Monthly Archives: May 2012

Sermon Series, Sermons

Get Back- Sermon Series

Happy Memorial Day!!!

I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my outline for our summer sermon series today. I have been feeling a push to walk our congregation through the book of Ephesians and I am really excited about it.

In Revelation 2:4, Jesus tells the church in Ephesus that they have forgotten their love and affection for Him and his people. Jesus then invites them to return back to the relationship they once had with him.

The church of today would do well to look to the church in Ephesus and to heed the call of Jesus to return to our first love. It’s time we fell back in love with Jesus.

It’s time to Get Back.

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Get Back – A Study in the book of Ephesians
Week 1- Back to Where You Once Belonged (Ephesians Introduction)
Week 2- Across the Universe (Ephesians 1:1-10)
Week 3- Baby You’re a Rich Man (Ephesians 1:11-22)
Week 4- Here Comes the Sun (Ephesians 2:1-10)
Week 5- Come Together (Ephesians 2:11-22)
Week 6- Ticket to Ride (Ephesians 3:1-13)
Week 7- Got to Get You Into My Life (Ephesians 3:14-21)
Week 8- All You Need Is Love (Ephesians 4:1-16)
Week 9- A Day In The Life (Ephesians 4:17-32)
Week 10- Revolution (Ephesians 5:1-20)
Week 11- PS I Love You/Two of Us (Ephesians 5:21-6:9)
Week 12- The End (Ephesians 6:10-24)

I am so excited about what God may do through this series. The plan will be to use this outline. We may not go 12 weeks with it but we’ll see where God leads us.

I am honored and blessed that I get to share the Gospel of Jesus each week. I look forward to sharing more from Ephesians here on the blog. Keep an eye out for all summer.

Until next time… Have a great week!

(I’d love to say that I came up with the artwork completely on my own. I got inspired by a series on Elisha from Elevation Church a few years ago that used this title and artwork that looked just like this. I messed around with some files in Photoshop and came up with this. I got real close.)

Collecting Experiences, Leadership, Popular Culture, Teaching

Flipping Failure

Have you ever experienced failure? 

I’m sure you have.

In 1995, actor and producer Kevin Costner experienced a huge career failure when his movie Waterworld failed at the box office. The film had been beset by inflated production costs and on-set disasters. A hurricane destroyed the set at one point and even Costner almost drowned while filming. When it was all said and done the film cost over $175 million dollars making it the most expensive movie at the time. When the movie finally opened to audiences it failed to connect and made only $88 million.

The press was merciless to Costner, the cast, and crew. Waterworld was considered a joke and Costner’s career took a major hit. Before Waterworld, Costner was an A-list superstar with a great box office trace record. Afterward he was damaged goods.

However, Costner didn’t let that failure go to waste. 

Entertainment Weekly published an article about the production of the movie Battleship. Like Waterworld, this summer’s action packed movie was filmed on the open seas and had the potential to meet many of the same obstacles that Costner and crew faced. While in pre-production, the director of Battleship, Peter Berg, received a phone call from someone offering to help them plan and prepare for their wet and wild production schedule.

It was Kevin Costner.

In the interview, Berg describes their conversation:

I was in my office one day. I get a call. Kevin Costner’s on the phone. I’ve never met Kevin Costner. I’m like, “Hello?” He’s like, “I need to come in and talk to you.” I’m like, “…Kevin?” He’s: “I need to come in and talk to you.” I say, “When?” He says, “Tomorrow.” I say, “Okay!”

So he comes in, he sits down, he says, “I feel compelled to talk to you and I want to tell you” – verbatim — “the stuff we did right and the stuff we did wrong.” And he talked to me for three hours about the perils of filming out on the ocean.

It was awesome. Kevin is a great guy and I think, maybe it was a little cathartic for him [laughing]. He’s probably waiting to have this conversation with someone for a long time. But, yeah, he didn’t have to do that and, you know, I can’t say enough about him. He made a huge difference.

When we experience failure in ministry or in life, often we take our licks and then bury that failure some place when no one will find it. We become embarrassed or angry whenever our failure is brought before us. We act as though we never failed.

Costner saw a crew of people mounting a production similar to his greatest cinematic failure. He took it upon himself to reach out to the crew and share his weaknesses and failures concerning that project. He did all of this in order that someone else wouldn’t have to go through the pain and frustration he did. He did this so that other people would succeed where he failed.

What if you started flipping your failure to someone else’s benefit?

Action Step:
Who could benefit from hearing the lessons you learned from a mistake you made? Invite them to lunch and share your failure in order to help them win big.

via EW.com

Leadership, Leadership Axioms

7 Questions to Ask Leaders

At Catalyst Dallas, John Maxwell spent his Thursday session pouring into us some of the lessons he has learned about leadership. He wasted no time in sharing with us and he started by quickly giving a list of important questions to ask other leaders when you meet with them.

John famously tells the story that when he was starting out in life he wrote to people he viewed as great leaders and people that he could learn a great deal from. He offered them lunch and $100 dollars to meet with him. The ones that accepted, he and his wife used that city as the destination for their vacation so he could meet with them. Over time he developed a set of questions that helped him get the conversation going and to maximize his learning.

Here are the 7 Questions to Ask Leaders
1) What’s the greatest lesson you’ve ever learned?
2) What are you learning now?
3) How has failure shaped your life?
4) Who do you know that I should know?
5) What book should I read?
6) What have you done that I need to do?
7) How can I add value to you?

I feel that you learn the most when you ask the right questions.

I am grateful that Dr. Maxwell shared these questions with us. I hope that they will be a blessing to you as well.

Birth, Life, My Wife Rules

Fearfully, Wonderfully

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Adelynn Hallie Felker was born at 12:09pm on May 14, 2012. She weighs 7lbs 13oz and is 20.5″ long.

Welcome little Adele to the world.

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Psalms 139:1–18, 23-24 NIV11
“You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Leadership

Catalyst Dallas

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Catalyst Dallas is in the books.

I’ve been making the annual pilgrimage to the ATL for Catalyst since 2003. Last year, the Catalyst folks decided to add an event in Dallas and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. Three of us from the leadership of our church went to Bent Tree Bible last year to experience #CatDal.

This year we took 10 people– including a college student and one of our Shepherds who is in his 70s.

Talk about a great experience! To share something that has meant so much to me with people who mean so much to me is an incredible feeling.

I took a team to Catalyst. I’m not sure that has fully set in for me yet.

I am already making plans for 2013 because Catalyst Dallas will be our church leadership retreat next spring.

Thank you God for your faithfulness. Give us wisdom and courage to act on what we learned this weekend. Give us the creativity and the clarity to share it with those who didn’t get the opportunity to join us. Help us to lift your name higher and further in our community. Grow our love for your Son, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

 

Leadership

Fears

Sometimes people fail to lead because one thing stands in their way: Fear.

Fear of the unknown, the never-known, and the what-ifs can become an albatross around the neck of even the greatest heroes. Even Superman.

Did you know Superman has a fear? Actually he has two fears.

These fears are not exclusive to the Man of Steel either. They represent a virus of fear and false leadership that can strike at the heart of us all. They represent two ends of the spectrum and need a healthy examination to make sure that these fears and their effects don’t take hold. We’re all susceptible but knowing that they are there is half the battle. (I’m mixing my metaphors. Oops.) Once we identify the fear, we’ll identify the cure.

1) Superman fears that he will become too powerful.
Let’s be honest Superman could just as easily destroy as save. He is the ultimate weapon. He is the most powerful being on he planet and he knows it too. This knowledge could have kept him in Smallville and working on the farm for his entire life. The fear of himself and his gifts could have killed any hope of ever becoming a hero much less a leader. This fear goes by another name and it isn’t pretty. It’s called Pride and it has destroyed many a leader. If Superman, with all his gifts and powers, fears pride then shouldn’t we?

Again, let’s be honest. Most leaders do not fear their pride. In fact most never think about what happens when it starts to be more about themselves and less about others until it is way too late. The damage gets done, the leader fails, and people get hurt. Again, our fear of pride can keep us from doing anything at all. Thankfully, there is a cure to our pride and it’s called Humility.

Here is a little fact from the nerdery: Batman has a piece of Krypton locked away in the Batcave. Did you know that? Batman didn’t recover this piece of Krypton from a field in Kansas and he didn’t take the Batship out into deep space to find it either. So how did he get it?

It was humbly given to him by Superman. If ever Superman gets out of control, if ever he threatens the planet, if ever his pride blinds him to his true mission of serving humanity, Batman is to use that piece of Krypton to stop (kill) Superman.

Accountability is where humility begins. Afraid of your pride? Remember that you are accountable. Leaders are accountable to God, their people, their families, their friends… this list goes on and on. Approach leadership with pride and be destroyed. Approach it humbly and make a difference.

2) Superman is afraid of failure.
On the other side of the “All Powerful” coin is the fear that no matter what he does he can never do enough. This fear of failure is just as debilitating. Many a leader has disqualified themselves from leadership because they are afraid of failing. Lex has used this fear against Superman a few times over the years and each time we see Superman retreating away to Smallville or to the Fortress of Solitude. Self-pity really isn’t a great virtue. Self-pity really is the ugly step-sister to pride isn’t it?

Leaders fall into self-pity because they have forgotten that leadership isn’t about them it is about others. So what’s the cure? How do we get over that fear?

I can’t be filled with self-pity when I’m focused on the needs of others.

I guess the cure to both of these fears – Pride and Pity – is to again focus on the why.

Are you leading just to get ahead? Are you leading because you like/need the spotlight? Are you using your position to have your needs met? Have you forgotten about the needs of those you serve? Watch out for pride.

Are you afraid of failing? Do you second guess every move because of some great big unknown? Do you feel too inadequate? Do you feel worthless? Are you scared about looking foolish? Watch out for self-pity.

Are you focused on lifting others up? Are you excited about seeing those you serve win and win big? Do you care more about someone else getting the spotlight or the glory? Do you lead with humility? Is it more about others than it is yourself? You might just be understanding the why of leadership.

When you know the why behind what you do, then you begin to lead. Understand the why.

(This post originally was originally written August 22, 2008)