I get excited about coaching and developing motivated young leaders. This fall it has been fun and exciting to work with a leader that is new to our Fireproof circle. Her name is Amanda. I received a general interest email from her about bringing xxxchurch to Vancouver to work the porn show; she really felt burdened by God for this ministry through prayer, a challenging sermon from her pastor and by seeing what we do online. As far as emails go, we get a lot of them that express interest in ’serving in ministry’ with us in their community by way of either in strip clubs or in the porn conventions when they come to town. VERY often, people have no perspective based in reality about what kind of work and finances are involved in doing ministry in the areas where we operate. In fact, I have a standard reply email that quickly invites people into leading and outlines the ‘costs’ of leadership and doing the ministry. Simply put, we can not continue to expand into every city and every opportunity without local leaders and participation. It would be fair to say that 98% of the emails I send out to the ‘very passionate leaders’ who contact us never end up coming back. So I was quite surprised when I received a 2nd email from a young Canadian mother who wanted to do ministry in the Taboo show in Vancouver.
Archive for the 'next leaders' Category
Moving to a new area and establishing new relationships has forced me to renew & re-think accountability. In Mesa I had steadily insulated myself with many levels of accountable relationships. I had professional accountable and challenging mentors. I had spiritually accountable relationships. I had friends who would hold me accountable to leading better within my family. Last year I had finally establish accountable workout partners. I don’t think there wasn’t aspect of my life where more than one person was holding me accountable consistently. Being in a new arena it has become very apparent that I have to work to establish accountability all over again. Just saying this I am sure causes some to think “what is wrong”. Nothing is ‘wrong’. BUT if you really want to grow, you shouldn’t wait for something to go wrong to then get accountable. However, that is what most people do. They get called to account AFTER they have made some fatal errors in the life and in their judgement. I HIGHLY recommend you get accountable BEFORE something goes wrong so that you can avoid the painful experiences of major life failure. Tomorrow begins a new circle of accountability — Every Thursday morning @ 5:30 a.m. I am meeting with 6 other leaders from across the nation. In addition to that I am developing face to face relationships here in Seattle. What are you doing in your life to be accountable?
Everyone wants to be relevant in ministry, but no body asks “are we IRRELEVANT?” If you were, how would you know? Who would you ask? By what measure would you be satisfactorily convinced that the ministry you are working in is not really connecting with those who are in need of God’s grace. If some people show up Sunday, does that make you relevant? If a newspaper writes about your church, does that count? What about if you hold a concert or a conference?
How about this…. What if the neighborhood or city in which your church exists doesn’t know that you exist? There was a church within walking distance from where I lived and the only thing I knew about them was that they had preschool registration open — evidently that was the most important sign they felt compelled to put out on a very busy street.
Here is my commitment – I am not going to just ‘do ministry’. What I do for Christ needs to have traction in every day life… and not just on the preschool open registration level.
How about your church; are you making a difference in the different cross sectors of your community?
So here’s the deal. I haven’t ever posted an explicitly positive reference on one of my blogs for an individual —- until now. I realize that by doing so, some of you will wonder why I haven’t done this for you. Call me, we can talk. Chances are it probably had more to do with your current situation or my lack of thinking than it was a personalized statement. PLUS, I am growing and trying new things.
But on with it already…
I want to recommend Jason Shafer to those of you who are hiring for a worship leader.
Hands down, it has been cool to get to know Jason for the last year and a half as a mountain biker, friend, worship leader and follower of Christ. Jason has some kick-butt talent in music and worship. He is definitely growing in his relationship with Christ, his relationship with his wife and in his spiritual accountability. I have never ‘worked’ with Jason, but I would if I had a job to offer. Don’t just take my word for it. Read his resume. Watch his stuff. Call him and talk to him yourself. Do your own interview… the Church needs to take risks and develop more young guys & gals who have talent (but I will save those thoughts for another post).
This is Jason… I don’t care if some of you like the hippy from American Idol version more, this is just sweet!
It’s the new thing!
When I started this blog less than a year ago, I only had a rough idea of what I wanted to do – very experimental! As the months and posts have passed, I think I have a clue and thus, a brand new website for the articles and content. Check it out and stay connected.
*** This blog will continue to exist, but it will become the home of personal updates in my own leadership life, random thoughts and at times, possibly interesting debates. OR it could die from a lack of interest on my part to maintain it… not that anyone has every done that with their blogs before.
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