For your weekend enjoyment!
* Featuring Chris Tomlin
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I recently had an incredible conversation with a very well-known individual while he was here in Dallas. This conversation rocked me to the core and has truly challenged me. Here are a few of the things they said…
Question was – Why do you think God is doing incredible things in other parts of the world while it seems like there are so many churches in the United States that are dying or closing their doors on a daily basis?
He replied – 3 reason
1- Comfort of what we have (stuff – you name it)
2- Knowing that we are secure (gated communities, alarm systems, etc)
3- Lack of faith (or faith in the wrong things)
He went on to say the following…
The truth Jeremy is that church here in the US for the most part is very shallow. I don’t think we comprehend or even understand how messed up we truly are. I mean things we think are a “big deal” here, really are not and sins that we brush off like they aren’t anything are a much bigger deal than they we make them out to be. You see churches in other parts of the world are truly experiencing the presence / Spirit of God on a daily basis. They find their comfort in and rely on Him for everything because without it they believe they will not survive.
He continued… Part of the reason I want to take my family overseas is so I can truly experience what God is doing in other part of the world. I want to go encourage families that have given up everything and lost family members for the sake of the gospel. I want to pray for the orphans and widows who have lost their husband because the have give up their own life to share Christ. Those are the true heroes in my book. It’s not the guy that writes a hit song that every church across America sings. It’s not the preacher with the biggest church standing in the spot light with the #1 most downloaded podcast. It’s not the guy with the best selling book on the speaking circuit. It’s the guy in the underground church who is behind the scenes. The pastor who is trusting in God and doing all he can to spread the Word knowing that their life could be taken from them that very day.
He continued on saying this about the church here in the US –
We have become some comfortable in church providing everyone with everything we need to make sure every person is happy. It’s gotten so bad that we don’t really need to find comfort in Him because we’ve found it in ourselves, yet we wonder why so many churches here are struggling. The reason the church overseas is exploding and seeing the Holy Spirit move daily is because they have moved past finding comfort in stuff and finding hope in Christ. The church in other parts of the world is growing so fast while the churches here are closing their doors on a daily basis. Here we fear rejection, that someone may say “no” to an invitation to church and we walk away like cowards. We are more afraid of losing our job because someone might think we are charismatic than coming to grasp the truth that our neighbor next door may be going to hell. We focus more on protecting and maintaining what we have in fear that this small movement we have had a hand in might fall apart. See, the fears and challenges they face on a daily basis is possible death but trust that God is bigger than death and that there truly is something of much greater value than the stuff we hold on to so dearly to. If we would let go of comfort and security we hold on to and step out in faith we would see God move in way that people in the Bible did and people across the world are daily.
Until we grasp the reality that the church is for the lost, not for making those attending more comfortable by adding programs and meeting their wants, will God begin to move in ways you thought may no longer be possible. Until we let truly go, stop taking credit for what has happened and bet it all on God’s hand being at work, things won’t change. But when we allow Him to truly be at work in our lives, take risk and no longer fear what may happen God will begin to move in ways we haven’t seen before. And this – THIS is what the church needs to be a part of. Something that is so much bigger than anything you or I could ever do on our own.
This is something I’ve been wresting with the last couple weeks that has truly wrecked my mentality on so many things. I hope you getting a small insight into this conversation will challenge you as well. I’d love to hear your thoughts and hear you share ways God is moving in your life right now.
A good friend of mine Nathan Boaldin is on an 11 month journey visiting different parts of the world. Their goal is to travel with the World Race part of Adventures in Missions to share the gospel and help many without. To be able to complete this 11 month journey he is in needs of 20 individuals willing to commit giving $25 a month. By doing this you will help him continue doing what God has called him to. Please understand that they live on only a few dollars a day but are making an unbeliever impact with the little money they raise.
To learn more about their journey go here – NATHAN’S BLOG
If you able to give? CLICK HERE
By you giving a few bucks, you will be making a huge impact in the lives of many!
Thanks for considering partnering with Nathan.
So I woke up from a killer afternoon Sunday nap to see this and I’m still sitting here thinking – what in the world?
I recently had a guy say to me – “I wish I just had 1 or 2 rockstars on my staff.” I asked him to elaborate. He said “you know someone that everyone is drawn to, the life of the party, big presence. Don’t you wish you had a couple rockstars on your team”? To which I responded – “actually I’d rather have someone above average. Someone who is solid in these 4 areas.”
Well Balanced. When you are at work, you work hard. When you are home with your family you are fully present. Don’t use your family as an excuse for not doing your job well. Don’t use your job as an excuse to not spend time with your family.
Consistent. Living what you speak and speaking what you live (enough said)
Serves Well. Do you serve others on a weekly basis? We forget that most people serving in our ministry work 40+ hours a week and then serve many hours in your ministry. How are you serving them?
Follows Through. When you tell someone you will be there or email or call them, you do just that. If there is some legitimate reason why you can’t meet or some emergency comes up, that’s understandable. However, the “I didn’t get your email or text” can only be done for so long.
I’d love to hear from you. What is it that you look for and value most about your team members?
SIDE NOTE: The more I’ve thought of this throughout the day there is a 5th I would definitely add and that’s Passion (and wish I would have said this to him as well, which I still might). I know many people (yes even in ministry) that hate their job but won’t quit it because it’s a steady paycheck. If you work at a church and don’t absolutely love your job, please do us all a favor and quit. In doing so we can find someone who is passionate about it and go on to do it really well. Believe it or not there are non-church jobs that pay you as much if not even more than what you make at the church. Sadly there are many big companies that need “YES” men or women who don’t really care if you are passionate about your job as long as you get the job done.
I have conversations, usually on a daily occurrence, that involves someone talking about something they regret doing. It usually involves something like – staying up too late doing something of no value, eating something they shouldn’t have (or way to much of it) or simply being lazy and unproductive with a deadline quickly approaching. Often these same conversations involve something they regret not doing, wishing they would have spent more time focusing their energy elsewhere. The list always varies from person to person, but here are a few things I rarely if ever hear one regret.
Here are a few of them…
Spending time reading the Bible or a book helping them grow. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard this from anyone! Something like – “I was deep in this transforming book that deeply challenged me to do this or that and I wish I would have put off reading it for another couple weeks.” Nope. I’ve never heard anyone regret this. To be honest I can’t say I regret reading a book that’s challenged me personally. Now there are books I regret reading, but that’s a whole other story.
Spending time with family or friends. If anything is hear the opposite. It’s usually regret for choosing something of much less significance over friends or family. I can’t say I’ve every regret going to one of my kids play, a ball game of theirs or a school event. I can’t say I regret taking a day off to spend time with my wife or kids. However, I do regret days I said yes to something or someone else that took away from time with them.
-or this-
Working out and/or eating healthy. If I ever hear this it’s typically because someone has pushed themselves too hard since they haven’t worked out in a very long time and they’re try to do something they did 10 years ago :-). However I can’t say I’ve heard someone regret going on a walk or jogging around the park because it helped them feel better and it gave them more energy for the day ahead. I’ve never heard someone say after eating a healthy meal “gosh I feel like such a pig.” However, just about every time I go out to eat with a group I do hear someone say, “I should have gone with the salad” after polishing off a burger.
But we’d rather have the quick fix right???
At times we would rather buy the cliff notes instead of actually taking the time to read a book.
At times we would rather buy someone off or using words like “quality time” instead of actually spending time with them.
At times we would rather take the magic pill or drops instead of choosing to eat right and working out.
Listen, I’m not saying being discipled to read, spend time with loved ones, working out and eating right are easy by any means. As a matter of fact, there are challenges we face every single week. But how often have we chosen to take the shortcut simply to regret doing so?
What about you? Are there things you regret doing or not doing enough of?
Over the next 21 days here at Compass Christian Church we are doing a 21 day prayer journey asking God to do some unthinkable things for the Kingdom here in our area. We are steadily anticipating the movement of God and his Spirit during this time. Would you consider joining me for the next 21 days on this journey?
Click below…
I recently had a very interesting conversation with a good friend of mine having just received our tax return. We began discussing how we would use it to pay off debt, on updates & upgrades that the house might need and maybe even on something extravagant. After spending a few minutes joking around on what we might do with it, I asked this question “have you decided who will you give or tithe a portion of it to”? We had talked about giving and I knew he gave regularly to the church, but the question came as a shock to him. After saying nothing for what seemed like minutes he responded “what – why would you give from your tax return”? When I asked why not, he simply said “we already give every month, so why would I give again”? To which I responded, “well it never really was yours to begin with, so why would it so hard to give a small portion of it away.” This ended of our conversation.
Maybe it was none of my business? Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all? I guess I didn’t think it was that big of a deal since he already gave. I figured it was something that people who give, do. Maybe I was wrong? Was I?
The last few years we’ve been blessed to get a tax return because we are far from the top tax bracket that gets highly taxed. However, because we essentially receive money that we did not budget, we’ve always chosen to give part of it away. Please understand, that I don’t say this to brag in any way, I guess I just never thought it was that big of a deal, until now. Having just received our return, we have yet to determine what we will do with it this year, but we have decided to give part of it away. Because after all, it wasn’t our to begin with.
I would love to hear your thoughts…
Several of you asked what the highlights of the half-marathon [13.1 miles] I ran about a week ago were.
So here are my TOP 5
5 – Watching several people from church finish.
4 – The crowds cheering you on mile after mile, especially the last 1/4 mile. I think it gave me a small glimpse of Heb. 12 and what we have to look forward to one day. BTW- All of you who sent emails, thoughts on running / training, what you learned from your runs where so helpful and encouraging as well.
3 – Seeing my good friend Mike Jones, who I’d done much of training with (who was also throwing up 2 nights before) finish. I talked him into doing a 10K (6.2 miles) 15 months ago. We had decided to run the half together a while back and we did it.
2 – Getting close to the finish line and seeing my wife and kids holding signs and yelling – GO DADDY GO – AWESOME!!! I knew they were going to be there but once I saw them it was hard to explain the feeling. Thanks Julie for your encouragement especially on days I go on long runs and I’m exhausted.
1 – Crossing the finish line and getting a hug from my dad, who happened to be the first one I saw after finishing. He had always enjoyed running when we were younger and was a big motivation for me. Even being 30+ it was great having you there. Thanks dad!
SIDE NOTE …
A friend of mine recently asked “how was the marathon.” To which I replied “it was a half-marathon, but great!” His response “Oh, I thought that’s what chicks ran, haha.” My response “Thanks for the motivation.”
So what’s next??? I guess I a marathon if I can stay healthy. We shall see.
raw, unedited, honest... 