Doing It

It's been a while, so here's a thlought to hold you over until I get back to regular blogging.

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Choosing your worship style.

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The above photo is from a youth convention in 2001... and yes, that is yours truly with the ponytail.

One of the biggest battles within Christian congregations is "worship style." Now, one on the outside looking in, may be wondering, "Battles? Isn't there enough going on in the world to not be having battles amongst yourselves?" One would think so... wouldn't one. Never the less, this is an issue that has caused major fights between people who have chosen to continue the mission of Jesus (yes, that was a loaded statement; read it again if you like).

To some people, style is everything. To others, the One being worshiped is everything. To others, they just show up out of routine or duty.

Most people in emerging generations understand that the word worship has been taken out of context, and that it really has more to do with how you live day in and day out than what songs you sing or what rituals you partake in once or twice a week (more or less). The &qu…
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Milestones: #6 A Tallit, a Prayer & the Healing of My Soul

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Collecting milestones of life/ministry.  These are "moments" when Jesus has changed/guided/shaped my life, which I am now using to build an "altar of remembrance" to Him.  Milestone #6 is an answered prayer that God used in a special way.

Sometime around the beginning of 2004, I was depressed.  It was worse than that.  I was sliding slowly into a deep depression.  There were a lot of factors that led to this, but ultimately it was burnout and misplaced priorities.  I was over 5 years into running as hard as I could as a youth pastor - I'm talking "no days off" type of running hard.  I lived, breathed, an even slept youth ministry.  If you were to cut me back then, I would have bled youth ministry. Profusely.

They say hindsight is 20/20; a friend recently said "hindsight is x-ray vision!" I came to the realization that my priorities were very out-of-whack in hindsight.  Had I been able to see it then, most likely the depression I was heading…
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5 Things Thriving Churches Have in Common

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In the weeks immediately following my last Sunday as Lead Pastor with Oaklawn Church of God, Hot Springs, AR, my family had the opportunity (a very rare one for us for the past 18 years) to visit 7 churches.  Each of these congregations seemed to be doing better than "just surviving."  I would say that each of them is a "thriving church."

I'm defining thriving as "growth by the addition of numbers of people, and a spirit of focusing outward instead of inward." With this in mind, there were some things that I (and my lovely wife) noticed they had in common.

5 Things Thriving Churches Have in Common

1) Jesus is the subject!  In each church, there was no doubt about why they did what they did - Jesus.  Jesus was the center of what we experienced, and the diversity of celebrating Jesus was refreshing! While there were numerous activities and projects mentioned in each one, not one single time did it appear that anything other than Jesus was the m…
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