A Response to our Struggles

This was my response to a good friend's email earlier. He is going through a hard time and I wanted to encourage him. I have seen him at his highs and lows over the past year and a half and his integrity has endured. As a result, I can say with confidence that God is moving in His life even though the circumstances seem to point to His absence.

I wanted to share this email here because I believe many of you are going through the same challenges. The economy is bottoming out, your family is walking a tight rope, your spiritual strength is waning and you need to hear God's voice this morning. I hope getting to see a behind the scenes peak at my personal communication with a friend encourages you:

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I was reading in Nehemiah this morning writing furiously because God was speaking to me in a way that is atypical in my time with Him. Here is some of the fruit of what He taught me this morning...I think it might be for you too!

11 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days 12 I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.

13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal [a] Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. 14 Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; 15 so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. 16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. (Nehemiah 2:11-16)

You are not at the peak of despair, but the beginning of the inspection process! The promise of God's Word is clear in this passage as it lands not on the frustration of the torn down walls, but on the promise of the work that will be done. It sounds like you've got some ruined walls in your life right now, but the walls are not the point, the walls only provide a good workshop for God to continue building his greatest work yet.

Know this: You are not trying to face life with the courage of a mighty warrior, you ARE a warrior and as such you HAVE courage! God has brought you this far and He is taking you on.

4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever. (Psalm 23)

You may be heading into the valley today, but God's plan always has been, and always will be, to take you THROUGH it! Don't faint in the process, embrace God's timing, continue to rely on Him and look forward to the day that you have come THROUGH the valley. By definition, there is always a mountain top on the other side of the valley.

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"Remember, the teacher is always silent during the test." - Pastor Steven

A Lopsided Approach to Lack...

Every time Heather and I get into a situation where money starts to get tight we end up having the same conversation, "We need to cut back!"

"Cut back" usually means stop eating out, buy less groceries, don't drive around so much, make coffee at home instead of going to Starbuck's (Heather's standard suggestion...).

If it's really tight we'll start thinking through other things we could cut: Cable? Internet? clothes? Heat?

In thinking through this the other day I realized that our approach is very lopsided. We are good at figuring out ways to cut back, but what about figuring out ways to increase our income?

If I'm at a yard sale with $50 bucks in my pocket and I see a nice Honda Collection, Project H leather jacket that a guy is selling for $100 I've got two options: talk him down (cut back) or go get more money (increase my income).

Here's the principal: if there's a shortage there are two streams to consider the one flowing in and the one flowing out.

In personal finances increasing your income is often not an option, especially in the short-term, but that just might be the answer in other areas of our life.

As a father I have it good right now, I've got one kid that gets my undivided attention. When I get a second, third and fourth kid, however, I can't approach my love for them with a "cut back" mentality. Dividing my love 4 ways won't benefit anyone in the end. No! I need to figure out how to increase my income. How to love 4 kids with the same intensity as I loved 1 which means I need to increase my income.

The same is true for you in many areas of your life. You're too busy at work to volunteer at church. But having a "cut back" mentality when the options are cheat my boss, or cheat God only guarantees that someone loses. Instead, do the hard work of figuring out how to maximize both options. Get creative and go for the win/win.

What Fire?

Welcome to another installment of Friday's Fun Family Facts... (This was a tradition that I had at the beginning of this blog's life that I thought I would pick back up, at least for today. To read some of the other entries you would need to scour the archives looking for titles with words like tee-pee, diarrhea, Starving Artist etc...)

So, I was a curious kid!

We had found a family of rabbits hiding under a gigantic blackberry bush behind our barn. In an attempt to catch one of them (I think we had just read Brier Rabbit) we dug a hole and buried a metal 5 gallon bucket in the ground. I think we were hoping that one of the rabbits would accidentally fall into the bucket and we would be able to keep it, and pat it, and love it and call it George...

Years later I rediscovered said metal bucket buried in the side of the hill behind our barn. I had to cut away the grass that had grown over the top of the bucket and when I did I discovered 5 gallons of water and slime...

Now, before you judge me let me give a few disclaimers about what you're about to read:

1) I was way too young to know better; probably about 14...
2) I was bored.
3) I was home alone.
4) I knew that Gas was flammable, I just didn't know that it floated...yet.
5) I was NOT anticipating that the floating gas would flow over the lip of the bucket and stream down the hill in a snaking, spreading, conflagration of fear and tumultuous panic scaring the virgin landscape of the once beautiful yard.

So having seen the water in the bucket I made the VERY logical mental leap that I should pour some gas into the bucket and light it on fire to test the questionable theory that gas was, in fact, flammable.

It burned...

Thankfully, however, I was able to beat the flames into submission using a 6 foot piece of flashing that was beside the barn.

Upon extinguishing the fire, I did what any normal 14 year old would do...I took a quick glance around to make sure that no one had seen any of this, wiped the sweat and charred grass from my forehead, turned, walked casually back to the house, and pretended that nothing had happened.

Amazingly, no one ever found out. the most I ever got was, "John, why do all the hairs on your forearms look like that?" to which I just grunted and said, "I don't know."

Mom...Dad...I promise this was the only time I almost burned myself alive using gas.

...behind the barn.

...without a thorough plan for what to do if things were to go terribly wrong.

Best Practices or Bold Prayers?

I was at a conference recently when a speaker asked the question, "Are you working from best practices or bold prayers?"

Seemed like a good question on the surface...it got some "amens".

After thinking about this idea for a few weeks however, I started to get a little frustrated by it. In my thought process I kept pitting the best practice against the bold prayer and every time I would come up short. I don't think it needs to be that way.

In other words, I came to the conclusion that the question would be better phrased this way, "are you working from bold prayers and then best practices?" I believe that we need to ask God for the boldest thing we can reasonably ask for, and then work VERY hard to achieve those ends using the BEST practices we can.

So you ask God to bring back your kid (sister, friend, parent, spouse, etc...) who has wandered away from the faith (bold prayer) and then you get to work living a life worthy of the calling you have received humbly bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:1-2).

The greatness that God has called us to as the body of Christ requires both bold prayers AND best practices.

If you aim at the "best case scenario" and miss you've still hit something in proximity to the "best case scenario"...still not bad!

Leadership Lesson From the Birds

Have you ever seen those huge flocks of birds flying is gigantic swarms. They sway back and forth and heave and swell...it's kind of freaky, like you're watching gigantic insects or something. (check out this link if you have no idea what I'm talking about...)

I saw one of these flocks the other day while I was waiting at a stoplight and as I watched thousands of birds swarming back and forth. I started to notice that the movements were actually started by small pockets of birds. the whole group would be flying one direction and then, seemingly, one lone bird would turn around and head back another. Inevitably, other birds would follow and new movement would swell in the new direction.

It occurred to me while watching these freaky birds that this is how I feel in a lot of situations as a leader. I'm not typically the archetype "goose at the front of a perfectly formed V..." where I set a direction and everyone falls in line... More often, I feel like that one stray bird in the midst of thousands clamoring to make the vision I deem most important a big enough deal to sway others and create movement.

In some ways, I like it like that...it's comforting to know that you're being followed by people who chose to follow me. This is what I've discovered in my experience: learning to create a following when people have a choice to follow you is the ONLY way to create a REAL following when people don't have a choice.

Butler Campus Volunteers

Volunteers, I wanted to post a VERY serious post as a way to say thank you for all that you do. Yesterday, we had one of the largest attendance days we have ever had at Butler with 1366 people. Thanks for staying committed to the vision of seeing people far from God filled with life in Christ.

Reason #1: You get to experience really cool things to and from Butler Campus. Consider the following:












Reason #2: You could be driving this (which seems worse to me):












Reason #3: You will have great role models who will teach you about hard work and discipline like our wonderful graphics designer Ryan Hollingsworth:












Reason #4: We have great health care:












Reason #5: We get to turn these:












Into These:

To the volunteers who make it happen: thank you for your dedication! You are making a significant difference in the lives of people who are coming to Elevation Church.

We Have All Lost Our Minds

We are psycho at Elevation Church...

At Butler High School where I am the Campus Pastor, our parking team is crazy!

The greeters, they are neurotic!

Ushers, yep, they're "off their rocker"!

First Time Guest volunteers, First Impressions Team, Volunteer Headquarters people, Ekidz workers, Production Volunteers, Lobby Team members, Connectors, Volunteer Coordinators, group leaders and yes, even the staff have all lost their minds...

We are freaks! We actually believe that by waving, smiling, pointing people to their seats and/or parking spots we are making a difference in people's lives. Our volunteers work, sacrifice, show up early, stay late, and give everything they have every Sunday, because at the end of the day we're all clinical...we believe that it actually matters!

And you know what, it does! Today I had the amazing priviledge of leading someone to Christ in my office. The best part of the story is that she was only in my office because the volunteers at the Butler Campus were faithfully tending to the details this Sunday. As you were waving and pointing people to their spots, or greeting someone with a smile or directing that person to their seat, there was a woman coming to church for the first time. That same woman was so welcomed by you and so touched by the worship experience that you make possible that she found her way to my office today and accepted Christ.

Butler Volunteers - we've said it hundreds of times before - but the sermon starts in the parking lot. And when you show up to do what you do, people far from God pull into the parking lot, feel welcome, hear the powerful Gospel and respond...Don't miss it! You are part of this story!

Thanks for your sacrifice and dedication...for yet one more person you really are making a difference.