For all of you who took in the I-Heart Revolution movie, I love hearing how God stirs hearts. Please write down your thoughts.
This should get you started:
As you took it all in, how would describe what God was stirring in your heart to DO?
Tag Archive for 'Pastor Bret'
This past Sunday as we talked about the key ingredient of “vision” for our families we saw from Genesis how God’s vision for human beings needs to get inside us and become our own.
I found this article, which is available for download online, searching “finding your child’s calling”. I thought it had some very helpful insight I wanted to pass along:
Discover Your Child’s Calling
by Jayna Petterson
“I’ve had it!” My dad blew up in resignation after the home buyer’s financing went sour. “I’ve spent all month nursing this deal and then the mortgage broker chokes it for me. How am I going to tell my buyers?” He reeled at the thought of confrontation and became agitated, mentally rehearsing any other move he could make to salvage this sale. He was out of his game. Even the satisfaction of winning “Realtor of the Year,” earning over one hundred thousand dollars a year and parking his first brand new car in our garage, was eclipsed by his stress in a job that forced him into the wrong mold. He was over fifty when he finally decided to inventory his strongest skills, gifts, and passions and make a drastic life change. Ultimately, my parents sold their ocean-view home and car, bought an RV, and now thrive on traveling and doing volunteer construction projects for Christian camps, churches, and outreach ministries. My dad’s joy has returned, and he beams with enthusiasm recounting the numerous practical ways he has touched others’ lives.
Continue reading ‘10 Clues To Your Child’s Calling’
3 Critical Leadership Lessons from a quick glance visit to Liberty University
I had never seen Liberty University and, like most people, had only a caricature knowledge of its founder Jerry Falwell. Standing in Lynchburg and seeing a campus that is now reaching (with internet) some 50,000 students, I couldn’t help but be inspired. Here’s a few thoughts about leadership that struck me as I spent little more than a couple of hours there. Nothing new but any leader can file them in the reminder category:
Vision matters – The power of leadership begins and ends with God putting vision into the heart. It’s a simple lesson but, while simple, can easily be skipped over in its importance in the crush of every day life.
Continue reading ‘Leadership Lessons from Liberty’
I hope everyone takes the challenge to read through 1 Chronicles 13 – 16. You can take things to a whole new place in your life if you do. Below are the points we’ve been addressing out of those passage in our study of worship. Worship is so fundamental to our calling and identity as a church, learning and developing ourselves on a deeper level from the Bible can lead to greater fruit, greater connection with God and greater impact in the world.
Worship is:
(There are not definitions but principles surrounding it)
Deciding – not feeling
Celebrating – reverence can be expressed in shouts, dancing, instruments, enthusiasm.
Continue reading ‘Defining Worship:’
Thrill
One of the greatest thrills of my life is standing in our services and being overwhelmed by the music coming from both stage and the congregation. The intensity levels have always been high but it looks like they keep going up. Sometimes I stand and just give thanks because I know I am standing in the middle of answered prayers. There was a day several years back when we only longed for and prayed for what we now experience every Sunday — a sense of free, passionate, give-it-all-you’ve-got worship. I love having a place where I can sing at the top of my lungs, shout until I’m hoarse, and clap until my hands hurt. What a rush.
And, when those times strike me, I often sense the inevitable nudge from the Holy Spirit that says: “Build on this. Take it deeper. Fan the flame”.
Continue reading ‘Gearing Up for the Worship Series’
I cannot stress enough how important and rewarding it is for all of us to become conversant with the content of Romans. My challenge is to have all of us read the entire book over the next three weeks. It’s not really THAT long. I would encourage anyone who can to take the time to read it all in one sitting. It takes less than an hour. Then, go back through it piece by piece each day. If you can’t take that kind of time then do what you can, however small. I have included my sermon notes because the sheer volume of material can be a little overwhelming. I can’t wait to see what God does through our study of this amazing book.
Romans
1:17 = Summary statement of whole book
UNDERSTANDING ROMANS
1) We are not righteous
Continue reading ‘No More Mullets: Romans Notes (Part 1)’
http://www.vimeo.com/5789336
In thinking about what we want to accomplish in the next year and our vision for the church, we’re reminded of the importance of prayer.
We might as well say it: we’re in a weird spot with more questions than answers at this point.
Edge growth at 11 is stuck for the time being. It’s prime time and we have filled it. Edge 9 has enabled us to move more people in and we should continue to do what we can do to fill it too. Then what? Where do we go in the short term? Do we invest in setting up another site even before the mall? The mall is currently beyond our reach financially. We have to grow into it.
And, it’s no secret – the Summit is in decline.
Continue reading ‘Summit-Edge Vision Questions’
http://www.vimeo.com/4279850
Meeting with the architect about the Elder Beerman store did exactly what we hoped – it gave us an understanding of what we are realistically looking at. The hope and dream of the Mall is still in place. But, our main question was – is conversion of the place a 1 million dollar project or a 10 million dollar project? The answer: honestly, somewhere in the middle of the two. To cut an auditorium into the building with all of the structural work and steel it would require would run from 4 – 5 million. That’s the brutal fact.
Continue reading ‘WSM Updates’
