I am writing via my wireless connection in the breakfast area of the Country Inn and Suites in Cortland NY! I have the Praise and Worship Channel playing in the background and I am chewing on some great spiritual food from the conference that we are at! I love technology!
Let me share just a few tidbits of the conference with you. This conference is geared towards church growth. It could not have come at a better time for me personally or for our ministry at Wyoming Baptist. I have really needed a good refocusing and challenge spiritually. Here are just a few of the nuggets that I have mined as I listened to several of my colleagues speak today.
1. An idea for setting community building goals for our youth group: telecare = once every 3 weeks, each person in the D-group will receive a phone call or IM from the leader; once very six months, each person will be visited in his/her home by the leader. That's how we will build a Caring Christian Community! [Matt S]
2. Make every conversation that I start with a person at Wyoming Baptist begin with a positive language statement. Find something to thank the person for, or admire in them, pass on a blessing to them first! [Matt S]
3. Insight: In the pattern of prayer described for the disciples, Jesus prays "let US not fall into temptation", but "deliver US from evil". He was praying community protection and power on the life of the church! [Matt S]
4. Insight: In the translation of James 5:16, the NIV makes the most sense! The prayer's effectiveness and power does not come from the righteousness of the man or the fervency of the prayer! It is the God we pray to that makes it effective! [Charlie C]
5. Insight: In the context the righteousness of the man makes him able to come into the presence of God with prayer. In the preceding verses, it is the confession of sins that makes the man righteous. [Charlie C]
6. "Prayer changes everything. Prayer replaces nothing." [Charlie C]
7. "Pray the vision (for your church) down from heaven, not conjure it up!" [Charlie C]
8. "Shepherd your people like God" -- Oswald Chambers
9. I must be "experiencing pioneer growth in my life" regularly as a leader/pastor. [Don S]
10. Is my ministry marked by "substantive authenticity". Or are they simply smelling a fragrance that is sprayed on out of the can?! [Don S]
11. Effective ministry leadership is measured by how it a) attracts others and b) how it influences them. Who wants to imitate me? Should they? [Don S]
12. God is constantly bringing us up short, allowing us to fall headlong into the pits (mostly of our own making), so that we will learn to cry out to Him. [Don S]
Wow! a dozen jewels and we are not even half way through the conference! I hope that I can apply just a couple of them to my own life. I feel a bit like a hungry man at the buffet!
Father,
Help me to focus on the next thing that you would have me learn and let that be enough -- for now. I need your help to implement change in me first. My number one problem in ministry is not them, it's me! Make me righteous before you, make my ministry effective and prayer-driven. Make me an example of godliness for those that I rub shoulders with every day/week/month/year.
Amen
Feasting in Dryden,
Mike
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2 comments:
Mike, This "technology" sounds like a "new-age" newspaper to me, so that you won't have to communicate with your wife at b-fast or (gasp) meet someone new. Oh sorry my bad, I should have started with some positive body language or whatever. Good post-keep it coming. I have been reading Oswalds Spiritual Leadership (again) so it was interesting to see his quote. We have also been doing a series at church on marwige(from previous post) so that was cool as well. Dude, the Holy Spirit is cool! Keep climbing for Christ!
Actually, I forgot to mention that I was in the breakfast area at 10:00 at night. Sue was at home and the area was empty. I was there b/c the wireless signal was strongest there. I couldn't quite pick it up in my second floor room down the hall a bit!
The new-age newspaper bit is a great insight! Ha! I will have to remember that!
I will have to investigaet the marwige angle -- I don't remember it.
THanks for posting,
Mike
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