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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. 

update (part 2) personal life

One word can summarize my personal life lately; strength.  I have had to rely on the strength of the Lord, like never before.  I have come to a greater understanding of my inadequacies and of His ability to work on and through me.  I am continually challenged by Scripture and my relationships with other Christ followers to walk further, run faster, and jump higher than ever before.  Here is what is going on in my personal life.

1. I am more faithful than I have ever been in reading the Bible and praying.  

2. I am being stretched to be continually giving of myself; time, energy, emotion, and money.

3. Cameron is 9 months old now.  He has become an incredibly smart, funny, and beautiful little boy already!  He crawls like a maniac, stands up on his own (close to walking), waves and does more fun tricks.  I am so blessed to have him in my life. 

4.  Christie is three months pregnant.  She is nursing Cameron and has a growing baby in side of her.  Her body has a  lot of work to do!  It is very good that she is able to stay at home.

5.  I am working 40-50 hours a week for the church and another 18 at Starbucks.

6.  After this semester, I will have 18 hours left for my masters!

7.  I am incredibly out of shape and have battled with a good plan to change that over the past year.  I am currently working on a new one.  

8.  I have made some great friends through my involvement in mosaic church of Crestview.

9. As a result of the popularity of our churches nomorechristians.com teaching series, i have several non-Christians who listen to my teaching regularly.  This has provided some cool opportunities.

10. I wish my friends and family from the Jacksonville/Starke area could pack up and move to Crestview.

what you can pray for

Christie and I's relationship.  This is a stressful time for us and we have to be intentional about working on our marriage.  We are both immature and struggle with being the spouse that we need to be.

Christie and I having two kids that are 15 months apart.

Our personal finances. It has been tough for Christie to stay at home.

My continual trust in God's provision and sovereignty.  

Increased opportunities and influence to use the gifts that God has given me.

Thank you so much for your support and love of Christie and I.  God has used so many of you to strengthen us to do the overwhelming tasks that He has called us.

update (part 1) church life

Over the next few days, I will update you on what God is doing in my life. I will begin with a snapshot of what is going on with mosaic church.

1. Jesus is being honored and glorified by our leadership. We are trusting in Him and He is the focus of all that we do.
2. I have been blessed with an incredible staff (Walker, Tripp, and Joey) who are continually improving in their dedication to our church and devotion to helping me focus on what I need to focus on.
3. We have some great volunteers who are giving so much of themselves to see the vision of our church carried out.
4. During July we averaged 110 in attendance which is our second highest month ever.
5. Our worship services and environment has become incredible. (thanks to the staff and volunteers)
6. God has brought some new faces to be a part of our church that are going (and already are) do so much to further the Kingdom of God.
7. We have got some office space for very cheap, so while we remain a portable church we will have a central office.
8. We have seen several trust in Christ. We are excited about them being baptized in August!

what you can pray for

God has been burdening me that we need a few couples that are more mature ( age wise and spiritually). We need some strong older married couples that are passionate about our vision to reach the unchurched.

Finances are pretty bad for mosaic church. Please pray that God provides in a supernatural way. Christie and I are exploring the possibility of me working bi-vocationally gain. We'll do what we gotta do!

Other than that, just pray for me to listen to God and not my desires or other peoples desires. There is a great amount of momentum building right now and we don't want to do anything to quench what God is doing!

Thanks for reading and thanks for loving on my family and mosaic church!

WHO IS THIS?

Storms.

With the exception of a privileged few, we are all guaranteed that times of great uncertainty will come in our lives.  

In Luke 8:22-25 you find that the disciples are on boat with Jesus and while he is sleeping they are engulfed by a fierce sudden storm.

The disciples freak out and do a good thing.  They go wake Jesus.  They want his help.

Jesus calms the storm and then questions the disciples; where is your faith?

Why would he ask this?  All of the factors show that the disciples had reason to be afraid.  They should have been scared....except for one thing!

In verse 22, it tells us that Jesus was the one that put them in their situation.  He is the one who was in control.  Since they were where Jesus wanted them, they should have been calm.  

When we are following Jesus and storms come, we have to follow His example and......

rest. chill.  be at peace.

There is nothing that we can do.  A storm is beyond our control.  So we need to be at peace.

God will put storms in your life for a reason.  Not to make you stronger, not to help you help others.

He put storms in your life so that you will be amazed by Him.

In verse 25, the disciples questioned "who is this" that calms the storm.  

So when financial, relational, physical storms come in your life; be still and KNOW that He is God.  Let Him amaze you and who he is.  

when a word changes

Growing up, all that grace meant to me was a 15 second cliche saying that happened before dinner around certain people.

Wow, has that word changed for me.

I don't think that I will ever cease to be amazed by the grace of God.  To think that He completely loves people who reject him or that claim His name yet live in contradiction to what He desires is unbelievable.

Literally, it is hard to to believe that someone has that much grace.  But, He does.  I am thankful for that grace.  I am thankful for how much that He has grown me.  I am thankful for how much He has changed me.  I am thankful that He uses me to be a part of His church.  

I really am not worthy of His grace.  But He gives it to me, and for that I am thankful.

Michael McDuffie

This morning Michael McDuffie left Crestview to begin his two year commitment to teach English at a university in China.  While Michael will do an excellent job of teaching college Freshmen English, Michael's primary goal is to build relationships with the students and people he encounters and share the love of Christ with them.  

Michael graduated from Auburn last December and has spent the past eight months in Crestview and serving Mosaic Church.  I have learned some incredible things about Michael as we have built a great relationship.  

Michael is in love with Jesus.

Michael loves people a lot.

Michael has a great shared love for His family.

Michael is a natural leader.

Michael has a servants heart.

Michael is hilarious.

Michael trusts God for provision.

Michael is going to do an amazing job of sharing the light of Christ wherever he goes.

Please join me in praying for Michael as he moves across the world to share the light of the world.

you can follow him on michaelmcduffiejr.com

Central Baptist Church

Something that we value at Mosaic is involvement.  We desire to see everyone get plugged into the vision of our church.  This should be something that we have in common with every church, but unfortunately it is not.  

I believe that Central Baptist is a church where you can get involved.  There is a lot of changes going on right now and their leadership has a renewed desire to see new people get involved in the ministries of the Church.  Most people look at Central's impressive facilities and think that they are packed with people and that it will be hard to connect.  This is far from the truth.  Central has suffered many years of decline and stagnation and they are now a small church with big potential.  

Pastor Scott Dennis comes from an unchurched background and has a desire to see people who are far from God come to know him.  Pastor Scott has one of the biggest hearts of anyone that I have ever met.  He truly is passionate about seeing people experience what God has for their life.  I think he is a great fit for Central and that we are going to see some great things happen with that congregation under his leadership.  

Not everyone is o.k. with ridiculous videos and John Mayer songs to open up the service.  A lot of people want a blend of modernity with tradition.  Central is a good to church to try out if you are this type of person.  

We may not all share the same preference for style but we should have the same passion for salvations! 

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

Emmanuel Baptist Church

One of the churches that I would consider being a part of if I were not at mosaic, would be Emmanuel Baptist or EBC as their "members" call it.   Here is why:

Pastor Mark Seagle is a great guy.  He has a huge heart to develop leaders and a passion to help the helpless.  He is in tune with culture, which is unique for a pastor in Crestview.  

(No offense to the other guys doing their thing.  Keep following Jesus and lead how you think you should.)

Their music is modern (but a lot less loud than mosaic's.)

Their children's ministry is the largest in Crestview.  They have amazing crowds of little kids on Sunday and Wednesday nights.  There seems to be a great opportunity for your child to have fun while learning about Christ. 

Their student ministry is so solid.  Led by Ian (an unbelievably passionate dude) and several strong student leaders.  Ian thinks they can change the world and I believe they are working to do so.  

Sure, EBC has weaknesses and so does Mosaic and every other church.  If I were "church shopping" I would realize that the perfect church I dream of only exists in Heaven. 

So if Mosaic isn't your thing, check out EBC.

http://www.ebccrestview.com

where to go to church?

I ask myself all the time where I would go to church if I just moved to Crestview.  Just recently, I started believing the answer would be...... Mosaic.  

But, for some people Mosaic is too "edgy", too "laid back", too "loud", or too "young".  

This week I will blog about a few other churches in Crestview (in no particular order) that would be on my short list of churches to attend.

Maybe this will be helpful to those of you that are still searching for a place to plug in.

and then there were four!!

That is right; Christie and I are having another baby!

We are so blessed to have an amazing first and oldest child, Cameron.  He is truly incredible and I am confident that he will be a terrific big brother.   

The next addition to the Ross clan is due to arrive at the beginning of February.  

Cameron and _____ will be 15 months apart!  Pray for Christie as she is at home with a baby (which is crawling and close to walking) and is pregnant. 

The level of excitement in our already crazy life is definitely about to increase drastically, but we are trusting in God's provision and His grace to cover our lives!

God bless America

I do thank God for America and I do ask God to bless America........

and Canada

and Mexico

and China

and Mali

and Brazil

and England

and Iraq

I try to pray that God's grace is felt all over the world and that those who love Him and are trying to spread His good news would be blessed in their efforts.

God thank you for any favor that our country has had and please continue to bless us, not so that we can be rich and powerful but so that Your Love can be spread......all over the world.

are you in love with God or His stuff?

This quote from Crazy Love (by Francis Chan) has been messing with me for a couple of months now.  

Am I more excited about what God can offer me; a good marriage, great children, financial success, great friends, etc

or 

am I just in love with God.

The creator of the Universe who is perfect in every way and could and should do anything He wants only asks one thing of us.....to pursue Him.  

God, I pray that I would join with others from my church and churches across the world in continuing to fall more in love with You every day.  

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!

things aren't always what they seem

I have been stressing about a few things this week (yes, i know I shouldn't worry)!

our car is having problems

something is wrong with our taxes

church finances are way down

and

my cell phone broke.  

I was extremely aggravated by this phone thing.  I love everything about the phone except for not being able to picture message, I have to go  a few days without my phone and I have to buy$$$ a new one........ugghhhhhh

but listen to what I was told by the alltel rep......

  "You are eligible for an upgrade so you can get the phone at the new price.  (I picked the palm treo PRO an upgrade with pic messaging for only $59).  Also, we can and go ahead and lock in your current plan for another two years.  

  Otherwise you would have had to switch over to a Verizon plan next month since your contract has expired (for less minutes and the same features I use currently it would have been another $40 a month to switch to the Verizon plan) ."

So I spent $60 and saved $40 x 23 = 920.  My phone breaking saved Christie and I $860 over the next two years.

Thank you God for breaking my phone. 

This was His way of saying "I got this".  

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!

back from vacation

I am a list guy..... here is a list of five things I learned on my extended trip to Jacksonville!

1. I really love my family and as dysfunctional as they can be (whose isn't), I am glad that they have played a part in my life.

2. Really good friendships are hard to find and sometimes hard to keep going.  However, their are certain friendships that will be strong forever!

3. I really love having wireless internet at my house.

4.  If home is where the heart is........ Crestview is HOME!

5.  It is so fun to be a part of mosaic church - Crestview.  I missed it even more than I thought would!

top 5 blogs (part 5 of 5)

i'm a good liar   4/29/09

 

I've become excellent at not being transparent but appearing to be so.

 

It is an art. 

 

It is taught at Pastors conference (maybe not directly, but it is).

 

It is the best way to become a successful pastor, leader, employee, spouse, parent.

 

Contemporary Churches have become environments where this is rewarded.  We love to hear some one's confession of  sin, some one's story of growth.  We don't actually want to investigate how they are doing today.  We don't want to look someone in the eye and sincerely ask them about sin.  It may involve more time, prayer, friendship.

 

We like the label of "authentic" without the work that comes with sincere authenticity.  

-will I truly be accepted if people know ____.  

-what will people think of the fact that I ____.

-I really don't want people to use ____ against me.

 

Let's what call it what it IS.

 

We are a culture of liars and typically we are a church of liars.

top 5 blogs (part 4 of 5)

 an audience                  3/23/09

 

Earlier today, I was thinking about how I am so amazed at what God is doing in my life and the life of the church I pastor....

 

......my first thought was to twitter.....

 

......then to blog, what I am blogging right now......

 

not just to praise God for His goodness.

 

I worry sometimes that having this constant audience via the web replaces me talking to God. (Yes, I realize by blogging about this I am doing the very thing I am concerned about.) 

 

I had a great time with an audience of one this morning. 

 

Hopefully our twitters and blogs flow out of our personal communication with God.