End Of The World Is A Good Opportunity

May 21, 2011 in Discipleship with 0 Comments

According to a certain group of Christians, today is rapture day. A lot of people are talking about it. Most people think they are mistaken and have Biblical evidence against their claim. I honestly don’t care if they are right or wrong. If Jesus is coming back, then I am ready to celebrate. If he is not, then that means there is a lot more for me to do on this planet.

I was thinking about this whole crazy event and realized that this is a great opportunity. It is sometimes hard to have conversations with non-believers about our faith. Not that it’s hard to discuss, but how do we work the topic into conversation without being pushy? Well, there are a lot of non-believers talking about the end of the world too. This is an opportunity for all of us to start conversations with those around us.

Will you use this opportunity to tell other believers they are wrong, or will take a chance and share with others what you believe?

4 Tips To Create Effective Small Groups

May 19, 2011 in Community with 0 Comments

We are almost done with another year of student ministries small groups. I was reflecting on the last 9 months and thought I would share some things that I have learned this year.

Get to know them individually

When I can get to know someone on a personal level, it makes it so much easier to help them to grow spiritually. I can select or create curriculum based on what is actually needed instead of trying to guess.

Build them up in front of the group

Find ways to encourage each person in front of the group. Look for opportunities during the discussion to reward their participation. Take a chance and speak good into their lives.

Encourage ownership of the group

Try to get everyone involved with making small group happen each time you meet. Share the responsibilities and they will grow to love and care for the group and its members because they are vested in it.

Find ways to connect outside of the church box

Go do something fun as a group. Meet them in the real world. The group can quickly grow closer when they experience life together.

Do you have any tips to help lead an effective small group? If so, please share in the comments.

Is The Contemporary Church Service Becoming Traditional?

May 18, 2011 in Church with 4 Comments

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I have visited a lot of churches over the years. I love visiting different communities so that I can experience a different flavor of worshiping God. I love meeting new people and learning about what they do to serve the kingdom. One thing that I have always loved about the diversity of churches is how they all play a different part in the Kingdom of God.

But I have also noticed something about the different churches that I have visited. Many of them are all taking a very similar approach to their weekend services. This similarity seems to be most common with the larger churches. It has become pretty standard to see a band up front to start the service. We sing a few songs and then we move onto the sermon or teaching part of the service. There is typically free coffee and a lot of people who greet you with big smiles.

I remember the first time that I came to a big church like that and I thought it was so cool because it was different from any church service that I had ever experienced. So is that still true today? Are there still new people showing up who are blown away by the hospitality and the relaxed atmosphere?

I honestly cannot answer this question because I have gone to the same kind of church for the past 10 years. It isn’t new and exciting to me. At what point do we need to make changes to continue to draw in people we aren’t reaching?

I guess what I am really asking is what is the bleeding edge church going to look like 10-20 years from now? Should we be thinking about how to get there? Do we run the risk of being stuck in our own traditions that we don’t want to change?

Don’t Force It

May 17, 2011 in Leadership with 0 Comments

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This is a term I heard quite often growing up. I heard it most often when playing basketball. If I had the ball, I would envision what I wanted to happen whether that was a fade away jumper or one of those passes that nobody saw coming. As coach Klein says, “Visualize, then attack.” But sometimes things wouldn’t work out the way I envisioned them. The shot would rattle out or the pass would get tipped.

Sometimes I want to make something happen so bad that I try to force it. If I envision the opportunity and go for it too quickly, often the end result is not so great. But if I take the time to evaluate what I want to accomplish and utilize my team to move the ball around so to speak, together we can be more effective in our action. The chances of a positive result increase when I don’t try to force it myself.

So take a step back and be strategic about your opportunities. Not everything is now or never.

The Family Blog

May 13, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

If you have been reading this blog only to see updates on the family, I am moving most of those types of postings over to a new site. It will be dedicated to pictures and videos of things that I do with my family. The new site is at http://teamwalker.tumblr.com/.

So go there and bookmark it or whatever you do and see more frequent updates of the latest adventures with Team Walker.

Don’t Conform, Renew Your Mind, Know God’s Will

May 13, 2011 in Personal Development with 0 Comments

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of you mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:2

We are to be different from the world. Conforming to the ways of the world is easier than what we were made to do. In the end this world has nothing to offer you. The Kingdom of God  has everything to offer you. Once you understand this and allow for renewal and transformation, you will know the will of God.

You Know What Bugs Me?

May 13, 2011 in Personal Development with 4 Comments

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You know what bugs me? When people try to be something they aren’t. I will refer to them as posers in all future references in this post.

First let me say that I am just as guilty of this as the next person. I went to Jr. High School. I wanted to be a cool kid with the right look. I wanted acceptance. So I tried to be what I thought was the accepted personality. I failed miserably. I was the kid that tried on all of the cliques to see what fit. None of them did and I found myself in between all of the time.

I do not like Jr. High me. I was a poser. Instead of trying to figure out who I was, I let different groups of people decide for me. I gave them the power to build me up or tear me down. I have no idea why I or anyone would want to do that. It just sounds silly when I look at it that way.

Fast forward several years. I got tired of finding my identity in others, so I went on my own for a while. But later I made a connection that my identity is found in Jesus. The clouds parted and a ray of sunshine beamed upon my acne infected face. It all made sense. But only for a while. So I started to really invest in relationships with other Christians. After a while though I learned that people didn’t stop being posers when they turned 18. And now I was faced with Christian posers. Ok, so I know that Jesus is all about grace and mercy, but people who say they love Jesus and then go act completely different really piss me off. I am not saying that I am a perfect Christ follower. I piss myself off when I see my own hypocrisy. After I punch myself in the face a few times, I feel a little better but sore.

It just really bugs me. I try very hard to be as real as I can be with people. I don’t always share the gory details of my sinful self with everyone that I meet, but I won’t try to build myself up to be perfect. I still feel the urge to try to fit in. I see what other Christians are doing or studying and I find myself jumping on board. This is all fine and well as long as I don’t forget to be who God made me to be. I have found lately that I am once again, trying to be something that I am not. And fixing it is as simple as remembering to be myself. If you aren’t sure what that is, then you need to ask God about that.

Jesus wants an authentic relationship with us. And he wants us to have authentic relationships with each other. So let’s stop being posers, and get real.

When is the last time you felt like you were being a poser? For me it was just last week.

Unleashed by Erwin McManus

May 12, 2011 in Books with 0 Comments

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I recently finished reading ‘Unleashed’ by Erwin McManus. If you are familiar with his work then you may know this book as ‘The Barbarian Way.’ He released it under the new title because the old title suggested that the book was very masculine. In reality, the book is very much about his daughter and her raw faith in God.

To say this book was inspiring would be an understatement. I finished it in just a couple of days. It is a quick read (only 141 pages)  especially if you find it as compelling as I did. This book says a lot of things that I have been afraid to say because of what kind of disturbances it can cause. And he says it in a much better way than I would have.

If you are a follower of Christ and you have allowed yourself to be domesticated, you have lost the power of who you are and who God intends for you to be. You were not created to be normal. God’s desire for you is not compliance and conformity. You have been baptized by Spirit and fire. Asleep within you is a barbarian, a savage to all who love the prim and proper. You must go to the primal place and enter the presence of the Most High God, for there you will be changed by His presence. Let Him unleash the untamed faith within you.

When I first started following Jesus I remember the the raw and savage like faith that I had. I felt and acted different from the world and I got a huge kick out of being different. Over the years, I have found that it is easier to avoid conflict and go with the flow of things, but I felt like something was missing. My once boiling over dangerous faith has become a pool of stagnant goo. This reminded me about what I have been missing. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment that I began letting fear run my life, but it is about time for that to end.

Following Jesus was never meant to be an easy, mapped out path full of sunshine and double rainbows. We make it out to be that because we want to be comfortable. But we never learn from comfort. We learn out of struggle. It is easier to be religious and legalistic than it is to love God and our neighbors. Jesus didn’t call us to play it safe. He called us to follow at all costs.

Are you really free? Or are you trapped in a system that tells you how to be a good Christian? I want you to be free.

You can buy this book on Amazon.

Disclaimer: I received this book through BookSneeze for free in exchange for this book review.

Changing Things Up

May 11, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to consistently create content that is focused on a niche of sorts in hopes that I could launch a blog and just write about one thing. I have realized that right now, I don’t have the focus to pull that off. Knowing that I will be on full-time kid duty beginning on June 8th, I will not have the ability to focus on just writing everyday. It is important for me to do things with my kids and be a part of their lives as they are growing up more each day. I have the opportunity to do that this summer and I don’t want to pass it up.

So the good news is that I am back to blogging here about wherever my mind takes me. But I am working on applying some new things that I have learned to my blogging activities here. First, I am going to try to be more focused on writing about similar ideas. I am moving the family type updates to a completely different blog. So if you visit here just to get updates on the kids and our lives, you will probably want to book mark the new site when I am ready to launch it. I will post a link here soon when that is ready. If you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, you might start seeing updates there from the new site.

I am going to reserve this space for more about my journey as a follower of Jesus. I will share the things that I am learning and the struggles that I am facing. So if you have been waiting for more of what God is doing in my life then you will be getting more of that soon.

There are a few things that I am updating around here, so some of the pages may not be all up to date currently. Hopefully I will have things caught up very soon. Until then, keep checking back for new updates.

Sorry For The Hiatus

May 11, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I am sorry that I haven’t been updating all that much. I have been on a little journey of self discovery as of late. It has led me down a path where I have tried reinventing myself in several different ways. Or at least reinventing my on line persona. But my conclusion is that I am who I am and Churchpunk really fits me well.

So I will be back to regular updates here and hope to reconnect with those that are still coming around here.

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