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Fast & Furious Tuesday 6-30-09

Today is Mountain Lake’s first “Fast & Furious Tuesday, a day dedicated to prayer. and fasting as a family at Mountain Lake.

Why are we doing this?

Scripture regards several instances where God calls his people to cooperate in a fast. Just as God prompted them, we believe we are responding to the Holy Spirit’s prompting now. We know God desires our church to move deeper in our intimacy and in our relationship with Him.

Click here to read one of my previous blog posts for a  “why behind the what” when it comes to fasting.

But here, I want to simply take the MYSTERY out of fasting by posting the "dummies guide" to fasting, because I KNOW this is not something MOST of us do all the time!

Thanks to my friends at 12STone Church for some of these:

The idea behind fasting is to simply take our focus off of our physical wants, needs, and desires in order to better focus on our spiritual wants, needs, and desires. It is an intentional way for us to worship God and proclaim our need for Him. Though there are several relevant variations of fasting practiced in our current culture, we are inviting you to participate in a fast where we abstain from food in order to have heightened awareness of our craving for God.

(Please note, if you have any type of eating disorder, do not attempt to fast. If you have any kind of medical condition, please talk to your doctor before participating in this fast.)

Directions for ONE DAY Fasting

(Abstain from solid food for approx. 24 hours)

Choose one of these 3:

A ‘water only’ fast. (drinking only water for the day).

A water plus juice fast for the day.

Some will choose to drink water plus whatever they can get in a blender and through a straw for the day.

Choose one of these noting that ‘water’ (hydrating) is critical in all three. Also, please know that we are not prescribing the choice in liquid. It is entirely up to you, noting that there is no “wrong” or “right” juice or liquid to drink on your fast.

A Sidebar to the Family Cook (often Mom with kids)

All this sounds pretty spiritual if you don’t have kids in the house, if you don’t have to cook and see/smell food and you don’t have to nourish others! Some suggestions offered from moms in similar places:

Prepare meals ahead of time and freeze them, so less cooking needs to be done.

Pray while you’re preparing food for the kids. (and juice for yourself)

For the day of the fast, cut back on social activities for yourself/kids, and plan to have the slower/down time!

Get up early the day of the fast to have quality prayer time, you could also set up a quiet time with the kids off in a ‘special room’ to get some quiet moments to pray the day.

Other Thoughts:

While you are on your fast, consider having a partner to encourage you throughout the day. When meal times come around it can be hard to avoid temptation alone! In addition, be careful not to compare your fasting experience with someone else’s or elevate one kind of fast over another. If you haven’t done so before, try writing in a prayer journal and record your thoughts about your experience. While doing this pay attention to the Holy Spirit, as He often speaks to us in times when our minds and hearts are solely focused on Him. And finally, RELAX! There is no pressure in fasting. You can’t make anything amazing or ‘super spiritual’ happen while fasting! You might very well make it through your 24 hour fast without hearing anything specific from God. That is okay! The expectation is to SEEK God, letting Him know that nothing physical in your life is more important than knowing His love.

Here are some  other practical tips and ideas about today's fast. My advice is mainly for those of you that are new to this spiritual practice:

• Biblical passage to read on the subject: Job 23:12; Matthew 6; Luke 4:1-2; Joel 2:1-12; 2 Chronicles 7:14-15; 2 Chronicles 20; Psalm 121

• Make sure you replace food time with spiritual time. If fasting is not combined with prayer and God's Word, we're just dieting! Let's not kid ourselves! What's your plan to pray and listen to God today?

• Decide in advance of today what you want to pray for, and focus on, in your times alone with God.

• Drink lots of water.

• If you're a caffeine-a-holic, you may actually need a SMALL AMOUNT caffeine in the morning to fend off the world's GREATEST headache. 

• A small amount of juice at meal times can give you some much needed strength.

• Find someone who's on the journey with us today and schedule a time to meet or chat on the phone. Share with each other what God is teaching you today. End your time together with prayer.

• MAKE SURE you get a notebook or journal and WRITE DOWN anything you sense God may be saying to you. If God speaks to you, it MIGHT be something you want to write down!

Let me know how it's going!

Mountain Lake’s short-term multi-campus strategy…

Velocity Reflex…

As we mentioned yesterday, velocity can be defined as the speed at which something moves in a certain direction.  We may never have thought of it this way, but we’d all love to have velocity, right? Direction? Momentum? Making a difference? And getting there as fast as possible? That’s what we’re talking about during this series, and yesterday, we unpacked some HUGE EVENTS coming down the line designed to be used by God to give our lives and our church spiritual and mission velocity! Mark your calendars for these events:

• I’ll start with the biggest news and then back into everything else!                     On Sunday, Aug 9, we WILL celebrate our Grand opening of our                  New Worship Auditorium!
• Tuesday, 6/30: Our first “Fast & Furious Tuesday”: A special day (besides Sunday) dedicated  to seeking God’s Kingdom FIRST in an intensified way, in our our lives. We’re asking you to join us in a special day of prayer & fasting every Tuesday for the next 40 days (I’ll blog more about this first thing tomorrow AM).
• Wednesday, July 15: “MERGE: Revved Up” will happen at our N. Forsyth campus. On this night we’ll celebrate all that God’s done thru our W. Forsyth campus and also commission our latest church planting residents, the Hendersons as they leave to go back to Australia to start a church that changes the way people think about church!
• On Sunday July 19, our WEST and NORTH campuses will MERGE as we get ready to move into our new auditorium! This is going to enable us to have even GREATER synergy, and therefore velocity,  as a church (I’ll release a video blog on this later today).
• Wednesday, July 22: Growth Groups start back! We’ll begin  doing life together more, praying together more, and dreaming God’s future for our lives and our church more THIS WEEK!
• Friday 7/24- Saturday 7-25: We’re calling it: “V12”: an all night prayer event at Mountain Lake Church! We’re asking every person and family that calls our church home to nail down a 30 minute slot to pray at our campus. As a church we will pray all night, and doing so, identifying with Jesus: “One day soon afterward Jesus went to a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.” Luke 6:12 (NLT)
• Sunday August 2: Sneak Preview of our bldg! ON this Sunday we WILL worship in our new bldg for the first time. this is not our Gran Opening. Just a sneak preview!
• Sunday, August 2: On this same day, and we will also dismiss our church by services to go BE the church in our community the rest of the afternoon! We’re calling it: “Servolution”. Sign-up’s will begin in a couple of weeks!
• Sunday, Aug 9: Did I mention we’re celebrating our Grand Opening of our new auditorium in six weeks?! We want to be prepared spiritually, relationally, and missionally, to be the church that makes God smile! Get prepared!

As you can see, there’s a TON going on! Over the next 40 days I am praying that God pours out His Spirit on the families at Mountain Lake Church, changes us, and changes this community through us! Don’t miss out on the journey!

Tech Thursday: facebook and twitter will both change or die…

  Prediction: Facebook will change or die, and twitter will become ad-supported and take over the world, OR someone will beat twitter to the ad-supported punch and take over the world instead. Let me unpack this.  

I have about 900 followers right now on twitter and over 1000 on facebook. However, I plan on watching that change. Frankly, I spend 10 times less time on facebook than I used to, because I got TIRED of all of the cause requests, bday requests, fake Starbucks, and flair. I really got on facebook just to know what’s going on in people’s lives and let them knowing in VERY SIMPLE ways, what’s going on in mine.  Therefore, for about six months, I’ve had a twitter account that POSTS RIGHT THROUGH to facebook. Did you know it would do that?  I NEVER post anything directly to facebook anymore. My confession as of today is this: I don’t even visit my face book page more than once a day any more. It makes me tired!

So here’s my prediction: Facebook will either simplify or die. Period. It’s too busy now. Out of control. Too many apps. People will get tired of all the flair like I have. Tweeting is the future. Simple. Clean. To the point. Designed for busy people who want to stay in touch. However, twitter can not sustain itself, unless it becomes ad-supported. Get ready.  The proprietors are too smart to start trying to charge for the service. It would KILL  them. We WILL see ads and we won’t complain because that keeps it FREE! If twitter does NOT figure out a sustainable financial model quickly, someone will come on the scene and put both facebook and twitter out of business.  Remember, you heard it here.

So for now, my tip is this. If you haven’t already done so, get on twitter. Usernames are going  by the minute. Then post  on twitter  to facebook.  Here’s a great article on 5 ways to do just that.  THEN follow me! 

If you’re on twitter, get ready for ads  and banners or watch for the next social media mogul to emerge and ACT FAST.

Making our lives count…

 One of the big questions I think we all ask from time to time is: “How can I make my life count?”  We want our lives to stand for something, We’re all looking for purpose in a world that seems to be devoid of it. We desire significance.  Direction. Purpose. A clear bulls-eye. I don’t know about you, but I want to make sure my life counts!

If this has ever been the cry of your heart, get here this Sunday for the kick-off of our new series: “Velocity: Speed. Direction. Impact.” Get here!

We also have some HUGE NEWS regarding the future of our church to share with you this Sunday! 

On top of all of this, here’s a glimpse of some of the fun we’ll be having…WITH SPEED (yes, that’s me)!

Sunday Reflex 6/21/09…

Father’s Day was another awesome day at Mountain Lake! this year we felt like one of the greatest gifts we could offer men is the ability to laugh! We did a lot of that, too (see video below…). “Real Men of Genius” was a blast! Here are a few reflex…

• It’s hard to imagine our Exec Pastor David Putman as a Gangster.
• “Mr. Think you can do what you did in High School.” Hilarious! True!
• The Real Men of Genius thing actually had a point. We talked about the Men of Issachar in 1 Chron. 12:32.
• “Real men of Genius don’t know everything. They just know the right thing…and they do it.”
• Two categories of men: “Ready, Fire, Aim.” or “Ready, Aim, Aim…” What God is looking for is men who will seek Him, discover His plan, and THEN pull the trigger!
• “Most of us have a jacked up idea of what wisdom is really all about: Prov 9:10: Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding.”
• “Real men of Genius fear God more than the times.”
• I really believe we are able to encourage and challenge men like never before!
• Many men stood up committing to be men of wisdom & courage and praying that God would give them the  wisdom to know what God wants us to do, and the courage to do it!
• The resource Team told me we sold a record number of Message Cd’s! I guess that means God really used the message!
• The bands performed “Song for Dad” by Keith Urban! It was Good!
• Another awesome day at Mountain Lake!

Real Men of Genius Video II…

Real Men Of Genius Promo II from Mountain Lake Church on Vimeo.

P90X One year Review…

Should I have Tech Thursday?

OK…Anyone that knows me well,  knows I’m somewhat of a geek. I love technology and utilize it extensively in my life and ministry. I am NOT the most cutting edge guy in the world, don’t get me wrong. However, I’m ALWAYS looking for ways to become more productive and efficient in the ministry God has given me and our team here at Mountain Lake.

So I was thinking (that’s usually dangerous)  about doing a weekly post called Tech Thursday, highlighting the technology, both that I use, and I’m familiar with. I might even share some ideas  I have about future technology! I was thinking and hoping that I might be able to help Pastors, their ministry teams, their churches, and even business people become more productive and efficient by leveraging basic technologies that are out there you may not even be aware of. SO give me your feedback. What do you think? Will you tune in? Could this help?

The way a Pastor falls into sin…

Pastors have a HUGE spiritual bulls-eye on our backsides! We are targets of the enemy. Strike the shepherd. Scatter the sheep.  That’s the enemy’s strategy.

That’s why, more than ever before, I’m convinced that to protect ourselves as Pastors, we must NUTURE VITALITY. It’s the #1 Best Practice we talk about in  our churchplanters.com ministry and coaching network. To NURTURE, means to care for; pay attention to; attend to; feed…our VITALITY: our spiritual, emotional, spiritual, and relational strength! 

Below is just a simple list of practical ways to keep ourselves from being picked off by the enemy as Pastors. These are simple. But easier to KNOW and PREACH; than DO.  Here are a few (OK, more than a few):

• Read your Bible daily, and read portions of Scripture that have NOTHING to do with this week’s message.
• Take your off day Religiously. Burnout leads to spiritual failure and dropout.
• If you don’t rest, you will burn out. Period. You are not exempt.
• Tell you congregation you will NOT be out more than 2-3 nights a week.
• Keep office hours. Go home at 5 or 5:30 PM. People have to see their doctor, their dentist, their lawyer, and their counselor from 8-5. Spiritual counsel should be no different. You MUST have a life at night with your family.
• Don’t open your laptop after you get home.
• Don’t answer your cell phone after you get home.
• When you walk in the house after work, don’t be on the cell phone.
• Spend less time on Twitter and facebook.  Spend more time communicating with your family.
• Get secure in your own skin. The desire for attention or pleasing people is a flag that will get you in trouble.
• Confess your temptations or addictions to a trusted friend NOT in your church.
• Schedule a date night with you spouse ATLEAST once a month. If you don’t have the money, ask the church to pay for it. (my church doesn’t, BTW) Your church will, though,  if you ask them.
• Tell your congregation that the best gift you have to offer them is NOT a close relationship with every one of  them, but a close relationship with God and a close relationship with your spouse.
• Don’t just talk about ministry with your spouse. Start a hobby TOGETHER!
• Exercise! Flabby body=flabby mind=flabby spirit.
• Take walks with God early in the morning when you can talk out loud to Him and share your hurts, pains, struggles, and dreams.
• Get your spouse out of that ministry they feel tied to because no one else will do it. You’re burning them out.
• Have a family night regularly where you allow your kids to set the agenda.
• Have a hobby you enjoy by yourself.
• Tell your spouse you love them EVERY DAY!
• Speak positively of your spouse from the stage.
• Listen to friends that raise flags about your behavior.
• Don’t ever be in the car, or your office, or ANY PLACE alone with opposite sex with the door shut.  NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.
• Make the above policy for every Pastor on your Team.
• Don’t flirt, including online, or in emails! If you’re flirted with (and you will be), don’t respond, and immediately tell your spouse.
• Think about the consequences of your sin if carried out and found out. Who and how many will get hurt?
• Remember, pride goes before a fall, and you can not stand too close to a fire and not get burned.
• Make Nurturing Vitality the most important part of your job description.