Thanks for holding. Your readership is important to us. We are all very busy here tryng to keep all of the balls in the air. The next available author will post as he is available. Please do not hang up or quit checking this blog. We appreciate your visit.
(musical interlude)
Thanks for holding. Your readership is important to us. We are all very busy here tryng to keep all of the balls in the air. The next available author will post as he is available. Please do not hang up or quit checking this blog. We appreciate your visit.
(musical interlude)
Thanks for holding. Your readership is important to us. We are all very busy here tryng to keep all of the balls in the air. The next available author .....
Hello there. This is Mike Paris, author of the Open Mike. As the prerecorded message mentioned above, I am extremly busy. But I appreciate those that have stopped here to check in on me and my thoughts about ministry.
Let me just say that in the past week and a half I have led an evangelism training seminar, attended a funeral of a young man (58) from our church, led three worship services and a hymn sing, taught two Sunday School lessons on evangelism, attended two board meetings, missed a board meeting, bought a new van, attended a Shop Talk pastors seminar on funerals/cremation, ate lunch with a WOL area missionary, led a ministry team training session on "teamwork", memorized the first five verses of John 15, painted the craft building and 8 cabins at Lamoka, had two very incredible warm-the-cockles-of -your-pastor's-heart conversations with two members of the church, took a two-hr nap on Sunday afternoon, prayed with a man who told me after I said amen, "You are a true friend", and mowed the grass.
Phweeeew! No wonder I feel rung out on Monday morning. But I am looking forward to another great week. I hope to be able to post a couple of the things that I am learning in the process too though. Including a good compassionate wounding given to me by my dear wife. But that is fodder for another post.
I want to leave you with a quote from a book that I am reading,
(musical interlude)
Thanks for holding. Your readership is important to us. We are all very busy here tryng to keep all of the balls in the air. The next available author will post as he is available. Please do not hang up or quit checking this blog. We appreciate your visit.
(musical interlude)
Thanks for holding. Your readership is important to us. We are all very busy here tryng to keep all of the balls in the air. The next available author .....
Hello there. This is Mike Paris, author of the Open Mike. As the prerecorded message mentioned above, I am extremly busy. But I appreciate those that have stopped here to check in on me and my thoughts about ministry.
Let me just say that in the past week and a half I have led an evangelism training seminar, attended a funeral of a young man (58) from our church, led three worship services and a hymn sing, taught two Sunday School lessons on evangelism, attended two board meetings, missed a board meeting, bought a new van, attended a Shop Talk pastors seminar on funerals/cremation, ate lunch with a WOL area missionary, led a ministry team training session on "teamwork", memorized the first five verses of John 15, painted the craft building and 8 cabins at Lamoka, had two very incredible warm-the-cockles-of -your-pastor's-heart conversations with two members of the church, took a two-hr nap on Sunday afternoon, prayed with a man who told me after I said amen, "You are a true friend", and mowed the grass.
Phweeeew! No wonder I feel rung out on Monday morning. But I am looking forward to another great week. I hope to be able to post a couple of the things that I am learning in the process too though. Including a good compassionate wounding given to me by my dear wife. But that is fodder for another post.
I want to leave you with a quote from a book that I am reading,
"There is a big difference between simple and easy. Simple is basic, uncomplicated and fundamental. Easy is effortless. Ministry will never be easy. It is messy and difficult because people are messy and
difficult.... Leadership in the local church is extremely challenging.
Leading a local church is neither easy nor simple, but the church strategy does not need to be complicated. The ministry design can and should be simple."
Simple Church, Rainer & Geiger, p. 16
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me, you can do nothing.
Jesus, John 15:4-5
Minstering passionately,
Yet striving for simplicity,
Mike
2 comments:
silence...
set down the coffee mug and Slowly begin to applaude...
Set my laptop down and slowly stand to my feet increasing the speed and intensity of the applause...
well done. Both the post and the week.
I am not sure what the answer is at this point, but I do know that I am not as effective when I am tired. After a full day of strain, loud noise, and everything else that the world has to offer us, I struggle with the timming of meetings. When I set in a meeting and see members noding off, I too wonder what it will take to get us moving again.
I was encouraged by the effort and thought that was placed into our last meeting by our Pastor's! I am also very encouraged by the recent messages and applications that have been given in their leadership.
I believe that in order to move forward that we will need to be more accountable to each other to keep the momentum going. Right now I feel like we have a long oval stone that we are trying to get rolling. We get it flipped over with a big thug and then it sits, we flip it again and we get another thug! We all need to get a hammer and chisel and maybe a sledge hammer and get this stone more cylindrical so that it will roll easier. Maybe even put some stickum on it to help gather others to it. I know that we are moving slow but let's keep moving at least!
CR
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