It seems to me that pastors focus more on reading articles and books on the topic of leadership than they do books that might help them to be better teachers.  Remember, people will follow leaders, but leaders can be different from teachers.  Teaching is important in God’s Kingdom.  Hence, focus on making disciples.  I follow many pastors on Twitter and it is obvious, according to the tweets I see, that many are spending more time reading leadership books than they are theological books.

Let me reign in this argument a little.  Understanding our roles as leaders in The Church is significant.  Yet, this being a subject that dominates our ministries is questionable; at least to me.  Someone like John Wesley, who was a great leader, believed that one of the most important books that he read, a part from the Bible, was Imitation of Christ.  This is a powerful book that seems to deal with transformation instead of demonstrating leadership over others.

In today’s Church, is it possible that pastors are focusing more on delegating the responsibility to care for those in the flock to others in the name of leadership?  This might be a good place to turn around, if you are a pastor, and look at the most read books in your office.  Are the books on leadership worn out more than the Bible?  How about those books that teach about pastoral care?  Theology?

In Mark 6:30-44, Jesus and His disciples “taught” the crowd before the miracle of feeding them.  Significant.  Also, the Disciples were told by Jesus, “You give them something to eat.”  Jesus delegated, with the purpose of “teaching,” to the Disciples to feed the crowd themselves.  The miracle and teaching were meant to teach; not demonstrate leadership.  Nevertheless, there is Scripture that teaches about leadership too.  Yet, it is in balance with other areas of ministry too.

Leadership sometimes gives ministers the hope that great leadership will attract more people to church and motivate them to do the work of The Church.  It can.  Yet, one the aspects that keeps people grounded is speaking the words of life.  When people deserted Jesus, He asked His Disciples if they wanted to leave too, but Peter asked, “To whom will we go, You have the words of life. (paraphrase John 6:68).  They stuck because leaders come and go, but the Truth never changes.  Obviously, Jesus taught the Truth and that was enough.

Some leadership risks are building a church after your image instead of God’s, people looking to you instead of seeking Christ.  I don’t want a church that thinks like Scott Uselman, I want a church that has the mind of Christ.  I don’t want people following Scott Uselman, yes I think I mean that, I want them to follow Jesus Christ.

Leaders tend to fix things, but some things are not meant to be fixed by anyone other than Christ.  Some things are designed teach Christians by the power and influece of the Holy Spirit; not by me becoming a person of influence.

Okay, I am not dumping leadership.  What I hope you have heard is that leadership should not be your only focus in ministry.  Yet, status updates and tweets seem to demonstrate that leadership is somewhat of a subject to show off as a pastor.  If I am out of line, be assured that it is not my intention.  In fact, examining ourselves and our motives might be good spiritual discipline even for a pastor who already knows everything.

I long to see a renewed effort on teaching right doctrine, biblical theology, and focus on transformation instead of trying to develop leaders.  Holy Spirit, would you develop your people for your glory?  Amen.

As a pastor, it is often a struggle to find significance God’s Kingdom while trying to attract, yes attract, people to come to church.  The problem is that not many can measure up to these more famous, and gifted, pastors who have resources that are unavailable to most ministers.  This can leave a minister chasing his or her tail sifting through many different thought processes.  Some are, but not limited to, “Am I supposed to be in ministry?”  “Am I in the right place?”  “Does God want me to struggle?”  “Why is this not working?”  I think you get the picture.

Yet, a pastor has to feel that he or she is making a difference.  The minister needs to feel that God is still  with him or her even though there may not be numerical growth.  Or, small growth; even a decline.  Many of the ‘regular’ pastors wrestle with how know if they have been successful on a daily basis.  Yet, because of today’s media services, these people are constantly reminded that they are not measuring up to the ‘others’ who are nationally known as leaders.

The short answer that I am considering right now is that we are not supposed to feel like we have become successful.  This is not a motivational statement that someone who is struggling is trying to hang on to.  Instead, it seems that if one looks in Scripture for enlightenment, then it could be argued that there were prophets, priests, and Apostles.  There were also kings, but I want to put that aside for now.

If you are prophet, then how often were these people disappointed with the results of their efforts on speaking in behalf of God?  These people were lonely, and often abused, along with being made fun of.  Yet, God continued to ask them to continue to proclaim even though many were not listening to them.  These measured success in their hopes for the future redemption brought by God.  And they would never see it.

If you are a priest, then how did he measure success while working in the Temple?  This person was simply asked to oversee offerings and make sacrifices to God.  These men would give spiritual guidance to people who gave sacrifices more easily than obedience.  These too were ignored for the most part.  Plus, there were times that the people did not even bring in their sacrifices and offerings.  Yet, their job was to remain faithful in their service to God.  These measured success by getting to continue to do what they were created for, worshipping God.

If you are an Apostle, these people were persecuted.  Every local church they built up did not last.  When they finally had a crowd, it was blown up by someone or something.  These people did not just get fired, but they were beaten and killed.  Yet, God continued to move them forward to where they were unwanted by most.  They measured success in being worthy to suffer for the cause of the Gospel.

By measuring success with these thoughts in mind, then we must consider whether most of the American Church has got it wrong.  Or, is this just a ‘regular’ pastor who is trying to find comfort?  What is it to be a successful pastor?  Numbers?  Salvations?  Baptisms?

If you consider that Jesus said only a few will make it to Heaven because many followed the wide road, then unless those numbers, salvations, and baptisms, really resulted in transformation, then the way we measure success is ultimately wrong.  If ministers are being held accountable for what they cannot control, numbers, salvations, and baptisms, then who really is the Lord of the Harvest?

What I notice in my statistics is that my blog is found most of the time because I am a Wesleyan pastor.  There seems to be a lot of people, I don’t know where, that are interested in finding out what The Wesleyan Church is.  They are interested in learning what The Wesleyan Church believes.  They want to know what the difference between Wesleyans and Baptists are.

Well there are a few differences, but Wesleyans and Baptists serve the same God and share the same fundamental doctrine that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.  Salvation is only found in Him alone.  The other differences are those that people can debate, can debate, can debate, can debate, got old didn’t? until the cows come home.

I think  the trouble that we Wesleyans are having in the 21st Century is that we do not know who we are either.  Simply put, if we did, then those who find my blog because of a search engine would not have to ask the search engine who the Wesleyans are.  We Wesleyans would be noted as those who seek to live Holy lives and are proactive in the face of immorality and injustice.

One question I ponder is why we Wesleyans struggle to be seen as instruments in the hands of Christ?  The first Wesleyan-Methodists, in my opinion, would have been considered a missional movement by our 21st Century standards.  Missional is one of the fads, that I strive to take part in because I follow Christ, that people are writing about in the Christian book culture.  One book title is called The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch.  Sometimes I wonder how Christians forgot to be missional since the Bible teaches it. Is there a chance that many Wesleyan churches have forgotten this too?

I think The Wesleyan Church may need to remember who we really are.  We are supposed to be a movement.  The by-product of our doctrine of Sanctification, our love for Christ and others, is that we seek to become imitators of Jesus Christ especially in regard to the lost, poor, and least of these.  We go to them with the Gospel and seek to meet their needs when possible.  We cannot ignore this biblical doctrine.  I question sometimes if this is something that many pastors want to sweep under the rug.

What may seem to be trouble for us might be our opportunity to spread the Scriptural Holiness message that is missional.  This is good news for the world.  The good news is that people are asking questions about The Wesleyan Church.  We get to answer these questions by living our lives for Jesus; and use words when necessary.

If you are a part of The Wesleyan Church, then you need to make sure, along with me, to live a life that is “worthy of God” (1 Thess. 2:12).  Then people will know what we believe and in whom we believe.  Of course, if we do this, then my blog may be officially dead. God bless.

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Teens and adults need to spend some time meditating on these Scriptures, taken from Matthew 6:25-34, and consider what real importance is in this life.  These statements and rhetorical questions were spoken by Jesus while He delivered The Sermon on the Mount to the Jews.

Interestingly, the Jews who taught about God and served God, were stuck in a philosophy of being important in the eyes of others.  A lot like we Western Christians are today.  They focused so much on material things that it is possible they actually were  miserable and did not realize how important to God they were and are.

So to my students that I sub for, I want you to know that you all are very important to me.  What is more, you are extremely important to God.  Jesus said that we are worth more than the birds of the air.  It is a timeless truth.  God is going to give you what you need.

When you use the things, or friends, and popularity, to measure your happiness with who you are we all lose.  Whatever situation that you find yourself in, you need to know that you matter greatly to God.  You will never find your happiness in dating someone.  You will not find your happiness in owning cool things.  Unless you have ’69 Camaro SS.  Just kidding.  You will never find happiness in being like someone else.

You must never define your self-worth considering whether or not you have friends that you think would be good for you.  You must never find your happiness in doing things sexually for someone because you think you are really making them and yourself happy.  It won’t work.

What happens is that you might think you will find happiness in being wanted by others; or think that you are important in the sight of others.  Yet, it won’t work.  We must find our delight and peace in the words that Jesus spoke to the Jews, ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

We must find our joy in the fact, that Jesus gave Himself on the Cross so that not only would we be able to escape hell, but that we could live a truly happy life knowing that we have a God who is in Heaven that smiles on us because we make Him happy and are worth everything to Him.  He hurts when we hurt too.

These are some things that I wish that I could have understood when I was a teenager.  I want you all to know things like this about God because I care about you, but God cares even more.

For others, this will be a time of doubt, dread, frustration, and mourning, because they will not have the fruit to show as a result of their ministries.  For many of these ministers they will be challenged to continue on in ministry.  Some will feel a sense of jealousy and their pride will be wounded deeply.  After all, no matter what denomination that you are in, when you see other churches doing well it is easy to feel discouraged.   

Some examples of discouragement are things that are felt indirectly.  There seems to be an undercurrent that is heard, felt, or imagined that they have not performed their duties well enough.  Yet, maybe they have performed their duties as they should. 

The good news that should encourage ministers, from all denominations and church sizes, is that Dr. Joe Dongell reminded us once that we (ministers) are not the Lord of Harvest.  Our duty is to plant and water the seeds.  When God and the people are ready, He will be the One who harvests them.   

Here is more good news from the book of John.  I’ve been spending some time in this book lately and found something that seemed to be a good reminder to all pastors who are not seeing the results they desire.  So I want to share some Scriptures that might remind us that we are taking too much upon ourselves as ministers of the gospel.  Let’s be for real.  Sometimes ministers fight the battle of taking things personal because the church’s ministry success has been tied to them, either by their choice or others’, instead of to Jesus Christ. 

In John 3:22-30, Jesus has become greater than John the Baptist.  This means that if you John the Baptist that you realize that you really are becoming less in your community.  John knew what his mission was; point people to the One who came after him though He is before him.  Also, Jesus’ disciples are baptizing more people than John.  For ministers, this means that the people of your congregation are leaving to go to another church because it is new or there is more action. 

First striking reaction from Pastor John the Baptist when he is alerted to the growth of Jesus’ ministry was that he has joy over it.  Yes, I said that the John felt joy over it.  Now, this is in contrast to the long introduction that I just gave.  Why?  Verse 29a, “The bride belongs to the bridegroom.”  Kind of what Dongell said.  The Church (the people of Christ) belongs to Christ.  This means that if ministers feel discouraged it is time to check our motives for success.  Is about us or Him?  The people in the congregation are not yours.  They have been Ransomed by Someone else.

Second, verse 29b, “The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.”  Ministers are attendees of the Church.  We are friends that Christ has placed trust in to care for His Church (the Bride).  The mark of a true friend is the demonstration of the joy felt when the Jesus does with His people as He sees fit. 

Finally, in verse 29c John said, “That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”  Then He ends with verse 30, “He must become greater; I must become less.”  To be a true friend, we must become faithful.  Yet, not just faithful out of duty, but because we want to be faithful; a faithful friend to Christ.  This means that we are supposed to be attached to success of Jesus connecting with people instead of attached to the success of us connecting to people and receiving accolades for it. 

Discouragement, frustration, and etc, are felt when we ministers do not understand who is responsible for church growth/fruit.  When we feel this way, we need to consider that John the Baptist was just before prison and in the midst of his decline in ministry, but still felt joy and complete at the success of another. 

You might be a small church pastor who needs to verbally say out loud that your joy is complete because another minister is doing well.  After all, we are just attendees who point the bride to the groom.

One area that I am concerned with is the Christian world’s focus on leadership.  I believe that leadership resources are important, but sometimes, it seems as if they are most important.  It seems that Jesus displayed leadership in the Bible and that is who we are to imitate.  As a matter of fact, He is the Leader of the Church.  Consider this, if you are really Christian who has been called by God to lead a ministry of some type, then you need to unlock the leadership potential in you.  Right?  In other words, unbind Jesus who is in you. 

Pastors, Jesus had trouble getting past 12 committed members.  Jesus’ emphasis was on discipleship instead of producing numbers.  Some pastors need to know that all any of us can do is to present the Gospel.  We are called to plant and water the seed of the truth with those who do not believe.  We are called to be led by the Holy Spirit as we allow Jesus to work through us to lead His people.  When we see sin, call it sin.  When we see something that does not work, or does not bear fruit, then consider that God isn’t using that.  But, to simply refer to 3 or 4 hundred different leadership books seems to be odd when the Bible clearly is capable of giving guidance to each of us.  

My fear is that focusing on leadership too much can lead us into the temptation of unconsciously thinking that the Church is ours.  It is not.  In some ways, leadership has become the Golden Snake of the Church.  I looked for two things when I sought a church.  I looked for Jesus and a pastor who understood Jesus.  I was not looking for a CEO.  After all, I had to deal with that in my secular job already. 

I am always amazed at how many leadership coaches there are in the Church.  Don’t believe me, look at Twitter and Facebook.  We can busy ourselves to death trying to reproduce what worked for those guys without success.  Yet, we never busy ourselves to death in prayer to receive insight from the Spirit. 

Another troubling issue is the way people are down on the Church.  I have talked about this before.  It seems in our desire to grow our churches numerically, we have made it second nature to talk about how Church has become a farce.  One of my favorite church signs said, “A church for those who don’t like church.”  The Church is the Bride of Jesus Christ.  The Bible says that the Holy Spirit places people in the church as He sees fit.  Jesus Christ died and rose again for the Church.  Why do pastors and other Christians run the Church down?

We might possibly think that somehow, if we talk bad about the Church, then the world would come.  Before I met Christ, I already thought bad about the Church.  You simply would have been confirming to me why I didn’t think about the Church.  Remember, the Church is both Human and Divine.  The only time there is trouble in the Church is when she loses touch with the Head, Jesus.  

There are those in the Church who say they are not Christians.  They say that they are followers.  I understand what these good people are trying to say.  They are fed up with the sin they see in the Church.  I think this is where those who say they are a church for those who don’t like church are coming from too.  Yet, Christians is what they called those who were part of the Church at Antioch in the book of Acts.  Antioch was a sending church.  It was a missionary minded church who was devoted to spreading the Gospel wherever they could.  That was a good thing. 

I think it would be easier if we were able to simply say that there are those in the Church are really not Christians, then saying that I am not a Christian I am a follower.  I just become concerned with poor discipleship that can cause people to leave Jesus and never return. 

I want to assure everyone that I am fine with leadership books, but we should never get away from 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and the Gospels.  These are the ultimate sources of leadership for the Church.  I also realize that we must still preach against, and fight against, sin in the Church.  That is why God calls us to hold accontable and for us to practice confession.  We also must struggle against  those who do not really have love in their hearts being  referred to as Christians.  Our goal should be to live the Christian life, which is also a life of a follower.  It is not either/or. 

These are just some of the flavors of the month so to speak that Christians everywhere seem to chase after.  These are my opinions.  These opinions come from someone who just wants to serve Jesus Christ the way that He says to in His Word.

First, since starting back at the gym, I am more mentally fit.  Of course my wife might disagree.  Yet, as a pastor, I struggle from time to time with minor depression spells.  Most of it these are linked to not seeing the results that I want to see in ministry, as well as other areas of my life.  But exercising has helped me to gain some confidence in myself and has made me happier overall. 

I meet people since I joined the gym.  I am a member of 365 Fitness in Liberty.  There is a fellowship that is in place that I now enjoy.  Everyone is generally on the same page and after the same goals.  There is an accountability that a person like me needs to keep me motivated. 

Reading articles about nutrition from people who are academic have helped me.  There is a difference between those who are telling you what they have found through academic research from those who are trying to sell products.  I realize now that eating the right types of foods really do impact your weight.  Some examples of food that is less fattening are whole wheat products, fish, lean meats turkey and chicken.  Salad dressings like Italian are best, not creamy.  No candy or cookies and etc.  No fast food (this is tough).  Discipline!

Treadmill is better than walking outside, the treadmill makes you keep a pace that will cause your heart and lungs to work.  It seems this really burns the fat, if you are eating right, as long as you are walking at a quick pace.  You don’t have to run.  The machine will elevate for you to give you more stress, which is good when you start getting into shape.

Weight lifting is very helpful too.  My goal was to be able to take my shirt off in public again, when I swim, I did not get completely where I wanted to, but I got close enough and that allowed me to enjoy the beach more.  Stay with this long enough and you will see changes in your body that will help your self-esteem. 

Supplements can help, but must be taken with exercise.  Understand that when you try to get a Mr. Universe body with over the counter products it is unlikely that you will succeed.  I sampled several different products that helped me to achieve some results.  I did not do anything illegal; keep in mind that you will pay a price possibly legally, but for sure physically if you do.  GNC products seem to be the best.  Pro Performance Amp Amplified Mass XXX does well.  I noticed gains in strength.  Pro Performance Amp Amplified Wheybolic Extrem 60 does well.  I noticed strength gains with this product too. 

A weight loss supplement that helped, but I warn that can mess up the prostate, was USPlabs OxyElite Pro.  This is a thermogenic that helped to boost my metabolism so that I could lose fat in the mid-section.  I had lost 10 pounds and could not get further and this product helped me to lose 25 pounds more.  The second time I tried it I only lost 5 pounds.  The key was eating right while exercising while taking this product.  You still have to do the work!  There is no magic pill out there, at least that is healthy, that will do the work for you. 

I tried a few pre-workout shakes that were supposed to give me energy to accomplish more during my workouts.  I don’t think these are worth the money, nor do I think they really help after a day or two.  I tried 2 products, and my body just adjusted to these.  You are going to have to will yourself to do the work.  

One product that does give me energy right now, so far after 6 days, is GNC Beyond Raw Refine.  It is a thermogenic that I was asked to sample.  I have not dieted properly with this product, but it gives me energy so far.  Check back later to see where I stand after I complete the bottle. 

I think vitamins are essential to health and are as helpful as the shakes that are pushed.  Immune boosters seem to help; but we must continue to wash hands to prevent colds.  Amino acids seem good right now too.  I sip USPlabs BCAA during workouts.  If nothing else there is some research out there that says that BCAA’s are actually healthy for you.  Search it out for yourself. 

Trade-off between free weights and cable weights about every 4 weeks with each muscle you are working.  Somehow doing that has given me better definition. 

The plant proteins seem better than the animal proteins when choosing shakes.  They are healthier.  Check with your doctor before trying these products.  Again, most of what you get from these shakes can be gotten by eating properly. 

Taking some of the vitamins, exercising, eating correctly, and slowing down on soft drinks helped my blood pressure.  It really was lower, and I have struggled with this in the past.  Another benefit that I noticed was that I was able to get off of my heartburn medicine too.  Talk to your doctor about this stuff.  Everyone has different genetics and respond differently to these products and exercises. 

Don’t overwork yourself when you exercise.  I see people come and go in the gym.  They go so hard that they hurt themselves and quit.  45 minutes 4 days a week will do wonders for you.  It is true about weight loss, if you gained over the years, then you will have to lose it over the years.  Discipline is a must.  Determination must also be part of who you are.

So give exercise a whirl.  It’s a new year.  Oh, and give Christ a try too if you do not know Him.  God and exercise are both healthy for you.

Text: Acts 15:1-21

One of his comments about the Scripture was that a controversy arose about the need for surgery to be saved. 

He also said that every church has a “they.”

1) Churches always gravitate toward insiders and away from outsiders.  Jesus liked people who were nothing like Him.  The people liked Jesus who were nothing like Him.  Resist this pull in the way you preach, build, and etc.  We must keep our churches externally focused. Red flag prayer requests. Sin, sorrow, and death are what makes our message more important!  Lost people are what matters!

My take: Prayer requests must be centered on people finding Christ.

2) Churches gravitate toward law instead of grace.  People think categorically instead of relational.  Love must always overcome rules.  Acceptance paves the way to influence.  Use grace to sort things out.  We will have to accept people who sin; not the sin.  Homosexuality, abortion, fornication. 

My take: Those who live this way must not be influenced away from the church. The Holy Spirit can still work with them and that is His job. 

3) Churches gravitate toward complexity instead of simplicity.  Clarity.  Partner don’t pioneer; fund and volunteer for other organizations that are already doing it.  Don’t lose your uniqueness in your community.

My take: We are all unique and have a purpose in God’s plan.  Sometimes we need to simply cut the fluff away and focus on the one thing we do.  Discipleship should be a clear process too. 

4) Churches gravitate toward preserving and not advancing.  The Jews were trying to preserve the Law of Moses.  The same Law that God gave him.  Do not move into a protection mode instead of moving into the community.  We cannot protect assets before fulfilling the mission.  Think like a church plant. How did we think when we did not have money? 

My take: Protect mode really brings everything to a stop.  The assets that we protect are Gods; we must watch burying our one talent.  

4 Commitments

1-Be more concerned about who we are reaching instead of who we are keeping.

2-Let’s error on the side of grace.

3-Remain focused on our unique calling.

4-Remain open-handed.  We started with nothing we may end with nothing; and that is okay.   

This is great advice.  I think this advice is great for a small church pastor.  There is a lot to chew on and ponder on here.  Everything in these notes I took are applicable even my small church situation.  I recently shared this with my board.  My goal was to help us focus on what is important.

Here are some things I want to tell you that I wish I would have known.  I grew up in a hard situation too; and like you I did not understand why.  I was terribly angry, bitter, and hateful, toward people. 

You may find yourself being the class clown; but you know that it is not really you.  Sometimes you wonder, when nobody else is around, why you have to continue to be the person you show yourself to be.  The answer, you need to know someone pays attention to you.  What I want you to know is that God does because He has dreams for you even when others who are supposed to be important in your life don’t. 

You may find yourself alone.  You might think that nobody cares if you live or die.  Don’t fall for that!  More people do than you think, and again, God really does.  What looks like to you a situation that will never change, God knows it will.  You see the now in your life, but God sees the later (future). 

You may find yourself feeling the need to be sexually active because that is when you feel at peace and connected (I mean what seems like a good relationship because someone is listening) with someone.  Stop, because you feel worse and become angrier and more hurt.  You need to know that the other person is likely just using you which, at this point, is the last thing you need.

You may find yourself at odds with teachers and authorities who are in your life.  The problem is that they don’t realize, sometimes, how hard your life is right now.  They are trying to live their lives too.  You need to focus on the good that they give to you instead of the bad you receive.  Now consider, if you were in their place, you might bring the discipline too.  If you fight against those in authority over you, you will lose.  Don’t confuse giving respect, that is deserved, with getting pushed around some more. 

You might only have a relationship with one parent, maybe not even one, but I want you to know that this is not what God wanted for you.  Sometimes parents make mistakes, and they get caught in a cycle that keeps them from being able to change.  You might not know how hard they had it when they were in your shoes.  But God can make things happen for you, if you live for Him now.  What I mean is that if you live for Him now, He will have a better life for you later. 

I want you to know that all of the hard times that you face now will make you a strong person later.  And if you rely on God now, you will be a strong Christian later. 

I want you to know that you don’t have to choose to be uncaring.  It is okay, in fact, it is good to care even while it seems that nobody does for you.  This is character building because when things are good, it is easy to pretend to care for others. 

I want you to know your life that seem so bad now will get better.  I want you to know that I am frustrated for your sake and that I am mad with you.  But, I want you to have hope with me for your life later.  You are going to be great to your kids.  But you will have to choose it.  You have to ability to break the chain that has bound your family. 

I want you to know that not do I care for you, but God cares more than you know.  You can ask me things and you really need to ask Him things.  Read your Bible.  He is not angry with you and is not making your life hard because He doesn’t care.  He cares.  He can help you now.  Read your Bible and you will see this.

My church paid $99 for a ticket to one of the most impressive conferences that I have been to to date.  I don’t get to go to things like this very often.  There are two reasons for this.  One, they are too expensive most of the time.  Two, they always focus on leadership style that fits a particular type of personality.  Many church leaders, or wannabes, focus on these personality ID’s instead of those who are surrendered to the Holy Spirit.  Leadership has become the idol of The Church world in my opinion.  I would be happier to see pastors focusing servanthood than leadership.  Servanthood glorifies Christ, while leadership becomes a little questionable about whose personality is being revealed. 

Pastor Perry was able to get top speakers, who have been field tested instead of classroom tested, to come and share with us.  These speakers had one message that was communicated in different ways.  Listen to God and do it.  Not only was this their message, but they also took the pressure off of us “simple” pastors by pointing out that not everyone will do the same things they have.  This is big!  This is refreshing.  This is truth!  They suggested that everyone is different and unique so God will have a different plan for each of us than those who were speaking.

These speakers, including Pastor Perry Noble, seem to be the heartbeat of Christ in the American Church.  Yet, they would not accept me pointing this out.  The common thread they all have is that they seemed to be spending a great amount of time with the Holy Spirit instead of focusing on programming.  They would tell you that there is not 12 step model for success.  Yet, curiously, many pastors continue to look for it.  It doesn’t exist.  I think it is because many successful pastors continue to present it. 

Another observation was that this conference was not sold-out.  At least, it did not appear to be.  I have been to Unleash a few times.  This conference was different because Newspring was not sharing about their programming.  Again, the focus of Noble, seemed to be on the Holy Spirit.  Could this be why more pastors were not there?  It just goes with how God does things and many miss Him doing it.  I was impacted by the Word of God that day.  Many were.  So if God was speaking, and He was, it is a shame that more were not there. 

One last observation.  Forgive me for making it, but I think you might get a laugh.  The bird sequence shirts that we saw the last 2 years at Newspring might be running their course.  I remember the 1st year not many but Furtick and Noble wore them.  The next year, half the crowd (church leaders) had them on.  This year the leaders had shirts on with patches similar to merit badges we have in scouting, while on stage.  I predict this to be the new fashion for the next Unleash.

Finally, congrats to Pastor Perry and his Newspring Church.  I mean it.  I am very critical most of the time, which is a character flaw most of the time.  So you know with me bragging in the Lord about this that it had to be very good.  Thank you Newspring for being used by God to bless me and others.  God bless.