A Purpose in Every Season

Here's a post from Craig Groeschel's blog.

God determines when a season begins and ends. Scripture says, “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. 21 He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them…” (Dan 2:20-21 NIV)

Jesus seemed very aware of God controlling the times. He said in John 2:4, “…My time has not yet come.” Later in John 17:1, he prayed confidently, “…Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”

It is helpful to remember that there is a purpose in every season.

• Paul waited for months before God opened the door for ministry.
• Elisha followed Elijah for years hoping to get what Elijah had.
• Joseph spent years in prison before being promoted to the palace.

I try to remind myself that I can’t skip a season and every season is important.

If you seem stuck in a non-ending season, find comfort in these verses:

This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place… Habakkuk 2:3

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal 6:9

What are some of the most important seasons you’ve experienced?

Sara is now our newest Whistler

St Patrick's Day @ The Thompson's

We love making memories. Jenny had the idea of turning our dinner into a green way to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

Lots of fun. Jake kept telling us "These green eggs and green pancakes taste just like real eggs and real pancakes"

By the end of the meal, we all had green tongues and teeth.

Embrace the Seaon We Are In

Craig Groeschel posted an article I found to be encouraging. I would say, as a church plant, we are still in the plowing the ground season of our life as a church. My hope is that we will stick around (as farmers) long enough to sow lots of seeds together and reap what we've sown. We can't be lazy now. There's too much at stake.

Proverbs 20:4 says, “If you are too lazy to plow in the right season, you will have no food at the harvest.”

In ministry it is so important to work with God’s seasons. Instead of always wishing for the next season, we should embrace the season we’re in.

Here are a few examples of how to work with the seasons:

• If you’re a church planter, you won’t be any more of a real church when you have a real building. Enjoy the ride in portable facilities. You’re in a special season.
• If you’re 50 years old and not naturally a cool person, you’ll look silly trying to act and dress 28. Embrace your season and be a mentor instead of a buddy to the next generation.
• If your church is debt free and strong, don’t pretend like everything you have is for you. During this season, your greatest calling might be to fund the next generation’s vision.
• If you had a singles ministry that worked for 9 years, but is no longer effective, celebrate the 9 years of success. Close it down and do something different. Don’t keep something on life support once its season has passed.

Because I was 28 years old when I started Life Church, I always felt like I was the young guy with everything in front of me. I’m not the young guy any more. (It happened so fast.) Now rather than just building our church, I embrace this season of lifting the next generation to do more than I’m able to do.

How can you better embrace this season?

The Valley of Eshcol

Thought I'd pass this along from Mark Batterson.

In my daily Bible I came across this passage in Numbers 32: "They went as far as the valley of Eshcol." I think that is where many of our dreams die. It is the place where we lose heart or lose sight or lose focus. That is as far as the spies got. The promise was about to be fulfilled. It was at their fingertips, but instead they let it slip through their hands.

The valley of Eshcol is the place where we stop trying or stop believing. It is the place where we turn back. But here is what God put in my heart: turning your back on a God-given dream is turning your back on God himself. Obviously, the operative phrase is "God-given." You need to keep going after that dream. Why? Not so you can accomplishment something. Please! You need to go after that God-sized dream because it is the thing that will keep you on your knees living in raw dependence upon God. That is how we grow. And that is how we glorify God.

For those in the valley of Eshcol, here's one verse and one story.

Psalm 37 says, "Wait passionately for God." Most of us wait passively. The Psalmist says wait passionately. How do we wait passionately? One word: prayer.

I just got an email from Randall Brown, founder of Fusion Warehouse in Anderson, SC. I've never met him, but his story inspired me. He read the story in In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day about how we prayed for eight years for Ebenezers Coffeehouse and God miraculously gave us that piece of property. His story is so similar. Randall started doing prayer walks around an empty 70,000 sf Wal-Mart building. He prayed around it every day for three-and-a-half years until one day the Lord said today is the day to call them. They had 47 cents in their bank account. Today that building is home to an incredibly creative student center that is impacting its community!

I hope that encourages those who are in the valley of Eshcol. You may only have 47 cents in your account. You may have been praying for something for three-and-a-half years.

Don't lose heart. Don't lose sight. Don't lose focus.

9 Ways to Keep Morale and Momentum Up During Tough Times

9 Ways to Keep Morale and Momentum up During Tough Times
Check out this article from Mark Driscoll

The Parable of the Sea

Check out this simple parable video clip called "The Parable of the Sea" about the mission of the church. Click here. This video clip illustrates the sad story of how the church (that's us) can forget about our mission. Jesus came for mission. The resurrection was about mission.

It's only 3 weeks away from Easter. Are you on mission?

entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders

Some more leadership stuff to consider from Shawn Lovejoy.
The differences between, entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the differences between an entrepreneur, a manager, and a leader. Here are a few of my thoughts. Obviously, they don't fall into neat little categories. I actually see myself wearing all three hats. However, I do think there are general characteristics of each one.

An Entrepreneur is tends to be a great starter, thinker, strategizer, and is financially savvy; He/she considers organizational success as their primary metric.

A Manager tends to be more task oriented and enjoys problem solving. He/she tends to consider tranquility and the lack of problems, noise, conflict, and fires that need to be put out, as success.

A Leader is more people oriented; Tends to put others before themselves; Tends to be able to deal with lots of personalities; encourages and resolves conflict well; and in the long run, considers others' successes his/her biggest success.

Any idea which one I want to be?

What about you?

Gaining Credibility

An article I read from Brad Lomenick (a Catalyst leader) about gaining credibility. I thought it was useful for us. Please soak this in. It's so important for us, leaders, to understand.

A young friend of mine in his early twenties asked me the other day how I had gained credibility and a platform over the last 10-15 years. The first thing that is important to know about my answers and my perspective: this is a work still in progress. I have not arrived.

But after giving him some thoughts on this, I thought it might be helpful to the community here on the blog. So here you go- my thoughts on gaining credibility:

1. Be Self Aware- first, you have to have an accurate understanding of who you are and where you are in life. A very clear and realistic picture of your self identity and current reality. If you are 24, you have to understand that life experiences and job experience probably aren’t something you can hang your hat on.

2. Listen, Listen, Listen. Ask great questions of those around you, and then LISTEN to the answer. Don’t talk until you have something to say. But learn to ask great questions and learn from them. This is especially true in a team environment.

3. Experience creates expertise- this is obvious, but sometimes we forget. Credibility comes with action- doing, not just thinking or talking. Jump in and get involved.

4. A platform takes time- it’s just a reality. Most of us aren’t patient enough to spend adequate TIME at DOING something until we gain a platform or credibility. We usually lose interest, get bored, or just simply move on to something else. The key- stick with it.

5. Connect with leading organizations, networks and individuals- connect with companies, teams or individuals who are highly respected, and you’ll gain respect. But the key on this- connect with them and ask how you can HELP them, not how you can gain from them.

Out of Nowhere

Jenny, my wife, has been following the life of Moses as a member of a local BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). We've had some great conversations about Moses and have come to love him. We seem to be able to identify with him on so many levels.

I wanted you to read something a guy named Mark Batterson wrote that really summarizes something significant...not only about Moses, but also about God.

Out of Nowhere.

That is the thought that dropped into my mind yesterday as I was reading the story about the Israelites complaining in the wilderness. Which one right? In this instance, they are complaining about not having meat to eat.

Moses is at the end of himself. He says, "I've seen enough. I've heard enough." He had no answers, no reserves, no plan.

Ever been there?

God says He is going to give them meat, but this is one of those miracles that Moses cannot even imagine. He says, "So where's it coming from? Even if all the flocks and herds were butchered, would that be enough? Even if all the fish in the sea were caught, would that be enough?"

Moses has no idea how this is going to happen.

Ever been there?

But here is what I love about Moses. Even when he was at the end of himself. Even when he couldn't imagine how this could happen. It says, "So Moses went out and told the people what God had said." That took guts! Even when he had a hard time believing it himself, he went out on a faith limb.

So what did God do?

This is one of my favorite answers to prayer because it is so random. God answers out of nowhere.

"A wind set in motion by God swept quails in from the sea. They piled to a depth of three feet in the camp and as far out as a day's walk in every direction."

Out of nowhere!

We Have A Purpose

Chew on this for a day.

“We have a purpose…and it’s not to be a country club with a steeple on top that gives our community the middle finger and tells them to go to hell because reaching them would make us uncomfortable!”

If we, as leaders, really are going to pursue this purpose, then it's going to make our churched people uncomfortable. They are going to push back. They're going to blame, bite and possibly withdraw from the mission.

The fear of letting people down, especially in spiritual matters, can often cause us to feel obligated or pressured into meeting unrealistic expectations, or worse, spending more time doing things for God instead of being what God wants us to be.

Bill Hybels says: "There are a lot of Christ-followers who haven’t taken the time to figure out what their holy discontent is, and so they’re doing a gradual slide into apathy and complacency—and that is unconscionable in a broken and lost world.”

There are no perfect churches to serve in, no perfect pastors to work for, and no perfect environments. I am committed to (and have covenanted with) the people of Radiant Life Fellowship. It's a commitment that I will forever be grateful I made, invested in, gave my life for...and kept.

Cutting Edge Innovation

I recently read/scanned parts of a book by R.T. Kendall titled The Anointing. I memorized something he said because it's so true: "The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday."

One of my greatest fears is that I would lose my innovative edge. I never want to become a closed-system. That's why I read like crazy. That's why I go to conferences. That's why I do reconnaissance at other churches. That's why I am in a coaching relationship with a group of church planters called The Cypress Project. It boils down to this: you never arrive. And if you think you have, it's the beginning of the end. One of my fall back verses is I Corinthians 8:2: "He who thinks he knows does not yet know as he ought to know." Translation? The more you know, the more you know how much you don't know!

Did some research this week on what is commonly referred to as the experience pit. On one level, experience is important. We need a deep knowledge of our domain. But if we aren't careful, old methods can blind us to new possibilities. It is the tendency to think the way we've always thought and do it the way we've always done it. Another way of saying it is this: at some point, most of us stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.
"Our current reality can hinder our future reality" This was a quote from someone in our Cypress Project group. Part of our role, as leaders, is to define reality.

I have a core conviction: there are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet. We also have a core value: everything is an experiment. But in order to maintain a culture of innovation, you have to believe that there might be a better way. We need a culture where it is safe to occasionally put everything on the table. We don't want any sacred cows. If a service isn't working, we'll kill it. If we need to shift sermon strategy, so be it. If we need to radically change our small group structure, we'll do it.

I really think it comes down to this: stay humble and stay on your knees. Thank God for experience! It fuels wisdom. But let's not let it blind us to new possibilities!

I love the church. I bleed the church. And I believe our best days are in front of us. But old wineskins won't cut it. I'm praying that God would continue to raise up a generation of right-brain leaders who dare to be different.

Taught or Caught?

I was reading something from Mark Batterson, recently, where he reminded me that more stuff gets caught than taught. There are some things that cannot be taught. They can only be caught. I wanted to share an example of this in my family.

My oldest son, Cole (11), wrote me a note and left it on the kitchen table Monday night. I was at a meeting, for church when he went to bed. He wanted me to know he needed to talk. So he wrote me a note, describing a little of the situation, and asking if we can talk about it.

The meeting I was at, while he was getting in bed, had some pretty brutal parts to it and I left feeling like I had throw-up on my clothes. So when I got home and noticed Cole's note, I was moved to tears. It touched deep in my heart. Not just that he left a note for me and wanted to talk...but it was the content of his need to talk.

You see, there's a person in a couple of his classes that gets picked on daily. The kids call him "gay". They laugh at him. They exclude him from friendships. They've thrown food at him during lunch.

Cole said this guy does act weird sometimes and does tend to get on everyone's nerves.
And Cole was bothered by they way this guy was being treated.
Cole wanted to know how he could communicate to this guy that he was willing to be his friend. Cole worried a little about how others might treat him, if he chose to be this guys friend.

We talked through some possible strategies of how to communicate that Cole would be this guy's friend without it being too awkward. Cole actually came up with a great plan.

I'm so proud of how God is shaping his little (I mean BIG) heart.
AND that kind of prompting, that happened in His heart, came more from what he's caught in his mom, dad, Life Group leaders and the mentors found in the Bible than from what he's been taught.

I wonder what people (young and old) are catching from your life?

Failure & Growth

Here's a post from a pastor @ Life Church TV

Here are some things to remember when something you attempt fails.

• Failure is an event, not a person.
• Failure isn’t final.
• Failure is often the first step toward success.
• A ministry that has stopped failing has stopped growing.
• Failure is not an option, it is a necessity.
• If you fail and don’t learn from it, you’ve failed twice. Don’t waste a failure.
• The antidote to the fear of failure isn’t success, but small doses of failure. (Credit to Mark Batterson for a similar quote.)

Can you share a failure that shaped your ministry? What did you learn from it?

Leviticus (part 1)

This Sunday, we start a new sermon series...and I'm so excited. It's our first attempt to take on a book of the Bible: chapter by chapter. And not just any book. We're diving into Leviticus.

I challenge all our Radiant Life peeps to do the following as we engage the text together:
1) Read Leviticus 1 before this Sunday.

2) Pick out a fresh notebook (or buy a Life journal) and practice the S.O.A.P. plan. See my Life Journal online for an example. Also check out these helpful hints for starting a Life Journal. Click here to access Leviticus online.

3) Use your Life Group to discuss chapter 1 of Leviticus this week. Raise questions together.

4) Pray and ask God to speak to you and us through this difficult book of the Bible.

5) Invite a friend to come check out Radiant Life.

Don't forget about our Saturday gathering @ the Eakers' house 6:30pm for dinner and connection. Directions are posted on the website.

See you Sunday. Here's a link to the sermon series.
Chris

Shema Yisrael (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

I am memorizing this piece of scripture for one of my exams. It humbles me greatly to realize that while I am struggling to remember five meager verses it is not uncommon for most orthodox Jews to memorize the first five books of the Old Testament as children.

In Jewish culture this passage is of particular importance because it not only speaks of God as being one, but also points very practically at how His followers are supposed to revere Him. It talks about God's word as being something we talk about when we sit down, walk around, get ready for bed and rise to face the day. We're supposed to dwell on God's word ALL THE TIME!

I am humbled at these words, and I pray that God will help me live into the fulness of this commandment. God is good.

Spring...love it!

So on Monday, we had just over 4" of snow and school was canceled. Tuesday and Wednesday we hit record overnight lows in temperature. And today, Friday, were out on the back deck reading, enjoying the Spring-like air with temperatures right @ 70 degrees.

I love Spring. It's my favorite season. I get a new burst of energy that propels me to tackle tasks I've neglected throughout the winter like: exercise, cleaning out the garage, landscaping, painting, repairing and getting connected with more of our neighbors.
How about you? What does Spring do for you?

Blessed to be a Blessing

Recently, the people of Radiant Life Fellowship sent $25,215.88 to causes, outside of us, that we feel strongly about. This is what we do and who we are. We are part of an enormous movement hell-bent on the healing and restoration of the world. We do not exist to prop ourselves up or for our own comfort. We sacrifice and give, with great joy, so that those outside of ourselves can be blessed.

All our church members got a chance to choose (out of 5 options) how they wanted to spend their portion of the money we were giving away. It was a project we called "Blessed to be a Blessing". I thought I'd update you on where the money ended up going.

Haiti – This $ would go to purchase seeds and food to supply the Grainery of Joseph
TOTAL INVESTED: $4077.84 (Plus we are taking a dental convoy to Bayonnais, Haiti in April.)


Peter & Comfort Bawah – This $ would help support a pastor’s family serving in Ghana, Africa. Comfort is a nurse, serving alongside her husband, Peter. They have 3 teenage children.
TOTAL WIRED: $6266.52

Compassion International – This $ would go to sponsor a child (or more) for 2009. It costs about $32 a month to sponsor a child.
TOTAL INVESTED: $6766.42 (several families have already chosen their children they are sponsoring, and communicating with, over the next 4 years)

Urban Restoration (in Charlotte) – This $ would go to purchase food to fill the grocery bags and any supplies that could be used for us to teach courses @ Urban that would enable people to get back on their feet.
TOTAL INVESTED IN GROCERIES: $5054.58 (and we get to go on Tuesday's and pack grocery bags and actually hand them to the people who most need it...what a joy!)

Living Water International – This $ would go to provide fresh, clean, drinking water to places around the world where there is currently not any. Check it out.
TOTAL INVESTED: $3050.62 (This is money that will help build lots of wells around the world so fresh drinking water can be accessible to those who need it the most)

Your Definition of God Blessing A Church

Favorite line from Andy that I heard about from someone who attended a recent Catalyst One Day:

"God can't 'just be blessin' churches that have momentum, or else that means God must not be blessing that church, or that church, or that church, or that church..."

I'm convinced there are sociological factors that affect whether a church grows or not. I recently met a church planter who struggled for years in a community, until finally moving back to his hometown, where he launched a church with 600 people - he had to go to two services immediately.

Struggling churches are sometimes led by devoted men of God who are relevant and pray and work hard and lead well. And if success can be explained away by "God's just blessin'," then what for them?

That's my question: What for them? What's your definition of God blessin a church?

Am I willing to fail? Are you?

I have discovered that dreaming and praying are much the same. When I spend time praying, I find myself dreaming a lot. If I'm dreaming, it causes me to pray more. Kind of a unique marriage of the two. Dreaming and Praying.
Radiant Life Fellowship was birthed out of dreaming and praying. When you put those two together (dreaming and praying) you find yourself faced with a difficult decision. What do I now do with the dream? Does it stay a dream or do I risk everything to see it realized? There's a lot of risk involved. In fact, great leaders are willing to risk failure in order to see their dream realized.
What are your dreams and prayers these days?
Check out this video from a guy named Craig Groeschel.


So as a leader are you absolutely, completely, willing to fail? Are you willing to fail forward aggressively and together? Let's don't be afraid to fail. The fear of failure will limit our future. I want to help us create a culture (at Radiant Life Fellowship) where there is freedom to try...fail...learn...adjust. What about you?

"The antidote for the fear of failure is not success. But actually it's small doses of failure. You have to be willing to fail and realize that it's not the end and be ready for God to teach you something." -- Mark Batterson.

Snow Cream

What a memory. When I was a lot younger, we lived in Colorado Springs, CO. I remember when it snowed, where we lived (in the Black Forest area about 9000 ft above sea level), the sky would dump 2-4 feet at a time. Snow drifts would cover one side of our whole house. We hardly ever saw our picnic table during the winter.

One of my memories was of making snow cream. I believe the memory was tided to the taste as well as the fun family times I had growing up with 2 younger brothers (Andy and Mark). We had a blast out in the snow: snow fights, building snow forts, and believe it or not we would climb on top of our barn (using a ladder) with our sleds and sled off the side of the barn into huge, cushioned, snow drifts. Good times.

Now, my kids and I love to play in the snow. I think Sara changed her clothes 3-4 times in the first 30 minutes of being outside. She said that her pants kept getting wet and that made her cold. Noah loved sucking ice off of the trees around our house. Jake constantly threw snow balls at everyone. But cried when someone would throw one back at him. Cole tried to strategize how to create a pimped-out sled out of lids, shovels, etc. I took pictures. Made a gigantic snowman we later named Goliath (because as the day went on it kept leaning more and more until it finally tumbled to the ground with a thump that I think the neighbors could hear). Jenny, like Mary, treasured all these things in her heart.

God, I am thankful for my family.

SNOW CREAM RECIPE
1 can of condensed milk (yum yum)
1 table spoon of vanilla extract (we used imitation)
1/2 cup of sugar (optional)
lots of fresh snow
stir and dig in

bonus Jake Quote: "Noah, take a big bite of the yellow snow...it's delicious."

No Worship Gathering Tonight for Radiant Life

Will it snow? Will it just rain and be cold? Will it sleet? When will it all start? How much will we get?

I've been watching the weather with anticipation. My kids are thrilled about the potential for snow. Jenny and Sara have been in Atlanta with both my brother's families.

For now, our weekly worship gatherings are held on Sunday nights because we share a space with another church River's Edge in Davidson. They were there first and have established a nice little nook. They've been gracious to share the space with us as we get our feet on the ground. So we gather on Sunday nights.

After observing the weather forecast conditions predicting to deteriorate over the next few hours, we decided to cancel our worship gathering tonight. Give people a chance to spend more time with their families. By the time we would finish our worship gathering tonight, it would be dark and conditions would be worse.

I'm sure there would be some who would relish the challenge of firing up the 4x4, loading up the family and blazing a trail through the snow and ice to church. Not sure we actually have people like that in our church yet. Anyway, I'm proud to be a worshiper among the people of Radiant Life Fellowship whether we get to gather or not. Check out some details about our new sermon series coming up here.