Tag Archive - help

Pastor, Who RUINS You?

May 26, 2011 in Leadership, Life Change with Comments Off

I’ve noticed something…there are two types of Pastors:

1. Those who know that all they really know is that they don’t know nothing. These guys are always wanting to learn. ALWAYS. From anyone. ANYONE.

2. Those who think they know it all. These guys call me whining about how their church doesn’t have enough money. They make fun of other churches and pastors rather than giving honor. They belittle people in their own church. It is sick. And if this is offending you, its probably because…well…you get the point.

Guess which pastors are rocking it out? Guess who’s churches are growing and reaching God’s lost children?

Its a pattern that is killing churches all over: Pastor Pride.

I’m just calling it like it is.

You’ve heard me talk about the various coaches I have here, here, here and here.

If you are a pastor, who RUINS you? This is SO important!

I am not talking about the conference you went to and came back from with a few ideas…that doesn’t count.

Who is challenging you in your thinking, your personal life, your strategy for growth and your relationship with Christ on a regular basis in a more intimate setting?

If the answer is nobody (or maybe even if you answer is “well there’s this one guy I call sometimes) then just pack your bags up and go home.

You NEED a coach.

I had two powerful reminders of this in the last week…one where I was the coachee and one where I was the coach:

Last week I went to Bay Area Fellowship and heard Obed Martinez coach pastors through his Passionate Pastors coaching network on volunteers and on connecting people.God used this guy to literally RUIN me. He took every thing I ever thought to be true about these areas of the church and flipped it all upside down for me. Stuff I NEVER would have been able to fathom.

Then, yesterday, I was the coach. I helped another pastor with his offerings a couple of months ago and I got the text below from him yesterday. You’ve heard me talk about Giving Rocket.com and The Change Group many times. I believe in what they do when it comes to coaching churches on finances. All I did with this pastor was share with him what my coach, Casey Graham shared with me:

God, help me remain focused on YOU and YOUR VISION for our church…and please, continue to assassinate my pride.

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Tents for Haitian Families

February 12, 2010 in GOD, Life Change, Revolution Church with Comments Off

Revolution Church has partnered with aHomeinHaiti.org to provide Haitian families with quality, waterproof tents before the rainy season begins in about 15 days. We don’t have much time.

Right now, many families in Haiti are literally living under cloth sheets and sticks. I’ve heard from friends that are actually on the ground in Haiti that they heard mothers and babies crying in the streets all night long because of the rain this past week.

Why tents? Look at these stories:

These families are already beat down…obviously. Let’s do what we can to at least keep them dry. Buying a tent and providing shelter for a family there only means skipping a meal out or a night at the movies for us and makes a HUGE impact.

Click here to get full details on the Revolution Church website or click here to visit aHomeinHaiti.org.

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Trappstr 28 – Part 4

November 23, 2009 in Blogging, Family, GOD, Revolution Church with Comments Off

My new blog buddy Brett Trapp wrote this post on 28 things he’s learned in his 20’s. I loved it so much that I thought I’d take each of those things and elaborate on them over the next several days (since I’m about 3 months older and wiser than him.)

8. Speaking of marriage…it seems to me (from the outside looking in) that without lots of forgiveness and the putting of the other person first, your marriage is doomed. -Trappstr

Its funny how this one simple observation could save so many marriages. Passion in marriage is likely to fizzle unless you actively, intentionally nurture it. One of the easiest ways to continue to nurture passion is to simply put the other person first. Easier said than done of course. This is where lots of forgiveness comes in.

I always think of the story of Jacob and Rachel in the Bible when I think of marriage. Jacob was crazy about Rachel and asked Laban (Rachel’s father) for her hand in marriage. Laban said, “sure…for seven years of labor.” This is where many men would have given up, but Jacob didn’t blink.

Over the course of those seven years, Laban schemed up a plan. His older, less attractive daughter, Leah, was not getting any better looking. On the big day, Jacob comes to claim Rachel and Laban pulls the switch on Jacob by giving away Leah instead of Rachel.

Jacob was hacked. Laban offered Jacob a new deal – Rachel in exchange for seven more years of work! And Jacob went for it. This time though, he made sure that he would get Rachel at the beginning of the seven years.

I don’t know about you but after being tricked by Laban and finally getting Rachel, I would have snuck out that night with my new wife. But in Genesis 29:30 it says that Jacob worked another seven years.

In other words, Jacob continued to work his tail off for Rachel, even after he had her.

WOW! That is what we must all do in marriage. We must continue to work hard at pursuing our spouse, even though they are already ours.

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Burnout Week: Divert

May 5, 2009 in Family, GOD, Leadership with 1 Comment

I recently finished Anne Jackson’s book “Mad Church Disease” and it has me thinking about burnout.

I have always used an idea that I heard Rick Warren say a long time ago:

Divert Daily

Withdraw Weekly

Abandon Annually

Pretty simple. But what does each of those look like? I’m going to take some time this week to break down those three things.

So first how do you Divert Daily?

I divert daily three ways:

First I pray. A lot. The Bible tells us several times that Jesus woke up early and prayed. If Jesus, the Son of God needed it how much worse do we need it?

Second, I play. I recently heard Rick Warren say that if you work with your mind all day, then you need to divert with your hands (physically.) Likewise, if you work with your hands all day, you need to divert with your mind (i.e. reading, board game, etc.) I typically use my mind all day so I like to divert by running, shooting my gun, working in the yard, or wrestling with Couper.

And last, I pass over.

Imagine a remote that controls your ministry day to day. It has a ministry mute button. I had to train myself to do this and I still fail miserably at it sometimes. But when I go home I hit the ministry mute button. Just like on a stereo when you push mute the music is actually still there. You are just choosing to ignore it for a while. Ministry can never be turned off. Its is ALWAYS there.

If you and your family are going to stay in ministry for the long haul you absolutely must learn to mute it for a little while every day.

My mute button is a small bridge that I cross coming home each day. As I pass over that bridge, I purposefully, intentionally let everything from the day of ministry go. I just take a deep breath and get it all out. That way, when I get home, I can be in family mode and focus. On days that I fail to do this, I come home and I am a bear that causes all kinds of conflict and carnage.

For me diverting daily is the single most important element to throwing water on the burnout fire and eliminating stress.

How do you divert daily?

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