Discipleship

God has been hitting me hard the last month about discipleship. I think as a church, on a whole, we have not done a good job at discipling people. It seems more and more people just repeat one year of discipleship how many ever years they have been a Christian. So in Spiritual years they are only one or two years old. How can we help people grow in maturity? That is the question on my mind a lot lately.

Vision

I heard Andy Stanley Speak yesterday on making vision stick. He had 5 points that were good and easy to remember.

1. Make it Simple

2. Cast it Convincingly

3. Repeat it Regularly

4. Celebrate it Systematically

5. Embrace it Personally

There were questions he gave to clarify your vision. This would be a good exercise for us all to do with whatever it is we are doing.

What does you vision boil down to everyday? What should you be always striving towards?

How does our vision address a problem?

What is the problem that our vision addresses?

What must be done in the environment you are in?

What would go undone if you church/organization ceased to exist?

Explain Why Now?

Power

Last night at Immerse was awesome. We had about 100 people in attendance and God really showed up. We had a time where God just wouldn't let us stop. We had people praying over an hour after our official end. It was absolutely amazing. I am still riding a high after seeing God move in such a remarkable way. 

This week I am in Orlando at a church planters conference. I am in a session with Mark Batterson. It is awesome. What a start to my week. God is really moving.

Kansas

Wow what a game last night. I am a little tired this morning after that game but wow, that has to be the best championship game that I can remember. Kansas showed great heart after being down 9 points with 2:12 to go, hitting a three at the buzzer to push the game to overtime, and then pulling away in overtime. The nice thing is I picked Kansas at the beginning of the tourney to win it all!

We as young adults played ultimate frisbee on Sunday. It seems we will keep doing stuff like this just to hang out and connect. Low Commitment Events are great ways to connect people to the church. People are looking for community and we want to give that to them. Our next Immerse Worship event is April 20th. Look for ways to connect people to Jesus and other people. As ideas come let me know.

Meeting Day

Yesterday was meeting day. It was long and tiring but I felt like I accomplished something. Spent some time talking about personal vision, planned weekend worship service, strategized community groups, and planned our next immerse event.

I am learning that accomplishing your vision comes with a price. It is something that in its ideal is beautiful but getting there is messy. This is true of life vision, family vision, work vision, and ministry vision. I am a guy who dreams big dreams and I hate it when I get mickey mouse instead of big dreams. But God has called us to pursue the dreams he has given us. I am going to pursue those dreams that he has given me.

Random Thought: I read a blog by Craig Groeschel entitled: Reverend Steve Jobs
You should read it. It is funny. What would it be like if we all worshipped to our iPods rather than a band?

About People

I am reading Howard Behar's book about his experience at Starbucks and it is called: "It's not about the coffee." His basic premise is that it is about people. It is about the customer, it's about the employee, and it is about everyone we interact with. This struck me because this is what the church is supposed to be about. I can learn from anybody about how the church should work. I don't know if Behar is a follower of Jesus or not or if he has ever been in a church. But as I think about my job of being a pastor I need to remember his basic premise of its about the people. 

Starbucks is all about just making the next sell. In the church we should be about the next prisoner of sin finding freedom in Christ. How much more should we be about people? It is funny how much we can learn from "secular" enterprises. I love it. Take care of the people around you.