Yesterday she walked the isle in the P-Mac and received her diploma in 3 1/2 years, we are so proud of her!

Yesterday we met with Hugh Allison and Adam Carlan of www.intheimage.com. Great men with skills to help church planters establish an identity in the community with great marketing and website design. We look forward to working closer with them in the future.

I heard today on ESPN’s “The Herd” that the city of Pontiac, MI (my birth place) sold the Silverdome to a group of developers for $583,000…WHAT? It cost more than 55 MIL to build back in 1975!

I remember enjoying Lions(NFL Monday Night Football), Pistons(NBA), Invaders(USFL) & all manner of indoor motor events there. Our high school even used the indoor turf area for our graduation ceremonies, which was awesome.

Has it got that bad back home that they’d sell for pennies on the dollar? Michigan was a great place to grow up in, they may be down, but never out!

GO BLUE!!!

I Love The Church
I love the church more than I can describe.
Bill Hybels has often said, “The local church is the hope of the world.” I believe those words with all my heart.
Many people today specialize in criticizing churches. While I acknowledge our (American) churches have a lot of room to improve, I see so many good things:
I love that many are becoming more missionally minded.
I love that churches are putting more emphasis on building people than on building buildings.
I love that churches are working together.
I love that many people really believe the Church can make a difference in the world.
I love that many churches are becoming more passionate about worship, holiness, and knowing God through His word.
I love that many churches are becoming passionate about reaching those far from God with the gospel of Christ.
While I applaud and support many parachurch ministries, to me, (and I believe to God), nothing replaces the power of what God wants to do through the local church.
I love the church!

Another version uses “shaken” for “moved”. As long as He is set before us/us following Him, we can not be shaken-d or moved from the path that He has prepared for us!

This verse should keep us all going!

This weekend Gary Lamb, one of the more popular pastors in the social networking world, admitted that he has been in an ongoing affair with his assistant. Following the direction of his church Overseers he resigned from the church he planted five years ago effective immediately. The damage his actions caused will continue for many years in the lives of hundreds of people. I do not know Gary personally but I have followed him on Twitter for the past year and have read his blog occasionally. I have no comment on his specific situation other than to say I am praying for his family, his church, the woman he has been involved with and for Gary.

    I do, however, want to comment on pastors shipwrecking their lives and the lives of their families. I have been involved in ministry all of my life, the past 27 as a staff member or pastor at three different churches, and I have seen stories like Gary’s over and over. The details vary, but the end result is the same; total devastation. The key question is not what happened, but rather how can we avoid the same fate. Here are some random thoughts:

1. If you think you aren’t vulnerable, you are already toast
   I had a counseling professor in college who said that the pastors who are in the most danger of a moral shipwreck are the ones who think it will never happen to them. If you think you are too honest, too faithful, or too transparent to ever be involved in an affair you are skating on very thin ice. David never thought he’d sleep with Bathsheba until he saw her naked; then he couldn’t think of anything else. You can steal money, youcan get involved in pornography, you can cheat on your spouse, and youcan lie to your family. Every day of our lives we have to remind ourselves we are vulnerable to complete moral failure. 
2. If you think you can burn the candle at both ends, you are already toast
   There are no super humans in ministry. When I read twitters of pastors who get up at 4:00 a.m. every day, who work seven days a week, who counsel people at night and on their “day off”, I know that they are headed for a fall. God took a day off when he was creating the world, Jesus took a beach trip to Tyre and Sidon (Mark 7:24) during his ministry. Unless you know something God doesn’t know you are headed for a major fall without regular downtime.
3. If you think you can do ministry without accountability, you are already toast
   The only “conversation” I ever had with Gary Lamb was a Twitter exchange over the importance of an accountability group. Gary felt that the Overseers of his church provided all the accountability he needed. My contention is that we need people who are face-to-face with us on a regular basis, who know our wives and our assistants, who can ask us the really tough questions. I don’t know if the Overseers provided that for Gary or if a local group would have prevented his fall, but I do know that I need that kind of scrutiny in my life.
4. If you think you don’t need safeguards, you are already toast
   Filters on internet access, never handling cash for the church, never meeting with someone of the opposite sex alone, letting others have access to your email; these are such a pain and to be honest I don’t always have all of them active in my life. The reality is that safeguards will not keep you from doing what you have already decided to do, but they can give you enough margin to change your mind before you act. 
   
5. If you think it’s about you, you are already toast
   Failure begins with ego. When you begin to think that success is because you are smart, funny, talented, cool or a 100 other adjectives and not simply because God is God and has chosen to bless you; you are headed down a very dangerous path. When you being to think the ministry will crumble without you and that you have to work 24/7 to make it happen you are headed toward destruction. When you think the rules stop applying to you and you can cut corners and you are above it you are on a crash course for disaster. 
   

As ministers we are in a marathon. If you do not pay attention to the danger signs along the way you will crash before the finish line. Your crash may be a spectacular moral failure like Gary’s, it may be the slow destruction of your marriage, or it may be the rotting of your soul; but Satan will use ministry to destroy you. And God will not say to you in Heaven, “Too bad about your family, but awesome job building a great big church. Fist bump, dude.”

Three things every pastor needs to do:

1. Slow down
   You will not change the world today and tomorrow isn’t looking good either. There is plenty of time to hang with your wife, play with your kids, play golf, relax. God was at work long before you showed up and He will be at work long after you are gone. You cannot live on adrenaline all of the time. You cannot be pumped up about every weekend. If you live that way for an extended time you will crash.
2. Open up
   You need someone in your life who knows you inside and out; someone who will ask the hard questions and know when you are ducking the answers. It is difficult as a pastor to find someone you can be truly honest with, but it is essential that you find that person. Another pastor who does not attend your church might be ideal.
3. Count the cost
   Every time you are tempted to break a rule, to cut a corner, togo somewhere you shouldn’t go consider what it will cost you when it all comes to light. What is going to happen when your wife finds out? How will she feel? What will it do to your children? What will this do to your church? How will it feel to write a letter like Gary had to write?

You don’t wake up one day and decide to shipwreck your life. You do it one stupid decision at a time. As someone who has seen this happen again and again and again I am begging you to take action today because it will happen to you.

Geoff Surratt

Jerry here…

I believe we all can learn from Geoff’s valid points.

10 Important Keys to Leadership Success

The world is famishing for leaders. Jesus said we are to be salt and light to the world around us. Can there be any better place than the Christian Church for leadership development?

A few years ago the Spirit of God spoke to us about the need to create a leadership culture within our local church. With that in mind we set out to teach leadership to those with a desire to improve their lives and make the world a better place. What we learned is the skills of leadership are both taught and cultivated. As one learns the language of leadership and applies its traits they can expect to achieve positive results. We have learned at least 10 important keys to leadership success:

1. How You Think Affects Everything: All of us are products of the decisions we have made in our lives. How you think controls what decisions you will make with your life. Right decisions equal right outcomes.

2. Set Goals: Without goals you can never move forward in your life. Goals, short-term and long-term help you identify your progress. Without them you wander endlessly and waste years of life being ineffective. Write your goals down today. What do you want to carry out this year? Be specific.

3. Take Action: Faith without works is dead. Goals are nothing without action. Do something today. Act on your beliefs.

4. Never Stop Learning: Every successful person throughout history maintained a lifestyle of learning. Read books, attend seminars, watch training videos.

5. Work Hard And Be Persistent: Success doesn’t happen overnight. Success is a marathon and requires fortitude and persistence.

6. Stay On Top of Your Game: Don’t ignore what’s happening in your life. Analyze details. Learn from your mistakes.

7. Stay Focused: Benjamin Franklin once said, “He who follows two hares is sure to catch neither.” It’s easy to get distracted from your goals and lose focus. Make a “to do” list and finish something every day.

8. Innovate: Successful people do things differently. Innovation is the key to improvement and breakthrough. Innovation is doing something new and different.

9. Learn to Communicate Effectively: Effective communication enables you to be understood. All successful people are masters at clear conversation.

10. Work On Your Character: Character development takes time and is forged in the trials of life. Character includes resolve, honesty, responsibility, trustworthiness and discipline. Without right character all the other traits don’t mean much.