Wyoming Vacation Day 1
Brilliant collaboration
5 hours ago
Trip
Most of our bags are packed and we are excited about our family vacation to Wyoming & Iowa. I plan on posting updates and pictures of our adventures. I'm looking forward to the time away from the routine of pastoral ministry and being inspired by the mountains of Wyoming. Tammy will be blogging while we are away as well, and you may want to visit her sites from time to time...
I have enough issues posting to one blog and Tammy has three =)
Knowing Doing Gap
The longer I pastor, the more convinced I become that there is a LARGE gap between knowing and doing. People know the right thing to do - they just don't do it. It somehow is weaved into the frailty of our flesh. Even the Apostle Paul wrestled with this kind of thing. (See Romans 7:14-25)
After Jesus' discourse on the mount, He concluded with these words, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."" Matthew 7:24-27
Jesus knew that knowledge isn't our problem, action is our problem. I'm familiar with what God expects of me, and as a result I'm responsible to follow through and do what pleases Him; if I don't, then I have sinned against God. People are constantly doing what they know they shouldn't do, and as a result their lives are on sand and before long their life is in a shambles.
Wise people close the knowing/doing gap. Wise people act on that which they know that they should be doing. The wise man hears the words of Christ and then puts them into practice.
“Be doers of the word, not hearers only and therefore, deceive yourselves.” James 1:22
Next Steps
I touched on this in the message this morning at church; check this out... The Apostle Paul had a personal encounter with Christ while he was on his way to Damascus to hunt down Christians; following that transformational encounter Paul goes blind and awaits Ananias' visit.
"Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized" Acts 9:17,18
Paul got up and was baptized; he doesn't go to a baptism class, he doesn't have to have all of his questions answered, he's all in, and he is now willing to publicly identify with a movement he was only days before wanting to eradicate. Immediately he was baptized.
A couple verses later the Bible tells us that, "At once he began to preach in the synagogues" We would ask, "Paul don't you need to go to seminary first? Don't you have a lots of questions that need to be answered before you start telling people about Jesus? Shouldn't you be a spiritual giant before you share Christ with others?" Paul would say, "No. I've been transformed by the living God, that's enough for me; I'll just do the next right thing."
Shortly after being run out of Damascus by the Jewish leaders, Paul made his way back to Jerusalem where the Apostles were, in order to learn from them and gain more knowledge about Jesus. After learning at the feet of the Apostles, Paul began to set out on his missionary journeys; and through the power of the Holy Spirit, transformed the spiritual landscape of the gentiles.
Immediately after salvation, Paul was baptized, he shared his faith with others, he proactively grew in his knowledge about Christ, and then went out to spread the good news. What's the next right step for you?
FYI:
July 26th following the 10:45 service is our annual Church Picnic & Baptism. If you have never obediently followed the biblical command to be baptized I would encourage you to take that step.
When Your Memories Exceed Your Dreams
Here's what I learned today from the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast. Andy said, "When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near." To put this in the context of the local church: when you live in the past and lack vision and passion for the future, you might as well stick a fork in it. What this means for a denomination is this: when the mantra becomes "we need to hear more about our rich heritage", get ready to dust off the dry bones.
Celebrating the past is obviously important; living in the past will not advance the kingdom of God. The future belongs to the passionate visionaries who celebrate the past, embrace the present, and dream big dreams for the future.
My Guts
You may have noticed that I've not been blogging as much as I have in the past; I used to post nearly every day but lately I've been very sporadic. Let me try to explain the reason for my lack of zeal for blogging lately.
If you will note in the upper right hand corner of my website, I explain the, "Why", of this blog. "This blog is meant to introduce you to me: an ordinary guy called by God to be a pastor. I have one agenda, I want you to get to know me better. Some of what you will find on this blog will be serious, some things will be funny, but all of it will give you a better idea of who I am."
With a large congregation it is difficult for each person to feel that they know the pastor well, because there is no way to have quality relationships with every single individual. This blog, and other social networking tools, have given people that I may have never had the opportunity of spending time with, a chance to get to know their pastor a little bit better (if they so chose - this blog or my Twitters is not required reading at FFC :-)
The unfortunate thing is that when you open yourself up to individuals, you open yourself up to being hurt as well. I'm sure you've experienced that numerous times in your life as well. I had a painful month last month, and I began monitoring everything I would write/say for fear my words would be misunderstood/twisted or used against me in some way.
I've normally done pretty well at not allowing the attacks of certain individuals get me down, and to keep pressing forward; but I've internalized a lot recently, which has not been healthy. I don't ever want to give the illusion that I'm "superhuman" and live a perfect life and respond to everything the way I should; so that is why I'm taking the first step, once again, of just being honest with you and saying I'm feeling sorry for myself and working past the "fear of man" and to simply be myself and realize my responsibility is to live with a holy fear of God and not people. (Prov. 29:25)
p.s.
The purpose of this post wasn't to get you to feel sorry for me - I just felt that I needed to start the process of being transparent once again otherwise I'd just stay in the funk I had been in.
Theological Term Of The Day
Sovereignty
The right of God to do as He wishes (Psalm 50:1; Isaiah 40:15; 1 Tim. 6:15) with His creation. This implies that there is no external influence upon Him and that He also has the ability to exercise His power and control according to His will.
Source: carm.org
Looking Forward
1. Our denominational gathering of ministers June 29-July 2. This will be the eleventh year that I've enjoyed this short retreat for pastors. This year's speaker will be Hubert Nolen from Brookville Road Community Church. I'm also looking forward to defending my title in the golf tournament.
2. Mid July our family will be traveling to Jackson Hole, WY for a vacation. From my understanding, our cabin will have a great view of the Grand Tetons.
3. I'm looking forward to our annual church picnic and baptism on Sunday July 26. Watching people make public professions of their faith through baptism always thrills me.
4. I'm looking forward to the immanent return of Christ. I'd love it if he would come back before you even get done reading this sentence. There's no place I'd rather be than spending eternity with Christ.
According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thess. 4:15-17
Change and Healthy Conflict
In his book on leadership Pastor Mark Driscoll writes, "Implementing anything from this chapter so that your church can be healthy and grow like healthy things are supposed to will require change. This means that no mater what, there will be conflict. Rather than avoiding conflict with people to instead have conflict with Jesus for failing to do what he tells you to, you will just need to accept that a good church fight is bound to happen if you want to change things. The key is to always remember that the church is a family, and so we fight with one another like every good family does, not as enemies, but knowing that we love each other."
Please note: the context of the chapter was in regard to theological correctness. Not a church fight over ridiculous things like whether the toilet paper in the restroom should go over the top or underneath.
New Blogger
If you haven't done so yet, check out the latest FFC blogger... Amanda Funk.
If you are aware of someone from FFC that I'm missing in my links, be sure to let me know.
New Friend
Say hello to my new friend...
After years of talking about getting a Mac, I finally made the move. So far I am enjoying getting to know my new friend. Here's the line I had to stand in to have the privilege of forking over lots of dough to Apple (this is after the line had shrunk considerably; see my very happy expression :) There was another line on the other side of this door that you can't see in the picture - that was the line if you wanted the new IPhone 3Gs.
Happy Father's Day!
Just a quick shout out to all the dads out there. Mad props to you Pops! You play such an important roll in the life of your children and your spouse. You have the power to completely destroy or completely bless your family with your: words, actions, character, prayers, time, etc...
I've had the blessing of being raised in a home with a father who invested wisely in his children and it has paid off great dividends in our lives. I am fortunate to have a great example of a loving Christian father.
Happy Father's Day - Dr. Steven Sorensen, from your boy...
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