Get up and ride!

Breaks (vacations, quitting something that has become unproductive or a short sabbatical) can be just what you need… but eventually you will need to saddle back up and move forward.

The longer the break you take, the more it compounds the difficulty of restarting.

Today is the first day I’ve look at my blog in a month. I needed to step away because I just didn’t have any more to give… I was dry, empty and frustrated.

But now it’s time to get going again. There are other levels to complete and goals to conquer. Just think about the great posts to come awhen I begin to compare church attenders to holiday fruit… er, joy cakes

Wherever you are, if you still read this blog after it’s month long absence, don’t ever just give in and give up.

Maybe you’ve attended a church and got burned, I’m sorry… but don’t let that experience keep you from ever being a part of the community again.

Maybe a separation from your wife, your school, your job… are what’s in order to gather your bearings and reignite the passion, but NEVER give up… get back in the saddle. Ride that horse hard and move forward in your relationships, your goals and your career.

I’ll be honest… my month of stagnation was nice. It was the first time in months that I didn’t think once about what to write, blog traffic, RSS subscriptions and everything else that goes along with expanding a blog, but I’m ready for something more and I hope you are too!

Let’s re-imagine and re-establish what it means to be the Church.

Have you ever had to take a break to find inspiration?

*Photo Credit: Scotsxc via stock.xchng

An adventure beyond I Heart the Church

[This post is part of the From the Inside Out series]

Each week I Heart the Church leads you on an adventure to find some of the best content that reflects the heartbeat of what makes this site tick.

The Church (capitalized for a reason) is a powerful organism. As the body of Christ on this planet, when we come together across denominational and geographic divides… we see greater accomplishments for the Kingdom of God.

I don’t know how many of you are aware of the orphanage in Haiti that was recently shut down due to their disgusting acts of trafficking children, but Seth Barnes (from Radical Living in a Comfortable World) has not given up the fight for these children to live safely and securely in a corrupted country.

This week I want to highlight Seth’s update on these children since the closure of the orphanage. I wish it was good news, but it’s not. Many children never made it into new orphanages, which means they are unaccounted for… meaning possible further abuse.

You can read his update and follow the link at the bottom of the page to sign the petition for an investigation into this horrific crime.

Please, let’s stand up against injustice and be the voice for the voiceless.

Will you be the church and take a stand?

[Check out other posts from the From the Inside Out series.]

What are you willing to pay?

Starbucks is my vise.

Really my vise would be any great coffee if Northern Nevada had good coffee, but alas, Starbucks meets my caffeinated junkie fix.

What it doesn’t serve is my wallet.

$11.45 for two coffees. Sure mine had chocolate and my wife’s with extra cream… but seriously? For coffee?

Everything costs somebody something.

My $11.45 had to pay for workers growing the coffee, the transportation of the beans, roasting, packaging and that’s before it even hits the retail shelf. There were hundreds (if not thousands) of people working and paying a cost for me to drink my warm mocha on my way to work on a brisk fall morning.

Everything costs somebody something.

There’s a common remark about the no-cost grace that God provides… it still cost one man his life.

The church buildings we gather together in to shake Heaven with praise… it cost somebody (most likely some people) some coin.

The gentlemen on your left in church who seems to always have faith that moves mountains… it cost his parents many nights of prayers and his own time and dedication to know the God that moves the mountains for him.

Everything costs somebody something.

I’m feeling very grateful today… my wife, my boys and everyone and everything God has brought into my life is good. I’m honoring God tonight as I know somebody somewhere has paid the price so that I may enjoy this life I live.

And I’m asking myself… How can I pay it forward?

What are you grateful for today?

*Photo Credit: Images_of_Money, Flickr (Creative Commons)

An adventure beyond I Heart the Church

[This post is part of the From the Inside Out series]

Each week I Heart the Church leads you on an adventure to find some of the best content that reflects the heartbeat of what makes this site tick.

If you are a regular reader, you’ve probably noticed I’m struggling to find balance right now.

I Heart the Church will have five updates one week then two the next… I think I’ve lost a little passion somewhere.

I don’t believe excuses are the proper response, so I’ll save those for myself. But I do know that my content as of late has been lackluster to what stirs within my soul.

As I reevaluate how, where and when I write… this post by Jeff Goins: Don’t Avoid Painful Writing, really captured my thinking.

Maybe honesty, even the cold-hard kind, really is what makes passion come alive…

Jeff drives home a great perspective on writing that is absolutely applicable to the church. We should teach, mentor and love without the facade and with truth: We are a broken humanity, finding our way through a faith journey and hope in Jesus Christ.

Go ahead and click the link, read the post and then head back over here and join the discussion.

Do you allow people see your human side of your life?

[Check out other posts from the From the Inside Out series.]

Too busy keeping people out?

It’s not about you. It was never about you.

It is so much larger than you.

What is it?

The church…

Nobody likes to be told that the music isn’t about them or the preaching isn’t for them.

We have manipulated what church is supposed to be.

We’ve made it all about us and not about others.

Take your hat off, it’s irreverant.

Pray this way or that way.

Shut your whiney kid up in the nursery.

Don’t bring coffee into our beautiful sanctuary… we want it to smell heavenly not like hell served burnt coffee.

Enough with what we like or we want.

God designed the church on a much bigger scale than you and I.

It’s about our guests.

It’s about the people who have yet to enter your sanctuary, auditorium, warehouse or wherever else you meet.

It’s about the community you are situated in, the district you may belong to and the nation you reside.

It’s about the world that surrounds you, which is desperate for God to work a miracle in their dire situations.

If all we do is cater to our current people base… all we will attract is the same. People jumping from one church to the next, consuming but never giving.

Let’s build a culture in our churches where the people in our grocery stores, walking their dogs in the park and painting graffiti on fences are more important than reaching our own kind.

Give an honest evaluation: Do you create a church culture that values the outsider?

* Photo Credit: Morten Rand-Hendriksen (Flickr Creative Commons)

An adventure beyond I Heart the Church

[This post is part of the From the Inside Out series]

Each week I Heart the Church leads you on an adventure to find some of the best content that reflects the heartbeat of what makes this site tick.

When we encounter fear: Do we let it paralyze and force us to retreat or do we press into the unknown, willingly taking risks for greater results?

Fear will always be prevalent in unknown situations, but we can trust God knowing that his favor rests on every Christian.

Move beyond the fear to see the power of God. Love beyond the fear to see a life transformed. Live beyond the fear to experience fullness.

This week we highlight an excellent post about fear from ThinkGrowth (Gap International): What Are You Afraid Of?

Go ahead and click the link, read the post and then head back over here and join the discussion.

How do you respond to fear of the unknown?

[Check out other posts from the From the Inside Out series.]

Photo by jcasabona, courtesy of Flickr (creative commons)

God created a masterpiece when He dreamed of using people to be the church. With each of our own unique set of personalities and giftings, we are able to do so much more for the Kingdom of God.

Together our individual perspectives come full circle and allow us to see the many possibilites before us to improve and grow.

This is where you can become involved with I Heart the Church:

What topics do you think I Heart the Church should be writing about?

How can we together make the church more influential and welcoming as a place to belong?

Share your ideas in the comments section or email me directly.

Image by Ethan Hein, courtesy of Flickr (creative commons)

[This post is part of the Leading From the Front series]

You see the need for vision.

You have prayed, realized your burden and you decided it was best to be yourself. No one can fulfill your vision quite like you can.

Now it’s up to you to make it happen.

Notice I said you and not your spouse or your leadership team.Even God is waiting on you… You are the driving force for your vision.

Imagine if I showed up on a Wednesday night in my student ministry, stood on the stage and just stared at the students in the audience.

Besides for being considered weird, nothing would really happen. No inspiration, no encouragement and no forward progress in completing the vision in my heart.

I need to see small wins (I’ll take large wins too) on a weekly or even daily basis. For this to happen, I have to work hard.

This is how I drive the vision God has given me.

Engage

Wherever students are, I try to meet them there.

Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, on their lunch break and where they work.

Through relationship I attempt to engage the involved and uninvolved student so they might see the value in knowing this guy named Jesus.

Elevate

I can officially say that I have a broken heart. It happened a couple weeks ago when I watched two of my students receive a berating rebuke from their parents. I actually had to step in front of the dad and speak value to the students while being firm with correction.

To be completely honest, I had a rough relationship with these boys and very little patience remained until this experience.

These boys didn’t need me, the adult mentors at Uprising or anyone else to tell them what they were doing wrong (I’m sure they get enough at home). They need people to elevate them… To help them find their value.

I now put a high priority on elevating every student in every area of their lives.

Empower

Leaders can’t do everything or we’ll rob others from fulfilling their own leadership roles. We have to empower people to do the work of furthering the Kingdom of God.

In Uprising, we have 12 adults who are essentially the youth pastors of their own little groups. We have a worship band made up of adults and students (our worship leader is a student). Students help plan events and weekly themes.

Equip, delegate and empower… In that order. Delegation without equipping is just laziness.

How will you make your vision become reality?

[Check out the other posts in the Leading From the Front series]

Photo by Muffet, courtesy of Flickr (creative commons )

[This post is part of the Leading From the Front series]

We have discovered that vision is critical to becoming a leader. You have to know where you are leading people. Leaders that fail to possess a HD vision do not go anywhere.

I wear glasses. I’m not ashamed, but I used to be.

My license had expired and I wanted a new picture to adorn it. So I made the trek to the DMV and waited in line. The minutes ticked by and the numbers were called at a rate that would make a tortoise comfortable.

Finally I received the call and took my seat at the counter. The clerk asked me to look into the eye machine on the counter and read the line of letters.

I rambled off the seven or so letters and looked up confidently like she was going to give me a trophy or something. Her eyes met mine with a look of disbelief.

“Do you were glasses sir?”

“Uh, yea.”

“You’ll need to come back with them before I can renew your license.”

“Huh? I got the letters wrong? But…”

“Sir, you can’t see where you’re going.”

This is the value of possessing the correct vision.

Your church, your team, your family and you personally need a HD vision to move forward.

Here are three ways you can find a HD vision you should be pursuing.

Pray

Obvious huh?

How many times have we just reacted without praying for the direction we should go?

Me – more times than I’d care to admit, which never took me where I really wanted to go.

Prayer is not only our direct contact with God, but it also helps us to search our own hearts to determine if we are on the right path.

The Bible says to ask, seek and knock… are you being persistent for God to give you vision?

What is your burden?

Is there something that ticks you off or breaks your heart?

What makes you feel complete when you do it?

The answer to these questions is your burden. Vision often starts with seeing a need and then figuring out how you will get there.

This is your end point… begin writing down what it will take to see your burden become non-existent?

Be yourself

If you are trying to be someone else, you can never fulfill your own destiny. Your vision is for you, to be fulfilled through you.

While our visions may be similar for the church… How we get there will be different because we are unique.

I don’t teach like the youth pastors I’ve sat under; I have tried to mimic and failed. Why? Because I’m not them.

I am me. My gifts are different. My personality is unique. There is only one me and there is only one you.

Be yourself.

The result

The summer of 2010 was our summer of searching… we were looking for the vision for our lives. We began to pray and ask God to show us clearly where we were supposed to go and a burden was set on our hearts for students. It seemed like every book I touched talked about the generation of students today that are uninspired to live and follow this guy named Jesus.

We had to do something… and God gave us vision to engage, elevate and empower students to live adventurous Christian lives.

Do you have another step in how to find a vision for your life, ministry, etc?

[Check out the other posts in the Leading From the Front series]

An adventure beyond I Heart the Church

[This post is part of the From the Inside Out series]

Each week I Heart the Church leads you on an adventure to find some of the best content that reflects the heartbeat of what makes this site tick.

Every great  idea has to start somewhere and they rarely begin with a huge startup.

Starbucks was originally one coffee shop that merged with two others to become a chain of three. Now there are more than 7500 stores in the United States alone.

Mega churches around the country started in school auditoriums, houses and even rented church facilities. They didn’t plant 15 campuses at once, but through focusing on starting small and thinking big they expanded the influence of the Kingdom of God over time.

Humble beginnings or starting small is a great perspective for the church.

Your next event, mission’s fundraiser or new service might not feel like it’s making a difference… but think big, start small.

Pastor Steven Furtick, the lead pastor of Elevation Church, nailed this post this week: Think Big, Start Small.

As always, head over to Steven’s blog and check out his post… then join in here for the discussion!

Where can you start small today to make a bigger difference tomorrow?

[Check out other posts from the From the Inside Out series.]