Archives For humility

Tattooed Blessings

July 10, 2012 — 2 Comments

If you read my post yesterday, I just got done reading a book called “The Tangible Kingdom” (you can go check it out HERE). The book is about getting out of the church and being with people through relationaships and through that, by your life style, they will inquire about what you believe and why your life style seems to have something that they do not… Jesus. It is an incredible book with a really interesting/practical concept. After reading it, prayed to God saying, “God, let me be more like this. Help me be a light everywhere I go and shine Your love by my words and actions.” God answered big time.

I got a call two days ago from my tattoo artist. Usually the only time we talk on the phone is to schedule my next appointment, but this time was different. He asked me for a favor.

Now to give some back ground, Mike (my tattoo artist) and I have been friends for 6 years. I got my first tattoo from him and I have been going to him ever sense. He is not Christian, actually, he is probably one of the furthest guys from being any form of religion I know. He is all tatted up, a super tough, ruggid, crude guy I have ever met, but he has a heart of gold. And we have developed this unique friendship. We have hung out many times outside of me getting tattooed and he has even attended some church services with me. Most of our late night tattoo sessions turn into theological talks. It is pretty sweet. I have been praying for this guy since the day I met him.

Back to his favor. He called me up to tell me that him and a few other guys are starting their very own tattoo shop. It is a huge risk for them and they are telling their current boss this week that they are quitting to start this new place. They have put everything they have into the place. And he called me and asked if I would be willing to come and I quote, “Pray a prayer of blessing over the new or some  **** and pray for us telling our current boss. We need all the help we can get and I thought you would be the right person to do so.” I was floored. How awesome is that? Have I ever done something like that before? Nope. But what a great opportunity to hang out and minister with 3 guys who are open to having a pastor come and check out and pray over their new shop. I have been praying for an opportunity to talk to these guys about God, and here it is placed right in front of me, 3 days after I pray for the opportunity.

That is just the thing. We usually pray for God to make us bolder, patient, to have opportunities to talk to people about Jesus, or fill in the blank with whatever you want. But does God automatically make you any of those things? When you pray for boldness does he right then and there make you bold? No! Rather he gives you the opportunity to be bold, and it is up to us to take the opportunity. Same thing with anything, when we pray for something for us to be more __________ (whatever you want to be more of), He will not make you that thing, yet He will give you more opportunities to be it.

It is up to us whether we are going to open our eyes and take the opportunity and use it to glorify God.

I prayed for this to happen and God answered with an opportunity and I am going to take it. That should be everyone’s daily challenge. What opportunities are you missing because you’re not taking them.

Colossians 4:5

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. (NIV)

In Devotional, God, high school ministry, Leadership, Ministry Idea, personal growth, student ministry, Uncategorized, Youth Ministry , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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The Greatest Lie Ever Told

June 12, 2012 — 1 Comment

Spiritual warfare is not real. All spiritual warfare is are angels and demons running around with the bad acting of Keanu Reeves in the movie Constantine…NOT. This is not the case. Whether you believe it or not there is a battle going on for your soul, and it is vicious. But we need not to worry. Do you want to know why? Keep reading.

The Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies. I am not a huge comic book movie fan, but Heath Ledger playing the Joker is unreal and the whole story behind it is incredible. The Dark Knight is the classic “Good vs. Evil” plot. Both ends are on equal playing fields trying to stop the other from either destroying the city or saving someone. Both sides have an equal chance of winning but because it is the movies the good guys usually win.

I think this is the way we think of the idea of spiritual warfare.

Whoa Justin! Spiritual warfare? You are kidding. That is not a real thing right? Satan is a liar and con artist and I believe his most successful lie, his most successful con of all time, is to get people to believe that he is not real and this whole idea of spiritual warfare is just a joke. Well, if you have never heard of spiritual warfare, or you feel like there is an inner struggle going on within you right now, I cannot stress enough that right now there is a battle going on for your soul. There is a battle going on right now for your love, attention and affection. We were made to give our love, attention and affection to God but the enemy will do whatever it can to detour you from doing so. Whether through sin, temptation, or business, it will do anything to take your focus off of God. THAT, is spiritual warfare.

With all of this, most people think of spiritual warfare as a really great “Good vs. Evil” movie. That both sides are on equal playing fields and have an equal chance of winning over the other. Fortunately this is not the case when it comes to our God and the enemy. If we look at Scripture at all of the times Jesus interacted with someone who was possessed by a demon or an evil spirit, you will see there is no equality anywhere. The demons are submissive to who Jesus is. Jesus is dominant over them.

Read Luke 4:31-36 and Luke 8:26-33 and notice the language used when Jesus is talking to the evil spirits. Notice how the spirits bowed down, were afraid, and OBEYED what Jesus had to say. There is no equality there. Jesus is superior to them.

If there is battle for our love, attention, affection and our soul, looking at these passages should give us a sense of relief because THE WAR HAS ALREADY BEEN WON through Jesus and what He has done for us on the cross. God is dominant over anything that is trying to detour us away from following Him. The war has already been won but we are still left to fight the daily battle. If we go into a game that we know already what the outcome is going to be, don’t you go in with more confidence? God is dominant over whatever sin, temptation, or battle is going on for your worship, we just need to recognize what He has done through Jesus and the war is over and we can battle daily knowing the outcome overall.

God is bigger than any sin, any struggle that we have. Thank God there is no equal playing field on the battle ground but that He is dominant over anything and everything and carries our soul with tenderness and care.

AMEN.

In Devotional, God, high school ministry, personal growth, service programing, student ministry, worship , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Service Programming: Creative/Brainstorm Meetings 201

June 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

Last week I posted on the first part of our creative process for Saddleback Church high school ministry. If you missed it, click HERE and you can check it out and catch up.

From our big brain storm meeting where everyone is involved, we have a smaller meeting the following week with Josh (high school pastor), Parker (creative master, video extraordinary), Travis (mind can think of anything funny/can literally build anything) and myself (the guy who tries to reign everyone in on one point). This meeting is to take all of the ideas from the big meeting and start the conversations of putting feet to some of the ideas that the students had and make them happen in the services. This is where we talk about what ideas go best in certain services, what sermon illustrations can actually happen, and what videos we think we can actually do make service just that much more fun.

How I process this meeting:

Dont be too specific – This meeting is not to hammer out exactly what we are doing for each service. The previous meeting was to get ALL ideas come to the board for the entire month of services. This meeting is to start to place some ideas (which not all ideas will be used) into the service we feel will best fit for the topic of teaching. This is just to get a basic over view, and a generic plan of action of who, what, and why we want this idea into the service. The specifics will be hashed out in one more meeting (which I will post next week).

Let it soak in – Coming from the previous big meeting, there are a ton of ideas that are being thrown left and right. It can be a lot to take in all at once. I know for me, I let all of the ideas come, and I just sit back and help navigate to make sure they don’t stop. I do better when I have all the ideas and I can look them over and have a few days to process them. then I can come up with a better way of implementing them into our services. That is why I dont like to have a meeting the next day. Give it a week.

Make it intimate - I don’t mean have a dimly lit room and candles everywhere. I mean this meeting needs to be intentionally smaller than the main idea one. I want just a few people, the people who will actually be making the ideas into reality for services. Instead of the bombarding of ideas, this is where you take the existing ideas and talk about what is actually possible. You need to be able to discuss and be able to banter back and forth. This is how amazing ideas come out of good ideas.

Allow discussion and disagreement – A lot of the time, we are left to thinking we are limited on what we can do because we have not tried something before. If one person feels strong for one idea, and I dont feel like I can pull it off, there is aback and forth and a push of encouragement to pull it off. We all push each other to do things we never have done before, or things that have never been done before ever. I’m excited as we keep on pushing each other for the fall. Big things coming out of Saddleback HSM.

Be strategic – At this point, we are a month out. During this meeting we talk about what ideas should go to what service and how we should do them. We know how much time we have and this is the meeting we talk about what it will take to get the idea done. We dont hash out the specifics, but just the general idea for what needs to happen and how much time this will take us. We need to be up on our game and know when to start moving.

Are you a slow processor? A fast processor? Is there anything you think I am missing? Would love to hear your input!

In creativity, Devotional, God, high school ministry, Leadership, personal growth, service programing, student ministry, sweet articles , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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8 THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND IN REGARDS TO CONFLICT AT WORK/CHURCH

May 25, 2012 — Leave a comment

 I have posted something from Perry Noble before. You can go and check out his leadership blog HERE, but I just had to post this. When it comes to conflict in the church environment, you would think that everyone would know how to deal with it. A lot of times, it can be super messy. This is why I thought Perry Noble’s in how to deal with it is awesome. Read it and enjoy:

#1 – Email DOES NOT WORK!  (This would also apply to texting as well as any form of social media!)    

When conflict use to arise with me and someone in the office I used to walk to my desk, log on to my computer and fire off an abusive email, several problems with this…

  • It is the act of a coward, I would do this so that I would avoid a eye to eye conversation.
  • It removes the fact that I am actually dealing with another person…if I type an email I don’t have to look them in the eye and removing that obstacle allows me to say things to them through typing that I would NEVER say to them in person.
  • It often drags out the conflict way longer that it should be.
  • It can easily be misinterpreted, thus causing new conflicts.

#2 – Handle Conflict Quickly – The Bible is VERY clear in Ephesians 4:25-26 that we are not to allow the sun to go down while we are angry.  If we allow something to fester inside of us what usually comes out of that is NEVER pretty.

#3 – Always Assume The Best About The People You Work With – If you don’t get anything else in this article then PLEASE get this, LOVE ALWAYS ASSUMES THE BEST ABOUT SOMEONE…ALWAYS!  If you hate/can’t stand the people you work with then THE BEST thing to do is to begin to ask the Lord, “what is wrong with MY OWN heart?”

#4 – Remember that Email Does Not Work!  

#5 – Stop Expecting People To Read Your Mind – Often times people have said something hurtful to me that they did not perceive as hurtful.  I would become angry with them and actually tell myself, “well, they should just know that hurt me!”  NEWS FLASH – THEY DON’T KNOW, and they won’t know unless I am man enough to look them in the eye (because email does not work), assume the best about them (which automatically assumes they didn’t mean to hurt me) and CALMLY walk them through why what they said wounded me.

#6 – Stop Waiting For Them To Approach You – If you know there is conflict and you know there is a problem to be solved but you are “waiting on the right time” or “waiting on them to come to me” then I would encourage you to read what Jesus said in Matthew 5:23-24.  Maturity is when a person is willing to seize responsibility instead of just waiting on something to happen.

#7 – Never, EVER Go Public When You Have Not Even Attempted To Talk In Private – Too often people take their conflicts online when they have never even attempted to handle them in a private matter (sort of goes against what JESUS actually said in Matthew 18:15 as the first step in dealing with conflict!)  People are way too quick these days to read/hear something that someone says and automatically fire off a tweet or blog post without ever attempting to have a conversation with the person that they assume “got it wrong,” causing them to feel like they need to be the savior of the world by jumping to conclusions and making accusations about things that they actually have zero knowledge of.

#8 – And finally, do not forget that Email does not work!  


In creativity, Devotional, high school ministry, Leadership, Shout Out Friday, student ministry, worship , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Service Programing vs. Relationships: Can You Do Both? (Part 2)

May 16, 2012 — Leave a comment

Like I said in part 1, I am a pastor first. That is what I feel like I have been called to do. I love talking with people, about Jesus, and genuinely hanging out with students before and after service. One of my favorite times on the weekends is the 5-10 minutes before service starts as students are sitting down and just going around meeting and talking to people. I love it. Being a pastor, it would be obvious that I am relational.

I think this is the number one thing when it comes to student ministry. Being relational and being authentic in that relationship is the number one thing students’ want/need. If you do not have the relationship side down, there would be no kids to put on a service for.

Jesus led in a way that was relational lead ministry and we can take after Him in that. For people who are all about programming services and that is their main focus and we are supposed to model after Jesus in our leadership and we see Jesus being relational, how do we answer that? We simply cannot just ignore the fact that the entirety of Jesus’ time on this earth was for a relationship with all of us. Jesus just hung out with people, eating, drinking and talking. Much like so many of our students do after service. At least with us, In-N-Out and Chick-fil-a are flooded with students simply just sitting, eating, and hanging out. In Matthew 9:10 (ESV) Jesus is reclining at the table with people, it doesn’t say using Planning Center Online to sort out the next time he was preaching, but just reclining and hanging out.

We need to be able to do this as well. If Jesus took the time to just hang out with some intentional relational ministry, we for sure need too.

The service itself is important yes, but it means nothing if we don’t have relationships to go with it. “Real ministry” happens the 15 minutes before and after the service, and the service is just helping them sit and focus on the area you are speaking about so you can then do the “real ministry” (the prayer, the hanging out, the conversation about what stood out to them, etc.) afterwards.

For some students, they will bring their friends just because they know you are the person they need to talk to about something. The relationship got them there, kept them there, and got them to Jesus. For some students, this wont be enough, they are stand offish and they are only there because the service is exciting and is a cool place to be on a Saturday Night. This is fine too, because if the service is getting them coming, if we are doing our jobs right, that will ultimately turn into a relationship which will turn to trust and then will turn to prayer.

Without relationships, we are missing the purpose that Jesus came to earth for us…to have a relationship with us.

But what about the service? If we have a boring service, then they wont bring their friends? They will be bored to death and won’t come back! These are real questions that I have thought myself. I fall into this way of thinking, but it also is my job to run a successful service. This is something I want to unpack next post.

What do you do on the relational side? Where are some of the best places you hang out and have those “real talks”? 

In creativity, God, high school ministry, Leadership, Ministry Idea, personal growth, student ministry, Uncategorized, worship , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Ignite Conference: Eclipse

May 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

I am pretty excited to announce that I will be teaming up with some of my favorite people from a few different churches, from a few different student ministries, for a great night of worship here in September. Like I posted yesterday, there are no “others” in ministry. It is US, united. I have always wanted to partner up with other pastors and create a night where many groups, from all over, can come to one place and be encouraged that they are not alone, that other churches are doing great things as well, and groups can come together and worship.

In comes IGNITE. This is a team of pastors of a few local churches in the area who want to break the mold of “independent” groups by UNITING students and IGNITING the passion of Jesus inside.

This is not a ONE church thing. It happens to be at ONE church. But joining our groups together in worship is the first step in uniting our next generation of leaders from many churches in one place to first IGNITE their relationship with Jesus so they can unashamedly claim Him as Savior to the world. IGNITE exists to ignite a generation with a passion for Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit to live transformed lives, to accomplish the will of the Father.

It’s a FREE session on September 8th, 2012, to start this journey of breaking down youth group barriers and start to join and work together. I would hope you would want to jump in. Here is a recap of last year:

For more information please go to http://www.igniteusnow.com

In creativity, God, high school ministry, Ignite, Leadership, Ministry Idea, organization, personal growth, service programing, student ministry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Refresh Monday: Just Google It

April 9, 2012 — 2 Comments

The other day I was hanging out with some family and I was talking to my little cousin who is 8 years old. I asked him a question that he did not know the answer to so he said, “Give your phone, I’ll just google it.” I was taken by surprise 1) that he knew what google was and 2) that he knew google would be able to get any answer.

It got me thinking though. This is a normal thing for me as well. I will go straight to google for answers instead of opening the Word of God first. With todays internet and how fast we can get information, within seconds, it is changing the way our generation expects answers and information… immediately. We are used to having answers RIGHT NOW. We want instant gratification, instant information, instant answers.

That is why we turn to Google instead of God first. Google is instant, God is not. He can can be, but He usually isn’t. Waiting on God is difficult, and it really can seem impossible.We want information on why things are happen NOW, we want the WHY things are a certain way NOW, in our instant timing, according to our own plans. But God does not operate on our time, and when He think that he does then that is when we become disappointed. God has a greater perspective of life’s events, and His perspective, plans, and schedules are perfect and holy, because He is perfect and holy. The Psalmist tells us “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30). If God’s ways are “perfect,” then we can trust that whatever He does—and whatever His timing—is also perfect. When we come to grasp that fact, waiting on God is not only made less difficult, it actually becomes joyful.

We may have it an instant Google-like fast answer, but it will be perfect when it’s on His time. We can trust that.

In Devotional, God, Leadership, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Being “The New Guy” on Staff (Part 2)

April 4, 2012 — Leave a comment

Last Wednesday I started talking about things pastors who are transitioning into a new ministry (me included) need to keep in mind while adjusting into the ministry. If you didn’t see that one, click HERE and you can jump to it real quick and read it. Here are some more thoughts:

 Shake Things Up A Bit- They hired you in that position for a reason. This doesn’t mean change everything right away, if you read my last post that is exactly what I don’t do. But leaders are different and you are different than the person who last had your position and in all honesty, keeping everything the same is not wise either. God has made you unique from everyone else. That means he has given you different leadership skills, creativity, passions, etc. than the last person. This makes you unique, and if you were to be exactly like how the last person was you would in a sense kill off some of the uniquess of the skills God has given you. You cant be the copy of someone else because they are not you and you are not them.

Deciding when this change needs to come is the tricky part. Trust me, I wish there was an easy textbook answer that says exactly when to apply change. Change to a certain aspect of the ministry requires prayer, planning, and seeking advice from others who can help you discern when to apply the right change and when.

Be a Sponge-  At first, you almost need to act as if you are completely new to ministry. If you are coming into a team, it really does not matter what experience you have until they begin to trust you and your leadership. Your experience counts for something, a foundation to work off of, but understanding the culture and context of the ministry is key. You will destroy everything you have planned for the ministry if you don’t first understand the culture, the ministry history, the core leaders, the core students, and the back bone of the ministry first. Take time to absorb everything around you so you understand why they do certain things a certain way to help you for when it is time to adjust some things. This first will establish trust and show you are a learner first.

Transitions are not easy, but they are necessary sometimes. These are just some things I have learned as I still am in transition. Do you have anything else to add? Any other tips?

In Leadership, personal growth, Transitions, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , ,
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Getting Out of the Way

March 12, 2012 — 2 Comments

“Humility is having an accurate, low view of ourselves and seeing ourselves as God sees us.” – Karl Graustein

It’s a funny thing to plan and to plan and to plan for something and expect something great to happen because we are the ones who planned it. As if we have any power to make certain things go a certain way. When it comes to planning and organizing a church service, programming what goes where, what flows the best, this video will be funny here, it is really easy to think that YOU ARE the main reason why people enjoyed the service and got closer to God. In fact, being really honest, when I am not the one in charge of setting it all up and planning it, I cringe a little bit because it is not going as good as it would have been if I planned it. Wow. I actually think that. How awful. Yet, so many of us have this tendency to think this way with many areas of our lives. That if I am in control it will go much better than what God has planned. Wrong.

The past few weekends I have done nothing but sit back and watch services. It was humbling. “You Own the Weekend” has been happening in HSM, and it is happening for the next few weeks as well. This is a time where students take over the services and plan, organize, shoot videos, and write the sermons and services. They have been amazing. God moved, and He will continue to move as students invite their friends to these weekends to share the Gospel. It is incredible. It has taught me that I don’t really matter. Yes, I know I really do matter to God, but that it’s the realization that it doesn’t matter who is “planning and running the show”, just as long as we are preaching the Gospel and asking God to move and He will. He has.

I had nothing to do with the planning or creativity of the service like I am accustomed to.

It made me realize that I am not the one who allows God to move in a place, but God has allowed me to be apart of His movement.

I have been nothing but blessed by the students who have lead the past few weeks, and I am so pumped to see how God is going to move in the next few weeks through the other teams of students. I will just be a spectator, and I am going to enjoy it greatly, and God is going to move just as He always has.

God doesn’t need our help to be seen and felt by His people despite how much we like to believe He “needs” us to do so. If we let Him, if we step out of the way, God will blow our minds with what He can do. We are just blessed to be able to be apart of it, that He allows us to do His work because with Him leading, it all means nothing and we are only doing it for our own glory, not God’s.

In personal growth , , , ,
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