Seeing the good in everyone is something I’m trying to improve in my life. I think I was raised this way, but as time went on, and I saw and experienced the realism, politics, and harshness of the church and life, “seeing the good” in people became something of a dream rather than a reality.
But the last few weeks have gone a long way to improving my state of being in this area. First, I started to really believe and live out the idea that “love spreads”, then this weekend I drove to Northway Church in Albany, while spending time with some really great friends that attend Terra Nova in Troy, NY. Talking about the diversity of these two church really made me see the value in their differences.
Today is sermon creativity day for muah. On Mondays I try to create sermons for the next several months – beginning some and adding to some I’ve already begun. I also listen for a few hours to Pastors I enjoy. But today I decided to listen to a pastor I enjoy, and also to a pastor with a different style than I normally “dig”.
Wow! I feel so juiced by what God is showing me. Though I don’t always agree with what everyone that I listen to says or writes, I can appreciate the spirit that they write in, and follow the truth God has for me as I read and listen. And just to let you know, when I say I listened to pastors of differing viewpoints, I don’t mean that those differences have to do with Jesus. They both proclaim Him and the His beautiful gospel!
Here is where you connect with yours truly on all my social networking sites. I’d love to hang out, subscribe, tokbox, video chat, email, or have you stalk me. Okay, probably not the latter, but everything else!
How does a phenomena that reaches the many reach one heart?
A song that becomes popular resonates with me so strongly that I can feel the pain or joy of that song?
A movie that thousands, hundreds of thousands and in some cases, millions of people will see brings me to tears and laughter like it was about me?
A book or series of books that hang onto the bestsellers lists makes me want an 7th sequel when it stops at the 7th book.
It’s simple really. The reason a phenomena reaches out and affected me after it’s touched the many is because it has affected me. And I am more alike with someone who lives in Orange County, or the boroughs of Louisiana, or downtown Tokyo than sometimes we’d care to admit. There’s not a lot, but there are some things that speak to us universally. Why?
One of the hardest things about being a leader (that I’ve found anyway) is the balance between contentment and the desire to get to the next level in that which you are leading. As a pastor, my heart’s desire is to connect and lead people to Jesus. Fellowship Church is a catalyst for doing that, and I love being able to serve God this way.
I love being a part of a group of people who have the same heart and purpose too. I would certainly call myself content. There literally is no other place I’d rather be in the world (outside of Aruba this week when it has rained for more than a week straight).
Then there is the other side of me. The side that wants to go to the next level – spiritually, numerically, and even physically (says my bones after a big workout at the gym).
Currently as a church, we’ve grown to the place that I’ve seen us grow 2 other times since I’ve been here (though I led as an assistant during those times), and are now looking toward the future of growth. Both of the other times, at the peak of that growth, we’ve lost the point leadership, causing us to take a step back in one case and light years back in the other.
I know God has protected this place through all that for a reason – for His glory and for His praise. And now that we’re back where we were, facing the same hurdles we faced before, we’re praying…
I had a dream last night that I was flying in a plane, when all of the sudden, I heard an incredible crash, whether it was the engine of something hitting the plane, I’m not sure. Everyone starting screaming and running around as the plane began to tilt downward and felt like a roller coaster after the first hill. I had a pair of sunglasses on my head, so I had placed them over my eyes, put my head back and rested as the plane went down.
It started when we were kids. We were scared of the closet because we knew that one of the big ones were in there, or worse yet, under the bed. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. For as we grew older, and we wanted to continue to get more attention for our cause or our mission or our “side”, we continued to create an enemy, a vague definition of who we were against.
The media used this brilliantly against former presidents, and so do politicians, and religious organizations, and pastors. I read about it in blogs and web articles, and it goes something like this:
“A lot of liberal churches say…”
“Some conservative people think…”
“People on the hill are insinuating…”
Ummm, which people? And why should I care? Which liberal churches say what? What exactly are conservative people thinking? And I’m not sure I care what people on any hill are implying. I guess I’m a bit tired of people having to make up an enemy in order to explain why we shouldn’t agree with this supposed enemy. A new friend of mine, Josh, was a breath of fresh air this week when he wrote exactly what bugged him, and then went on to emphasize what he is for! I love it!
I guess I should emphasize at this point what I’m for now since I’ve clearly mentioned what bugs me:
I’ve known Shari for about 1o years now, since she was in college and I was a bit out. Shari and her husband and kids live in the Springfield area. So my point: a few weeks back Shari came out and snapped some photos for Fellowship Church, our services and our team for the website. She is a pro, and I would encourage you to check out her work on her website and use her if you can. Here is the video of some of those pics.
I love the elderly. I’ll leave what age group specifically I’m referring to your imagination, but everyone has a concept of the elderly, so just know that I love them. Because I pastor a young congregation in Massachusetts, where we play rock music and dress how we want, it might be easy to assume I’m pretty one generational. But I think we, the body of Christ, need the experience and life wisdom of an older generation to guide us through the decisions and life strategies that we may or may not be ready for.
The month I moved into the lead pastor position @ Fellowship, I overheard an older lady who had left our church the year before for a more “conservative, older congregation” tell someone, “I think Fellowship Church is a great church for young people.” There are two issues here:
1. It’s incredibly hard to know when to step out of certain roles in a church to give younger people opportunities to serve and lead.
2. Churches need to find ways to utilize an older generation in a mentoring capacity, to make benefit the glorious Kingdom of God.
Whether you’re young or old, God has a place for you in His kingdom and has given you gifts to use for His glory. Those gifts may evolve over time, but they will never run dry. So how do we maintain success for a long time and utilize everyone’s gifts?
Just to let you know, I’ve placed three widgets on my sidebar to the right of my site from Alltop focusing on my 3 favorite subjects: Church, relationships, and leadership. Enjoy.
