Posted by passionburnswithin on January 30, 2009
Have you ever focused so much on a word that suddenly no matter how you spell it it doesn’t look right?
Have you focused intently on printing something perfectly and suddenly forgot how to write a certain letter properly?
I have done both of the above. It seems sometimes when we try our hardest to focus on something it is at that very moment we forget the very basic essentials. I imagine that many of us do that with our Christian walk. We get so focused on the do’s and don’ts of our faith that we forget the very essential part of all that we believe…..God.
I even struggle with this in ministry. It is very easy to get caught up in pleasing people and programming for the church and miss out on the fact that God has sent me to lead these people to His throne for His glory. Unfortunately sometimes the church becomes like a business and we are just trying to “grow” our business anyway we can.
As we walk this journey together let’s not allow ourselves to get too focused but rather allow God to move through us freely. In the end I think the wonderfulness will be more than we can comprehend.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by passionburnswithin on January 28, 2009
One of my very early mistakes as a young man was to deny the calling of God on my life to be a minister. In my defense I did not completely deny Him but I wasn’t willing to fully rely on Him to provide for me. I wanted a contingency plan.
I knew full well that generally speaking that ministers were not financially well off and I wanted to be able to provide for my family. I wanted to be able to buy things I had always wanted and give my children things that I could never have. I knew that more than likely that would not be possible in the ministry.
Then what if I lost my job what would I do? I would have nothing to fall back on. I would be forced to work some menial job that was under paid and over worked. I had to have something to fall back on. I was living the Life of a “what if” Christian.
It is all a matter of faith, really. If we profess to trust God we must trust in Him fully. Back up plans limit us and prove just how little control we are willing to allow God to have in our lives. We live in the fear of what if I get hurt, what if I stumble, what if I mess up, what if I don’t make it or what if it doesn’t pan out. These doubts, while natural are hurdles we must overcome as believers. We must use our faith to grow and find satisfaction and fulfillment in our Christian life. The Plan B’s and C’s have to be excluded. We should find ourself in a Plan A life. No fall back plan because truthfully we don’t need it our Plan A is God and that is pretty sure fire if you ask me.
Posted in Religion | 5 Comments »
Posted by passionburnswithin on January 24, 2009
So right now I am looking at turning one of my adult Sunday School classes into a small group style ministry. I have been looking around at resources. One thing that has caught my eye is the Crazy Love DVD Resource. However, That will only last around 10 weeks and I am trying to plan out for the year. So I am taking suggestions. Hit me up with your fav pick or even your top five or ten. I look forward to your insight.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by passionburnswithin on January 23, 2009
I just had my 6 month eval. I like evals I think they are important. I try to get my teams to eval me and give me input regularly. On the flip side the way we do evals is brutal. 25 people get a 3 question survey and basically put down whatever they want. Some are good, some well really really hurt.
This is hard on me because I obsess I get focused on stuff and want to solve it right away. The goals we wound up laying out for me were things that I had already recognized and was already working on. But some are going to take time and having read some of the below the belt comments it takes it’s toll.
I have spent the better part of the day working on plans of action for two of my goals and actually doing one of them. The one I can actually take out with one big swipe is awesome for me because I can do something right now about it. I scrapped all forms of published communication and made up all new ones. I feel if I continue that it may work better. But other things are a process and I just have to wait. Some of the comments were ridiculous. Such as “Jason is doing anything good”. Just cheap shots trying to get a reaction. But they hurt all the same.
One thing is for sure, I am going to be very focused on some of these things moving forward. I just wish in between I could stop obsessing.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by passionburnswithin on January 15, 2009
This past week our interim pastor asked me to preach in a service at the beginning of March. As I have reflected on this opportunity I have been impressed that this church will have experienced a great shift. By the first week in March have launched two phases of our evangelism and outreach strategy. We will have had our first two monthly church wide visitations and we will have started our outreach to newcomers to our community. This promises to be very productive and I am filled with anticipation for what God is going to do. I believe that it will change the culture of this church.
With this in mind I have to search for what God would have me preach. Even though I do not know what our church will need in 8 weeks. It is a trust I have to be sure of and confident in or I will fail in my responsibility to be an effective messenger of God
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by passionburnswithin on January 13, 2009
One of the hardest things to do in the ministry is to communicate your vision process to other people. For one most people do not think of church the way a pastor does and for another they are not thinking about church as much as a pastor does. Communicating the vision is easy but trying to get your people to engage in the process is a bit harder. You have to lay some ground work and have some patience. You also have to:
1. Take stock of the Surroundings.
Many people in church are operating with blinders on. They are content with how things are and are more worried about convenience than actual progress.
2. Turn Gaze Towards What Lies Ahead
Note I didn’t say future. Sometimes the word “future” gives the impression of a time when we are not around. We need to be looking at where we have been, where we are and where we want to go and take steps to move towards where we are headed. ONE STEP at a time.
3. Repeat Repeat Repeat
No matter how many times you think you have covered something, cover it again. Changing a culture doesn’t happen over night it takes time and ingraining the ideology into the minds of people over and over and over yet again.
I am in a season of the “AH HA”. That wonderful time when light bulbs start going on. Through the course of this past month we have had some great meetings with our Ministry teams at the church and I have added some sessions of “rambling” to our meetings. The point of these sessions is to turn focus to what Lies ahead and the response has been overwhelming. I have not been able to go to bed on Sunday nights because I have come home so charged up for what God is doing. It is a great season to be in and I am enjoying every minute of it.
Posted in Ministry, Philosophy, Religion, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by passionburnswithin on January 2, 2009
Around 6 months ago when I left Rock Hill, SC and moved to Greenville, SC I knew that there would be some adjustments that had to be made. The first was I was going to be shouldering a lot more responsibility in my new position and new church. I did not know that I would lose my pastor the day I started. I did not know that our secretary would retire when the pastor did. I did not know how different a smaller church would be in the office.
This time of year when I am in the office more than usual I get very lonely. It is me and the secretary here for about half the day and the other half I am here alone. It gets quiet and I admit I get bored. Especially since I had gotten used to working in an office with three secretaries, a pastor, and associate pastor, a administrator and a children’s pastor. Not to mention the staff from our children’s camp/ school.
I like being around people. I like to talk, engage in group think. I think churches grow best when a group of leaders is taking time to dream and think out loud. Ideas get born from these times and begin to grow and take shape. People play off each other and as the idea gets batted around it begins to become a growing living organism.
I miss that.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
