Eric Taylor

What's it Worth?

Eric Taylor — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:54:27 PDT

I was reading in Matthew 16 yesterday and came across a very familiar passage.

"If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways,

take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?"

This is a passage that has all sorts of theological implications... our selfishness, His cross, the cost of discipleship, the great paradox of losing our life to save it. But I read something in the NLT translation that captured me. it was the phrase "Is anything worth more than your soul?"

That may be one of the most most critical question that Jesus asked because it has to do with what we value and how we assign value to something and mostly, how do we prioritize the most things with the most value.

Is ANYTHING worth more than your soul?

The "right" answer is NO. Nothing is worth more. But every day the decisions we make and the conversations we have reveal the things that most valuable to us. And as Christ Followers, we do a great job giving lip service to denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus. But in practice, many times I am still trying to "gain the whole world". Whether that's getting a bigger bank account, living in certain neighborhoods, being at the top of your class, leading a large ministry or a whole host of other things we chase after, many times the things we pursue, even the good things, does damage to our soul.

So how do we take care of our soul? What do we do to make sure that we value caring for it more than anything else?

1. Recognize what we value

2. Be intentional about the care of your own soul... discover or rediscover some of the spiritual disciplines like fasting, solitude, study and prayer. It's not going to make you "weird" or "odd for God", and it just might be what you need to refresh and renew your soul.

3. Help others do the same.

We care for our bodies by working out and eating right (well, some do).

We care for our homes and cars by doing routine maintenance to make them last.

We care for our children so they can grow up and we can launch them out on the world.

All of those things have great value... but what are you doing to care for your soul?

Just a thought and I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas about how you care for your soul.

Getting Ready for Jamaica

Eric Taylor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:11:13 PDT

We are only a few days away from heading to Jamaica. We leave Saturday with a team of 10 from Journey headed to St. Mary's, Jamaica. Before some of you think that we must be "suffering for Jesus", let me tell you this is NOT the resort/tourist part of the island. Sonja and I spent our 10th anniversary at an all inclusive resort in Ocho Rios (I highly recommend that! It was awesome!) but the 2 hour bus ride from the airport to the resort made us fall in love with the country and gave us a burden for the people of Jamaica. My friends at Mountain Lake Church connected us with A.C.E., a ministry that had been on the island 20 years. We took our first trip last year and it became the beginning of an amazing partnership that will keep us going to Jamaica for years to come.

As much as I liked it, my wife fell in love with the people, the culture and the ministry opportunities there. She's a teacher and she's actually expanding her role in the ministry to work with the teachers and schools there. In fact, we are hosting a couple of Principals from the schools there in our home in a few months. ACE is bringing them in to the U.S. so they can observe and be encouraged. They will be with us a few days and our prayer is that we have an opportunity to encourage them and model Jesus to them.

The project that we'll be on next week is going to be an amazing opportunity. We will be going into an area that's primarily unreached. MOST of the people have no church background. So, we will be doing some painting, building some relationships, play some soccer (I still refuse to call it football!) and hopefully, having some spiritual conversations and planting seeds of the gospel. I've been on a bunch of mission projects, but I think I'm more excited about this one than I have been with others because of the great opportunity we have to begin a great work that will continue long after we're gone.

If you would like to pray for us, here are some specifics you can pray for:

Getting to and through the airport without any problems with tickets, baggage or security.
Our opportunities on the plane to talk with people that may lead to spiritual conversations. (I checked and our team is not all sitting together, so that means we will most likely be sitting next to someone we don't know. Pray for boldness to share as the Lord leads.)
The logistics of having multiple teams at the hotel/ministry center. Pray for our opportunity to connect with people on the other teams.
Pray for the church we'll be attending (and I may be speaking at) on Sunday-- Glad Tidings Church of the First Born and their pastor, Pastor Brown. Pray for his leadership in that church and in the community.
Pray for our "work project". Pray that we would do a good job, but focus our attention on building relationships and initiating conversations that would help connect them to Jesus.
Pray for our days working at the infirmary. It's essentially a "poor house" and it's one of the hardest places to do ministry, but the people there are so receptive and so grateful. Pray that we would be the "hands and feet of Jesus". (by the way... we get to take them to the beach one day... they say that's the highlight of their summer!)
Pray for our team... that we would not get so caught up in what God is doing THROUGH us that we miss what He is doing IN us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
Pray that we enjoy our day off at Dunn's River Falls and shopping at the market.
Pray for our return flight home, going through customs, getting impatient to get back to our loved ones, etc. Pray that we don't rush back into the regular routine of life without processing what God has done for us through our participation in this project.
Pray that when we do return, we are not the same-- I don't mean that we are tanned and go around saying "yeah mon"... but that the experience has shaped us in such a way that our lives will never be the same and that shapes our attitudes and actions as we "reenter" our own culture.
Pray that Journey Church reaps the benefits of being a Missional Church where we continue to send people to Jamaica to impact lives, but also, each week, we send people to businesses, schools, neighborhoods, and other places to impact lives for the Kingdom.

Finally,

Pray that God would make a way for YOU to go on our next trip to Jamaica!

I hope to be blogging at least a couple of times while I'm down there and adding some pictures of our team and our work.

Monday Rewind

Eric Taylor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:06:46 PDT

I'm a little late posting my rewind, but wanted to share that I believe God is doing some great stuff at Journey. It's an awesome privilege to pastor such great people!
It's official-- I'm ready for summer to be over and things to get back into a normal routine when school starts. Our attendance was down about 40% yesterday!
I felt like I laid an egg yesterday... the message was great, but I felt like my delivery was all over the place. But all that went away when my 16 year old daughter said "you did good today, I liked what you said." it reminded me that even when I don't feel like anything good happened, God can use it to impact someone!
I heard the stories of 2 of our single ladies' homes being burglarized this past week. Breaks my heart and makes me mad. My family knows the feeling of being violated like that. The "stuff" that was taken can be replaced, but it will take a while for "peace of mind" to return. Pray for us as we try to help them through it.
We had a GREAT Jamaica Team Meeting! I can't wait to get on the plane Saturday! Our team is going to do some great stuff for the Kingdom. I'm praying that several of them will have the opportunity to lead someone to faith in Christ.
This week is slammed full from meetings and prep time for us leaving the country. I probably won't be Tweeting or Facebooking as much as I have in the past just because there's a ton of stuff to get done between now and Saturday.
One thing I am doing as soon as I get home is hitting P90X hard again. We took a few days off last week and my body is feeling it. Core Synergistics, here I come!

Yard Sale Friday

Eric Taylor — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:49:36 PDT

I have no idea how I got talked into this but I'm writing this post from our driveway while I survey all the stuff we can no longer 'not live without'. We are having a yard sale!

Most of the stuff we have for sale was at one time stuff we just couldn't live without. But like everyone else, we got more stuff and newer stuff and better stuff and this stuff goes in the closet waiting for the next yard.

Since I started writing we've had 2 customers for a grand total of $15. That works out to be $7.50 divided by 3 people (Sonja & Abby are here too). This doesn't seem like a good business plan. At least I get to spend the morning with my 2 favorite girls! We've already had some great laughs and Abby can't stop making fun of my "stylish" clothes I finally agreed to sell! Whether or not we make any money, I'm glad I get to spend a few hours hanging out with my girls!

7 Things I Pray for Every Day

Eric Taylor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:15:00 PDT

This past week I began teaching on Prayer and how to develop an effective prayer life. I was encouraged by so many people who committed to praying consistently and intentionally for 15, 30 even 60 minutes a day. I'm praying for you guys that you stay strong in that commitment and that you experience Jesus like you never have before!

I thought I would share some of the things that I pray for every day. My prayer life is not as regimented as some, but I have a list of things I pray for consistently on a stack of index cards held together by a big metal ring. (I got the idea from my friend Ritchie Miller, who prays through his cards as he walks.) I will pray for the requests that come in on the Connection Cards and for some that people email me but there are 7 things that I always pray for every day.

Before anything else happens, I pray that I hear from God.
Help me to honor God with my life, words and actions.
Help me to be completely obedient to His Word.
Give me clarity for my next step as a leader, pastor, and church planter.
Give me strategic focus, creative thoughts and above all else-- His Hand of Favor!
Let me lead my family to be more like Jesus.
Let me lead someone to faith in Jesus today.

I pray this every day, sometimes before my feet hit the floor. These 7 prayers help shape my life, my thoughts, my schedule and my conversations. Do you have anything you pray for consistently every day? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Catch Up Day

Eric Taylor — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:59:59 PDT

I'm back from vacation and ready to jump back into work. We had a great time at the beach...I didn't get sunburned (a first!). I had great intentions of reading a couple of books while I was there, but didn't make it through one of them. I started reading John Maxwell's "Put your dream to the test". It's been on my list for a while so I thought I'd knock it out by the pool or on the beach... wrong! I made it through 2 chapters and was stopped dead in my tracks. I realized I wasn't going to conquer this book in a few days. The first 2 chapters wrecked me and messed up my reading schedule. I had to stop and spend time thinking, evaluating, journaling and praying... I spent more time doing that than I did reading the 2 chapters. But it was well worth it. The book asks 10 questions to help you "seek and seize" your dream. The first 2 were:

1) The Ownership Question. Is your dream really your dream? and

2) The Clarity Question. Do I clearly see my dream?

That's all it took to be the catalyst for me to drill down deep and rethink what we've been doing at Journey the past 3 years.

I can tell you that I answered yes to both questions... even though we have been tempted

to "adopt and adapt" the someone else's dream, We've stood firm on the dream God has burned in my heart over 9 years ago. We haven't abandoned the dream in order to build a larger ministry quicker.

I am more committed to that dream now than I was when we launched the church! Here's the dream that God burned in my heart 9 years ago... and we will work diligently to see it happen at Journey:

We are building a mission "sending center" where our focus is to reach people who are far from God, who are living marginalized lives disconnected from God and the church. We want to introduce them to Jesus, not the "religious figure" they might know about, but the passionate and powerful Leader, Savior, Forgiver and help them grow to be more like Him. Then we want to equip them to be sent out into our community and all across the nation and world to impact the lives of others.

That's the dream in it's original form as I wrote it down in my journal in 1996.

The 2nd chapter of the book talked about CLARITY. This is where God really wrecked me! I have been clear in my mind where we are headed, but I haven't always communicated that to our people. I have been clear in my mind what the expectations are, but I haven't always clearly communicated that either. So... now that I'm back in the saddle, it's time to work on clarity. Making things plain and crystal clear so that people can not only know where we are going, but they can clearly see the path and the dream.

I have a lot of catching up to do. A lot of conversations to have. A lot of "BIG ASKS" to make. A lot of clarification of expectations to get down on paper. I can't wait to read the rest of Maxwell's book... but I'm committed NOT to until I put the first 2 chapters into practice!

Sunday Rewind

Eric Taylor — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:35:42 PDT

What a busy weekend!

It all started with our One Prayer Community Service Project. Almost 200 volunteers from 6 or more churches showed up to help the 10 Auburn City Schools. My family worked at Cary Woods Elementary and then moved over to Dean Road (where Sonja teaches) and joined the fun there! Yes, it was HOT! Yes, it was hard work! Yes we got scratched up, beat up and banged up... but every volunteer left that day with a heart thankful they could serve the community. Together the Church (big C Church-- the body of Christ) made a BIG impact in Auburn because we came together in the spirit of One Prayer and lived out Jesus' prayer in John 17, that we may be one! If you missed it, you'll have another opportunity because we will do it again-- soon!

We experienced an awesome time of worship today with Nathan Harbin and Perry Noble brought it as he always does! He talked on the subject-- God is Here! It was a great way to end our One Prayer series. If you missed any of the messages, go to our webpage and click on the videos tab and you can view them or you can go to the podcast page and listen to and/or download the audio. Either way... you may want to go back and watch or listen again... All 4 messages were that good!

It's been great to have some great teaching over the last 4 weeks and I have been able to focus on some strategic leadership development and focused time in prayer and we are headed to the beach tomorrow through Thursday. (We're tagging along with Sonja who has a writers' conference there) So, while she's in class, I'll be laying around the pool, or on the beach. The only thing I have "scheduled" for next week is to get up early-- yes, I still do that on vacation-- and spend time reading, praying and journaling. I don't know what it is about the beach, but it seems like God always speaks to me very loudly when I'm there. Other than that... I'm taking a vacation from blogging, email, etc so I can be refreshed and renewed and be ready when I get back on stage next Sunday to teach again... and you don't want to miss it... it's going to be a powerful message on prayer... I know it's a holiday weekend, but if you're in town-- get there early... it will be worth it- I promise!

See you in a week!

Study Less... Pray More

Eric Taylor — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:01:43 PDT

I was reading Mark Batterson's blog this morning and it really resonated with me because I've been reading and studying 2 Timothy and moving very slowly through the passages and I actually got hung up on the one that Batterson mentions in his blog- 2 Tim 2:15. I camped out there for a while and really was compelled to study more intentionally. But also, while we've been in our One Prayer series, I've been more focused on extended times of prayer. Prayer and Study. Study and Prayer. Which one's more important? That's like asking me which one of my children I love more! There is no answer for that. But I love how Mark put it in his blog:

"I think we'd preach with more passion if we tweaked the amount of time we pray in proportion to the amount of time we study. So maybe I should say: study more and pray even more."

I have found myself spending a lot of time studying but little time praying through the message. Those are the times I wonder where the power and passion was. So... an intentional addition to my Saturday night schedule as well as my Sunday early schedule will be not to "practice" the delivery outloud as much, but to "rehearse it before God" as I pray through each word of my message.

As pastors and preachers we have an audience that has willingly volunteered 30-40 minutes, sometimes more, of their time to listen to what we have to say. So, we have to be prayed up, studied up and fired up about standing up and proclaiming the most powerful story in the world. Here are some things I want to make sure of before I stand up to speak on Sunday:

1. Have I heard from God?

2. Am I a clean and useful vessel?

3. Am I calling people to act on what they have just heard?

Those 3 questions will be part of my prayer time as I study and prepare for one of my favorite things -- standing up and proclaiming Jesus.

By the way, you can read the full post that Mark Batterson wrote here.

One Prayer Service Project

Eric Taylor — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:24:41 PDT

I'm getting all pumped up about this Saturday. We are coming together with other One Prayer churches in Auburn to impact the community. To be more specific, we are going to be working with our public schools to do some landscaping and general clean up/spruce up around the schools. Auburn City Schools have a great reputation in our state, even nationwide, and it's one of the reasons Auburn was named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 10 places to live. We have a lot to be proud of in our schools here. As the Church ("Capital C"), the Body of Christ, we have a great opportunity to impact our city as we come together this Saturday and serve our schools.

Here's the plan:

go to http://auburnoneprayer.wordpress.com and register. This is not required, but it gives us an idea how many people to expect.
Show up this Saturday, June 27th at 8:00am at the Bruno's Parking Lot (at the corner of E. University and Glenn Ave). You will check in and be assigned to a school. (your family will be assigned together)
Bring any lawn care tools you can- hedge clippers, weed eaters, etc. And be sure to wear gloves and close toed shoes.
Be ready to work until 12:30.
Celebrate in the spirit of One Prayer that, together, we all made a significant impact in our community!
Come to Journey on Sunday and continue the celebration as we close out our One Prayer series with Scott Hodge, Pastor of The Orchard Community Church.

Monday Rewind

Eric Taylor — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:40:33 PDT

Yesterday was BLAZING HOT in Auburn. I walked outside to talk to our greeters and just about passed out from the heat. Those guys are awesome to be able to stand out in the heat to be the first friendly face guests and attenders see.
Great conversations with some first time guests yesterday.
One of those guests gave their life to Christ! Woo-Hoo!
God is continuing to work even in the summer! We may take vacations and gear down a little, but God is always at work drawing people to Himself!
It was a great Father's Day!
We watched Craig Groschel talk about "God is... Father". He nailed it! Talked about the prodigal son and the Loving Father! Great stuff!
I love One Prayer and I am really being refreshed by not having to prepare messages each week (I am actually writing messages for upcoming series, but the pressure to get it done for the upcoming Sunday isn't there-- that's helpful)
As much as I love hearing from great teachers via video-- I can't wait to preach again... it's like Jeremiah said-- it's a "fire shut up in my bones"! There's some great stuff I want to share in the coming months! God has been refreshing me and renewing my passion for preaching and teaching!
We had an awesome time of worship yesterday- Thanks Joey Seales for always being willing to lead people to experience Jesus in worship!
I had an awesome Father's Day nap. I mean a real deal, drooling on the pillow nap! (probably too much informaiton!)
Sonja and I went to see The Proposal while the kids were at the Youth Meeting. Lots of Laughs! I think Betty White is one of the funniest people on the planet! And Oscar from The Office was way funnier as an exotic dancer/waiter/minister than he is as an accountant!
Woke up this morning at 2am and couldn't get back to sleep until 4:30. I've gotta get my sleep patterns back in line. I'm carrying around a killer headache today and I've got too much to do to get sidelined.
Finally-- Saturday we had a meeting of what I'm calling my "Mighty Men". Just like David's Mighty Men in 2 Samuel 23... these are men I love doing life and ministry with. I gave them a copy of the Strengthsfinder 2.0 book and Brian Bloye's talk about Spiritual Vitality. I want to pour into their lives so they can be the best leaders, husbands, fathers and Christ followers they can be. I can't wait to see how God uses these men over the next few months to help our church get to the next level.