to read this book from the subtitle.  As I have transitioned into being a Senior Pastor I have been reading everything I can get my hands on about vision. Chazown (pronounced khaw-ZONE) is the Hebrew word for vision and in this book Craig Groeschel speaks of discovering one’s personal vision.  He wants the reader to imagine themselves on their death bed and look back to see what really mattered in life.

Everyone ends up somewhere.  But few people end up somewhere on purpose.-From page 6 of Chazown and borrowed from Visioneering

There are a lot of things I love about this book.  First, each section is really short, 2-3 pages.  It makes it easier to digest everything.  He also speaks of our Chazown having 5 spokes:Relationship with God

1. Relationship with God
2. Relationship with People
3. Finances
4. Health and Fitness
5. Work

There are lots of exercises in the book as you are encouraged to write down your goals and dreams.  It includes an appendix that lists some core values and spiritual gifts to think through and see how God has gifted us and wired us.  I had never thought of things like endurance and zeal as core values, but it broadened my thinking as to how God wanted to focus my life on certain things.  Groeschel’s view is that God’s vision for us comes at the place where our core values, spiritual gifts, and past experiences intersect.  It’s powerful to see these things unfold with expectation.  My wife and I will be going through this book and exercises together as we see the future God has charted for us.  I highly recommend this book and doing the hard work that comes with it.

Time for a Renovation

It’s been almost two years since I started Chase Your Lion and it’s time for some Blog Renovations.  It has been such a great learning experience and blessing for me.  I know I’ve been hot and cold with the blog.  My brain knows what to do, but yada yada yada.  I’ve discovered two great blogs since October 2009 that have been a tremendous encouragement and guide to great blogging.  Michael Hyatt and John Saddington(aka The Tentblogger) have two of the best blogs out there and give great tips and advice.  A lot of what you see here is a result of what I see them do as far as look and feel.  We all use Tentblogger’s Standard Theme.  Believe me, it is the easiest premium theme I have purchased and used by far.

With all that in mind, it’s time for some Blog Renovations around here.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but here’s an overview of what’s happening.

1. I have switched from the All In One SEO Pack to Yoast’s WordPress SEO.  These are plugins that give your blog a better chance of being discovered on search engines(Search Engine Optimization).  I took the time to write this stuff.  I want people to find it and read it.  Yoast’s plugin is easier to use and has deeper options.
2. I will be adding a picture to every post to make the nRelate Related Content plugin look prettier.  It will hopefully get more clicks to older posts as people see nice shiny pictures instead of a default picture or text.
3. I am clearing out the category clutter.  I’m using Tentblogger’s Category plugin to help with SEO as well.  The more blogs I read, the more I think the consensus is fewer categories is better.  I’m hoping for 5 to 10.  Right now, I’m staring at 30.
4. I just installed Jetpack which brings some wordpress.com functionality to wordpress.org self-hosted blogs.  If you read that sentence and feel like your head is going to explode then here’s a great post to explain the wordpress differences.
5. This post showed me how to add the Google +1 button to my sidebar.

The goal is to improve my blogging skills as I seek to help people get started with social media and blogging.  As a circuit riding pastor, it’s imperative that I invest my time wisely.  I believe God has given me a passion for these things and a desire to pass on what I’ve learned.  I’ve also gotten the podcast itch since joining the Techology Show every Wednesday at 9 am so there’s another resource I’m trying to perfect.  Once these Blog Renovations are completed the future looks bright.

What’s keeping you from blogging?  Let me know how I can help get you in the game!

Stop the Twitter Spam!

In the past few weeks, two of my favorite bloggers announced they were starting over with twitter.  First Chris Brogan and then Michael Hyatt declared that the recent proliferation of spam had led them to make the decision.  Note to self:  don’t click on any DM links that says “I laughed when I saw this picture of you.”  These guys both had huge followings and it got me to thinking about my twitter strategy.  I have had two Chase Your Lion accounts for a while and today made the move to merge the two.  What I found is that their follower lists are almost identical.  It has taken some time this morning to get Tweet Adder and Hootsuite back up and running properly.  I actually had to delete Hootsuite on my iphone and reinstall it.  So, now I’m pointing all my followers to http://www.twitter.com/chaseyourlion.  It is the former @chaseurlion account and now the old Chase Your Lion is now @chaseyourlion2 until I’ve got everything moved and delete it.  I will then keep up with who’s spamming me by running Twitblock once a month and blocking them.  Now, the next phase is changing all the old links on my blogs to reflect these changes.

The top 3 reasons for doing all of this:

1. My Chase Your Lion tweets will be more frequent and focused since I’m not having to come up with material for 2 accounts.
2. I can now spend some time on another not so serious Twitter personality I’ve created.
3. I was never happy with the name “chaseurlion” but ChaseYourLion wasn’t available in 2009 for some reason.

What are your thoughts?  Have you noticed an uptick in the twitter spam you receive?  Are these guys crazy to unfollow tens of thousands of people?

Run the race with Perseverance

The past five weeks have been some of the most trying of my entire life.  I have seen a young man I loved and invested in die much too young.  I have questioned my progress and maturity.  I have faced stress on every level and in every aspect of life.  It has been intense to say the least.  Not coincidentally, I had been preparing a message on perseverance as part of a new sermon series at Oakway Wesleyan and Common Ground Community Church(did I mention that I started pastoring 2 churches in the midst of all this).  That message came at just the right time for me.  Here’s what James chapter 1 says:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Anyone can be a flash in the pan.  In the era of YouTube, anyone can be famous and some people are famous just for being famous.  Perseverance is not about being satisfied with the daily grind.  It’s about making the daily grind count.  It’s about not overlooking the little things that matter in our efforts to do one great thing that matters.  Not everyone wants to pay the price, be tested, and work their faith out over time.  Most want the answer now, success now, happiness now, riches now….

How can we persevere if we are not tested?  God’s not trying to take away the life you want.  He’s trying to give you the life you were created to have.    Paul writes in Galatians 6:

⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

It’s hard to persevere when you reap destruction.  Destruction always leaves collateral damage.  Perseverance isn’t just about you, but it’s about your loved ones around you.  I’m going to hang in there.  I don’t want my son or The Son to think I’m quitting on them.

Soul Hope Studio

For episode 2 of the Chase Your Lion podcast I had the opportunity to sit down with Cody Thomas, founder of Soul Hope Studio.  He’s a lion chaser in the sense he is pursuing his purpose and passion in a way some in the church world would deem unconventional.

To partner with Cody, go to http://www.soulhopestudio.com and check out their Partnership program.

You can follow Cody and Soul Hope Studio on Twitter and Facebook.

Make sure to follow Chase Your Lion on Twitter and check out the Rural Pastor Podcast at Heath Mullikin dot com.