Three Questions I am Asking Myself.

It is my goal to honour God in all that I do, and one of the things I have found that helps me stay on track is asking myself good questions. Here are a few of the questions I have been asking myself lately.

1. Is my relationship with God close and growing? I don't know about you but I can really get distracted by all kinds of good things, while missing out on God's things. You might think it is easier for a pastor to stay connected to God in relationship, but the truth is that I am always doing things that seem Godly, but often times I am doing them for others and not for God. I study like crazy for Sunday morning and for youth, but I need to spend time with God just because I love Him. One of the key indicators for me that my relationship with Him is going off the rails is when I stop enjoying ministry, and that reminds me to connect with the reason I do ministry. How is your relationship with God going?
2. How am I spending my time? I am one of those people that has two gears, full throttle or asleep. and many times as life gets busy I start to lose track of how I am investing my time (That's right, investing) of all the things that we have, time is one area of life where we can't get a do-over. Once time is spent we can never get it back and once spent we must give an account for it. again we can spend our time on good things and miss out on the God things. You might be thinking that I am saying that you can never relax but that is not at all what I am saying. What I am saying is that I need to make sure that I take time with Kristine, to just shut down ministry for a while and enjoy our relationship. I need to spend time with my sons, (it seems like yesterday that they were babies and now they are almost men) to connect with them and share my values and my heart with them. I need to stop wasting time doing good things and invest time doing God things. How about you how are you spending your time?
3. Who are the people God has put in my life, and am I connecting with them enough? I strongly believe that we all need three types of people in our lives, those whom we are helping up, those who are peers and those who are helping us up. I need to ask myself, who am I helping? That list can keep me pretty busy at times and I really enjoy these relationships. I also need people that are my friends, those people that I can just kick back and relax with. people that I can go to a movie with or have coffee with or just hang out and do nothing with. I also need people that can help me. People that have been where I am and have moved to new levels, people that can let me no that it is going to be OK and that I will survive to see tomorrow. people that will help me survive through the trial so I can see the victory! Who are the people in your life, and are you connecting with them?

Have a great one!

Pastor Appreciation!

It is Pastor appreciation month in October and I just want to thank the people in my life that have been pastoring me and pouring into my life.

1. Pastor Paul thank you so much for challenging me and helping me to become who God has called me to be. Thank you for believing in me even when I wasn't sure that I believed in myself, you and Elaine are a blessing to Kristine and I and we wouldn't want to do life without you.
2. Pastor Steve and Beth, thank you for all the advice and encouragement that you have given to us. Thanks for asking us good questions about our personal lives and ministry. Thank you for sharing your time and your life with us. thanks for taking care of us at conferences, and for giving us the opportunity to connect with amazing leaders. Thanks for caring about us and our sons.

I am so thankful for all the other people that mentor me and I just want to say thanks to Pastor Peter Dempsey, Pastor Ted Yuke, Len Zoeteman, and Kevin and Sheila Gerald for all you do for me. You are all awesome leaders in God's Kingdom!

Empty Chair

Tonight I get to hang out with our young people for our Thursday night meeting and I am pretty excited about what God is doing. When I was at the Creative Church Conference on Monday in Albany, Ed Young said something that rang so true to me, especially after our Sunday service. He said "Our church is all about the empty chair". what he was saying was, that everything that they plan, everything that they say is with the passion to reach one more person for Christ. this is so important, I think that if we are going to fulfill the great Commission and the call we have as a church then we also must learn to plan around the empty chair.

So who has God put on your heart lately? who are you reaching out to, and trying to lead to Christ? How important is it to you to reach the people that Jesus died for? Think about where you sit in church on Sunday, is there an empty seat near you? Will you take the responsibility of filling that seat this week? Pray and ask God who you can invite, and let's expect God to do great things this weekend!

Sunday Night in Albany

Well we just arrived in Albany New York after a six hour drive. Well what a great day! We have such a great bunch of team leaders at Jubilee and it has been a fun day of travelling with them. We are here for the Creative Church Conference put in by Ed Young of Fellowship Church inn Grapevine Texas. I am pretty excited about what God is doing at Jubilee right now and really enjoyed being in the house this morning. There was a hum in the foyer and a feeling of excitement in the foyer. Here are some things that are exciting me right now.

1. I feel like we are all begining to believe that God is doing something good, and that we are all willing to do our part in the goals we have set.
2. The new look, First Impressions team is really awesome and they are creating the environment of excitement and welcome that we have been working toward. Good job team!
3. we have been having quite a few visitors start to settle in and make Jubilee their home church, and I just want to give all of you a warm welcome to the family!
4. I was relieved to share the things that God has put in my heart as far as future vision and it also feels good to be officially working on transitioning to our new site.
5. Please, please, please start asking God who you should invite to church next week, I believe that God wants to touch people but He wants to work through us.

Well we have five guys in our room and most of them want to go to sleep now so I will keep you posted on the conference later this week. Have a great one!