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How Satan attacks leaders (pt. 2)...

Satan also attacks leaders through:

Dissension/Division

• Gossip
• Not honoring spiritual authroity in our lives
• Not handling conflict God's way and going to the person we have an issue with! 
  

 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NLT) — 10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

Disappointment

• People who let us down.
• People who don't make it the entire journey.
• People who abandon us.

Defeat

• "I'm a failure."

• "I'm finished."

• "I'll never be any better."

• "I can't do this."

• "God's done with me."

When we're attacked by Satan in one of these seven ways, we need to keep in mind God's word through the apostle Paul:

Romans 8:31, 35–39 (NIV) — 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

How Satan attacks leaders (pt.1)...

During our series on Angels and Demons, I mentioned that evil demonic forces seem to attack leaders first and hardest. Why? Get the leaders, get the followers!

I didn't have time to unpack everything I wanted to say, so here are specific ways Satan and his demons attack leaders.

Disasters

• Illness
• Pain or physical suffering
• Death of people we love    
• Ministry disasters (the wheels falling off right before an event, etc).
• Financial calamity

Distractions

• Satan will seek to use disasters for the very fact that that they can become distractions.
• "putting our fires..."
• exchanging busyness for effectiveness

Draining people

• Know what persecution is? People giving us a hard time because of what we believe and do!
• "Extra grace required" people
• "High maintenance" people
• Negative people

Destructive attitudes & behaviors

• Negativity
• Inappropriate thoughts
• Inappropriate habits
• Inappropriate relationships

As a leader, have you felt Satan attack you in these ways? Would love to know!

Stay tuned for Part Two of this series!

 

 

 

Making better decisions...

Decisions. They define us. Our life is largely determined by the decisions we make. How do we become a person that makes good decisions on a normal basis?

The answer is actually pretty simple:

1. Seek out relationships with people who make good decisions.

If you want to become a wiser person, seek our relationships and/or mentoring relationships with people you look up to that seem to have made great decisions in their life consistently. Someone who has become successful in the area you want to be successful in; someone who;s kids turned out right; or someone who had a great marriage!  Take them to a cup of coffee and ask them: Could I hang out with you from time to time just to learn from you? Scripture tells us that we become more like the people we hang out with!

"He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Prov. 13:20

2. Ask for advice from the right people.

I almost NEVER make a decision without talking it through with at least two people. This is perhaps THE reason our church has not had a train wreck! However, advice is like bacteria. You can find it anywhere. Bacteria can also be medicine or breed sickness! We need to be careful to take the right kind! To become a better decision maker, we've got to take advice from the right people! People who: love God; who have a track record in area of expertise we need; people we can trust; people who will tell us the truth even if we don't like it.  Often times, I will seek 4-5 different opinions on a particular decision before I pull the trigger. I can not tell you how many times this has saved my butt. Literally. It's scriptural, by the way:

"For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure." Prov. 11:14

Coaching, mentoring, counseling, friendships, small groups, bosses, teachers, and pastors are all resources to help us make better decisions. God has given us the gift of people to build wisdom into our lives, We just have to DECIDE to take advantage of it.

Our Worship Planning Process (pt. 2)...

As I mentioned yesterday, our message and service planning here at Mountain Lake is not flippant, by any means. Much strategic prayer and planning goes into nailing down what God wants us to say and how He wants us to say it to the people. Here are a few more elements that help us in our worship planning process:

5. We work a individuals and as a team in our message preparation process. One of the reasons I love NOT teaching every week at our church, is because on those weeks, I get to spend more time with God, seeking Him about what He wants us to say to His people IN THE FUTURE. Honestly, the future can be as near as two weeks from now, but more often stretches out to months in the future.  Each week, our primary communicator studies alone on Monday & Tuesday. Then, on Wed AM, 2-3 of us get together to listen to where the communicator senses God is leading him. We speak into that and help confirm and strengthen a strong direction and even application of the message.

6. Collective Service Planning and Creativity is a TEAM SPORT. On Monday afternoons, several of us meet to plan and examine the collective worship services. This process is not left to one person either. Tod Nichols, our Worship Pastor, does a masterful job of driving this process, and the team of several pastors who have creative bents join this meeting to bring their spiritual gifts to bear on the process. In this meeting we nail down final songs, creative elements, announcements, and orders of service for the next several weeks of worship. 

7. We plan months into the future. Twice per year, we meet ALL DAY to look 6 months into the future, specifically regarding our worship services and message series content. This past week, our team met to nail down our next six month teaching calendar. I brought a sense of what I felt like God wanted us to say, and allowed our top Ministry Leaders to speak into that, push back on that, bring new ideas to the table, and confirm where I feel God is leading us. We get highly creative at these meetings, which are always held off-site to stimulate that very thing.  We had an awesome meeting this last Monday, and I feel SO GREAT about where God is taking us, what He wants us to say, and HOW we're going to say it! I can't wait to begin to share SOON what He has laid on our hearts!

8. We remain open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Often, over the years, we've had a great plan, and then we begin to sense God is up to something different; that something that wasn't in the plan becomes more urgent; or less urgent. We sense God leading us to go a different direction in our teaching. In this event, we never allow the teaching calender to control the Spirit. We always allow the Spirit to control the teaching calendar. Many times over the years, we tweaked the calendar as we've gone along. Other times, we've worked the plan just as we had laid it our months later. IN either event, we listened and cooperated with the Spirit of God!

Largely due to this process, and the leaders who helped shape it, this Fall is going to be one of the most spiritually impactful times in the life of our church! Mountain Lakers, buckle your spiritual seat belts!

Our Worship Planning Process (pt. 1)...

One of the questions I'm often asked, both inside and outside our church is: "Where do you guys get your sermon series ideas?" Today, I'll unpack the answer to that question a bit.

1. What's important to God? What is important to God's heart and mission? These ideas drive our teaching calendar.  Our five marks of a follower of Jesus are already pretty clear from God's Word: Spiritual Growth, Using our Gifts, Visionary Giving, and Greater Impact. God wants every Christian to grow consistently in these areas. These ideas from god;s heart largely drive our teaching calendar each year. We just need to figure out how to communicate them. We never allow creativity to drive what we teach on. We allow God to drive what we teach on.

2. What is God teaching me? I have come to realize that when God is speaking to me, He is not just speaking to me for my benefit. He wants to use what he's teaching me to teach others.

3. Where are the people? Scripture challenges church leaders to KNOW , PAY ATTENTION TO, and CARE for "the flock of God," the church. What are God's people dealing with or struggling with? What's missing in their lives? What's needed in their lives? What do God's people need to know RIGHT NOW? These go near the top of what God has us teach on.

 4. WHEN should this be taught? Once we begin to put together WHAT  God wants us to teach on, we THEN begin to discuss WHEN during the year would be the best time to share this with God's people? Our worship planning process helps us accomplish this. I'll discuss this in more detail tomorrow.

Stay tuned for pt. 2 of this post!

What I learned @Disney World a/b Guest Services (pt. 2)

* We need to make it our business to know the business. I was amazed at my inability to stump any Disney World employee with a question that I had. I am not a typical man, I will ask for directions quickly. I love to ask tough questions to people to see how they respond. I purposely asked several employees random questions about Disney World, attractions, showtimes, etc. and they ALL knew the answers! It was obvious to me that not only did Disney employees know their task, they knew what was going on in ALL of Disney World! Questions: As a church member, do I make it my business to know what;s going on in my church? If someone were to ask me about a ministry area I'm NOT involved in, would I be able to answer their questions? As a Pastor or ministry leader, am I communicating effectively to my area of ministry, not just what's going in my corner of the ministry world, but all of the church?

* Regardless of how we feel, "the show" must go on. It was 90+ degrees most days while we were at Disney. I am sure the employees were miserably hot...some of them in long sleeve uniforms and costumes! I also witnessed all kinds of ugly comments/behavior from tourists to Disney employees. The Disney "Cast Members" never flinched. Never whined. Never ceased to smile. Never got impatient. Never allowed their tough day to be imposed on a guest's day. Never. As guests service volunteers each week, we must remember that our tough day should NEVER rub off on guests. We need to be prepared to make every guests's day their BEST day ever to church, regardless of how we feel. We must be prepared to love and serve well and maintain our "game faces" no matter what. We can't get frazzled because a certain volunteer didn't show up, and let it ruin our day. If we do, we could ruin a guest's day. We need to be prepared to make every guest's day their BEST day ever to church, regardless of how we feel. Or it could be their LAST day. Questions: What kind of spiritual mindset am I in when I approach the church campus each week? Do I have my "game face" on when it comes to being prepared to welcome and interact with guests?

What I learned @Disney World a/b Guest Services (Pt. 1)

Disney World and the church are in the same business: The people business. The church just has a higher goal for people than Disney does. Disney's goal is to deliver fun and entertainment to people. The church's goal is to deliver the message of hope, joy, and eternal life to people. So would you think Guest Services would be more important at church or at Disney? Sadly to say, however, Disney does it better most of the time. We could make some observations from them about how we can deliver our message more effectively to people by HOW we relate to guests on our church campuses each week. Here are a few observations I made about Disney and Guests Services experiences, and their implications for the church.

* Everyone is in Guest Services. They don't have a customer service area or a customer service team at Disney World. EVERYONE is in Guest Services. I mean EVERYONE! As the church, we need to realize every week that guest Services should never be limited to one ministry area. Every follower of Jesus should view themselves as a member of Guest Services! We are all there to serve guests each week! Question: If I really understood this, would this change at all where I park, what time I get there, where I sit, or or how quickly I leave each Sunday?

* The guest is always the most important thing No matter what they were doing, over and over again, Disney World "cast members" (not employees) would stop in their tracks to answer ANY question we had. Always. Never seemed rushed. Never seemed like we were interrupting what they were doing. Never. Every one of them seemed to be convinced that the guest was the most important things at every moment. As guest services volunteers in the church, we need to remember that people ARE our business! Not a program. Not a task. Not a service. People are the church. The church IS people! This means music, programming, curriculum, and meetings are not the most important thing. Loving God is best expressed by loving people! Questions: If I really understood this, how would it affect how I interact with people each week at church? How often do I have a conversation with guests at my church? Or do I only talk to non-guests?

Stay tuned for part 2 of this post...

My call to MLC (Guest post by Eric Echols)

 
Over the past 8 years, I’ve had the privilege of serving at one of the fastest growing churches in America. It’s been an incredible ride where we’ve seen the church grow from 1800 to over 10,000 people attending weekly. In the midst of this incredible move of God, He also began a move within me. A year ago, I felt God telling me that I would one day serve as an Executive Pastor.

 

While God’s call on our lives was clear, where He was calling us mattered…A LOT. We wanted to be a part of a church that is serious about reaching people far from Him. We wanted to plant our family in a place that is striving to be the people of God he’s called them to be & daring to believe God will use them to change the world.

 

This is why I believe God has called us to Mountain Lake Church.

 

First of all, I was fired up when I heard our Awedacious goals. I knew then that Mountain Lake is willing to take risks to further God’s Kingdom. I’m excited to be a part of a movement that is going to send Mountain Lakers across the street and across the world for the sake of Christ.

 

Secondly, I am pumped to lead the amazing Ministry Team God has placed at Mountain Lake. Several of our newest pastors, including Blake Stanley (students) and Mitch Corn (families/children) are passionate about reaching the next generation for Christ. Also, I am continually impressed with the way Todd Nichols is challenging the way we worship God and how John Shepherd creates community and discipleship through our Life Groups.

 

Finally, Nicole and I have fallen in love with Shawn and Tricia Lovejoy. Their heart for the church and for our community is contagious. I am excited to partner with Shawn and follow his leadership at my new post at Mountain Lake.

 

It’s hard to believe that I will officially begin my ministry as the Executive Pastor at Mountain Lake Church this next month. I’m truly humbled by the opportunity to serve this church and eager to be a part of the movement of God started here 10 years ago and continues today.

Bigger on the inside...

God led me to a Scripture passage today that rocked my world. I pray that He uses it in your life the same way:

 

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (NIV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

God reminded me once again today, that perhaps the most vital choice I make every day is to focus on the inside; or focus on the outside.

 

Focusing on the inside means I will focus on:

 

Spiritual fitness vs. physical fitness.

Sacrifice vs. Comfort.

Faith instead of Feeling.

Character vs. Charisma.

Ministry over materialism.

Generosity instead of Greed.

God’s perspective, vs. the problems.

What I can’t see vs. what I can.

The Audience of ONE vs. the audience of everyone.

The Eternal vs. The Temporary.

 

Here’ the good news: If I am bigger on the inside than I am on the outside, then I won’t worry about the outside! When the outside changes, the inside will still be solid and secure!  God reminded me today that there’s great peace, fulfillment, and reward through focusing on the INSIDE over the OUTSIDE!

Question for you: Are you more worried about being bigger on the INSIDE? or the OUTSIDE?

Difference between busy-ness & effectiveness...

These days everyone is busy. However, the temptation is to think that just because we're very busy, that we're being effective, or productive. However, I am more convinced than ever before, that we can be VERY busy and yet be VERY ineffective.  How can we be BOTH effective, and busy. The answer is incredible simple to understand and incredibly difficult to do.

Being both busy and effective requires:

• Doing the right things: WHAT'S important.
• At the right times: WHEN it's important.
• For the right reasons: WHY it's important. 

Example: Returning phone calls is an important thing for me. HOWEVER, spending time with God, His Word, and preparing to teach are the MOST IMPORTANT things for me. So...I don't take many phone calls or return many calls in the mornings, because that is when my mind is the freshest and I want to give my BEST mental energy to God, and my most important ministry task. If I answered every phone call at everyone else's whim in the mornings, it would be impossible to devote large chunks of uninterrupted time when my mind IS the freshest to this task. So I have a 30 min-1 hr time slot each day when I return most phone calls. If I can;t connect with that person THEN, I try at the end of the day.

This approach to managing my day allows me to be both busy and effective. What about you? What are ways you think you could better be both busy and effective? 

What are YOUR right things? Right times? Right reasons?