BLeach

The Great Family Adventure

I'm in Ohio this week preaching the evening services at The Great Family Adventure (formerly known as family camp). The atmosphere in the first two services has been charged with faith, and God has already been changing people. My dad is teaching in the morning services, so we're creating a great memory by being able to tag-team minister this week.

Thanks to everyone back home in our church who have been praying for me this week. God is providing concrete answers to your prayers. Please keep them coming. I can't wait to share the wins with you when I get home.

The only downside is that I am in Buckeye territory. Everyone seems to be an Ohio State fan, which means I need to spend more time in prayer to receive grace for my ministry to them:)

One of my heroes was here preaching a youth camp last week, and he was right about the internet! The connection is pretty hit or miss. But I'll try to post thoughts and updates as I can.

Leah is preaching this Sunday at Church of the King, so we are having a blast. She is preparing for her message while I am preparing for mine. And I've been so proud to watch her being led by the Holy Spirit as she prays with people around the altars. So much fun to be here with her!

I never want to take opportunities like this for granted. Such an honor to stand before people and be used by God!

In Joe Dumars We Trust

I love all the Detroit Sports teams, but if I had to rank them in terms of passion it would probably look like this.

• Pistons
• Lions
• Tigers
• Red Wings

So naturally, I tuned in with great interest to see who the Pistons would select last night in the NBA draft. They used the 29th pick on DJ White from Indiana, then traded him a few minutes later to Seattle for two second-round picks. Then, with Seattle's 32nd pick, they selected Walter Sharpe.

Like most people, my first reaction was "Who?"  Sharpe was so far under the radar that ESPN didn't even have video to show on him after he was drafted. But it didn't take long for the details about this kid to start hitting the Detroit media outlets (like the fact that he has narcolepsy). The first paragraph I read in the paper this morning went like this:

The Pistons just drafted a narcoleptic, academically suspect, unknown player from a mid-major conference who was arrested less than a year ago. What's not to love?

So, we'll see. I'm thinking Joe Dumars knows what he's doing:)

The Making of a Series::3

This week I've been reflecting on my process of developing a sermon series. You can catch up here and here.

I just finished a series on the Book of Philemon called Changed. Changed was an example of a recon series. My inspiration came came from Lifechurch.tv.

This Sunday I'm beginning a new series called What If? What If is an example of a download series. Jesus dropped the idea in my heart on May 17 during a time of prayer and worship. He actually gave me the series title, sub-title, and overall structure for each sermon. My prayer is for our church to experience a faith explosion this summer by imagining how our city would change if we all incorporated strategic disciplines and truths into our lives. This week I'll kick it off with the question, What if we all walked the way of love?

And speaking of love, I think I may be falling for the woman who designed the series graphic:)

The Making of a Series::2

Yesterday I outlined three of the primary ways a sermon series comes together for me. You can catch up here.

To be honest, I've struggled with the feeling that recon and leadership are less spiritual than download. I remember as a young preacher in high school and college, feeling like I wasn't qualified to preach unless I'd heard an audible voice from heaven. Talk about pressure! But I've come to see recon and leadership as valuable steps in the process of planning a balanced spiritual diet for our church.

Recon keeps me in touch with larger themes in the Body of Christ. if Jesus is not only building local churches, but THE Church as well, it makes sense that the Holy Spirit would be communicating broad themes to the Body of Christ as a whole. Tracking what's happening in the hearts of other pastors and the life of other churches helps me stay connected to those larger themes.

Leadership is a gift of the Spirit, which seems pretty spiritual to me. As we grow as leaders, Jesus gives us the insight and wisdom to recognize missional needs and to provide biblical, theological, and practical leadership through preaching.

Of course regardless of how the inspiration for a series comes, it's always my privilege to do the hard work of studying Scripture, mining illustrations, uncovering application, and bathing each message in prayer.

The Making of a Series::1

One of my greatest tools as a teaching pastor is the sermon series. I find that preaching through a series helps my teaching stay focused, strategic, and memorable. Also, in our church, it takes about four weeks for me to see everyone on a Sunday morning. This dynamic is even more pronounced in the summer as more of our people travel. Preaching a four or five week series is my best chance of communicating strategic themes to the most amount of our people.

While each series we do is fairly unique, I've found that there are three primary ways that a series comes together for me.

• Download: When download happens it feels like I have a USB cable connecting my heart to heaven. Sometimes it's an impression that's later confirmed by outside sources. Other times I feel as if Jesus hijacks my journal and writes an outline for me. I remember one airplane ride when I pulled my journal out during takeoff, and by the time we landed two hours later I had the outline for several sermons. As you might imagine, I really love it when this happens:)
• Recon: I also watch other pastors and track the ideas God is giving them. Bloglines is my recon gold mine! Every week I come across posts from various pastors who are outlining their current sermon series. From Bloglines I email the post to myself and then file them in outlook. I have more ideas than I could ever possibly use.
• Leadership: Pastors are leaders. We are stewards of a vision and like Moses carry the responsibility of leading God's people somewhere strategic. So every year I plan a few series that are mission-specific. For us these include recurring themes like racial diversity, spiritual community, personal spirituality and love for our city. I also try to frequently come back to foundational doctrines like atonement and the authority of Scripture.

If you are in a teaching ministry, how does a series come together for you?

Monday Reminder: Why I Do What I Do

Thanks to Hillside Christian for the inspiration!

Weekend Rewind

Really enjoyed the weekend!  Here are some highlights:

• On Friday Leah challenged me to take the whole day off.  I hate to admit it, but since I've started school I've had to use most of my Fridays to either attend class, travel home, or work on assignments.  It was good to spend the day resting with my bride.
• We watched Return of the King.  The good news is that Frodo still gets the ring in the fire.
• Leah and I are fasting sugar until Labor Day Weekend.  I spent a few hours this weekend wondering how I let her talk me into that one.
• Saturday morning I gathered with a group of men from our church from breakfast.  Mike Kern challenged us to be leaders.
• I finished another paper for school.  I can't describe the sense of relief when I get one of those done!
• Leah and I spent some time on Saturday looking at houses.  We're wading out into the housing market.  It's not the best time to be selling a house, but if we can we'll be looking at getting a sweet deal on the other end.  Praying for wisdom.
• We had such a powerful service this morning.  I finished the Philemon series and looked at the story from Paul's perspective.  I love that as an old man he would adopt a runaway slave as a spiritual son and then risk his own reputation and resources to see him restored.
• We closed the service by having several of our older people pray for those of us who are younger.  I love the generational diversity in our church.
• Tonight we opened our home and invited everyone who visited the church within the past two months.  We've really been working hard to connect with new people and it's paying off!
• The week starts early tomorrow with a leadership meeting at 7.00 am.  Can't wait to get back at it!

I Married an Author

In May Leah and I had the opportunity to have lunch with Ed Stetzer.  She shared with him a dream she's had to write a book encouraging twenty-somethings who are experiencing a "quarter-life crisis."  Ed encouraged her to submit some of her writing to the publishing company he works with.

She did it, and Threads (the young adult division of Lifeway), just posted her article on their website.  Check it out!

Way to go baby!  I'm proud of you:)

The CIA at COTK

I just finished a meeting with our four CIA interns (children in action).  Four of our fourth and fifth graders are serving in a summer long internship here at the church. 

I'm really proud of JT for putting this thing together so well.  The kids are at the church four days a week, three hours a day, doing just about everything you can imagine:

• Planning lessons
• Writing skits
• Filing music
• Organizing the children's ministry database
• Organizing storage closets
• Planning outreach events
• They even designed and setup their own CIA Headquarters (a room downstairs). 

I get to spend about fifteen minutes with them every Thursday to talk about ministry.  Today I told them that while I did four internships before I started our church, I didn't do my first one until my first year of college.  That means that all four of them are way ahead of me.

I also told JT earlier this week that she is now a master of delegation.  Keeping four kids busy four days a week...not bad:)

I love the fact that our leaders work so hard at discipleship.  These kids are getting a first class ministry experience before they even start junior high.

Counting my Blessings

This morning I spent some time reflecting on the honor that I have to lead Church of the King.  Here are ten things I feel so grateful for.

• The call of God: I don't deserve it.
• Encouraging dreamers: I regularly counsel people who are thinking about the future.
• Changed Lives: So many disciples in our church are being transformed.
• Pastoral care: It's an honor to love people through tragedy.
• Building leaders: God has blessed us with some of the best, and I believe in them.
• The power of the Holy Spirit: So humbling to be a channel He moves through.
• Preaching the Word: Probably my greatest joy as a pastor.
• Planting churches: It's in my blood.
• Introducing the lost to Jesus: Still nothing else like it.
• A God-sized vision: Blessing a city.  The whole city!

How has God called you to serve, and what do you love about it?  I hope you know the thrill of waking up every morning to the tune of mission.