Green Eggs & Ham

I DO like Green Eggs & Ham! Sarah & I just ate @ the Vanilla Bean in Two Harbors, MN. I thought the oven baked "Green Eggs and Ham" omelet sounded good, but it was beyond good, it was delicious! It had pesto in it which gave it a very unique flavor. Besides that, it was HUGE! The size of my plate! I could only finish like half of it.

Good Day

See You At The Pole this morning was great! I got up before 6 a.m. to make hot chocolate for everyone and then picked up the freshly made donuts. I met half of the crew at the W. Middle School and then drove over to the B. Middle School where I met John who was taking care of getting the goodies to the BHS students. Between the 5 campuses there were around 70 students plus some adults that came with their kids...my numbers for the BMS were kind of shaky because there were well over 26 students there (about half of them were from the Elementary school!), so I just basically stopped counting when I realized I would definitely not have enough to go around...miraculously there was enough for everyone to get a cup of hot cocoa and a snack!

ONE, the inter-church High School and Middle School gathering was tonight. It was great to see the students from other churches I had not seen in a long time!

It's great to be part of a team ministry that crosses denominational lines! Jesus' prayer is that "they will know we are Christians by our love!" and that we would "be one" as the Father and He are one. What a privilege to be part of unifying the Body of Christ to more effectively connect this generation to God by working together!
Will I be able to sleep?

Pandora

Last week Justin M. introduced me to Pandora...my life is forever changed. I have had it playing out of our laptop into the radios around the house whenever I'm at home...it's great. You put in a couple of artists you like and it will make a "radio station" of those and similar artists...how cool is that? I'm hooked.

Concert

Last night Sarah and I took my grandparents out to a Wintley Phipps concert that was AMAZING! I was able to hear Wintley at Catalyst last year, so when I got the invitation in the mail I knew right away that it would be an awesome concert. The power of God is very evident when he sings. The youtube video doesn't do it justice, but it will give you an idea of what it's like.

The Making of a Leader

The topic of leadership is very popular today. There are many books that trumpet the latest leadership principles that are sure to make a business succeed, but in “The Making of a Leader” Frank Damazio writes about what we can learn from Biblical history about the formation of a leader. Frank Damazio pastors City Bible Church in Portland, Oregon. He has been teaching and pastoring since 1976. He wrote his book as a textbook for a class on leadership when he was teaching at Portland Bible College and therefore the format of the book is very much like a textbook. Because it was written for a leadership class its intended audience is young and aspiring leaders that need help discovering their God-given callings and identifying the shaping processes that they are or will be going through as God molds them into leaders. Damazio challenges some popular leadership notions with Biblical principles and shows how God desires leaders to be called, formed, and live. He does a very good job of identifying the shaping processes that different leaders in the Bible went through and relating them to the formation of every godly leader. It is a very good book for any leader to read, no matter what stage of development they are in.
If you haven't read it yet and you think you might be going through a shaping time, or if you are planning on being in ministry leadership of some kind: read it. If nothing else you'll walk out with some other incredible nuggets hidden in the pages.

Painful Preparation

If you've ever been around Pastors you know that they like to make up phrases or sermon points that start with the same letter. Sometimes I wonder how much time they spend thinking about it. This last week I came up with one as I was preparing the message for last Sunday, but it wasn't on purpose (just so you know). I was talking about the Problem of Preparation, Pain, and the Purpose it can have in our lives. Sarah and I have gone through some painful times in the last couple of years, so I felt it fitting to share a little bit of what God has done in us and also just some insight into the process that we all go through.

2 Corinthians 4:7- But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us (Paul), but life is at work in you.

13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Painful Preparation Produces: Purity, Productivity, Passion, Power, and New Perspectives.

I've seen it in my life and I would encourage you no matter where you're at in this process: "...that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus!" Don't give up!

New Leadership

Have you ever noticed how they keep writing books on leadership? If you've read more then 10 good ones you'll know that they have a lot of the same things to say. Here and there you see a creative approach, but in a lot of ways they're using different phraseology or simply have a different emphasis. Have you ever noticed how it seems that the newest leadership books are the ones that finally have it all figured out? Or, how each book seems to offer THE solution?
I'm finding, like the author of Ecclesiastes, that “nothing changes under the sun.” People are still people and God is still God. He set the perfect example of TRUE leadership in His Son and that is the first place we should look when wanting to define what good leadership is. Lately I have been studying His word with an eye for leadership and I keep seeing that people are writing and rewriting the same principles in the new books that get released, but they've been in the Bible for thousands of years!
Another really cool thing is that the Bible doesn't just show us the life of the perfect leader, but also gives us glimpses of good leaders who made mistakes and of bad leaders who were redeemed in the end (as well as bad leaders that just stayed bad) and we can learn about leadership FROM THEM TOO! Isn't it great when we can learn from those that have gone before us? That's one reason I am really liking Frank Damazio's book "The Making of a Leader." In it he examines the lives of Jesus, Joshua, Samuel, Paul, Elisha, David, Timothy, etc. to find out what God has to tell us about leadership from their lives...very interesting...could it really be that there is nothing new under the sun, but that old principles are simply applied to new contexts?