Mid-Week Reflections

I have been attending The Journey Church in Newark, DE for the last couple weeks.  I have been impressed with the vision and mission of the church as well as the heart and passion of the pastor, Mark Johnston.  So each week my goal, and I emphasize my goal is to do a recap of the previous week service.  A mid-week reflection if you will to re-challenge what was heard on Sunday.  If your like me by Tuesday I get caught up in the stress and busyness of life and I find myself forgetting what inspired me just a few days prior.

God Is In Your Corner::

Leviticus 19:9-10 9 “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. 10 It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.

1.  What prevents me from being taken advantage of?

• It’s the risk we take in following Jesus.
• Jesus provides protection.  We are to leave the corners of our field.
• It is help for other after we harvest what we need.
• Unwise harvesters spend what they want not what they need.

2.  How much is too much?

• We never ask God twice when He wants to give to us.  We always ask twice when He asks us to give to others.
• We give to the point of peace.

3.  Whats the best way to help?

• Spontaneous  opportunity to act on.
• Must do it consistently to truly experience the blessing in the long haul.

God is in my corner so I don’t have to be.

Every time we give and serve our mind lets out dopamin.  When we do good things for others we get a high it is called the helpers high.

Psalm 41:1-3 1 Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor! The Lord rescues them when they are in trouble.  2 The Lord protects them and keeps them alive. He gives them prosperity in the land and rescues them from their enemies.  3 The Lord nurses them when they are sick and restores them to health.

Trust God and let go of whatever you are holding on to.

Key Question: What would you do for God if you knew you couldn’t fail?

If your in your corner get out because there is not enough room for you and God.

You can check out this weeks talk HERE

::REAL CHURCH FOR REAL PEOPLE::

Servolution

I am reading a book called Servolution by Dino Rizzo and literally the first page got my attention which is not easy to do with my whole ADD (hey look a butterfly), what was I saying? The idea of the book is starting a revolution through serving. Serving others with no expectations of receiving anything in return. Here is a snippet from the book:

“This book is about revolution. But this is a different kind of revolution-not fueled by anger, violence, and revolt but one of compassion, love and service. This revolution has a clear mission to answer the cries of the poor, the hurting, and the forgotten and is made up of revolutionaries willing to lay down their lives to reach out to people in their cities, in their nations, and throughout the world. This is a revolution aimed at initiating change, but not by overthrowing a government; this change comes by bringing healing to a hurting world and by loving people to Christ. We call it servolution: a significant change in the course of history sparked by simple acts of kindness.”

I know for a fact that I can become a lot better in this area and I wonder could you? If so, what? What can be done to reach this community and serve this community? What ideas do you have? I have heard from some and they are amazing and I am sure I will get a chance to share those later.

Get Your Serve On…

Hey if you are a student that attends Fellowship Church on Sunday mornings, I NEED YOUR HELP!  I am putting together some teams of students who are willing to serve.  Why Serve?  Because sometimes its not about us but about something bigger and I think having a chance to serve God through set up and tear down is huge because that’s what our church needs to do to reach people.  Yes, it’s not flashy but it is a part of the bigger picture.  Are you dependable, motivated and willing to be used for God?  If so, contact Ryan at ryan@fellowshiptoday and let me know what you would be willing to do.

Set-Up…7am for volunteer central, 8am for guest services.
Volunteer Central Setup: curtains, tables, check in computer, tables for food, nametags, lamps, bringing in of all cases.  -This area is for those who serve and gives them a place to connect as well as get ready for the area they are serving in that day.  TEAR DOWN of Volunteer Central happens during 2nd service and all cases from VC get loaded into trailers.

Guest Services Setup: signs, a-frame signs, tables, truss and large black curtains.

TEAR DOWN- of Volunteer Central happens during 2nd service and all cases from VC get loaded into trailers.
Tear down of guest services begins 10-15 minutes after the service ends.
-pulling down of curtains, taking down of signage, putting away of tables, truss, product, pull cases to trailers.

Listen I need your help…I need your parents help…I need to put together a team of students that can either do it every week, every other week, once a month.  Let me know soon.

When No One Notices

What do you do when no one notices?  I guess the only way to answer that question is to truly understand your motives.  Is your motive to serve others?  Is your motive to get famous?  Is your motive to leverage your influence to do good?  All good questions and each one will reveal a little bit about your motives.

There are times and seasons in the life a leader that requires them to be up front and lead and then there are those times in life where they push from behind and cheer on. So many leaders especially young leaders are more concerned with titles than with leveraging their influence.  Trust me I know all about that.  So many young leaders are worried about doing something to get noticed instead of doing it to be faithful.  Sadly I have seen churches the same way.  They serve to get noticed and build the church instead of serving to simply be a blessing whether they get noticed or not.  It’s more about marketing than about building the kingdom.  So what do you do when no one notices?

• What do you do when no one notices no matter how hard you try?
• What do you do when no one notices when you do the right thing even though it was the tough thing to do?
• What do you do when no one notices and it was your idea?

Keep being faithful.  Keep doing it to the best of your ability. Keep on when it gets tough.  Keep doing it for the one who will notice and the only one who really matters.

That’s it.  Remember why your doing it and for who your doing it?