Liveblogging the Ministers Retreat

Time for the last session.

David Putman: Breaking the Discipleship Code

What does it look like to be a missional follower of Jesus Christ?

Generally we don't really want to go "deeper" or have more "meat."

"I love technology!"

Rev. 3:20: it Jesus' church why isn't he inside?
Is it Jesus knocking on the door of my heart?

What does it mean to break the code? We must loose our religion and rediscover the centrality of Jesus and the simplicity of His ways!!!

If we can get back to Jesus and His purpose for our lives that is the answer to the problems in the world.

Follower= live like Jesus, love like Jesus, leave what Jesus left behind (people who live like him and love like him)

• LIVE LIKE JESUS

Phil. 2:5-8: The best definition of what it is to live like Jesus. I must decrease in order for Him to increase.

• LOVE LIKE JESUS LOVED

Jesus' love is totally impractical! When we think about love we think about what makes sense to us, but when we look at the Gospel we see a radical love that does not make sense!

• LEAVE WHAT JESUS LEFT BEHIND

Mark 3:13-15 Discipleship is Life on Life. "a gun goes a long way when you're in ministry"

We are going to become like Jesus!

Apostle Paul: "Come follow me as I follow HIM!"

Live Blogging the Ministers Retreat Pt. 2

Clay Ford Pt. 2

Will the next ten years be a decade of destiny or a decade of defeat?

Jesus is more interested in His people reflecting Him in hard times that He is in us being happy, affluent and comfortable.

We can't jump ship just because it hurts.

When we know who we are in Christ we are not under the circumstances but are above them.

Because we are seated with Christ we have full rights and privileges as sons and daughters of the the living God.

Live Blogging the Ministers Retreat

Hey all,

I thought that I might try something new...

So here is the first session from Clay Ford

You can't fight the prayers of a Mother!

If Jesus really is who he said he is, and if he died for your sins, would you want to know it?

If we only have enough of the Holy Spirit to work with middle-class youth we need MORE!

Don't you think that God wants His church to be escalating in the presence of the Holy Spirit?

Baptism of the Holy Spirit = Gifts of the Holy Spirit = Promise of the Father

When we receive Jesus...
Born Again
Fruit of the Spirit
Spiritual Gifts
Praise and Worship
Fellowship
Guidance/Revelation/Intercession
Power

All the gifts are nothing without Jesus!

If we don't venture out in Faith we are abdicating the place God has for us.

We don't want something fake! We want to step out and see God move.

We need a momentous break-through!





More To Come!

Three Questions (Part 1)

I just got done listening to Perry Noble (Newspring Church) talk about three questions that we need to ask ourselves. It was really good. So I thought that I would put it out there for us to think about and hopefully to do. Most of this is Perry's, I'm not this smart, but I have sort of paraphrased.

Question 1.

• What is it that God wants to do in our church?

This seems like a question that we ask but I don't think that we are always willing to ask it. If we look at the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 and focus on the son who stayed behind we can see some things. First, the older son was so busy working FOR his father that he didn't know what the father wanted. He was in the field and when he came home he heard the party going. Second, it is possible for God to be working around us and we miss it. In verse 26 the son has to ask a servant about what is going on. He is the son and he doesn't know what his father is doing.

This can happen to us (me) and it does often. We get caught so caught up in doing the work that we don't stop to ask if this is what God wants us to be doing.

There are two things that we need to do in order to answer this question.

• Time.

Passionate, uninterrupted time with the Father will reveal His vision to us. If the son had spent time with his father he would have be involved in the search for his brother, he may have even volunteered to go searching for him! If we don't know the Father there is no way for us to know what He wants us to do.

• Effort.

Once God has shown us what to do we need to go all out to get it done! We shouldn't allow anything to get in our way. God will give us a detailed vision of what He wants for us, it is then our job to pursue it until it is accomplished. We can't do this halfway. 95% is 5% to low!!

Now, we may be tempted to think that this is a job for the church leadership, and it is. However, God is not going to keep His vision for our church a secret, only to be revealed to those with special privilege. We all need to pursue TIME and EFFORT. This is a group thing. No one can do it on their own. So I would encourage you to find a way to get some passionate, uninterrupted time with God and ask, "What is it you want to do in our church?" And then start making an effort to see it get done.

If God tells you something and you want to share it, please email me or write a comment. Find me or one of the other staff members, or drop Pastor Bill a line.

I'll post the other two questions later, but take some time to work on this one, I know I will.

Goin' Out

One of the cool things that I get to do in this job is to help other churches get better at what they are doing. It is actually one of the things I am most passionate about. Karl and I get to go to New Plymouth, Idaho (just this side of Oregon) tomorrow to help them with some sound and band needs. It's going to be awesome. When we do this we don't charge the churches anything, in fact, when we can we cover all of the expense for the trip we do. Because of your faithful giving we are able to extend what we have to other followers of Christ in the area and in the Northwest. I am really looking forward to this trip and hope that God will use the time to do some cool things. Feel free to pray for Karl and I as we drive and pray for First Baptist of New Plymouth!

Sunday Rewind

• Karl's day off was good for him... it can be a different world being in front every week.
• I'm always blown away by the way you enter God's presence... it's awesome to see so many of you enter into the presence of God.
• It can be draining to be up front... I feel like when I lead if I don't expend all of my energy in worship I haven't worshiped enough!
• We need to make room for the new folks... I think it's very cool that y'all want to hang and chat, but we need to make sure that guests can get to Guest Services. Let's not stand in their way.
• Lastly, as promised, the one, the only, Bobby McFerrin...

Places to find truth

You never really know where God is going to speak to you. I really like comics, and have made it a habit of mine to read the comics in the newspaper when I get the chance. I also, over the last couple years, have taken to reading the rest of the page on which they appear.

In today's "Dear Abby" column there was something that spoke to me...
A woman, who signed her letter "Ministers Daughter" was saying that she didn't like the "forced" time of greeting that she experiences at many churches. She stated that her purpose in attending church was to "meditate and worship with my family. I do not go to shake hands with strangers and give them a greeting dictated by the pastor." She says that all of her friends feel the same way also, and suggested that church leadership take a poll to find out if they should continue the practice.

Now, sometimes I agree with what Abby has to say and sometimes I don't, so I was very interested to read her reply. Here it is.

"Something is wrong with our fragmented society if, for one moment in a house of God, people cannot find it in their hearts to reach out and make sure that everyone feels included and welcome. And for those who fear it is unsanitary - bring small bottles of hand sanitizer."

That is right on! Something is wrong with our hearts. It comes from the place where each of us, myself included, is more concerned about our own comfort than about the need of of other people to meet Jesus. They can't shake Jesus physical hand, but they can shake YOURS! They can't see the smile on the face of Jesus because they are searching for Him, but they can see YOURS!

This applies to more than just greeting each other during a service. Pastor Bill recently asked us to consider changing when we attend Sunday services. Specifically, moving from the 11 a.m. to the 9 a.m. to help make room for new people. This might sound harsh, but I think that God is calling forward in this area, if you can come to the nine a.m. but you are more comfortable in the 11, and you claim to be follower of Jesus, YOU are more concerned with YOUr comfort than YOU are with the need of others to hear about and meet Jesus.

Any time that I put my comfort above the ability of others to get in touch with the Savior I am standing in opposition to Jesus Christ. Catch that. Standing in opposition to Jesus Christ because we want to be comfortable is not a good thing! It's time to lay down what we want and really pursue the things that God wants. Jesus wants to see the entire valley changed for Him and he wants us to be a part of it. Jesus wants to see lives changed, people rescued, hurts healed, families restored and so much more, and He wants us to be a part of it! But we have to get out of the way.

So, please consider joining me as I push myself to give up the things that make me comfortable in order to be a road sign that points to Jesus.

Sunday Rewind

• Bill's message was great... we all could use some disturbance.
• It was awesome to see fire and passion from the stage.
• Jon's singing to Jesus with his guitar was great... I love it when he opens up with his "voice."
• As a church I think we need to find what disturbs us... there is a huge hunger for God in our community and we need to be the ones feeding it!
• Just a reminder, mostly for me, to keep checking with Jesus about the state of your heart. I know that I can get far away without even trying.
• We should be looking ahead to see what God has for us this week... Let's try not to only listen to Him on Sunday.

Creativity on a Saturday Night

Well... I don't quite know what to say... ummmm...

ZZZZZzzzzzzaaaaaaapppppPPPP!

What are you settling for?

So it's been a little while since last I was here. That's ok. It's not like God wasn't working on me in the time that I haven't posted. In fact I wanted to share something that He showed me...

Last week we were dealing with some conflict, which happens pretty often around here, I was not quite directly involved so I was trying to help by listening and offering an outside perspective. While I was doing this God showed me something in very clear way. I saw myself sitting at the end of along dinner table, think 30ft. At the other end of the table was a beautiful spread of food. Turkey, all the trimmings, potatoes, dressing, etc. And right in front of me was a huge platter of poop! God then told me that too often I am willing to settle for the poop because it's right there. I don't want to press in to get to the really great things that he has for me. I don't want to let him take me to the other end of the table and eat the turkey. I'm happy where I'm at and I'm fine eating the poop.

Now and gross as that sounds it really is what we do. SO I have been trying to ask myself "what am I settling for that God doesn't want me to?"

It's a hard question, but I can't get away from it.

Maybe you need to ask that question of yourself? Where are you settling? In what ways are you content to eat poop ust because it's there?

I know that I really don't want to eat anymore poop! I know that what God has at the other end of the table is so much better. So let's stop eating the poop, and let God take us where he want's us to go. It might be scary, or hard or dangerous, but here's the cool thing...

When we are really following JESUS, HE gets everywhere first!