Staying motivated is easy when you love what you're doing. How do you stay motivated when you have to slog through the tedious parts of the day? Well, it depends on your perspective. In other words, how are you choosing to "see" what you're doing? Seeing something as tedious only makes it more tedious. As Victor Frankl wrote years ago, life and circumstances can take away every freedom but one: the freedom to choose your attitude.
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On December 17, 1903, after many attempts, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground. They immediately telegraphed their sister, Katherine, with this message: "We have actually flown 120 feet. We will be home for Christmas." Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper with the exciting news. He took the telegram and responded, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” Amazingly, he totally missed the fact they had actually flown 120 feet! It's possible to be so caught up in the ordinary tasks of the day that we completely miss those amazing moments around us.
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Every now and then I get to hang out with church planters. Most of them haven't shaved in a few days and wear wrinkled shirts ... just kidding -- I used to be one of those guys. Come to think of it, there are days I still look like one :-) Yesterday was one of those days. In the early afternoon I spent time with Jonathan Simpson, a guy who is looking to plant in South Denver. He's on staff at The Rock of Southwest, a church that has birthed three churches and a new campus in six years. I enjoyed hearing his vision of starting a movement rather than just a church. When Tonya and I planted a church with Stadia, they challenged us to define success in terms of having a granddaughter church. In other words, not one church but three or more. Then last night I enjoyed…
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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…
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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,…
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