I listened to a Leadership Podcast from Andy Stanley and I thought I would post some of my notes. Enjoy…

•When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near.
•Success breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure.
•Vision begins with a burden and a burden reflects a broken heart.
•What breaks your heart?
•Don’t let success or momentum overshadow vision.
•People almost never complain about the vision but they will complain about the processes of achieving vision.
•Stories are the most powerful way to communicate vision.
•Stories bring the emotional connection to the vision.
•Celebrate the vision!

Me and my Sr. Pastor were talking today and he said something that I thought was profound. It all started because I have just started to read Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and I am completely freaked out! If you have read the book, you know what I mean. Satan is whacked out! Anyways, my Pastor starts using a baseball analogy to describe Satan and i’m like OK this actually makes sense (i’m not the smartest guy, but I try). So he goes on to say that Satan is like a good pitcher. If a pitcher is good then he has read the book on you. Just like a good pitcher knows what you can/cannot hit, he knows what makes you fall, he knows what makes you take your eyes off of God, and ultimately he knows what really pisses you off! I gave it some thought and this is so true. When I went up to the plate in college pitchers didnt throw me a whole lot of fastballs because I was a fastball hitting guy. They threw me a steady diet of sliders away and change-ups down because they knew I would chase them (way too much btw). And Satan does the same thing. He doesnt tempt me with the slots down the road (gambling is legal in DE?) because he knows I’m gonna hit that one out of the park, thats a no-brainer. He doesnt tempt me to grab a 12 pack while I’m at the gas station becuase he knows I’m gonna hit that one in the gap. But the crazy thing is…he knows what the slider away and the change-up down is in my life and thats what he throws to me! EVERYTIME! He doesn’t mess with the stuff that I am already having victory in, he throws me the stuff where he knows I struggle.

Think about the implications of this in your life. If Satan’s read the book on you where does he know where to hit you? He doesnt just shoot from the hip or hope he tempts you right. He knows exactly what to do to trip you up and get your eyes off of Jesus! So examine where you are and what you hit best. This may seem kind of obvious but it was obvious in college that I couldnt hit the slider away and change-up down and I could never really seem to do anything about it! I’m not saying we can’t overcome things that Satan tries to put in our lives but we may never, in this life, have COMPLETE victory. There is a difference! Overcoming and victory are two different things…maybe that will be my next blog! Anyways, think about what you struggle with and know that Satan is already working there! Men and women of God let’s get into the batting cages of life and work on the pitches we can’t hit!

This video REALLY caught my attention. What do you think?

As I was driving down the road today I had a thought.  I promise I usually think while I am driving but today I had a “good” thought.  It was in Harrington and it is something that I see most everyday.  It was a storage place.  Where millions of Americans store mostly crap that they dont need.  And the thought hit me,  I bet poverty in America could be ended by selling all the crap that is in those storage units! People in other countries would actually have clothes to wear and shoes to wear if we just gave all that stuff that is “junk” or extra away!  If we emptied all the storage units we could then use all the buildings for temporary housing for the homeless.  There are tons of things that could be done with storage units/junk in storage units.  I dont know, maybe you dont think this is a big deal but I think the implications could be huge.  By the way, if you have a storage unit what does that stuff really mean to you anyways?  Just a thought…

I twittered about this the other day but I thought it was blog worthy as well.  On Tuesday I decided to head to Chipman Middle School to have lunch with some of my students.  It is so funny to see the response that I get.  I mean, it is basically a  homecoming when I walk in the doors.  The students run up to me, people are wanting to sit with me, and best of all they are giving me their extra food (its cafe food, but I will live).  Anyways, I say that to tell you about my experience in the High School in my area.  When I walk in there it’s like I have the flippin’ plague (ok, so maybe I am overexaggerating).  Only a hand full of students actually embrace the fact that I am there and even fewer seem to want to sit with me.  I have my suspicions on why they act like this.  I believe its mostly because they have never had a youth pastor that cared enough to meet them where they are.  They just opened the doors on Sunday or Wednesday night and said HERE WE ARE…COME AND SEE!!!

BUT…Here’s the cool thing with the Middle Schoolers, if we as leaders in Fuel and Traffic Student Ministries begin to form the culture to where it’s normal for me or other leaders to be at lunch then that will flow right into the High School.  Students will no longer ask “Hey, what are you doing here [with the awkward look on their face]” they will embrace it as normal.  This is something that is going to take time but I am willing to pay my dues.  It is definitely worth it!  I mean really, how many students want to have somebody to come and eat with them?! ALL OF THEM!!!!  Youth pastors and leaders, get out of your office and get out of your comfort zone and get in the schools!  If the schools are open in your area but you have never taken advantage of that you should repent!  You have a HUGE opporunity…don’t take it for granted!

I’ve been reading through GEPC (Galatians Ephesians Philippians and Colossians) and it’s just reminded me of how much I love Scripture.  The stories, the styles, the Truth, the spotlight affect it sometimes always has on your sins, and everything else.  But today, as I was in Philippians, a couple of verses jumped out to me.  I have read them before but they were so powerful today.

Philippians 3:10-11 says, “I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (TNIV)

I mean I want to know Christ but can I honestly say, as Paul says, that I want to participate in His sufferings?  Hmm…I wish it was easy to say yes to this question.  How about you?

This series was developed over a lot of discontent while looking at how many “Christians” talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. I’m sure you’ve never done it but you know someone who has, right?  Anyways, this graphic was developed by one of my best friends [Lincoln Miller].  He’s pretty much a stud!  I might even attempt to put one of my sermons up on this blog (everyone hold your breath).  Hope you enjoy the eye candy.

I’m going to try a new approach to this whole blog deal. I’m going to try short blurbs with the occasional dissertation on things that happen to be on my mind. I think this will be a more effective approach to give me more consistency. I got this idea from my brother. So with that said, here’s my first thought of this new approach.

I have thought about this topic many times before but never really had the notion to talk about it until now. It came to my mind while I was watching a pastor on TV talk about how he KNEW he was called into Full-Time Ministry. He knew beyond of a shadow of a doubt (whatever that terminology means) that he was supposed to be a preacher. There is nothing necesarily wrong with this statement, I have made it before too but what is wrong is when we make this statement out of a sense of arrogance, which I have done before as well. As a pastor, I feel that the arrogance in the statement comes into play when we feel like this is the only profession/service that anyone can be “called” into. So many times I think pastors make “lay” people feel so unworthy, they make them feel as if what they are doing will never be as important as Full-Time ministry (which by the way we are ALL full-time ministers) and I feel a sense guilt that I have possibly made someone feel this way. I truly believe that people can have just as strong of a conviction and calling to be a teacher, mechanic, stay-at-home-mom, butthole (jk, although some people appear to be “called” to this), waitress, barista, business man, etc, etc, etc. So whatever it is we are “called” to let’s just do it WHATEVER IT TAKES to make Jesus’ name famous and not ours because all callings are equally as important as the next no matter how someone may have made you feel/think in the past.

Thoughts?

Last night I had the opportunity to go to a Philadelphia Flyers game. I didn’t really think much about it because they were free tickets and I am not really a hockey fan. Thanks to Keith Bilbrough who is the flippin’ man I got to go for FREE with him and his son, Luke (who is a stud Traffic student)! Wait, I bought a Coke Zero on the way home, so the whole trip cost me like $1.59. Anywas, like I said I wasnt really concerned about the seats and I figured we were going to be up in the nose bleed section but I should have known that wasn’t the case because first of all I was going with Keith Bilbrough and he doesn’t do anything half way and also because we had a parking pass that put us RIGHT beside the Wachovia Center. I don’t really want to glamorize this any more than I really need to other than to say our seats were AWESOME! We were in a private box that had its own butler guy, bathrooms, and a bar. Our view looked like this…

From the Box

I say all that to say this. I saw SOOOOO many empty people there last night! We, Christians, have a mission field right in front of our face. We just have to open our eyes. I just want to ask one question today, Where is your mission field? Because I promise you if you are following Christ He has put people around you who NEED JESUS!!!! God, please allow us to open our eyes and see the people you have put in our lives!!!!

For the past few weeks we have been in a series called “Why Wait?” We have talked in depth about the realities of premarital sex and the devastation it can cause. It has been intense. The title of the messages were: The Culture of Lies, How Far is Too Far?, Sex: From a Guys Perspective, Sex: From a Girls Perspective, and Do-Overs. We have seen students begin to set some boundaries and others reinforce some that they have already had. God has really been moving during this time! Next week is our last week! I can’t wait to talk abot Do-Overs and just share with the students how they can be made whole again.

Why Wait?

Coming up in the next couple of months we are going to be going through some pretty awesome series. During the last part of March and early April we are going to be going through a series that takes us back to the basics of Christianity. We are going to cover some pretty elementary stuff (if you grew up in Sunday School), but it definitely needs to be spoken (because most of our students didn’t grow up in Sunday School). I am still looking for a title for the series so if somebody could hook a brotha up that would be awesome. We are going to be covering: Creation, Scripture, Grace, and Baptism. I have thought of naming it, Back to the Basics, Starting Point (b/c that is what North Point calls their beginners class), and well, that’s about all but none of those are real catchy. Anyways, drop me a comment or tweet me or text me or something if you have any ideas.

Also, in the month of May we are going to be moving into a series called YouPick. Its going to be a play off of the YouTube symbol and I got the idea from Vineresources.com. I am going to get every student to write one question that have always wanted answered about God, Christianity, etc etc and then me and some of my leaders are going to sit down and determine which questions carry the most weight. I can’t wait for this one because if it sucks it’s the students fault (j/k). Its definitely going to give them some ownership knowing that I will be answering their questions.

So that’s what is on tap for Fuel and Traffic Student Ministries in the next couple of months…