Vetrean Pastor, Life time Learner, Problem Solver, Servant-Leader and Motivational Speaker.

From "Leaders Who Last.” Kraft, Dave (2010-03-03).

"I love the church. There is nothing as exciting as the local church when it is properly and dynamically led by the right kinds of leaders. I became a follower of Jesus Christ through the ministry of a local church and ever since have had a burden for local churches. I share Paul’s sentiment expressed in 2 Corinthians 11:28: “There is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” There are many things to be concerned about today in the church scene: • A multitude of churches have plateaued, are dying, or are already dead. • Antiquated forms and methods that no longer work are still in use today. • Worship wars are raging. • There is a lack of deep spirituality among church members. • There is an absence of intentional and relevant outreach. But my biggest concern is the lack of the right kind of leadership. I have a deep and abiding concern for leaders in local churches"Kraft, Dave (2010-03-03). Leaders Who Last (p. 22). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition. 

What do I think of interacial marriage????Good questions!!!!!!!Watch the video below........

 

Protecting Volunteer Leaders from Burnout | youthwork talk

How can I help protect my volunteers from burnout and exhaustion?

1. Create a Healthy Ministry Schedule: Asking most volunteers to serve on a weekly basis is already a challenge for many in their busy lives. For many parent volunteers in particular, making youth group once a week and staying in contact with their small group is a big deal. Therefore I try to commit to scheduling our ministry with healthy breaks and bare in mind my volunteers schedules. a) During Christmas break we do not meet. b) We do not meet for Spring Break. c) Summer is changed up significantly and we have a “come if you can” policy. We need significantly less leaders with our summer schedule, so this works for us. c) We schedule events in a way that they are spread out significantly.  We would rather do a few ‘big” events well, rather than many “poor” events that can tire out volunteers (and students).

2. Insist That Family Comes First: This often can take a while to sink in for my volunteers. Again and again I need to remind them that ministry needs to be a win for their family. Anytime they call me to miss a program or event because of family, I insist that “family always comes first…” In their minds they are often feeling guilty for “calling in”, but it’s my job to affirm healthy family. I have also found that when I take this approach with my volunteers, it actually creates greater loyalty since they I know care about them and their family first. It’s not just about “getting ministry done…”

3.  Model Healthy Boundaries Myself: It’s important that I set the example for healthy boundaries first. Leaders are looking to us for more than just direction in how to minister to students. They need an example of healthy boundaries in a world that tells us to keep running fast until we fall. Ultimately, our students will see us and leaders as their model for what is healthy too. What kind of example are we setting them?

4. Give Them Grace To Miss When They Really Need To: Every year leaders hear from me about the importance of a consistent commitment and being regular at the programs. However, I also emphasize that if they really need to miss anytime, they just need to let me know and I will be fully supportive of them. I just ask they give me as much notice as possible. Sometimes this is not possible due to emergencies. It is during these phone calls that we need to clothe our words with grace and support and not only consider the “loss” of the leader not being able to attend. It’s interesting to see how God provides for our ministry as we look to take care of the volunteers first. We have had weeks when we are a little short, but when I care for volunteers first, God always provides enough…

5. Challenge Them To Pursue Personal Growth: This should be a given, but sadly we often focus on the “business” of youth ministry and forget to challenge our volunteers to grow deeper in their relationship with God. In my one on one meetings and in many volunteer meetings I try to emphasize the importance of ministering from a deep well of personal growth. Although this is number 5 on my list, I encourage you to make it number one on your personal list as well as your volunteers… Burnout happens most when we are running on empty and trying to do it in our own strength… Burnout happens when our faith walk becomes a crawl…

What ways do you protect your volunteers from burnout? What can we do to ensure that our volunteers hang in for the long haul and keep impacting students for eternity?

Phil <><

via youthworktalk.com

What is the biggest difference between managers and leaders? Leaders vs. Managers « Leadership Freak

What is the biggest difference between managers and leaders?

Both roles are important but they seek to do different things…

1. Leaders lead people. Managers manage people.
2. Leaders set destinations. Managers navigate the roads to get there.
3. Leaders cultivate change. Managers cultivate creating stability.
4. Leaders inspire. Managers comfort.
5. Leaders appeals to the heart. Managers appeal to the head.
6. Leaders set direction. Managers set plans with details.
7. Leaders work on a system. Managers are working the system.
8. Leaders have vision. Managers are about reaching goals.
9. Leaders   are about effectiveness. Managers are about efficiency.
10. Leaders have followers. Managers have subordinates.
11. Leaders take ownership. Managers take responsibility.
12. Leaders shape culture. Managers enact culture.
13. Leaders are proactive. Managers are reactive.
14. Leaders accomplish achievements.  Managers accomplish compliance.
15. Leaders break rules. Managers make rules.
16. Leaders use conflict. Managers avoid conflict.
17. Leaders set new direction. Managers go on the existing roads.
18. Leaders go inward. Managers work outward.
19. Leaders are concerned what is right and managers are concerned about being right.

via leadershipfreak.wordpress.com

The Son of a Small Town « West Coast CM

So, today, I just want to take a moment to say thanks to the small town pastors out there.  My home church had 40 people on a busy Sunday and never had a full-time person on staff.  Yet, because they invested in a student that they saw potential in, the impact of their ministry has grown exponentially, children & families outside of their small town have come to know Jesus, and the Kingdom of Heaven has gotten a little bigger.

And, as a shout out to small town pastors who are investing in the Kingdom, I met a guy this last year who works his tail off to resource small town children’s ministry leaders.  His name is Jared Massey and he writes over at www.smalltownkidmin.com.  This shout out is completely unsolicited.  He’s just a great guy who you should check out.

Today, I’m thankful for Jon Westfall and Jon Archer – my pastors, teachers, mentors and friends.

If you’re reading this today, I’d encourage you to thank the people who have pastored you along your journey.  And, if you’re doing ministry in a small town, find a young person to invest in – I look forward to learning from them one day.

via westcoastcm.wordpress.com

The Truth About Marital Compatibility | The Resurgence

5 Questions for Married Couples Who Want to Become More Biblically Compatible

1. What do you focus on more frequently, what’s wrong with your marriage or what’s right with it?
If you're a Christian, there’s a lot right about you because Jesus has saved you from God’s wrath and now owns you. You have every resource in Christ available to you (2 Peter 1:3). As a redeemed child of God, forgiveness and grace can flow freely from your heart allowing you to minister to your spouse’s weaknesses. But do you live that way?
2. When is the last time you did something intentional for your spouse?
Kindness and thoughtfulness strengthen marriage. Yet many couples feel entitled to speak harshly, be contemptuous, or withhold forgiveness. “For better or for worse” is not permission to sin. It takes faith and humility to respond graciously when you are angry, hurting, or misunderstood.
3. Do you believe God knew what he was doing when he had you marry your spouse?
When marriage is difficult it can be tempting to think you made a mistake, forgetting marriage sharpens us, often in painful ways. Step back and remind each other what you appreciate and admire about one another. Chances are, those qualities are still there, but you have allowed sin and selfishness to creep in and cloud your view.
4. Do you need to repent of discontentedness and complaining in your marriage? 
It takes a supernatural intervention by the Holy Spirit to make us thankful. Our tendency is to compare and complain. Thanksgiving is a lifestyle command in Scripture (Col. 3:15-17), not just a suggestion or holiday in November. What are you thankful about? What would it take for you to enjoy your spouse?
5. Do you and your spouse pray together? Do you pray for each other?
It’s difficult to grow hard-hearted and embittered toward someone you are praying for frequently. God will do his best work in your marriage when you are in prayer. Prayer acknowledges our need for God and worships him. 

via theresurgence.com

The Truth About Marital Compatibility | The Resurgence

5 Questions for Singles to Ask When Seeking a Biblically Compatible Spouse:

1. How do you know he or she willingly submits to godly authority? 
Ladies, if he does not submit to godly authority, he is a dangerous man. Period. Men, if she doesn’t submit to godly authority now (as a single man, that’s not you by the way), she is the kind of woman Proverbs warns you to avoid.
2.  How do you know he or she is teachable?
If he or she likes to argue, they are more concerned with being right than being made righteous. When you think you’ve won an argument in marriage, you’ve actually lost. Marriage is about humbly maturing, realizing you have much to learn for the rest of your lives.
3. How well known and involved is he or she in Christian community?
It’s easy to put on a good front when you are attracted to someone and motivated to marry. If he or she is unknown in community, they are unknown to you. Others need to vouch for the person’s character, integrity, and faith.
4. How does he or she speak of others?
If he or she is critical, demeaning, or flippant in their attitude and words now, it will happen in marriage. Soon, you will become the brunt of their anger and pride.
5. How does he or she respond when confronted with their sin?
When someone tries to hide, misrepresent, blameshift, excuse, or rationalize their sin, they have a distorted view of the Gospel. Because of Jesus, we can confess sin (I John 1:9), repent (Rom. 2:4), walk in the light (Eph. 5:8-9), and be reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:17-21).

via theresurgence.com

Fellowship Memphis > Our Dream...I love this!!!!! Praying for Fellowship Memphis.......

Our Dream

We do not dream of building a big church. What keeps us up at night is not the prospect of buying forty acres, starting a school or establishing our own Fellowship Memphis sports leagues. We do not get excited about being a silo of truth, where informing people about God and His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit becomes the primary mark of our ministry. Information is good, even necessary, but is not the ultimate passion of our hearts. When it comes to the Scriptures, our part of the country has more than enough informed people. What keeps us up at night? What drove us to move our families to Memphis and take on the exhilarating (and sometimes excruciating) task of planting a church in the second most segregated city in the country? Why did we intentionally choose to find a location right in the heart of Memphis, a city which is known for poor education, a higher than normal poverty rate and rampant crime? Because our hearts long to gather, equip and unleash an army of Christ-followers who, in being the church, will leave footprints from Germantown to Mud Island, and from Millington to Mississippi to the glory of God. We dream, even to the point of tears, to provide a medicating balm to the "black eye" of Memphis. From slavery to the assassination of Dr. King and beyond, Memphis has garnered the unfortunate reputation of racism. By standing on the authority of the Bible, and modeling diversity within our walls, we long to be a model to Memphians, the Mid-South and the world of diversity, racial reconciliation and racial harmony. To a world that says blacks and whites worshipping and doing life together in Memphis could never happen, we dream, labor and sacrifice all that we are by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the authority of the blood of Jesus to say, "Yes it can! Yes it will!" Our dreams are big. So big, that they are beyond us. As one author notes, we are dreaming and laboring for a time we cannot see. Our children will see it, though. They'll see better school systems, lower poverty and crime rates, and the destruction of systemic racism. And they will see a common sight - African-American's, White's, Latino's, Asians and beyond doing life with one another. Loving each other. Walking with each other under the banner of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's what keeps us up at night.

via www.fellowshipmemphis.org

WOW!!! This is crazy!!! Washington’s own ‘Nigerian scam' artist: ‘I was misled’ - seattlepi.com

Rather than pay the nonexistent Nigerian moneymen – whose torrent of alluringly desperate emails pour into inboxes the world over – Stuart kept nearly all of the money he got through the fraud, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Warma told the court.

“Scott Stuart devoted seven years to manipulating, exploiting and defrauding dozens of people, in a scheme that yielded him personal profits approaching $4 million,” Warma told the court.

“As occurred in this case, victims of these schemes often lose tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, which can and in this case did include retirement savings and resources that also belonged to wholly innocent family members,” Warma continued. “The ramifications are profound and can leave families shattered, as well as economically destitute.”

While Stuart sent small payments to the “Nigerians” to maintain his claim that he believed in the scheme, he pocketed more than 90 percent of the money he raked in, Warma told the court.

Stuart and his family lived on the money, some of which went to his drug and gambling habits. Ever the optimist, Stuart and his wife dropped $2.3 million into slot machines at the Silver Reef Casino over four years. The betting cost them, or Stuart’s victims, $89,300.

Stuart had been wrapped up in the Nigerian scheme as early as 2001, when Secret Service agents investigated him for soliciting money from others to make a down payment on a multi-million-dollar “inheritance” purportedly awaiting him in Nigeria. To that end, Stuart cashed two forged checks totaling $255,000, and received a visit from the Secret Service for his trouble.

via www.seattlepi.com

| Awesome letter from Pastor Scott Harris from //www.scottharris.org/

Dear Brooklake

A couple weeks ago our church baptized 69 in one service. 52 were signed up to go public with their faith in Christ and another 17 spontaneously decided to go public with their faith in Jesus on the spot. We’re setting attendance records and we have more people leading groups and serving on teams then ever before. We are riding a wave of the Spirit to which we are grateful and humbled.

But I’ve noticed something as a byproduct of our church moving forward. More people are facing tough circumstances then ever before. Financial challenges, marriages hurting, sicknesses and dozens of other hardships. There’s a price to pay for taking ground. And by taking ground I’m talking about the gospel of Jesus penetrating the lives of people God loves and we’re sent to serve.

If you’re one of those that are trying to make sense of it all, take heart. It can be discouraging at best and downright disolusining at worst to try to reconcile why it is that all hell can seem to break lose in the misdt of God doing so many great things. But let’s press on church. God is with us and and He sees our faithfulness. He’s for us not against us and promises to never leave us. I and the team are praying for you and thank you for your sacrifice. More importantly, people’s lives are being changed by the grace of God.

Keep inviting. Keep loving. Keep serving. And…

Keep your chin up. It’s all worth it.

Pastor Scott

via www.scottharris.org