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

COOL VIDEO!!!ELMA REPORT.......I WILL NOT BE DISCOURAGED!!!!EVEN THOUGH NOBODY RESPONDS TO MY ALTAR CALL FOUR WEEKS..... IN A ROW!!!!Check this video out!!!WOW!!!!!!!! Opera duo Charlotte and Jonathan....Especially if you struggle with your weight!!!!!!

 

1. This video GOT SOME DUST OF MY EYES and made me have a "black baptiscostal moment" rejoicing at the power of God despite the negative "voices" of the enemy. Christ will build His church despite the pull of Satan. 
2. Just before watching this movie, I was lamenting in my office in Elma that nobody responding to my call for salavation in the past four SUNDAYS!!!!
3. I was discouraged tONIGHT when I saw young men  selling drugs right in front of my apartment (in Elma, WA) directly across the street from our church. (Satan, seriously????Our God is greater.He will kick your .....!!!)
4. My heart sank!!! I could not believe that Satan will engineer people to destroy lives right between two churches. GOD  have MERCY!!! HEAL ELMA!!!!Elma for Jesus!!!!! Pastor James needs prayer support......
5. BUT WAIT!!!!!! THAT IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY!!!!
6. God has gifted numerous people in our church to accomplish His work as we obey HIS WORD!!!!!
7. What we are doing is more important that "Britain Got Talent".WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!!! CHRIST HAS PROMISED TO BUILD HIS CHURCH!!!!
8. God is bringing people to Himself. All kinds of people to Himself.....
9. After church TODAY!!!! numerous people told me they have invited people for Easter. People hugged me and told me God is rocking their MINDS WITH JOHN 3:16!!!!!!!!!!
10. We are praying that God will send us 80 people on Easter Sunday.
11. We believe that God is totally in-charge  and can do great things through us. We are excited that God will do amazing things for us!!!!!!YEAH GOD!!!!!!!!
12. We are riding a wave, a wave of the grace and amazing goodness of GOOD God great God of Isreal. 

Amazing NEWS!!!!

1. Over 55 people in Church today....we will celebrate and give God the glory.
2. We will not listen to the naysayers about this "being the honey moon" or "it will wear out in 1 year".
3. A young solider and his wife attended our services....we honored He and his wife for serving our country. Thank God for men and women who are willing to fight for our freedom. Freedom is not free baby!!!!!!
4. We will party hard and rejoice in the goodness of the Lord.Grays harbor county will continue to see what God is doing throught First Baptist Church Elma.
5. We will join the lord in His work in and around Gray's Harbor County...
6. Jesus is Alive!!!!THE TOMB IS EMPTY!!!!!WE WILL proclaim His word in our lives. God is good!!! Our anthem forever will be!!!!!!!!!!!

ELMA FOR JESUS 2012..

Grace and Peace

Pastor James Owolabi

3/25/2012

Why Vision Is More Important Than Strategy | Michael Hyatt

Over the next six years, Nelson Books was consistently the fastest growing, most profitable division at Thomas Nelson. It had one bestseller after another. It was home to almost all of our company’s bestselling authors during that time.

This didn’t happen because we had a great business strategy. It happened because we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. That’s where it started, and that’s where you have to start if you want to experience a different reality than the one you have now, you have to get clear on what you want.

Here’s what I recommend:

1. Get alone with just a journal and a pen. If you can get a way to a solitary place, so much the better.
2. Make sure you won’t be interrupted. Turn off your cell phone, e-mail, television, etc.
3. Close your eyes and pray. Ask God for inspiration and guidance. What you ultimately want is alignment between His plan and your vision. But don’t make this harder than it needs to be. God usually speaks through our desires. If that’s a new thought, then read John Eldredge’s book, Desire: The Journey We Must Take to Find the Life God Offers.
4. Write down your current reality—all the things that you don’t like. Be brutally honest. It’s difficult to change unless you find your current reality unacceptable.
5. Now write down what you would like to see happen. Write it down in detail. If you can, use all five senses. Write it in the present tense, as though it has already happened. This will make it more believable to you.
6. Share your vision with the people who have a stake in the outcome.
7. Commit to reading your vision daily. This is critically important. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The more you can “see” this, the more likely it will come to pass.

Remember: Don’t get hung up on how you will accomplish your vision. Just believe God and watch it come to pass.

via michaelhyatt.com

The State of the Union and the State of the Pulpit | Ordinary Pastor

1. People are not idiots. We can and should expect them to listen when we have something to say.

2. Persuasive presentations are still effective. Otherwise he would just blog the thing.

3. Preparation actually matters. Whatever you want to say about the POTUS and his teleprompter, guess what? He knew his speech. He had thought it through and had it down.

4. Thoughtful preparation matters. He knew who he was talking to and what he wanted to say.

5. Fear is healthy. Let’s face it, the President has a job to do and an election to win. He doesn’t want to stink it up.

If you are a pastor, keep preaching. And keep expecting people to listen. But, please, please, please, could you make sure that the sermon is actually in you before you give it? Make sure it moves you. Have convictions, be persuasive, get after it. What a shame it would be if the president was more thoughtful, diligent, and committed in his presentation to the people of the country than we are to our congregations before God? What an indictment this is to us who bye the lie that preaching is irrelevant. No, boring is irrelevant. And so is tired, lazy, unprepared, unmoved, wimpy  guys who have nothing to say.

via www.ordinarypastor.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

Our Greatest Need— D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation

Our Greatest Need

If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor.

But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.

— D. A. Carson,  A Call to Spiritual Reformation

via takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com

Almost 10 years of Youth Ministrty 10 Tips for dealing with Parents in youth ministry and an excerpt from '3 Thing to Never Say to your Volunteers" from Youth Ministry Guru Doug Franklin Online

1. Remember that parents are a gift from God to their children. Affirm them during your youth talks.
2. Remember that there are no perfect parents. Never bash the parents in front of the kids. Pray for the parents.
3. The Mom is always right. Listen to her. Dont get emotionally attached to the "hot" single mom.  Never tell a student that her mom is hot!!! She may be hot but so is Hell. Keep your thoughts to yourself.
4. Respect the decisions of the Dad especially if they Homeschool their families. Home school dads are the boss. Respect dads. When shaking the hands of the couple always shake the hands of the dad first if you are a guy. If you a girl shake the hands of the mother first.
5. Learn from the worst parents on how not to treat "them" or their child. An honest soft sincere apology to a parents, 80% of the time turns away their wrath. Learn to say" I am sorry .....". 
6. Listen to what parents are not saying. Listen carefully to what kids say about church policies and politics.....you will hear what their parents really think of you.
7. Never disrespect a parent in front of their kids.
8. Honor your own parents.
9. Remember there are no perfect parents. 
10. Pray reguarly for God to parents of pre-teens. Always listen to them. Most of the time..mom is just afraid. Listen to her fears.

Doug FankIn gives some good insight:

3. Never say to your volunteers: Parents don’t get youth ministry or the pastor doesn’t get youth ministry

When you disrespect an authority volunteers get nervous. They know that you’re not in charge and that you don’t have the experience most parents and pastors have. Your disrespect of these people will make you look immature and stupid. I know at times you are frustrated with them but you need to learn submission. Taking your frustration out in your front of your volunteers will do more to hurt your leadership than almost anything else. Speak highly of your parents and pastors. Give them respect and the other volunteers will respect you

via www.dougfranklinonline.com

It may the best teacher but ....Experience is a Brutal teacher....."I would rather learn from other people's mistake.......

Lord.... I really want to be teachable. I want to learn from your heart.  I do not want to only learn from  my experience. I want other people to pay my "dumb tax". I want to stand on the shoulder of the generation before me and learn from them. I do not want to tear down a wall before asking why the wall was built.  Lord thank you for my mentors and thank you for the men and women in my life who speak the truth when I do not want to hear it. Lord give me the humility to listen to my teachers. God may  I never stop learning. 

Proverbs 9:9: Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

 

"Experience is often a brutal teacher. Experience eats up your most valuable commondity: time. Learning from experience can eat up years. It can steal an entire stage of life. Experienc can leave scars, inescapable memories, and regret. Sure, we will all live and learn. But living and learning dont erase regret. And regret is more than memory. It is more than cerebral. It's emotional. Regret has the potential to create powerful emotion-emotions that have the potential to drive us a person right back to the behavior that created the regret to begin with. If regret can be avoided, It should be".-Andy Stanley from 'The Principle of the Path'

1. Lord make my heart teacheable.
2. Lord give me a new heart daily.
3. Lord my heart is prone to wander.
4.  Lord aid my mind that loves wandering into places where your grace is seems invisible.
5. God feed my soul with your truth daily. 
6. Speak words to my  heart when it is broken oh Lord!!!
7. You only Lord are my rock!!!!!

Some wise but simple thoughts for Pastors ( Parents of Teenagers) or Leaders......Welcome to the Wall | The Resurgence

This I do believe by James Owolabi.............

1. I believe in getting 6 - 8 hours of sleep everyday.
2. I believe in getting a 40 minute "handsome nap" everyday.
3. I believe in excercising one hour six days a week when I am not traveling. 
4. I believe in connecting with a friend in ministry once a week.
5. I believe in having lunch with a vetrean in ministry once a month.
6. I love food so watching my diet is hard but thank you Pastor Mark.......

Thank you for these wise words......from Pastor Mark Driscoll.........

Get your sleep. If you don’t, you will get sick and it only gets worse. 

 

Watch your diet. You will be tempted to self-medicate with junk food, caffeine, and energy drinks. Don’t. 

 

Watch your alcohol, if you drink at all. Since it is a depressant, increasing your alcohol intake when you are slouching toward depression and exhaustion is a big mistake.

 

Watch your temptation. The more fatigued you get, the more easily tempted you become. Take more precautionary measures during this season of the year to safeguard your holiness.

 

Watch your anger. Whereas women internalize their depression and manifest it with emotion, men externalize their depression as anger and manifest it with explosion. 

 

Get some exercise. It helps you work out your frustration, aids sleep, and is good for your health.

 

You really need your day off, especially during trying seasons. Guard it. If you don’t take a voluntary Sabbath you will take an involuntary one for counseling and/or hospitalization. 

 

Keep going by the grace of God,

Pastor Mark

 

via theresurgence.com

Character is not about intelligence-Tim Irvin in an excellent book "Derailed".

We always become who are. It may take time or stress or illness, but what's inside us tends to come out. Our character serves as the wellspring from which our behavior emerges... Os Guinness confirms: Character is the essential "stuff" a person is made of, the inner reality and quality in which thoughts, speech, decision behaviour, and relations are rooted. As such character determines behavior just as behaviour demostrates character""-Tim Irvin in an magnificent excellent book: "Derailed".

via www.facebook.com

Prayers needed for the next three months:Traveling & Speaking Engagements outside of North Mason Bible Church for 2011 for Pastor James Owolabi

Fall 2011 is starting to get busy around my church and I am excited that we are launching three bible studies this week.
 In additon to these bible studies i have been invited to serve the following Churches and Christian schools:

• September 27^th 2011 –October 1^st 2011: Speaking at Port Oldsworth Alaska at Arctic Barnabas Pastor and Missionary retreat 2011.
• October 7^th 2011: Damascus Christian School. Damascus Oregon.

• October 23^rd 2011: Speaking at Journey Church in Tacoma, Washington.
• October 28^th 2011: Speaking at Middle School Chapel at Life Christian Academy Tacoma, WA.
  
• November 13th 2011. Grace Community Church Grapeview, WA.
• November 16th and 17th Catalyst Conference in Chicago.
• November 18^th –November 24th 2011: I will be serving and visiting my family.
• November 20th 2011: Speaking at the Church at Avon in Avon Indiana.
• November 27th 2011: Speaking at  Endeavor Church Portland.
• December 4th 2011: Speaking at Independent Baptist Church of Ellensburg. WA.
  
• December 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th 2011: I will be preaching at FBC ELMA.
• Grace and Peace

Pastor James Owolabi