I had to share these pictures with you. My daughter Luci (left) and my niece Lanie (right) went to the pumpkin patch Friday. Lanie is my first (and only) niece and we are so proud of her. You can tell that she gets her good looks from her uncle, don’t you think? ha ha.
What joy these two girls have brought into our family’s life. Speaking of joy, the apostle John said, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” Beth and I are praying that little Luci and Lanie will walk in the truth every day of their lives.
Last Sunday evening our Pastor made this statement during his sermon: “Servants can bring glory to God.”
Now, the way my mind works, I think over everything way too much. But thinking about it brought this thought to my mind: Volunteers are good. Servants are better.
You can have tons of volunteers in your ministry, and people will look in and say, “Great! They’re having an effective ministry. Just look at all of the volunteers.” But are you really? What is the heart attitude of those serving? Is it a “I’m doing this because I have to do it to fulfill an obligation” or is it a “I honestly want to serve”?
A volunteer brings no glory to God. A volunteer is all about bringing glory to themselves. They are inward focused in their service. On the other hand, a servant is outward focused. They’re all about bringing glory to God. If they are truly serving with a servants heart, ministering will not be a chore to them. Continue reading ‘Servants can bring glory to God’
Brother Jim’s blog post this morning is a good challenge for all of us. Jim and I talked about this very thing on the phone yesterday: what would we do different if we had the last fifteen years to do over again?
My mind goes to King Hezekiah in the Old Testament. If you remember, he was a great king who made great choices. Then one day he got sick - very sick. He was told to get his affairs in order because he was going to die. Then he prayed to God, asking for mercy. God healed him and told him he would have 15 more years. (He’s the only person that ever knew when he was going to die!) He knew he had 15 years to change things.
We don’t know how much time we have to make necessary changes. We do know, though, that if we don”t change we’ll grow stale and ineffective. Every fall I change the filter on my furnace at home. Could I skip a year and forget about changing that $20 filter? Yes. Would the furnace still work? Yes. But it wouldn’t be efficient.
What would you change about the last 15 years of your ministry? What would you change if you knew you had 15 more years ahead of you? Unfortunately, God doesn’t promise us 15 more years. That’s why God says to “make the most of your time” right now. (Ephesians 5:16)
P.S. What Hezekiah did with those last fifteen years is one of the saddest stories in the Bible. He wasted them. He made bad choice after bad choice, ultimately leading to the Babylonian captivity. Read 2 Kings 20 to see it for yourself. Don’t waste your “fifteen years”. Make the changes you need to be efficient today.
….what would you change? The truth is you can change anything! Some things just take longer than others. What’s keeping you from making the changes that need to be made in your life and ministry? It doesn’t take leadership to change something that isn’t working. Real leadership is needed to change something that’s good and move it to great!
BJ
Today a friend, who is a children’s pastor in our area, stopped by to visit. We talked about each other’s ministries - the good, the bad and the ugly! His church has experienced some leadership changes in the past year that have forced him to grow in some areas. He made a statement that caught my attention. He said, “Experiences are meant to be shared.” His point was that the good, the bad and the ugly all have a purpose. They are helping him grow to be a better leader. The time is coming when he will share these experiences with others in a productive manner.
Remember, good leaders never overlook an experience. They see it as an opportunity.
I recently met Kent Mckeaigg, the director of Worship House Media. We spent some time talking about children’s ministry and the need for awesome media elements in children’s ministry programming. He emailed me today and told me about their booth at the Catalyst conference.
He is offering the readers of this blog some cool free downloads. They were offered to the people who stopped by their booth at the conference. There are some pretty nifty loops for those of you techie people who use Media Shout or other presentation programs.
Click here to get the goods! I bet I’ll beat you to them! Thanks Kent.
This afternoon Beth and I sat down and watched some Leave it to Beaver. When Beaver overheard Ward tell June that they were “heading to the poor house” because of the phone bill, Beaver went into panic mode. He asked his dad where the poor house was, who lived there, and what life was like there. When Ward told Beaver there were no more poor houses, Beaver didn’t understand.
Isn’t it amazing how literally kids take things? If you tell a kid that they might go to the poor house, they will believe you. Think about the things we tell them at church, like Jesus sitting on the right hand of God, or Jesus living in your heart. Since kids are so literal in their thinking, carefully choose the terminology you use. When you come to those hard-to-understand concepts and ideas, take time to explain them.
Here’s a cool website you need to bookmark or get the RSS feed on. It’s Woot. They sell one product (and only one product,) but the product changes every day. Normally it’s a great deal and you have to snatch it fast before they sell out.
Application for ministry: Create something that parents or kids have to come regularly and check out because it changes and they don’t want to miss it. Maybe on your website, on a bulletin board, or in a classroom.
Here’s something cool you may not have heard of. Nicholas Negroponte (Founder and Chairman of One Laptop Per Child) wants to get a XO laptop computer to every child around the globe. Why? He understands that computers are both a window and a tool… a window into the world and a tool with which to think.
You can donate $200 (just click the donate button on their website) and you will provide a laptop to a kid in a developing nation. If you want to wait until November 12, you can donate $399 and purchase two XO laptops — one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home. (A remarkable marketing tool I might add.)
Great work Nicholas. May your dream come true.
I had to share these pictures with you. My daughter Luci (left) and my niece Lanie (right) went to the pumpkin patch Friday. Lanie is my first (and only) niece and we are so proud of her. You can tell that she gets her good looks from her uncle, don’t you think? ha ha. 