*** I warn you this is a brutally honest blog.***

When asked about my recent leave of absence many asked, “How was your vacation?” or “How was the sabbatical?”  Let’s get this straight – it was neither a vacation or a sabbatical.  I have to be honest – those five weeks messed up my routine.  I felt the pressure that many “stay-at-home Moms” feel.  My schedule was wide-open family stuff from daylight to past dark.  Moms – I feel your pain.

The most important part of my day is my personal time with God.  My schedule over the last few weeks wasn’t as conducive to that as my regular “pastor – dad” schedule.   ATTENTION: THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR SPENDING TIME WITH GOD.  Here is how Pastor Mark Batterson said this in a recent blog on a similar subject, “If you want to grow spiritually, you need a consistent diet of Scripture.  In fact, you will never outgrow your consumption of Scripture. There is no substitute. There is no supplement.”

While I was out playing the role of “disneyland dad” as I call it… running from big moment to big moment… I realized that I developed the following symptoms: I was grouchy, selfish, irritable, complaining, short-tempered, tired, lazy and spiritually numb.  The symptoms were easily recognizable by all, especially my spouse and kids.  Someone actually said, “I will be glad when you go back to work!”  Work is not what I needed.  What I needed was Jesus.  I was missing my daily time with God.

I need Jesus – bad.

For me, this was an eye-opening experience of how easy it is to fall-out of the routine or discipline of spending time with God.  Every week at Bethel Community Church we stress the importance for every follower of Jesus to read the Bible.  A huge part of growing in God is spending time with God through worship, prayer, and His Word. Reading your Bible is much like physical exercise… every day that you miss it, it is much easier not to do it the following day as well.

One more warning for pastors and those in ministry… Bible reading has to be for personal devotion.  Often times we read/study to see what God would say through us instead of spending time with God to see what He wants to say to us!  As pastors and leaders, we must recognize the priority to be a Christian first and spiritual leader second.  We can only minister from what is within.

I need Jesus – bad.

Here are a couple of Bible reminders on the subject:

• James 4:8 – Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
• Matthew 5:6 – Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
• 1 Peter 2:2 – Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.
• Psalm 119:72 – The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
• Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
• 2 Timothy 3:16 – All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

My response?  Repent. To steal a line from the late King of Pop, “make a change.”  I believe it was Einstein who said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  Confess your mistake and start fresh today.  Proverbs 28:13 – “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”

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Perry Noble, NewSpring Church

Perry Noble is the Senior Pastor of NewSpring Church, located in Anderson, SC.  He is a great blogger.

I wanted to pass along this blog that he recently posted with five questions we should all wrestle with from a recent meeting he led in South Carolina.  He developed these questions from 2 Corinthians 2: 1-7.

Five Questions We Should Ask Ourselves

Last night I had the honor of speaking to the men at NewSpring Church that were ordained into the ministry…I challenged them (actually, I challenged everyone in the room) to wrestle with five questions…

#1 – Am I Obsessed With His Mercy or My Ministry?  II Corinthians 4:1

If we are obsessed with ministry we will never feel good enough…if we are obsessed with His mercy then we can truly live in the freedom that there is no need to prove ourselves!

#2 – Am I Being Careless or Cautious? II Corinthians 4:2

OR…I asked it this way as well, “Is there anything you are doing privately that, if it became public, would disqualify you from the ministry?”  If we are going to live lives that are above reproach we must be intentional about it…it will not happen by accident!

#3 – Am I Obsessed With His Word or My Words?  II Corinthians 4:2

Our theology HAS to be the driving force behind our methodolgy…and the only way to solidify sound doctrine is to be obsessed with it!  We can get so obsessed with what we want that we lose sight of what God wants (like people meeting Jesus!!!)

#4 – Am I A Fighter or a Flake?  II Corinthians 4:3-4

We are at war…and not with other people (Ephesians 6:12) but rather with a very real enemy who works hard at blinding the minds of unbelievers…and we will either step up to the fight or run from it!

In fighting we have to do battle with…

A. Critics – they will always be around…the people who know everything you are doing wrong but don’t know you.  They lash out at you–but not out of love and or concern…but with a self righteous/arrogant attitude.

B. Conforming – People try to make things “normal and natural” rather than begging God to continue to do the supernatural

C. Clock – Many times we think if we work harder then God will do more–thus causing ourselves to set an unrealistic pace and burn ourselves out!

D. Control - No matter how hard we try–we can’t make someone receive Jesus, we can’t control His Holy Spirit…we are not in control, HE IS!

#5 – Am I Making Much of Jesus or Much of Me?  II Corinthians 4:5

The temptation in ministry is for others to see how good we are…and in doing so not fully understanding that God most often puts some of His greatest gifts in his weakest vessels!  (II Corinthians 4:7)

MY PASSION is not to be an innovative leader but rather an obedient servant who hears the voice of the Lord and does what He says.  The church does not need my creativity and ingenuity but rather the power of HIS HOLY SPIRIT as only HE can truly change lives!

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I hope that each of these questions has challenged you as much as they have me.  Great stuff!

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Last week, my two oldest girls (Gracie 10 & Mollie 6 – almost 7), and 3 staffers from Bethel Community Church traveled to Chantilly, VA a suberb of Washington, DC to our annual summer conference for Every Nation Churches and Ministries.  the church was hosted by Pastor Brett Fuller and Grace Covenant Church.

I was reminded / learned so many things from my week in DC.

From the Conference:

1. Its all about Jesus. ” I have done nothing that He hasn’t done through me.”
2. Thank God for the Cross.  “The Cross changes everything.”
3. The local church is the hope of the world. “Church must be a place where people can deal with their pain.”
4. We need to be more confident about the Gospel we preach. “Men are made for the Gospel.”
5. God has placed me in an amazing family.
   • At our core in Every Nation our mission is and will always be church-planting, campus ministry, and world missions.
   • We in Every Nation place a high value on spiritual family and discipleship.  “Undiscipled people will never change the world.”
6. Leadership is about sacrifice.  “Its about giving up so we can grow up.”
7. We have to over-communicate!  “Most of life’s problems are because we fail to communicate, miscommunicate, or are misunderstood in communication.”
8. We have to count right.  We have to guard our hearts in counting and count for Kingdom purposes.   “If we are getting our identity and sense of self-worth from numbers we are set-up for a fatal crash.”
9. There are many “I don’t know how” moments along any journey of pioneering.  You just gotta keep going and be a learner!
10. Relational moments are sometimes sacrificial, but always worth it.  It was not only good for me to connect and go deeper relationally but my girls have many new friends and were impacted by the relational component!

From Grace Covenant (the hosts):

1. Excellence gives God glory.  Just walk in to the church and there is an aroma of excellence.
2. There is no substitute for friendly.  “Hospitality sets the table for what the Holy Spirit wants to do.”  The staff was friendly and warm.
3. Team ministry is fun and effective. There was a great sense of team and the ethnic diversity was heaven-like!  Pastor Brett has a great team.  “Great teams make great coaches.”
4. Pro-bowlers make good ushers. Former Washington Redskins players like: Charles Mann, Art Monk, Darrell Green, Ken Harvey, and others… led the hosting team for the conference as they do for GraceCovs 4 Sunday morning services.  I would love to coach these guys in my church.  They modeled excellence, humility, and Christ-likeness!

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Main Entry:           staff
Part of Speech:     noun
Definition:             employees of organization
Synonyms:             agents, assistants, cadre, cast, crew, deputies, faculty, force, help, officers, operatives, organization, personnel, servants, shop, teachers, team, work force, workers

One thing I learned from coaching high school athletics is that you need to surround yourself with good people. Your success (or failure) in many ways is directly related to the people that are on your team, staff, and in your organization.  I am blessed as Lead Pastor of Bethel Community Church to be surrounded by a bunch of first round draft picks.  We have a great staff and TEAM.  (Thanks to all those who have picked up my slack during my leave!)

Team Ministry is one of our values at Bethel.  We do all we can to minister in teams… from the pulpit to the parking lot, and from our volunteer ministry teams to our small group ministry.  So many ministries are built around “the man of God.”  We do all we can to build as a team of ministers doing life together in family to bring salvation and healing to our community and de-emphasize “the man of God.”

Recently, I read, “Apple Inc. shares have climbed 63 percent since Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs went on medical leave, signaling investors are confident the maker of the iPhone can succeed without its co-founder at the helm.” This is the kind of church we are striving to build!

One word about character… the same principle can be applied to every area of our lives.  It has been said that, “you are the 5 people you hang around.” If that is true we need to evaluate our top 5 often.  We need to make sure that our top 5 friends personify the lifestyle and character that we desire in our own lives!  Doesn’t the Bible say something about this? 1 Corinthians 15:33:

• NIV – Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
• NASB – Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
• ISV – Stop being deceived: “Wicked friends lead to evil ends.”

Feel free to leave a comment or send to a friend.  Be looking for lesson #8 coming soon!

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You’ll get a kick out of this, but as leaders we all need to take it to heart. View the video below – it’s 3 minutes & 44 seconds.

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Steve Murrell is the senior pastor of Victory in Manila, Philippines; a director of the Real Life Foundation; and the co-founder and president of Every Nation a worldwide family of churches and ministries.

Here’s another simple leadership lesson from the lousy leaders in the Book of Judges…

When the evil Ammonites were armed and ready to attack, the sorry “leader” of Gilead wisely said, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will he head over all who live in Gilead.” (Judges 10:18)

In other words:
- whoever leads is the leader
- whoever takes the risk gets the recognition
- whoever takes action gets the position

Why? Because leadership is action not position.

If we lead when the opportunity presents itself, eventually a title and position will be presented. But if we wait for the title and position, we deserve neither, because leadership is taking action not waiting for position.

Great post – be sure to visit stevemurrell.com.

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