The Secret to Success… Revealed!

When I was in Jr. High I began to realize that I was not successful…and began my quest to become successful.  Fortunately, I noticed a new movie coming out called, The Secret of My Success and made plans to attend!  I don’t remember much about it now, except that Michael J. Fox was in it AND one of my favorite bands at the time, Night Ranger (don’t judge me) said the title song.  Basically it was a big let down…to quote the title song, “The secret to my success…Is I’m living 25 hours a day…”

So all these years later…what have I found to be the real Secret to Success?  I’ll get to that later…  What I have discovered recently is that EVERYONE is asking that question…especially regarding their spiritual life!  My men’s group, BSF, the Journey women’s group, our recent Storyline series (viewable online at www.journeychurch.tv, and even our newcomers class!!!  How do I find & live into God’s BIG PLAN for my life???

As a church we are answering part of the question in the upcoming All In Launch Events.  For Journey Group members we’ve got 3 times next week, Sunday (Nov 8th), Tuesday (Nov 10th), or Wednesday (Nov 11th)…all at the Loft at 7pm.  For everyone else, we have a few Town Hall Meetings on Sunday (Nov 15th) or Wednesday (Nov 18th) at the North Campus at 7pm.

Please make plans to attend one of these events to find out God’s BIG PLANS for Journey Church these next 2 years, and how YOU can be a part of God revealing the secret to success for church!

OK, back to my answer… The secret to success is simply living each day pursuing God & His revealed plans for you (in the Bible) until you look back and see what His BIG PLAN for you was.

Sleep Deprivation is Serious!

So, most of you know that I’ve recently become a dad…for the fourth time.  As you can imagine things are pretty different when you have your fourth vs. your first and one of those was the paternal stress level.  Alison had a great natural birth, Hannah came out wonderfully, and we served our proverbial 24 hours in the hospital just to make the hospital happy.

OK… so I got a  blissful night’s sleep in the hospital (jk) (especially after being up all night the previous night with labor stuff) and I felt really good leaving the hospital with my lovely wife and our 24 hour old kid at 10am…

And of course, we headed first to get some Starbucks coffee.  (the hospital had coffee actually IN a Starbucks cup, but it was terrible.)  I went in and ordered Alison’s normal decaf and, instead of my normal decaf, I ordered a 1/2 caff for myself for a little jolt on this special morning.  I get in the car, drive out of the parking lot, and head down a little hill as I prepare to get onto the main street when I realize I don’t have my coffee!

Amazingly, my coffee is still sitting on the top of my car where I left it!  Alison asks me if she should drive or if I need to go back and get an extra espresso shot or something…

The moral of the story???   God laughs at me all the time I am sure and always have people bring you good coffee in the hospital before you hit the road with your newborn!

Get in a Small Group or Die

Sounds abrupt, but according to an article today at Prevention.com you will live 4-8 years longer if you have some really good friends…and of course you’ll meet a number of new people in groups and some may even become lifelong friends.  Here’s the quote

“Good interpersonal relationships act as a buffer against stress,” says Micah Sadigh, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Cedar Crest College. Knowing you have people who support you keeps you healthy, mentally and physically: Chronic stress weakens the immune system and ages cells faster, ultimately shortening life span by 4 to 8 years, according to one study. Not just any person will do, however. “You need friends you can talk to without being judged or criticized,” says Sadigh.

So…this Fall is the time (This Sunday specifically at www.journeygroups.tv) to DIVE INTO A GROUP!

Hearing God

Our Senior Pastor is doing a series right now called “DIALOGUE” and it has been incredible to hear from people who have had some misconceptions of prayer understand that prayer is not a monologue.  You can hear the talks at www.JourneyChurch.tv and even download the small group discussion guides at www.JourneyGroups.TV.

Dialogue: Prayer is not a Monologue

In my own prayer time I have been troubled by the reality that so few christians live in conversation with God regarding their normal life, or more personally, that I don’t spend time conversing with God.  Sometimes it’s because I don’t think my request is worthy of His help…”I got this one..save yourself for my next BIG request.”  Or maybe because I think that because he’s gifted me with a brain that I should use it.  That sounds nice and makes sense for choosing my socks in the morning or other small decisions, but God desires a relationship with us…not just our todo list. Leaving Him out of our daily lives, but wanting His help on the big stuff is life is like not talking to your spouse all month long and then expecting an amazing date night with all your dreams fulfilled (not going to happen…).

…”Until now you have asked for nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”-John 16:24  He WANTS US TO ASK and wants our joy to be filled to the brim through Him.

“The Lord awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple (student/ learner)…” – Isaiah 50:4

ASK & LISTEN TODAY!  And feel free to share any amazing stories as well!

Thoughts on a Friday night

Considering the reasonableness of not meeting expectations with my blog. I really enjoy writing & assume you enjoy reading (at least Adam Barnett reads it)…Alas, Adam you may be alone in my readership.
However, I must apologize for my delay in writing…there is no excuse. BUT if I told you I’d been abducted by aliens since my last post and that the clone put here on Earth in my place did not realize he was suppose to be blogging for me also sounds believable to you then so be it…

Here are some things that have occupied my time and thoughts since my last blog….

* Wife is having baby #4 in about 6-8 more weeks.
* 3rd trip to HHH is 8/29 and I’ve been biking like a madman this summer.
* My cohort in small group ministry left in July.
* Other staffing changes have changed my role more than expected and more to come.
* Did I mention that I’ve been biking a lot recently?
* My unread email is up to 150 now.
* The grass in my backyard was at 1ft tall until last week.

So, hopefully you’ve lived differently than I have this summer. I’m ready for the Fall and look forward to sharing more of my journey along the way.

Advisory Board Party!

In San Antonio this week for a few days with the Willow Creek GroupLife Advisory Board conference soaking in some great relationships, great ideas, & what is pervading our meetings…a sense that working by yourself is incomplete.  Bill Donahue & Greg Bowman shared last night of our passionate desires to see where God is moving in the groups movement and unite together around that movement.

In possibly related ideas…God and I were chatting this morning and he just shared Prov 21:21 – He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor.  Wow… who doesn’t want more of those things these days!

How are the pursuits of your day going to bring you closer to God, life, prosperity, & honor?

New Leader Training quote (from a veteran leader)

“The group leader training was an incredible use of my time. I have led or been in groups off and on for the past 15 years (we could even mention us being in one in our previous lives) Leading before kids was pretty easy. I would study, pray figure out am ice breaker and roll. Group would go smooth we would pray, icebreak, study and pray and go. No distractions. Then came kids and TONS of distractions and no time for much of anything. I still tried to follow the same routine and it would function but not grow or be as fulfilling as we wanted it to be, I didn’t know why. Then when we had our group leader training I learned more about having a champion and why it was like a light switch came on the frustration level(at myself) went down and I realized where I went wrong. I needed help-I couldn’t do it like before and this is probably more how God designed it to help more people and grow. I’m very fortunate to have the best co-leaders in the world, but I wasn’t utilizing them. Now we have better direction, more purpose and time to make the group be the community it should be.” – Sam Wampler

The Next Training is January 18th, 2009.  Email HERE to sign up, or drop by the Info booth early in 2009.

REVEAL : A Growing Experience

Journey Groups exist to lead people, through relational connections in groups, to become fully devoted followers of Christ.  That being said, what the heck is a ‘fully devoted follower of Christ” anyway?

The REVEAL 2008 conference, hosted by Willow Creek Church in Chicago hosted a terrific lecture-style overview of their ongoing work with a study of spiritual formation among churches across the country of all shapes & sizes.  What they discovered can be read in a few short books at www.revealnow.com .

For this blog though, the real application for Journey Groups was an intense awareness of how most churches (us too) have approached group ministry in a one-size-fits all group model.  Reveal validated our purposes around Connect, Grow, & Serve but opened the door for discussion on how those purposes work themselves out over the life of a person’s spiritual journey from exploring christianity to live a Christ-centered life and multiple steps in between.

Is your group ‘plan’ taking into account the unique spiritual needs of your members?  If anyone is using a ’spiritual assessment tool’ I’d be interested in hearing how that is going for you…

Downloading…

What have you downloaded recently?  Podcasts, MP3 files, updates to applications, or maybe a virus?  Downloading is the process by which we either update an outdated application or acquire brand new information.  I have recently downloaded a new small group model that has revolutionized our purpose with Journey Groups to the point that I have been overwhelmed with upgrading all our leaders non-stop this Fall. 

Essentially, we’ve take our core purposes as a church (REACH, CONNECT, GROW, SERVE, & REFLECT) and identified what ministry really OWNS these purposes.  Which have the most influence on the church actually achieving these purposes, and came away with Groups owning 3 of the 5.  Groups give us the unparalleled opportunities for connecting relationally, growing spiritually, and serving locally.  The application we have been running was based on flexibility and support, but lacked direction & purpose in a way that left groups asking, “are we really being successful at this group thing?”  While groups will remain varied, we have adopted some guidelines around these three areas (connect, grow, & serve) that we are hoping to see revolutionize our Journey Groups.

What have you downloaded lately?  Is God showing up in your group time or are you still running outdated programs?

GroupLife Strikes Again!

Many of you know the great impact that the Willow Creek GroupLife conference and Advisory Board meeting has had on me in the last year.  I want to extend an invitiation to any of you considering diving deeper into small group ministry to attend the Annual Willow Creek GroupLife conference in Chicago.

We have been considering hosting the CCN simulcast of the conference to make a local solution available, but have not landed on that option yet…i’ll keep you posted.

If you have any interest, please see all the details HERE !