Family

My family came in last night for christmas. I haven't seen them in 5 months. Today we went shopping, then went downtown to see the national christmas tree. It is so good to see them! They are one crazy crew. And to top off the day my Mom scored a WII at Target (she had no idea what a feat she accomplished here in NOVA). My wife told me about a month ago that she wanted one and I had been trying (unsuccessfully) to get my hands on one for a while. All in all a great day.

Something Brett said...

Brett said something to me the other day that has revolutionized the way I think about my job. He told me that my job is not to teach people how to be disciples. My job is to make disciples - who make disciples. I thought that was a profound subtlety.

Squidoo!

I just found this great new website called Squidoo.com. This is a great knowledge sharing website that allows you to create a webpage about something you know a lot about or something you are passionate about. It is kind of like a wiki-network of knowledge. So if you know how to fix a certain problem with a computer or car you can create a page so other people with the same problem can come to your page and learn how to solve it! This is something that is going to be huge in the future. In fact google just began working on their own version of this site - so you know it is a good idea.

Check it out!

you can check out my site on fun churches here

What's up

I am working on something right now that makes me crazy excited! If you are a NLer then you know we are currently trying to create a system of discipleship that works well. Right now I am working on something that I hope will revolutionize the way we make disciples. Here it is- A Personal Spiritual Development Plan. Or what I will call the PSDP. Sounds boring you say... well imagine being able to identify 3 things that you want to work on over the next 3-4 months and then being able to track your progress. Take prayer for instance- How cool would it be to say, "Over the next 3-4 months not only do I want to pray more I want to learn everything that I can about how to pray and how to have a real relationship with God through prayer" and then to have tools and resources at your disposal to help you accomplish this goal? To be able to let your life group know what you are working on so they can help challenge you and share how they pray with you? How sweet would that be? I can't wait to get this thing in your hands!

Coaching

For a long time we have been talking about how to coach our life group leaders... I have swayed back and forth on whether or not this is something that we can bring off and what benefits coaching could bring us. One thing that I have become convinced of is that we need leaders to see themselves as pastors. I saw this article on churchstaffing.com the other that explained some of the similarities between being a pastor and a coach. I thought I would pass along part of it.

"What are 4 or 5 key coaching principles that have direct application to pastoring? 
Here they are, in this order: Asking Questions, Active Listening, Action Planning, Providing Accountability, and Giving Affirmation. In short, coaching is NOT giving people a weekly pep talk! It is interacting with them as Christ did with his disciples with great, open-ended questions that get people to think on their own and solve their own problems. The coaching process helps people land on specific steps of action they fully own and follow through to completion. As they do, coaching holds them accountable for achieving those actions and provides generous amounts of positive praise along the way.If we believe, truly believe, in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and if we believe, truly believe, in the priesthood of every believer, then we will honor those beliefs as we facilitate people to grow, not force them to grow. At the end of the day, I believe this approach results in permanent change. "

- Bill Zipp (former pastor turned professional coach) 

The attacks

Have you ever noticed how every time we find ourselves on a spiritual high satan seems to attack? I have a friend who recently had a spiritual break through who now seems to be facing tremendous attacks. I think this just goes to show us that if we feel like we are going through the junk we must be doing something right. So if you are going through a hard time right now it might be time to examine what you are doing and just keep doing it. Chances are you are ticking Satan off!

The brutal truth

One of the books that I am reading right now is called Reveal. It has been really eye opening for me. The subtitle of the book is: where are you? The book was written by two of the higher ups at willow creek who discovered through some yearly surveys a trend that was really disturbing to them. Upon further (very intense and scientific) study they realized that they had been judging whether or not people were becoming disciples by how much they were participating in church programs. Their discovery was that was not a good way to find out how people really felt about God. Their data showed that most people were involved in activity but not spiritual growth. Troubling research.

That was a longer explaination then I intended. Basically the question that they ask coming out of this book is: where are you? As I begin this quest I feel like it is an appropriate question for me to ask of myself as well. Where am I. To be honest the answer scares me. I am afraid to even answer this question, but I feel like I cant go any where without knowing where I am starting from. So here goes.

Where am I? Well I am at home sitting at my kitchen table typing this blog right now. Where am I with God. I know that I Love Him. I know that I need him. I know I need to get closer to him. 

Where are you?

Purpose?

I have been thinking about writing a blog for some time now. I think more for my benifit than anyone else's. In fact all for my benefit right now. I am currently working to figure out what in the world does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus. This would seem like a pretty easy task for someone who has a degree in preaching and theology... but I find myself at a loss for words. I am hoping that this blog will end up being the record of my story, my quest to find what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. That truly is the only reason I am doing this. I am hoping the reflection that this blog will bring and make me do will be shape my conclusions.

So here is my strategy: I am going to read the bible everyday as much as I can and record what I find about the disciples as they followed Jesus. What did Jesus make them do what did he say to them. What are the implications for me.

That is it. I don't know what else to say. I hate blogs that take up time without needing to so I will keep it short as much as possible.