Dr. Wood in State College

He doesn't sing like Take 6 (to my knowledge), but Dr. George Wood will be our special guest the weekend of January 13 at State College Assembly of God.

Saturday evening, January 12, State College Assembly will be hosting a free dinner for any A/G credential holders who would wish to attend. The time is 6-8 pm. After dinner, there will be an opportunity for Q&A with our new General Superintendent. If you were able and wished to stay over for Sunday morning, of course you would be most welcome.

If you are able to attend, please RSVP (this is essential) no later than Friday, December 28 by emailing scassembly@aol.com.

We'll even give a free ticket to #26.:)

Take 6 in Pocono

This year Pocono Community Church hosts its annual Christmas outreach concert with Grammy Award winning artists Take 6. The concert promises to be the best ever Pocono Christmas.

I've got 25 FREE TICKETS for the first 25 people that email me after reading the blog. Just send me your first and last name via email at dcrosby@poconocc.com and let me know how many tickets you need and I'll have them at the box office for you. The concert is this Saturday night at the historic Sherman Theatre in downtown Stroudsburg. The show starts at 7pm and the doors open at 6pm. Bring your unsaved friends and share Christ this Christmas through this unique outreach. Merry Christmas to my blogging friends : )

Catalyst Session: Erwin McManus

God has called us to create the future. We cannot change history. We cannot make history. But we can and should create the future.

God seems to work most powerfully through those who live most passionately.

Solomon paints a very depressing picture in Ecclesiastes. He seems to be almost suicidal and says that there is nothing new under the sun, and that everything is meaningless.

But Solomon was wrong. God is always doing a new thing. With God nothing is hopeless. God is a creative God. He is actively at work in human history. He is inviting us to be a part of the new thing He is doing in your world right now.

We need to rethink our relationship to history. If we make history, it simply means that we are doing something profound and powerful in the moment we are in right now.

So how do we establish and reconnect ourselves to what it means to being truly human? God created all of us with the capacity to choose. Our futures are not pre-determined. We can choose what happens in our world. Adam and Eve had a choice for what their future would look like. We are now recreated in Christ for good works that were prepared in advance for us to choose to do.

People always ask me, 'who do you preach to on the weekends...believers or seekers?' My answer is simple, 'I preach to humans...which seems to cover just about 98% of everyone.' I think if we preach to people in these categories we miss some of the deepest longings that are simply a part of being a human being.

God didn't create you to live passively, he created you to be creative. He also created you with many needs even beyond your spiritual life. He created you because He enjoys meeting those needs. He formed you to want and to have longings. When we speak to people, we should connect into those longings and bring God into the longings of the heart.

There is a universal longing in every human for the authentic and the real. Our soul is sick and we are longing for authentic connections with God and others.

Isn't it great that we have come to a moment in the church world where it is ok to tell the truth. We don't have to make our life sound better than it is. We can be honest and transparent about our struggles, questions and doubts. We can be honest about what we don't like about the condition of the Church. What happens when we are authentic is that Jesus becomes more beautiful in the atmosphere of the truth.

Jesus becomes attractive to our world when they seen Him through the authentic pictures of the brokenness of our own lives.

In fact, perhaps all of human history is a contrast between tragedy and beauty. God creates beauty. Then we come along and we by our attitudes or decisions turn that beauty into tragedy. But then Jesus arrives and he makes beautiful the tragic things of our broken lives.

Is it possible that we have trained ourselves to live in this inhuman world that we have lost the ability to see and celebrate that which is truly beautiful. Consider the early verses of Isaiah 53, what God saw as ultimately beautiful (the cross) was seen at first as horrid to us. Consider the revelation of the 'word' in John chapter 1. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, but we did not even recognize Him.

Our world needs someone to help them see the beauty of God's expression in the most painful experiences of their lives.

Craig Groeschel + Rick Warren

More information from the Catalyst Conference. Hope this is helpful!?! Craig Groeschel did a powerful session about the tendency we have toward practical atheism.

• Mark Batterson's take on Groeschel's talk.
• My notes from Groeschel's talk.
• More great quotes from Rick Warren's message.

Catalyst Session: John Maxwell

Central Thought Of Talk: Intentionally add value to people every day!

The greatest way to add value to people is to find your 'strength zone' (gifts, passions, skills) and then leverage those strengths for others.

Several Hinderances In Adding Value To Others In My Young Life:

1. I didn't know my 'strength zone' so I didn't know what to leverage.
2. Don't add value to people as a technique to build your own thing. It has to be a self-less things. It is simply a sowing mentality. Don't worry about the reaping. Just help people.

Fact: We are either adding value to people or we are taking value from people. So the question is do I add or do I subtract.

Reality: People who add value do so INTENTIONALLY. By nature we tend to be selfish, we are subtractors. We have to do it daily and intentionally. How?

1. You have to VALUE people.
2. You have to make yourself more Valuable.
3. You have to know and relate to what other people value. (great leaders are first listeners, and then learners, and then they are leaders).
4. You have to do the things that God VALUES.

Catalyst Labs stimulate and challenge

The annual Catalyst Conference here in Atlanta is always preceded by what are called Catalyst Labs. These are workshops with amazing speakers (last year I got to meet Eugene Peterson among others) and I find it more helpful and exciting than the arena event which attracts 11,000 people. Here is a bit of my experience to piggyback on Jeff Leake's reports on the general sessions which I also attended. Click here for Catalyst site
First of all Catalyst Lab speakers included Mark Batterson, Chris Seay, Matt Chandler (he was great), David Batstone, Leonard Sweet, Ron Martoia, Jud Wilhite, Nancy Ortberg, Reggie McNeal, Tim Elmore, Brad Powell, Ed Stetzer, Gabe Lyons, Rick McKinley, Shane Claiborne and many more.
I am always alone when I come here so it can be hard because I am a social creature. I long for discussion and fellowship but have to be satisfied with information and inspiration. Fortunately, as we were waiting to enter the venue for the evening session on Wednesday I asked the man next to me where he was from. "Newfoundland" he said. I was thrilled because we have a lady in our church from Newfoundland. But it got better because he was from the Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland, serving as their Secretary/Treasurer. Turns out he had no transportaion to and from his hotel, so I had a spirit-filled buddy for the next two days!
I love this conference because of the diversity, not just in subject matter, but also in terms of attendees. There is also a sense of expectancy and excellence that I rarely find elsewhere. A man named Reggie Joiner always opens with a Pre-Lab session, and he is very creative. He shared is views on ministry and used ten words to characterize the transitions we need to make in the coming years.

• From focus on Students to focus on Leaders. We need to begin to see those who sit in our classes as potential leaders being trained for ministry instead of mere pupils being filled with our great wisdom.
• From Content to Experience. It's the difference between a classroom and an apprenticeship. We must flesh things out and show how the scripture works in the real world.
• From Production to Relationship. People are more important than the show we perform each week.
• From Age-focused to Family-focused. We must stop dividing families during the church ministry time and give parents tools to share their faith with their most important mission field- their children.
• From Growth to Service. We must mobilize to serve a broken world and leave the growth to God.

Reggie Joiner is head of RETHINK, and is worth listening to.

I love Leonard Sweet's brilliance. He is a futurist and is always thinking in terms of what is next. His job seems to be to prepare and warn the church so we can be more effective and not miss the waves of change that come like continuous ripples, faster and faster it seems. He explained how the classic bell curve with it's large middle and diminished ends has been replaced by the "well curve" with almost no middle and large ends. We see it in economics (the diminishing "middle class"), politics becoming polarized, and even in the church where we have mostly large or small churches, but very few medium sized churches. He encouraged us to build bridges between the ends, because that's what Jesus would do. He also called us to be MRI- Missional, Relational and Incarnational. Leonard Sweet

I came away from the Labs with many good ideas, but more importantly I am reconsidering the way we do things at Mountainside. I can see more clearly where we ought to be going and how we might get there. All I ask of a conference or gathering these days is two simple things. I need to be inspired to give my life more fully and purely to the cause of Christ, and some effective and meaningful ways to motivate others to do that with me.

Catalyst Session 5: Rick Warren

If you want God's blessing, anointing, and power to rest on your life--then you have to get with God's agenda. God has not promised to bless your agenda. But He has promised to bless His agenda through you.

Stop praying, 'God bless me!' Begin praying, 'God what is it that you are blessing.'

So what is God blessing? In a word...THE KINGDOM!

Where is the Kingdom of God? It is wherever Jesus is King.

What is the Kingdom of God? It is God's people fulfilling God's purposes on God's planet for God's glory. It is multi-cultural. God is a global God. It is eternal. It is powerful, run by God's power. It is inevitable, for God will one day place Jesus as ruler over all.

When will Jesus come back? If Jesus didn't know that, I shouldn't expect that I will be able to figure that out either. I stopped trying to figure out what Jesus didn't know. Matthew 24:14 tells us the key factor. The gospel must be preached to all nations and then...

What is God's agenda? It's the Kingdom coming through the Church. When you are married, you love your bride no matter what. Jesus loves His bride no matter what. He asks us to do the same. Jesus said, "I love the church so much it hurts...I died for it.' We need to stop putting down the church. It is God's agenda in the world.

God wants you to love the real Church not the ideal Church. And He wants you to learn to serve in it.

God created the universe, galaxy, planet, to put us on this globe. He did it because He wanted a family. He made us to love us. That's why we are alive. The Church is the expression of God's family on earth. One day everything else will burn up, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. The only thing that will last on this earth is God's Family.

I am not interested in changing culture, I am interested in creating it. God is a creative God. For thousands of years the Church has created culture.

Think about the moment when God told Moses to lay down his staff. When he did, it became a snake. When he picked it up again, it again became a staff. Why did God do this? What do we learn?

• Whenever God asks you a question, it is never for His benefit. It is always to teach us a lesson.
• Whenever God does a miracle, He never does it to show off. It is always to teach a truth

The staff of Moses represented three things:

• First, it represented Moses' identity. Moses was a shepherd. The staff revealed that.
• Second, it represented Moses' income. All Moses' income was wrapped up in flocks not stocks.
• Third, it represented his influence. It was the means by which Moses moved his sheep.

God asked Moses to lay all this down for Him. God then told him, 'Moses, if you surrender it to me...I will make it come alive. And every time you pick it back up again, its going to die. It's all about surrendering it to me.'

From the moment Moses laid down his staff, it is never called the staff of Moses again. It is now called THE ROD OF GOD.

The question that we all have to answer is 'What Is In Your Hand?'

When you stand before God, you will have two questions to answer to God. What did you do with my son Jesus? and second...What did you do with what I gave you?

Catalyst Session 4: Francis Chan

Francis Chan is a pastor of a church in So. Cal.

It is actually possible to be successful preacher and have a growing church--and not really love the people of your church. It is also possible to be successful outwardly and not really be in love with Jesus.

In the early days of my faith I had a deep passion for people, the lost friends in my high school, the people that I worked with in the Mexican Restaurant I worked at. I had a huge love for God and for people...and then I got into ministry.

And I am constantly fighting to keep this from becoming just a job. I am working hard to be aware of the tendency I have to drift away from the core of what this is all about.

Paul talks in Galatians of how God had selected him to be used by Him from birth. This thing we do is not something we should treat casually. God ordained us into His service. He has filled our bodies with the very Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead! That is some serious power!

So do you really speak and serve out of that reality?

Jeremiah 1:4 tells us that Jeremiah was known by God BEFORE he was even formed in the womb. So God knew us before he actually created us. In verse 5 he goes on to say that...before birth I had selected Jeremiah to be a prophet.

Does God really think that about me? Did he really have this specific a destiny for me even before I was conceived? Do you really believe that God wanted you hear on this earth because He had a design for you so important and so essential that only you could fulfill?

Jeremiah's response to this knowledge was...'I don't think I can? I don't really talk that well.' But God rebuked him and told him that he was not to doubt himself or refuse to go out of fear.

At the end of the day, we have to not only believe that we are uniquely designed and called by God, we also have to do the very unique thing God designed us to do. It's fine to learn from other successful pastors and churches, but we need to get back to the place where we get alone with God and listen for the unique and specific things God wants you to do in your context.

And just in case Jeremiah didn't get the point of God's call, listen to what God says in v. 17:
Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them.

Question: Am I really ready to say whatever Jesus called me to say? Jeremiah was called to say some very difficult things. Are you willing to say WHATEVER Jesus calls you to say?

Jesus did not build a popular ministry. He challenged people to pick up their cross and follow. The large crowds found His sayings so hard that they departed from Him. If Jesus had a church in the same city as me, I would probably have a bigger ministry. People would leave his church and come to mine because He would say much more challenging things that I tend to say.

I don't want to present to Jesus a lukewarm church of a bunch of people who sort of love Jesus. I want to present a 'bride' of people in my local church that are passionate radical followers who are willing to give up everything to please Him. I could spend my life for that. Building a big building or a big crowd, what good is that?

I want to build a BRIDE for Jesus. I want to fulfill the complete mission and destiny that I was born to fulfill. I want to live up to the capabilities of the Holy Spirit that is alive within my soul. I don't want to do the typical thing, or the thing people expect me to do. I want to do what Jesus has for my life.

Catalyst Session 3: Unchristian

Session three launched with a discussion about a new book that is out called UNCHRISTIAN. It is a documentation of how the current culture views Evangelical Christians.

• Young people ages 16-29 are 8x more likely to have a negative view of Christians than did their Boomer parents.
• Their views were shaped not as much by the media as by their personal experiences. The majority surveyed had been in a church for at least six months and at some point have considered becoming Christians.
• The over-riding idea is not so much that we are resented for our righteousness but rather for our self-righteousness.

This is a book that I will not only read, but I think should be read by as many believers as possible so that we can understand the challenge we are dealing with in reaching the next generation.

After that Shane Claiborne who leads a ministry in Philadelphia shared his vision for following Jesus who was never cornered by political or religious expectations. Shane was an intern both at Willow Creek and for a time under Mother Theresa. A very unique guy.

His life and ministry to the poor and broken in Philly was very challenging. I wish I could convey in my words more about his spirit (one of those things that you just to be present to absorb).

Catalyst Conference Session 2: Patrick Lencioni

Blogger's Note: Lencioni is a great leadership author. One of my favorite books of his is called DEATH BY MEETING.

Isn't it interesting that many of the popular TV shows of the past (Happy Days, Seinfeld, Friends), they rarely showed people at work. Even in church, we rarely think about or refer to our life at work.

Job misery is something that effects every social level and every type of profession. No job is a perfect job. So how do we address our work life? What can we do to help people find greater fulfillment and meaning in their jobs?

Samuel Johnson: People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.

THREE SIGNS OF A MISERABLE JOB (...or a miserable church member):

1 - Anonymity - going to work and feeling like you aren't known. All human beings have a need to be known, so when we feel like no one cares enough to know us, we feel we are missing something important.

Sometimes in the interview process potential employees are sold with warmth on a great work environment. Then after beginning the job, there is a huge disconnect. Important moments happen for employees (births, deaths, etc) and no one seems to care.

When it happens in a church, it is particularly painful because the expectations are higher for a church (especially a church staff).

If we don't care about the people we manage, we shouldn't be a manager.

Why don't we do this? It is intuitive. It should be a no-brainer. It might be busyness. It might be a lack of our own sense of value. We don't understand that we have importance and influence to them. Sometimes we feel like it might be disingenuous because you have never asked about them before.

#2 - Irrelevance - people that don't feel they are making a difference have a deep sense of insignificance.

We as leaders need to be constantly remind people of the difference they are making in the company or in the lives of others. Identifying for people their role and reminding them of how valuable it is brings great meaning and purpose to their existence.

Why wouldn't we want every waitress, janitor, church usher, or minister to know what a huge difference they are making in our lives?

#3 - Immeasurement - people need to measure for themselves how they are doing. If you don't know how you are doing, and you don't know how to track it, you tend to feel a bit hopeless and out of control.

Often sales people like their jobs because they always know where they stand. We all have a need to measure.

We need to measure what is is we do that is relevant? What do we do to assess our effectiveness?

Good management is actually good ministry. Helping people feel valuable can be one of the biggest impacts on their lives.

Live Blogging At Catalyst Conference

I am attending the Catalyst Conference on Thursday and Friday (Oct 4-5). I will be blogging live from the sessions. You can read the notes from Andy Stanley's first session here.

More posts to come...

Wednesday Morning, October 3, 2007, Penn-Del Minister’s Enrichment – H.B. London

Moral Failure in the Pastor's Life
Why does pastoral moral failure occur?
· Fatigue and Burn-out. You are depleted of energy, and you need something to fill you up.
· Carelessness. You allow yourself to slip in very subtle areas.

Three things observed in every pastoral failure –
1. Very limited time alone with God.
2. Unresolved conflicts at home.
3. No one holding them accountable.

Other observations noted in pastoral failure -
· An over-abundance of pastoral counseling. Pastors must have a good referral system – people who you can refer your parishioners to who are better than you are at counseling. This is no indication of weakness on your part.
· Spiritual burn-out. When you see the same people, saying the same things, with the same problems, and you begin to wonder if anything ever will change. You keep getting beat down, and you spiritually burn out.
· Loneliness and isolation. Pastors and/or their spouses feel isolated and underappreciated. You seek affirmation in other places, and this leaves you vulnerable.

Ephesians 5:3 – let there not even be a hint of immorality. We need to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6)

· The inability or unwillingness to identify areas of weakness. We need to do everything we can to avoid all areas of personal weakness. You need to have someone to whom you are personally accountable. Someone who you allow to ask you the hard questions. Build safeguards into your life.

If therer are unresolved issues from the past, they must be resolved, or they will come back to haunt us.

What is the solution to these things?
1. Intimacy with God
2. Right relationships
3. Adequate rest
4. Honest accountability
5. Meaningful ministry
6. An attitude of joy and thanksgiving
7. A vigilant spirit

Guard your heart, stay pure, love your family, stay very close to God.

Tuesday Evening, October 2, 2007, Penn-Del Minister’s Enrichment – H.B. London

The dream never dies, just the dreamer.

The song never stops, just the singer…

I’m not going to let the challenges, difficulties, take my song away, or my dream away.

When we dream, God nearly always gives us impossibilities at first. They seem impossible to us at first. The size of our dreams has to do with the size of our faith. If we are going to realize the wonderful things God will give us, we need to begin living out our dream.

Illustration of James Dobson’s experience on the Phil Donahue show at the beginning of the Focus on the Family ministry. Donahue told him "we're going to eat you alive." And they did. Dobson could easily have given up at that starting point in the ministry of Focus on the Family, but if he had, then all that it has become would never have taken place.

Joseph’s brothers said ”Behold here comes the dreamer. Let’s slay the dreamer and see what becomes of his dreams.” (Genesis 37:20.) Then they threw him into a cistern, and sold him to the enemy. (:28) The enemy wants to slay us, and to throw us in a cistern where we will never realize our dreams nor even think about them again.

Everyone needs a dream – what’s yours?
Without a dream, you have no ministry, just a job. No sense of passion or call.

The cistern of self-doubt. That is the doomsday of the dream. God gives us a dream, and puts us in a place to see the dream become a reality. All too often, self-doubt becomes the cistern the enemy enslaves us within. You can’t go around feeling sorry for yourself, or allowing doubt to creep in.

The cistern of rejection. Perhaps people have left your church. Rejected you. Jesus likewise had people reject him. The people of Nazareth said “aren’t you the son of the carpenter?” Even Peter turned away from Him. You must be true to yourself, true to the Scriptures – you can not try to please everyone.

The cistern of failure. You’ve prepared your message, thinking it’s going to be the best ever, and it “cures people of insomnia.”

The cistern of anger. Too many pastors are angry over one thing or another, and due to their anger, they are unable to accomplish anything for the Lord. You will never accomplish anything for God as long as you are filled with self-doubt, rejection, failure or anger. We cannot allow the enemy to hide us in the cisterns of life. We need to get out of the cistern, and do all we can for the Lord every day of our life.

Everyone needs a Reuben – who’s yours?
Reuben saved Joseph’s life (Genesis 37). Everyone of us needs someone we can count on, that we can trust, who can rescue us. You allow a person in your life to monitor your life and hold you accountable.

Everyone needs to stay close to Jesus
From the cistern, Joseph moved to the palace, and was next to the king. (Genesis 45). Joseph says to his brothers “Come close to me.” In the hard times, Jesus says to us, “Come close to me.”

When we come close to Jesus, three things take place at that moment of surrender –
· You begin to love people the way Jesus loves them. Numbers, attendance, all become far less important. You begin to serve the ones
· The Bible becomes the source of light and strength, rather than a textbook for preaching
· There is a boldness that comes, from being freed from over-concern of what people think or say.

If you are ever going to see your dreams come true.
· It will need to be an impossible dream
· You will need people who will hold your arms up and pray for you
· It will be at the foot of Jesus, and we will have to let Him live us

Tues AM: H.B. London

Dean of Duke University said at one time, 'being in the ministry today is the greatest call in the world--but it is the worst job in the world (meaning most challenging and difficult).

1 Timothy 4:15-16--Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

FOUR GAUGES TO WATCH IN OUR LIVES: Don't forget to watch the gages. We all have a dashboard in our lives just like we have in our car.

#1 - The Spiritual Gauge

Is it well with your soul? Are you walking in intimacy with God? Or has your relationship with God become professional (a working partnership)? Are you comfortable in His presence.

One of the greatest tragedies in the Bible. Samson went out to do battle as before, '...and did not know that the Lord had left him.

Henry Blackaby talked about his walk with God where his success in ministry had become the substitute for real relationship with God. God spoke to him and told him, "Henry...you are hurrying me! You need to slow down and do life with me."

Stats say that the average pastor spends less than 20 mins alone with God per day.

#2 - The Physical Gauge

Are you living like the Temple?

Pastors tend to neglect this area of life. Exercise. Diet. Healthy living. All of these are part of a good investment in God's work in your life.

Keeping in shape lifts your energy, builds enthusiasm, and assists you in maintaining a good perspective in life.

#3 - The Emotional Gauge (dealing with draining circumstances and draining people)

I will not be anxious!

Stats say that the average pastor may deal with 2 or 3 crisis moments a month. After a while it takes a toll on us. If we are not careful we become callous and aloof and we lose our joy and our ability to influence others.

Emotionally draining people tend to draw our attention. Before long we are concentrated on them. Our focus on them actually does more to drain us than anything else.

#4 - The Family Gauge

The most important people in your congregation are your spouse and your children.

Your congregation needs to:

• Allow you to dream impossible dreams.
• Pray for you regularly.
• Treat your family with respect. They need to allow you to take time off, vacations, and time to be with your family.

When I started in ministry I had this idea...H.B. you just build the church and God will take care of your family. THAT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE!

Your primary call is to your family. If you have everything else in ministry, numbers, status, recognition, results, but you lose your family--what good is it? We can never allow our involvement to destroy our most important relationships.

What about the Check Engine Light? It comes on when...

• When you begin to look for short-cuts and compromises in your ministry and life.
• Not giving adequate time to Bible Study and prayer.
• When you avoiding time with kids and spouse
• When you allow inappropriate material on your computer.
• When you begin to cut corners in your integrity or in your financial dealings.

When we see the warning signs on the dashboard, we need to take it very seriously and make sure that we are guarding the health of our lives.

Monday Night: H.B. London (Phil 4)

Here are the notes from the Minister's Enrichment Retreat on Monday night.

Nearly 50% of seminary grads drop out of ministry within 5 years.

We lose 1500 ministers a month across USA for one reason or another.

We tend to forget the basis for our call and the challenge that we answer when we say yes to ministry. This call and profession is unique. When Jesus called his disciples, he promised to make them fishers of men. He did not, however, promise them success, and size of ministry, and status. He simply asked them to follow Him.

Paul wrote often from the worst of circumstances (old, cold, and lonely; in prison and suffering). Yet he wrote about God's sufficient grace. He told Timothy to focus on the reward of a finished race. He wrote to the Philippians about rejoicing in all circumstances. Paul learned, in spite of his difficulties, to lead himself to life-sustaining choices.

#1 - We need to REJOICE

It's difficult to rejoice with your head down, or when you are frowning, or when you are complaining, or when you are finding fault. Rejoicing is a choice we must make in spite of the circumstances of our life. This is one of the most important factors in a sustainable ministry...HOLD YOUR HEAD UP AND REJOICE.

Some have figured out that about 40% of our work is dealing with negative stuff. That's why we have to work so hard to not be overcome with negativity. Sometimes we have allowed the joy-suckers to so influence our ministry that we have become like them. We have let them destroy the true nature of the body of Christ which is that of energy, and joy, and life.

#2 - We need to RELAX

We need to stop taking ourselves so seriously. We need to stop trying to act so spiritual. We need to simply encourage people, be real with people, affirm them, and give them life.

A mentor from my past said, 'you don't have to be a great preacher to be a great pastor. Just practice the ministry of presence. Just be with them, affirm them, value them, love them. They will remember you not so much for the sermons you preach but for the sermons you live.'

I would say to my people almost every week: God loves you today as if you were the only person on this earth that there is to love. And if you were the only one on earth, Jesus loved you enough to die just for you. And I love you too.

When I left my pastorate, they gave me a ring with that statement inscribed in it. They had really heard me. They knew I loved them.

RELAX...and remember that it's God's church and their his people. We are simply custodians.

#3 - We need to REST every now and then.

If we are going to have the peace of God, then we have to empty ourselves of the things that cause the unrest. Jesus is the peace-giver! Nothing else will suffice but the peace that only he can give.

We must surrender the things that clutter our lives to HIM!

When we are struggling with the inevitability's and difficulties of life, think about the things that are good, and praise-worthy and worth celebrating. Think about the hurting people that you are able to offer care for. Think about the people who get saved, by God's grace, even during the worst sermons you have ever preached.

Paul had learned to rejoice. He learned to relax and be gentle with all. He learned to be content in all circumstances. And he was able to declare because of this: I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH.

BEST OF THE FUNNY QUOTES:

• Laughter is healthy. If you can't find things or people to laugh at--watch TV. It's not quite a Sitcom, but sometimes its close.
• Their are many of joy-suckers in your life. You can close their eyes and see who they are. They have an ability to pull the life and the joy right out of you. Joy-suckers are just joy-suckers and every movement has them. I don't know if you can heal them or not?
• I have to say that some of the finest funerals I have ever performed were joy-sucker funerals. I'd be up there looking sad and everything, but inside I was smiling. Besides that I got paid $100 for doing the funeral.

Live Blogging at Minister's Enrichment

Just arrived at the Penn-Del annual Minister's Enrichment. With this technology, we are going to try something here--live blogging the main sessions.

H. B. London, a pastor to our nation's pastors, is our guest speaker. For those of you who are unable to attend, we will share what we can so that you can benefit and still feel connected.