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Core Compentencies

Over the past several years the term "core competency" has become a huge buzz in leadership. The theory goes that you should focus on what you're best at and pay lesser attention to things that you aren't talented at. It's a good theory and I encourage people to practice it - for the most part.

As I continue to pray about what God is saying to me about my future, and the future of Journey Church, I am continually challenged. While I will continue to focus on my "core competencies" in leadership, I am finding that sometimes I limit God by doing so. Here is an example:

    "Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." Jeremiah 1:6

Interpretation: "God speaking" is not my core competency, so let's move on.

God's response was, "Don't make excuses! This is what I'm calling you to do! And I will be with you!"

So I wonder if sometimes we miss out on God's anointing because we are focused on our "natural talents." We limit God to our capability, we accomplish things with our talent, and we possibly miss hundreds of miraculous moments because we limit ourselves to our "Core Competency."

Please do not misunderstand. I believe in core competencies, but I also believe that God will stretch us, make us uncomfortable, and challenge us to do things that might not fit into our little box.

 

Speechless

I was going to continue my thoughts I began yesterday, but was thrown a curve ball by the latest turn in the ORU story. Over the past few weeks I have been diligently thinking about and praying for the situation at ORU. A little-known Clark fact is that I actually took some classes from ORU. Matter of fact, the night I proposedd to Robin it went something like this: "I'm planning on moving to Tulsa to go to ORU. If you want, we can get married and you can go with me." How's that for a proposal?

Anyway, as corky as ORU is I love it! And I know that God desires it to be a relevant, practical, spirit-filled, God-loving, people-loving university. The potential of the impact it could have is huge!!!

What left me speechless was to find out that the Green Family (Hobby Lobby) has committed $70 million dollars to the University! I love how they made their commitment! I love their integrity! I love their humility! And I love the heart! They are doing it for 2 reasons: to honor God and to be a blessing to generations to come!

I just want to challenge all of us to be willing to hear God about what we give to future generations. It can be $7 or $70 million, but I want us all to be responsive to his voice and be willing to give.

Running

The past few weeks I have been reading about some of the OT characters and what happened when God challenged them to do something. I got about 3 scriptures deep in Jonah and stopped. Check it out:

    The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: [2] "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." [3] But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.     Jonah 1:1-3

God called, Jonah ran! He might of run because he was scared, he might of run because the situation made him uncomfortable, he might of run because it simply didn't sound fun, but he ran!

We all would love to think that we would respond differently than Jonah, but the truth is, most of us run everyday. We run from what scares us, what makes us uncomfortable, or what simply appears too hard, but we do run! The problem with running is that it weakens your faith. When you run you are saying, "God I simply don't believe enough in your power to get me through this or to accomplish this."

Jonah needed to face God's challenge head-on and trust Him to do a miracle.

What are you running from today? What do you need to face today and trust God for a miracle?

Head start

I love this time of year! The holidays are in full swing, people are happy, the weather is a little different, things are all around pretty good. I love what God is doing in my heart, I love who my children are becoming, I love my wife, I love what God is doing in Journey - life is good!

The challenge is that when life is good it's really easy to get comfortable and settle in. While it is nice to relax a moment, I don't like the idea of getting comfy because it leads to complacency. So while I enjoy this time of year I also need to get a head start on next year.

So many people never move out of the comfort zone because they never have plans, goals, or a strategy. Here are a few things I encourage you to be praying about to get a head start on 2008.

• What do you need to do make Christ first in every area of your life in 2008?
• What does God want to do in your family in 2008? What are the character qualities that you need to work on? What are the strategic goals for you family?
• What does God want to do in your workplace in 2008? How can you establish His principles in your workplace?
• Who does God want to use you to reach in 2008? How will you build that relationship?

Those are just a few to get you going, but decide to get a head start now! Allow God to speak to you about what He is wanting to do in your life in 2008!

Pruning

This morning I was reading John 15 and was reminded about how important fruit is to God. Maybe you're out there thinking - fruit? Apples are important to God? Here's a little help - In the Bible Jesus refers to our effectiveness in furthering His kingdom as fruit. Are we being effective in the things that God has called us to?

I was reminded that part of being fruitful is going through the process of pruning, cutting things out of our lives that are not effective. I would say that this past year for Journey has been a year of pruning. While our attendance is larger than it ever has been, while more lives are being changed, God has also done quiet of bit of pruning in this past year to help us become more effective.

The pruning season is never fun while you're going through it, but as we have gotten to the other side I'm more excited than ever! I am pumped about what God is doing currently, but I am excited beyond words about what God is about to do!

I encourage you to embrace pruning in your life.  Yes, it does hurt to cut things out, but it will bring you to a greater place of effectiveness in your life. What do you need to allow God to prune in your life?

The mark of Love

There were 2 scriptures that jumped out at me this morning in my quiet time. Here they are:
    "If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:15
    Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.John 14:23    

There seems to be a theme about love and obedience! As I read today this theme kicked me pretty hard! It is so much easier to call myself a follower of Christ when obedience is optional. You see this played out all over our region! People call themselves Christians and then live whatever lives they want. Christ is painting a different picture of love and obedience.

Spend sometime today answering the question - Do I reflect my love of Christ with obedience in every area of my life? If you do it affects your giving, praying, serving, forgiving, etc. Is your life marked with obedience?

Innovate or Regulate

With the fall rolling in I made my annual trip to Hickory Farms the other day to buy a beef stick, sweet n sour sauce, and a cheese ball. You can mock me all you want, but it's some good eating! While I was there the little lady helping me blew me away.

She told me my total and then tried to sell me more. I told her that $30.00 was enough - that was my limit! I said it jokingly and her response was, "it really is a rich man's world. No one can afford the world of today."

WOW! There is not a lot that gets me going more than comments like that! I graciously shared with her my "America" speech. That every morning we wake up in the greatest nation ever with the freedom to accomplish whatever we want to.  We have the freedom to hang out with who we want, to watch what we want, to say what we want, to believe what we want - why in the world should we start giving up the freedom to accomplish what we want? Or better yet, what God desires?

At the conclusion of my little speech she said, "We have the freedom to complain when we want also and that is what I'm going to do!"

The more I thought about it over the weekend, it brought up some interesting thoughts. Here are a few:

• As a country, are we going to be more about innovation or regulation?
• Criticism leads to wanting to regulate - encouragement leads to wanting to innovate
• Regulation says we all need to be equal - innovation says we all have equal opportunity to pursue our dreams.
• Regulation focuses on the challenge of problems - innovation focuses on the possibilities that challenges afford us
• Regulation is fueled by a protection mentality - innovation is fueled by passion and a possibility mentality

At the end of the day, success comes down to some simple questions - do we trust God enough to overcome  the challenges in front of us? Are we willing to do whatever it takes to overcome challenges and to succeed?

I love the fact that I live in a nation that affords me the opportunity to prosper in what I do!

Sunday night thoughts

Here are a few thoughts before I watch a movie with my incredible wife:

• I love what God is doing in our church! It is so amazing to see all the new people and to see the lives that are being changed!God is at work!
• I love getting to be part of what God is doing! It is humbling that I get to play on the team.
• I love the people I work with! God has blessed us with a great staff team, but just as importantly, a great volunteer team. From the greeters, to children's workers, to the camera guys, there are hundreds of people who give of their time to create an environment where God can move. Thanks you!
• I love technology! Our children's team showed me tonight a program we use that tracks attendance in their ministry. At the end of the day on a Sunday they can print out a report in about 15 seconds that shows all the kids who were there and the ones who weren't. That's right, I know who skipped today!
• I love what God is saying about 2008! He has really speaking clearly about 2008 and it's going to rock!
• I love my wife therefore I am now shutting down my computer and going to spend time with her.

See ya!

Thoughts from Adam Miller

Adam Miller is filling in for me today.

This is my first time to ever blog, if that is even a term. What does blog stand for? In order to be the best blogger I can be, I read the blogs of Creed Bratton and Dwight Schrute (two popular characters on my favorite show, NBC’s the Office). If you have never seen the show then I will say you have never really lived.

With Thanksgiving approaching I am really excited to spend some time with my family, actually my in-laws but family nonetheless. We will head to Lawrence, Kansas- where they think they have a pretty good football team; however, they will lose to

Missouri

to never sniff the top 10 let alone the BCS every again. I think of all the reasons I am looking forward to this time with them, great food, Dallas Cowboys on tv Thanksgiving Day, sleeping in, and relaxing. But, if I did all these things I just mentioned by myself, they wouldn’t be as much fun. You see the reason I love Thanksgiving (is not because of the 8am

Turkey

Trot 5K we run that morning!!) its because I am spending time with people that love and understand me. It is a community of people that I am completely comfortable in and not trying to impress anyone.

I can see how the holidays are depressing for some people if they don’t have a similar community like I just described. The thought of people spending these times alone, makes my heart hurt. What’s the solution? To volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving morning? Maybe, but that usually benefits us more than the people. I think the problem goes deeper than just a once a year service commitment, and if people would actually engage in community with those that are around them (in your jobs, our church, schools, activities) these people that are longing for a community would identify themselves. If you truly want to help someone, don’t just meet a need and then send them on their way- spend time with them, listen to them, get to know them, remember them and their situation, write it down if you have to- because if that person who feels all alone realizes that they are important to someone, their whole life has changed and they now have some meaning and a purpose.

This Thanksgiving, while I am giving thanks to God for my family and everything He has blessed me with- I am going to be asking him to identify people in my life that I can bring into my community.  This is what Heaven will be like- no families, just one big community!

Thoughts from Herschel

Herschel is filling in for me to day. Here are a few of his thoughts.

“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” – Jeremiah 18:2

I prayed, I wrote the material, I reviewed it with the speaker, and I was sitting at a luncheon this last week listening to that speaker share some summarizing statements of MY material when God spoke to me!  It wasn’t like I hadn’t prayed before I wrote the material or even asked God for discernment in relaying it to the speaker, but God saw fit to take me out of the equation and use someone else’s words to speak to me personally. 

God directs us/ puts us in certain situations and desires to speak to us in those times in a very personal way.  He directed Jeremiah to go hang out at the potter’s house.  Once there, He used the visual illustration of the potter working with the clay to speak to Jeremiah about the delicate balance that the nation of

Israel

was in…either to be built up or folded together and started over.  Both of these options were at the discretion of the potter.

You have experiences every day that can be used by God to spark something new about Himself or to give you opportunities to positively influence another person’s life.  How can you hear God in these situations?  While there are no formulas for hearing God, I do think there are some helpful things to remember…

1 – Pray for God to show you something new today.  It sounds simple, but praying for wisdom to see God in the little details of life will open your eyes & ears in amazing ways.

2 – Choose to see God’s plan versus blocked goals.  When stuff doesn’t go your way today (which is very normal for all of us), choose to ask God, “What’s going on with this?” and honestly seek his insights instead of just being frustrated.  That over-talkative person, unfriendly driver, or disobedient child may be opportunities for you to gain God’s perspective on your life.

3 – Celebrate the small stuff!  Anytime God shares a new perspective with you is an awesome time to celebrate!  Our gratitude for His insights & blessings in our daily life help us remember them & shows our heartfelt thanks for His daily conversations.

Let me encourage you when you get the crazy instructions, “Go to the potter’s house and await further instructions!” to just try it out and see what God has planned for you today!