Pastoring is different when you are young

All of my life, I have tried to be older than I am.  

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a bigger kid.

When I was in middle school, I was ready to be in high school.

When I was a high schooler, I kept looking forward to college.

In college, I was ready for a career.

When I was single, I anticipated marriage.

Now I am a young pastor.  I feel a lot of pressure to act more like an older pastor.

Then I read 1 kings 12.

You have Solomon, this incredible King (with faults) who dies.  His son, Rehoboam takes over.  The people want Rehoboam to lighten their load to be less authoritative. They want to feel more appreciated, they wanted the younger leader to be different.

Rehoboam then asks advice from His father's elders who tell him that he should be less authoritative and serve them.

Then, he asks for advice from his inexperienced friends (who have read books, been to conferences, and follow blogs, but don't really know what they are talking about) for advice.  They say, man you are the King, you need to show them who is in charge.

He follows his friends advice, things don't go well.

Lesson:  I am not 40,50, 60..... I am 26.  I have not been a lead pastor for 10,20,30 years....I've been one for 1.5 years.  I'm not Solomon, I'm Rehoboam.  

I don't need to act like I am a king that expects everyone to follow my direction at the drop of a hat.  I need to realize that people are going to respond best to me as they see me lead by example, serve the people, and personally invest in the vision that God has given me.  

Leadership flows out of Authority and Affinity.  When you are younger, you have less authority, so love on the people more.  God calls the young, but it's more difficult.  But He wants to help us grow, so follow His advice on leading while being young....

or don't.... you know what you are doing; you have read books, blogs, and been to conferences. 

First Assembly

You can not drive through Crestview without noticing our town's First Assembly of God.  If I were looking for a Church, First Assembly would definitely be one of the churches that I would consider checking out.

First Assembly has the most impressive church (or of any kind) facilities in Crestview.  Their buildings are extremely cool and seemingly offer a lot of options for families.  

The church also seems to have a wide variety of ministries.  From a motorcycle group, to a skate park, several youth drama teams, and a passionate women's ministry.   

While it does not take a lot to notice that the church has been blessed with finances, something a lot of people may not know is that they spend a lot of money on Missions.  They have personally invested great sums into spreading the Gospel throughout the world.  I also know that during the middle of their building (which is when churches "need" $$ the most) they gave another church in Crestview $10,000 to help with their building.  That is definitely something that is rare in churches.

I don't know Pastor Mark English personally, but he has been extremely successful in getting many people to sacrifice great amounts of their time and money to help accomplish the vision that God has given him.  He has also inspired passion for spreading the love of Christ to many people. These are signs of a great leader.

So, if you are looking for a place to go to church in Crestview.  Check out First Assembly, I would.

www.crestviewag.org

God help the outcast

We are all in need of relationships.  Even those who consider themselves to be loners.  Those who are content with just blending in with the crowd and going home after work, school, etc and being by themselves.  

We have seen that most of the people who just go home to be by themselves, actually aren't by themselves.  They watch their favorite television shows which they have become attached to or 

they play World of Warcraft (or another similar game) where they are able to connect with others in a safe environment.  They do not worry about being judged or being a disappointment to others.  They don't have to work extremely hard to fit in, they are just accepted by the common bond that they have with their fellow players.  They have been looking for relationships of acceptance and they have found them.  

as a church leader one word comes to mind......OUCH.  

If there is any environment where people should be able to feel accepted unconditionally it should be the gatherings that we call "church".  I know that we don't accept sins that people delve into or allow people to just fill whatever position they want to without any qualifications, but come on!

Why are there emotionally hurting adults AND TEENAGERS that we just push to the side?  Why do we look exactly like the rest of the world in the people that we accept?  

You might be saying, oh our church accepts all people, we are not judgemental like that.  Maybe, you are telling the truth....but in most cases that is BS.   Look who you spend the most of your time with.  Look who you are concerned with getting plugged in.  Look who you show the most grace to.  How equal are you?

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that Jesus did not show any favoritism nor does God show any favoritism.  So lets start giving everyone the same change to be used by God, 

HE DOES!

having it all together

This is something that is extremely far from being about me.

I am not saying this to complain or express personal disappointment.  I just want you to know that if you are struggling with not being good enough or not knowing what do, you are not alone!

When we have a view of how something should be going (our marriage, our career, our finances, or our health) and it is not meeting our expectations it can be very easy to become discouraged.  

The serenity prayer says "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; 

the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference."

What an old school thought that is so relevant for today.

When discouraged, we should ask ourselves if there is anything that we can do about this?

If there isn't..... then be still, and know that God is!

If there is..... then have the courage to take risks and change what is going on.  

Something I have to remind myself is that God's desire to use us for something incredible doesn't go away because of our failures or mistakes.

God, give me the wisdom to know the difference!

i am what i am

A lot of times I do not feel like I deserve to be where I am in life.

because of my......past

because of my......age

because of my......mistakes

because of my......failures

because of my......weaknesses

because of my.....inexperience

because of my.....sin

because of my.....doubts

because of my.....insecurities

Paul talks about not deserving to be an apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:10 and has spoken to me in a very personal way

"by the grace of God, I am what I am and His grace will not be void, because I worked harder than all of them; not I but the grace of God with me."

you may not deserve to be where you are - influentially, financially, relationally, etc.... but by God's grace you are what you are.

some good reads

Five books that have helped shape me into the man I am today:

Velvet Elvis

Crazy Love

Mere Christianity

Encounter God in the City

winning with people

i am thankful to leaders who have gone before me

In "next generation leaders" Andy Stanley talks about how uncertainty increases with increased leadership responsibility.   The more things that you jump into as a leader the more things are uncertain.  With a lot of areas of leadership there is a great deal of intangibility, which means leaders have to make their best guess at deciding what is right for the situation.  

I am very thankful for the many Pastors and leaders who are ahead of me in their journey.  Leaders who have faced a lot of the same intangible decisions that I am facing or will have to face.  I am thankful for their courage to lead in the midst of uncertainty and for their willingness to be transparent about struggles they have faced and mistakes they have made.

I have benefited greatly from these men and women who have given me a lot of information to help me make the best guess at deciding what is right for situations.  

With twitter, blogs, websites, books, etc. there are some many opportunities to be able to learn from these courageous leaders.  

If you are young and in leadership, it is a mistake to think that you know best, that you are the LONE RENEGADE who is facing challenges and doing the right thing!  Everyone has their flaws, but everyone also has amazing strengths and experiences that we can benefit from!  Let's start letting them know how much we appreciate them!

Thank you leaders who have gone before me for making my life easier!

 

four blogs that annoy me (part 1 of 4)

the wanna be pastor that lectures pastors

I am tired of seeing guys blog about how to be a good pastor, that have never pastored ever!

Now, I am a pastor, but you don't see me telling pastors how to be effective.  

I love sharing my experiences and I think it is great for each of us to challenge each other on Biblical leadership principles

but stop regurgitating something you have heard Craig Groeschel, Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick or someone else say......

You haven't experienced leading a church to reach people, you don't have the scars to prove that you have been there and done that!

Blog about things that you actually know about, blog about what is going on in your life.

Leave the Pastoral advice to people who know what they are talking about.

We are inexperienced, maybe we should take this time to listen!

help me grow

my contact is james@mosaiccrestview.com.  

Please take the time and e-mail me the answers to the following questions if you are able:

If you are or were to be a leader of a church/business/organization and I came to work for you full time for free, where would you put me to work and why?

What areas would you see to it that I avoid and why?

In my current job where do you see a misalignment between my competencies and my responsibilities?

In what areas of my life do you see a misalignment between my passion and my competencies?

tripp battle

the right thing

Sometimes doing what is right does not make sense.

It is so easy to lean on our own understanding. We are comfortable with it. We are familiar with what the consequences are. We are in some sort of control of the situation. Even if it is bad there is not an element of surprise.

We don't like surprises; or better put we don't like the time leading up to the surprise. I want to know my choices:

If I am not the one picking where we go to dinner, I like to know beforehand so that I can prepare myself if I am going to be disappointed or eat less during the day if it going to be somewhere good. I do not like just showing up somewhere.

If someone is paying, I don't like rules on what to order. I want to have the freedom to choose. I want to be able to do what I want.

Why do I say all this? Because God asks us to follow him, to make decisions that are not based on our understanding but are leaps of faith.

I have to ask myself a question a lot? As a pastor, as a church planter, as a husband, as a friend, as a leader, as a father, as an individual

am I willing to follow God into the unknown?

Thanksgiving

In honor of thanksgiving week, I will be posting about five different people that are a part of mosaic over the next five days. I am of course thankful for everyone who is involved with our church, but I wanted to take the time to recognize these five people. I pray that every pastor has one of these five people in their life.

what is the problem?

John Maxwell says that "everything rises and falls on leadership."

So, when you have a challenge with a staff of your church, when people aren't getting the vision, when leaders are not stepping up, when people aren't giving, when the word is getting out of the four walls; there is one place that you need to look...................................at the leadership.

If you are at an established Church, it may be a deacon board or some lady who has been at the church for 40 years who is the actual leader of the church.

But, in a church plant......it is you. You have got to be the one God uses to bring about results.

What are you doing to see that God's call on your life is being carried out. How are you equipping people to carry our their role, how are sharing the vision, how are leading people to step up to the plate, how generous are you and how are you explaining why people should be, how are you spreading the word and how are you pushing people in that direction?

EVERYTHING rises on falls on the leader.

baseball and staff meeting

Last night I watched the Rays destroy the Red Sox. It was cool to see them so "in the game" after being defeated at home in game 1.

Every week, our paid staff (me, tripp, eric) meets to see how we can better lead the church. Our agenda is simple and as follows:

-Last week- victories and areas of improvement
-People of our church and their needs/what needs to be done
-Various items that concern the life of our church
-This week: Leaving the past behind, while learning from it. Moving forward towards the vision that God has given us!

We start with our past and what we can learn from it. We finish by focusing on the future and how we can be used by God.

I think that this is a great model for our relationship with God. It is great to celebrate our victories and repent over our losses, but we must always press on to the fact that God has given us tomorrow. While He desires our realization of how we may have struck out, He is more focused on our intention to step up to the plate for Him again!

Defeat does not discourage great leaders, it becomes a catalyst towards a higher level of intensity during the next at bat!

our theme is God

Reading that statement probably makes you want to say the same thing a sixth grader recently said to me when I said that I was starting to feel the fall air.............duh!

But it is surprising how easy it is for the focus to be taken off of God and put onto people, programs, preferences, problems, and plenty more.

things are stirring at mosaic church, as leaders we must continually direct the attention to the one who is doing the stirring. This has been the recurring conversation that my wife, our worship leader, and I have been having.

God; when people are looking at us as leaders or as a church, make us invisible so that they can see all that YOU are doing! -Eric Melvin

his gain, our gain

Beginning this Sunday, my good friend is going to be serving at our church.

Tripp has felt a burden on his life to plant baytown chuch, a church that is focused on reaching unchurched young families. He believes that this church's birth is almost two years away. Because of this call on his life he has left a secure position as the student minister at an established church.
He has not sought after another position that is extremely secure and that pays the bills. He has prayed and followed God to use his time doing what will best prepare him for the call on his life, and allow him to be used to build God's kingdom during that preparation phase. AT THE FOUNDATION OF BAYTOWN CHURCH IS A DECISION BY IT'S LEADERS (tripp and his wife joy) TO SACRIFICE SO THAT THEY CAN BE AS BEST PREPARED AS POSSIBLE TO REACH AND STRENGTHEN PEOPLE. Their dependence on God and their denying of themselves to follow God is an example to all. It is easy to head in a direction that makes sense, in a way that all the details are planned out. It takes faith to go down a path that you have seen God lead you down but not know exactly how you are going to get to your final destination.

When we feel a calling on our life that is not immediate, we should begin to head in that direction and serve God faithfully on the road to His timing. We should not just serve where we are comfortable and where the t's are crossed and the i's dotted but we should devote our entire life to that promise that God has planned for us. When we arrive at the point that we are looking forward to, we realize that the call did in fact begin two years ago and we can look back and see how God has strengthened and used us in many ways, just because we were following Him!

responding to criticism

When someone begins to criticise me or a an issue arises in a relationship, there is a simple process that I follow in order to make things right.

Step 1: I evaluate my life. I check to see if there is something related to the issue that I need to get in line with God. Usually there is.

Step 2: I evaluate (not judge) the other person and see if there is any black/white issue that shows they are clearly not following God.

Step 3: I ask someone that I trust about the issue. They usually point out something I can work on as well.

Step 4: I pray about resolving the issue.

Step 5: I attempt to resolve the issue. Start with you heart! Tell them where you desire the relationship to be.

This has been very helpful to me over the past year. I encourage you to follow this or come up with a process to handle relationship issues in your life.

Who are you preaching to?

This is a blog of pastor Steven Furtick. Steven is a guy who God is using to make a huge impact for His kingdom.

Who are you preaching to?
July 22nd, 2008

When I’m preparing my messages, I have a specific audience in mind.It’s a guy who is coming to Elevation for the first time this week. In fact, this will be his first time in church in years, and he’s far from God. His friend kept inviting him until, one Sunday-this coming Sunday as a matter of fact-he’s decided to give it a try. Of course, there are hundreds of people who resemble this description who attend Elevation every week-men, women, boys and girls…and when I stand to preach, I narrow down my audience, picture this person in my mind, and let it fly.
Yes, it’s my responsibility to edify those who already know Christ through my preaching, and to feed and disciple the flock of God. But I’ll always tilt the playing field toward the guy or gal who is far from God. Eternity hangs in the balance for them.That’s why I’m so basic sometimes, rather than parsing Greek and demonstrating exegetical competency ad infinitum.That’s why I scream loudly and look like I’m on the verge of exploding at random points in my sermon every single week, every single service.
For those that serve at Elevation, picture that guy this coming Sunday as you do what you do. It puts it all in perspective.

you can check out Steven's blogs at stevenfurtick.com

excellence

I have the privelege of hanging out at a camp in Branford, (5 miles south of the middle of nowhere) Florida with the middle schoolers of South Biscayne Church.

The level of excellence that the staff and volunteers do everything at is incredible. From the music and planning to cleaning and small details, everything that they do, is on a "whole nutha level".

This is very refreshing it tends to be hard to find people to serve without a lot of selfishness and attitude of "but I want to do it this way".

Let's serve God and the people he puts in leadership with all of our heart!

the toughest part of my job

Do you ever wish someone could just see what your heart is feeling and understand how much you care for them?

When you make decisions that affect people, they sometimes are not very happy about those decisions. This is understandable because when we are in the wrong it is very difficult to see what is right.

I have heard that what separates those who achieve greatness and those who do not is their willingness to respond and grow from criticism and set-backs.

It is just very difficult when you are the one who is used to separate those people.