How Safe is God's Will?

The other day I was doing my devotions and I was amazed to hear God talking. Funny how that works huh? Actually I’m not sure if he did a lot of talking or just really got me thinking. Thinking about His will. I realized I was raised with faulty theology. To top it off I realized I had taught faulty theology. I had taught that if everything went well and doors opened and all was well then you were in God’s will. If things went wrong then you were not in God’s will. And if we were unsure then we broke it down to the big three. Remember – “The good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.” So if it kinda messed up then we must be in the Good will of God but not the perfect will of God. Now I would love to follow this whole line of thinking for you but you can do it yourself. Because after all if we work our way from good to perfect then that makes our belief structure performance based instead of faith based. But let’s get back to the God’s will thing before you get tired of reading this blog.

If we say that we can know God’s will based upon our safety, provision, and ease then we are not reading the same Bible. Let’s do an old school recap of our favorite bible characters. John the Baptist; was he in God’s will? Jesus said he was the greatest man to ever walk the earth – oops imprisoned and decapitated. John the disciple; beloved of Christ – mocked, eyes gouged out, outcast, and martyred. Paul the apostle; writer of 1/3 of the N.T. – whipped, stoned, shipwrecked, etc. This is but a small sampling to show that being in God’s will has really nothing to do with our present circumstances. I think sometimes we say well, it’s not God’s will because this didn’t happen or I’m uncomfortable. So what is God’s will? “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.” Anything we do to advance the kingdom of heaven, IS his will. Many times that is the most dangerous-tricky-scary-place to be, but its still his will.

I am SO excited to be teaming up with you guys to help fulfill God’s dream for South Memphis. You guys are awesome and we are gonna rock. I know that for some of us everything is not going exactly as we had imagined. And that is okay. Because what we are embarking on is an adventure not a tourist train ride through Graceland. Its an adventure. Our ending is not guaranteed, our ease of life is not promised and our safety is not a promise. But in all of that is an outrageous chance to make a difference in this life. TO impact not just a few people for the cause of Christ, but a chance to impact an area, a city. To step out of the stands and step onto the battlefield. To drag off the wounded and to enlist the healthy. To shoot the enemy and protect the innocent. You guys can not only do it! We will do it!

Thoughts to Ponder

Ah, lessons learned. A couple of things I've learned since I've been here that I think you guys will be interested in.
1.) Systems MUST be liquid.
Last week Naeem (The Pastor) changed his entire flow chart in about 10 minutes. He said the old one worked for the launch but now three months into it, it needs to be this new way. The type of system is important but a little lengthy for the Blog. What I wanted to point out is that from the start we have to be liquid. WE must be willing to adopt change and not get bent out of shape. The minute we build a monument is the moment we get left behind. Our systems must be fluid, our relationships must be fluid, and our concepts of ministry and even our theology must be fluid. Now you might freak out about me saying that our Theology must be liquid as well. Well freak not! Think about it; Do you believe everything exactly as you did when you first got saved? Of course not! You have spiritually evolved(don't be scared of the 'evolve' word). Ed Young says it this way, he says that the church evolves, God is. How true. So we have to be willing to change.
2.) Give direction, authority, and responsibility away.
Direction-authority-responsibility. These three things are linked at the core of their being. Many times we have seen leaders give direction but then don't pass on the authority to carry it out, or they give someone responsibility but no direction. Of these three things you can't be successful unless you have all three operating side by side in unison. They don't just compliment each other they are vital to the existence of the other. In order for our new church to work we have to all be willing to take up responsibilities, listen to direction, and properly use our authority. And then just as quick we have to be willing to give it away. Raise up others to do what we do. How vital is that? (My Space also Updated)

OUCH!

Noah fell and busted his head on the cofee table. We opted for the no-stitches route bt found the largest butterfly bandage we could find. The bunny and the raggedy-Anne dolls are his two sisters attempt at comforting him. I think somewhere in the process they might feel a little guilty for something.

I'm gonna puke - wait, I just did!

Last Saturday Patti started puking. She was sick for a day in a half-then Wednesday, Phoebe got sick. She was puking all night long. Of course she is not quite old enough to understand the whole vomit in a toilet thing so DAD got to wipe it up all night. Then Friday night Sierra felt left out so she got sick, and then I joined her in the puking extravaganza! It was horrible. Today however, I almost feel like myself again. Man you just don't appreciate keeping food down until you go a day and NOT keep it down.

I stoked that all of you guys got together at Pizza Hut the other night, that is awesome! I wish I could have been there but I was busy up-chucking. Okay I guess I didn't actually upchuck until after we talked.

I sat around this Sunday at Mosaic and watched everybody’s roles and the people doing their jobs and I was thankful. I watched a guy named Dave on the sound board and I thought, "Yea Mike not only can do, He will do great at it." I saw the lady in charge of prayer praying for Naeem and I thought, "Yea Robin will rock at that." And the list goes on. Our team is not yet complete, we have just begun to assemble the dream team, but I have no doubt that God is placing the right people in the right place for the right job. I can't wait to work with you guys in this fun, and powerful adventure.

One of the ladies at Mosaic just move here form Memphis. She is really nice and she told some of her friends in Memphis about us and our arrival in Memphis. They are so excited about us coming and think they want to be a part so they are driving over to Charlotte to meet us. I told Kelly (the lady) that we would go there to meet them but she said they were so excited about a new church plant in Memphis that they would come here to meet us! WOW! No guarantees, but I love how God works things out and moves peoples paths so that they will cross.

Speaking of which, Hey Jason, I'm still waiting for your friends to email me. :)

Practice makes perfect

I know many of you wonder if I've always been fat. Well actually know, I used to be really skinny. So skinny in fact, that I didn't weigh enough to play little league football. You had to weigh at least 55 pounds and I weighed in at a whopping 50. Until one year my dad had the idea to fill my pockets with fishing weights and a hunk of solid brass. I could barely keep my pants up, but when I stepped on the scale it leveled out at exactly 55 pounds. The lady nurse said, "Wow, you barely made it!” I didn’t care if I barely made it or blew the doors of trying, the point was I made it!

I left that room and went directly outside for my very first practice. I was ecstatic! I didn't think about the fat that everybody there out weighed me by 1200 pounds, or for the fact that they all had two years of experience, all I knew was that I was finally going to get to play ball!
I John 3:7 says, "He that practices righteousness, is righteous just as Christ.” See we don't have to be perfect. In fact it doesn't even matter when you screw up. Really I'm serious. Think about it for a second, how many people while practicing for anything, get in trouble when they screw up? None. When i tripped on a hurdle in track practice my coach never yelled at me. I wasn't kicked off the team. My coach would just say, "Come on Wendel, you can do it! Get the knees up and go for it!"
Self-criticism and self-condemnation is SO debilitating. It's time to stop looking at what you think is wrong with you and what you think is lacking in your life and realize that you are only practicing. So screw up! Make mistakes! Do it wrong! But do it nonetheless. See God is way more gracious on those who get off the bench and do it wrong or right; as opposed to those who only sit on the bench. This is your day! Don't focus on you faults or on how many times you’ve screwed up. Focus on the goodness of God and the calling that is on your life. Focus on how many hurting people there are around you and what you can do about helping them.
We will never be perfect on this earth. But one thing is for sure, we will become more perfect the more we practice.