One of the things I enjoyed the most about living in the Bay Area in the late 90's was the energy of the tech industry. There were start-ups springing up everywhere. You'd meet guys at Starbucks (or Peet's!) who were writing their business plan on the back of a napkin. When I ventured into that world in 1999, I found myself attending networking events in San Francisco with other young guys looking to strike a deal, get a job, or just enjoy the food. Lots of free food. The idea was simple: you walk up to someone, introduce yourself, and ask what they did. Within a few minutes you knew if you needed to talk more or bow out gracefully and move to the next person. As a pastor, I was accustomed to meeting new people and loved every minute of it. Did I mention the free food? One of…
Read More
From Tim Keller: All in all, church planting helps an existing church the best when the new congregation is voluntarily 'birthed' by an older 'mother' congregation. Often the excitement and new leaders and new ministries and additional members and income 'washes back' into the mother church in various ways and strengthens and renews it. Though there is some pain in seeing good friends and some leaders go away to form a new church, the mother church usually experiences a surge of high self-esteem and an influx of new enthusiastic leaders and members. However, a new church in the community usually confronts churches with a major issue--the issue of 'kingdom-mindedness'. New churches, as we have seen, draw most of their new members (up to 80%) from the ranks of the unchurched, but they will always attract some people out of existing churches. That is inevitable. At this point, the existing churches,…
Read More
Looking to regain lost passion? Here's the best piece of advice I could give you: Start Today There’s no better time than now. What happens, however, is that our “but” gets in the way. Everyone single one of us has a “but.” Some buts are bigger than others. I would start today BUT I have a deadline to meet at work. I would start today BUT I can’t miss the next episode of CSI. If you find yourself saying "but" more than once or twice, you may have a "but" problem. It's likely you're also putting off things you know you should be doing. What to do? Anything. Something. Passion will not be reclaimed without a choice.
Read More
Do you find yourself not having as much passion for life that you once did? Is it harder to get fired up about your marriage, your job, or your relationship with God? Life is seasonal. Leaves changes. Snow arrives. Snow leaves (hopefully!). In the same, our passion may pass through seasons where it burns brighter than at other times. What causes passion to lose it's flame? For one thing, I believe it's harder for people to be impressed nowadays. We expect technology to advance. We aren't surprised when the new smartphone is smarter than the last smartphone. Every day we are bombarded with things that are latest, greatest, or improved. We build up a tolerance for things that are truly amazing. When a beautiful sunset only generates a "ho-hum" from us, we're in danger of losing our ability to be passionate. Our passion may wane because we are starving it…
Read More
I read earlier today of a time when Billy and Ruth Graham were driving together through a long stretch of road construction. At the end, Ruth Graham noticed a sign that said, "Under Construction, Thanks for Your Patience." She turned to her husband and said, "That would make a good headstone."
Read More