Throughout our lives we have been so blessed with friendships and ministry opportunities.
This blog is meant to share what God has been doing in, for and through us. It is also used as a resource page for teaching and preaching Dave has had the opportunity to do. We do this for the purpose of GLORIFYING GOD and HELPING OTHERS GLORIFY GOD.
I have the opportunity to share at West Cannon's Father/Son breakfast tomorrow.
There are so many things I want to share but I only have a limited amount of time.
So I decided to use this post to share some additional resources.
Yesterday was all about FAILURE! Now don't misread that sentence. I didn't say "Yesterday was a FAILURE!" I was reminded three different ways about the importance of FAILURE. First, in prepping for my time at West Cannon Baptist Church this weekend, I was going through some Vine Project notes I had in Evernote (Yes I am shamelessly continuing to plug Evernote and The Vine Project). I came across this insightful post - http://gotherefor.com/offer.php?intid=29481 - on why Matthias Media’s Vine Journal failed,
some lessons they learned through the process and lessons everyone needs to learn about FAILURE.
The post refers to an article by Seth Godin entitled "How To Fail."
The link on the page didn’t work for me, so I am reposting it here - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/04/how-to-fai.html Both of the articles reminded me of many things I have planned, done, succeeded and failed at over my life in ministry and it reminded of some lessons I need to remember in my next ministry. For right now these are personal posts in my "Some really great ideas sound stupid at first. But then, so do some really stupid ones" journal.
The other lesson was from a movie. Last night Joel and I went to see Dunkirk, which is the inspirational story of Great Britain's "colossal military disaster." HERE is the Plugged In video review of the movie. HERE is the Plugged in article on the movie. After watching the movie I came home and found several articles and videos of the Winston Churchill speech he gave after Dunkirk. The transcript of his speech can be read at www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches A reenactment of the speech from the movie Into the Storm is below.
The failure of Dunkirk, inspired Churchill and Great Britain to continue battling on. As I am preparing for this next phase of ministry, I never want to let a fear of failure control me. In Matthew 16:26, Jesus said "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" I don't want to miss the biggest thing, God and His glory, for the sake of so much smaller, lesser things like my glory. I want to succeed and I want to fail in ways that bring honor and glory to God! In a practical ministry sense, I want to always stay true to the message of God’s Word and always evaluate the methods I am using to teach/preach/present God’s word.
Or in the words of the missionary William Carey, "I'm not afraid of failure; I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter."
This weekend we are heading to West Cannon Baptist Church to candidate for the adult ministries position - a new disciple-making role for me. If we are at West Cannon serving the Lord, it will be a great opportunity to share what I have learned about church-wide Bible classes, small groups, and Biblical counseling with another church. To help the members of the church understand who I am and how I think about ministry I am going to be looking at various passages in Ephesians at the different meetings on Saturday and Sunday. Here are three ministry principles I want to emphasize during my time at West Cannon Baptist Church this upcoming weekend.
Discipleship is primarily through personal relationships, not programs. (Ephesians 5 and 6)
Bible studies, small groups, men's ministries, women's ministries and similar types of ministries should be opportunities for engaging, evangelizing, establishing and equipping people who need more Jesus. (Ephesians 4)
When we consider the great work God has done for us through Jesus Christ, we have the motivation and the power to make disciples. (Ephesians 2)
We are excited about working with the leadership team at WCBC and would very much appreciate your prayers for this weekend and all the different transitions we have coming very soon.
