January 25th, 2008 by Pastor Matt
I am so absolutely refreshed today. It is fabulous. We just hired a new worship pastor and the guy is incredible. They have not moved into town yet and he’s here without his family this weekend to get a house. I get the absolute privilege of having him at my house for the next few evenings. Last night he was just sitting at the keyboard playing worship songs for hours. It was fantastic. I always love it when my wife gets onto her keyboard and plays, I’ve got to encourage her to do that more!
So anyways, last night I’m sitting there listening to Mike play this incredible song that he wrote and I thought to myself, “I am so jealous of his gift.” I was about 2 seconds away from deciding to get guitar and voice lessons when I learned something (That’s right… I learned something on my own… nobody taught it to me). I’ve got gifts that others are jealous of.
That just hit me like a ton of bricks, and for the first time I truly understood “duplication.” When I was sitting there in my living room listening to Mike, I wanted to be him. I wanted his gifts, I wanted his voice, his knowledge of music, his creativity… I was watching him do something he loved, and I just knew if I could do that I would love it to. That’s when I realized that this is the heart of duplication. This is the “thud” moment. Where my brain just plops onto the ground because it’s work is done.
The heart of duplication is showing people something that you love, and then showing them how to do it so that they love it to.
January 21st, 2008 by Pastor Matt
I love checking on my vision. Just taking a look at the plan I’ve set out for my life, and the path that I’m taking to get there. When I wrote out my vision I had incredible plans for a website that would help Children’s Pastors all over the world. I planned to upload an online curriculum that members would be able to access weekly to use in their ministry. Areas for other CP’s (Children’s Pastors) to upload lessons and objects of their own. Membership levels to make more tools available to professional members. All of this was written down at the beginning of last year. Now, at the beginning of 2008, I am a part of Kidology. You’d never guess what Kidology does. They are an incredible website that helps CP’s from all over the world. They upload an online curriculum that members are able to access and use on a weekly basis. There are areas for other CP’s to upload lessons, puppet skits, articles, stories, crafts.. ect. of their own. They have membership levels that make more tools available to professional members. My mission statement for this website was “Duplicating myself into those who duplicate into children.” Their mission statement is “Equipping and Encouraging those who minister to children.” The similarities go on and on. It’s incredible that God was working in me at the beginning of last year, to serve in a ministry that I had never heard of. It has encouraged me to always keep my vision in front of me, so that I can give God the glory when He has completed it.
January 5th, 2008 by Pastor Matt
It’s always a blast coming into a new year. This year will be especially exciting for me. Within the month I’ll be licensed! That’s pretty exciting. Not near as exciting as me being a father in May of this year (it’s a boy)! So much happens in a year, and we must make all we can out of those years. I’m looking forward to moving forward in the next 359 days.
I always love to think about the upcoming year and the oppurtunities that lie ahead. I think about so many people who have had the same oppurtunities every year, but they never take advantage of them. Better oppurtunities aren’t going to come along until you’ve grabbed the ones already in front of you!