November 21st, 2007 by Pastor Matt

As Thanksgiving approaches I’ve read tons of blogs, tons of articles, listened to podcasts, and sermons, and tips of the day and on and on all about being thankful.  I was thinking to myself though, “everyone is thankful around thanksgiving.”  It’s on your mind, it’s in your head.  The key is to somehow be thankful when it’s NOT on your mind.  Well, how do we do that?

I’m not going to answer that… you’re going to have to figure that out on your own.  I’m just going to let you know what could happen if you don’t figure out how to keep “thanks” on your mind.

If there’s no ‘thank you’ then people are going to be confused.  I’ll never forget when I was driving up north last year and realized that not everyone says thank you.  Here in Texas, it seems like everybody says thank you!  Maybe it’s the little hand wave after somebody let’s you over in traffic, or the smile and nod when someone holds the door open.  I was very confused one day when traveling up north as I held the door open for two ladies and they did absolutely nothing.  They weren’t talking together, they weren’t distracted, they just intentionally looked away and walked through the door.  Wha?  I actually paused for a second and thought about what just happened.  I wondered if I was somehow being rude, or if maybe they thought I was doing something strange.  When they didn’t acknowledge that they were thankful for what I was doing, I wondered if maybe I was doing something wrong.  Those around you will think the same thing!  If they’re helping you, your ministry, your department, your… whatever, and you’re not thanking them, they will wonder if they’re doing something wrong.  If you are in any leadership position you need to be regularly thanking those who are helping.

No ‘thank you’ will result in confusion and low self-confidence.

November 20th, 2007 by Pastor Matt

Last night my wife and I were sitting around enjoying our Christmas Tree and Christmas music when all of a sudden… darkness. The power went out, but not just in our house; it went out all around us too. It was as dark as I had ever seen our neighborhood. So quiet too. We grabbed some candles and lit up the house pretty well. It was really relaxing and calm just sitting in the candlelight without anything else going on. Then I heard some noise coming from our neighbor’s house. I looked out of our window and they were all outside with their car lights on playing in the backyard.

That may not seem like something that would be worth writing about in your blog but get this… I never even knew my neighbor had kids. I had never heard any kids, never saw any kids, never picked up a toy from my yard, didn’t see any toys in their yard… nothing. It took a power outage for me to notice my neighbor had kids!  What is all the noise and light covering up?  What would we find out if we moved all of the technology out of the way for awhile?  Well… there’s only one way to find out!

I encourage you to go without the techno for awhile. Turn the tv off. The radio off. The podcast off. The…whatever… just turn it off! I’m thinking about going no techno in CM for a service. Going unplugged with a stringed guitar and no words on the screens or motions. No light shows and DVD segments. Just… no techno.  No telling what I’ll find.

November 19th, 2007 by Pastor Matt

I just absolutely LOVE Christmas!  It’s before Thanksgiving and my wife and I already have our Christmas tree up!  I absolutely love it!  We have these wonderful double windows right out in front of our house and we put our tree front and center.  I was thinking last night about how people will drive by the house and see the Christmas tree in the window and know that we are celebrating Christ.  Then it came to me… no they’re not.  They’ll have no idea that we’re celebrating Christ… they’ll just think we’re celebrating Christmas, just like (basically) everyone else does.  Then I thought about that for a little bit longer.

What else am I misunderstanding?  Could it be possible that this system or program that we have set in place appears completely different when looked at from the outside?  Maybe a program that was designed to serve the community is, for some reason, appearing to be a gimmick.  People are bombarded with “You’ve Won $1,000,000!” mass mailers, why would they see our “Free Hotdog and Burgers!” sign and think there wasn’t a gimmick behind it.

Today, try to get outside of your processes, outside of your programs, and try to see what they could look like from another perspective.  Be on the outside, and look in.

November 15th, 2007 by Pastor Matt

Yeah… I’m on a vision kick. I go through these little spurts where I concentrate on one thing, and that’s about all I think about (my SP would call this a “season”). I sat here staring at my laptop thinking… I don’t want to write about vision again… what should I write about?! Well it’s not working, I’m going to have to stay on the vision kick for at least one more post.

After I first wrote out my vision, I felt like that wonderful feeling of accomplishment. I was so excited about it that I just had to run and tell someone about it. My wonderful wife was the victim. I got in front of her and just talked her ear off about absolutely everything. This is what we’re going to do here and then we’re going to do this and then that and meanwhile this is going on and that will be there and thenthewholethingwilljustbesocrazythatnobodyknowswhatisgoingon!!! After going through this whole deal I took a breath and said something like, “isn’t that awesome?”

Well, her reaction wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. A dull look of confusion and a sensitive yet uninterested, “uh huh. that’s great.”

*Thud* that was the sound that I heard. I’m not quite sure where it came from. Likely my brain falling back down out of la la land. I was planning on having a big CM meeting and throwing all of this same stuff out on the table… and I wanted the reaction to be just a little bit different than that. I had to go back to the desk. I then did what Jim Wideman would call “cutting up the elephant.” I got out my vision for the ministry, looked at the sheet of paper, and picked out a sentence. I took that sentence and took it in to my wife. Then I said, “we’re going to start… and this is how we’re going to do it.”

Stay away from the thud. Walk out your vision step by step.

November 13th, 2007 by Pastor Matt

When I first learned about vision I understood how extremely important it was.  Then my next thought was, “I don’t have one!”  I had just learned how extremely important vision was to everyone, and now I’m freaking out because I’m not doing anything on purpose.  I’m thinking to myself, “Lord! Why haven’t you given me a vision!?”  I imagine he was thinking to himself, I have, you just haven’t looked for it.

I decided that I had to find my vision.  I had to go get the vision that God had given me.  Then I did something that seems too simple.  I sat down at my desk… I prayed… and I wrote out my vision.  When I was done I had pages full of stuff.  Plans for my church ministry, my personal walk with God, my personal ministry, my family… everything!  I finally had a goal, a destination, a mission.  The next morning when I woke up… my day was on purpose.

Write down your vision, make today on purpose.

November 8th, 2007 by Pastor Matt

Isn’t it incredible when you learn one of those things that it seems you never could have lived without?  I’ll never forget when I learned the principle of vision.  Vision is everywhere!  Why do you do the things that you do, because you have a vision.  When you look at someone’s life, you can easily find the vision that they’re working towards.  Stay at home moms have an incredible vision of a home that is clean, inviting, and a safe place for their children.  Business men have a vision of a striving company that’s taking long healthy strides.  Some workers have a vision of being a part of something that is larger than themselves; others have a simple vision of a paycheck at the end of the week and food on the table.

One of the things that I’m beginning to learn more and more about is spreading vision.  I have an incredible vision for my ministry and my life.  How do I get others on board to help and follow my lead.  Well… I always say this: People aren’t going to follow you if they don’t know where you’re going.  How do we, as people of vision, not tell those who are following us where we’re going?

Let’s imagine this as if it were a real scenario.  You and your family are about to go to Florida.  You’re standing beside your car and you just yell out to everyone who can hear, “Hey, follow me!”  Then you hop in your car and drive off.  How long would it be before nobody was following you anymore?  Maybe a couple of people left the parking lot with you, assuming that you were going somewhere that they were prepared for and wanted to join you.  It wouldn’t be long at all before those people started realizing you weren’t going where they thought you were.  However, if you prepare people, and you tell them where you’re going, some people are going to follow you the whole way.  That’s what we need, followers who know where we are going, and are behind us the entire way!

Make sure you let those who are following you know where you’re going to take them… they stick around a lot longer that way!

November 2nd, 2007 by Pastor Matt

Hero Night (our halloween alternative) went absolutely fantastic at LifeBridge. We had drama, special videos, games, praise and worship, offering… everything run by the kids. It was absolutely incredible watching them step up and bless the entire congregation.

If you missed Hero Night at LifeBridge, you missed an incredible evening!