clarkmitchell.tv

Brag Session

As I continue to wrap my head around everything going on in life there is one thing I don't have to think hard to brag about - Crossings Church! 

My Dad had attended Crossings for several years and had met some great friends. When we found out that he probably wasn't going to make it, we knew we wanted to do the Memorial Service there. What we didn't know was how incredible they would continue to be! They represented Christ in every way!!

While churches choose to emphasize different things, and have different focuses, caring for people should always be a priority. It doesn't matter what the size of the congregation is, the call is the same. 

I want to publicly thank Crossings for all they do for our community! Oklahoma City is a better place because of their ministry!

If you live in North OKC and are looking for a church, Crossings is one (of several) you need to check out!

A Little Faith

As you can imagine the most popular question people ask me right now is, "How are you doing?" For the first time in my life I'm trying to figure that out and make sense of all the emotions I am sorting through. I think my first response to the big question is ,"God is faithful!"

I can't imagine going through this season without my faith in God. Our tendency is to think we need "Big Faith" to make it through challenging times, but Jesus teaches us the opposite. He teaches us that if we have "faith the size of a mustard seed" everything is going to be all right. 

I'm very grateful that God honors our little faith!

guest post - Bevan Houston

Hi, I’m Bevan Houston. I am a former Journey staff member, now living in Tulsa. Clark offered me the chance to post today.

David Foster Wallace told a good joke in his commence speech to Kenyon College in 2005. I’ll paraphrase – two young fish are swimming along and come across an elder fish who says, “Morning, young’ens how’s the water?” One of the younger fish looked at the other and said, “What in the heck is water?”

This little joke resounds with us so much because as humans we’re particularly capable of missing the obvious in the midst of our everyday reality. I’m a fairly in-tune guy when it comes to media and news and I have no memory of anybody sounding the warning sign about the housing crisis until it had already arrived. In hindsight it seems pretty obvious that lending billions to under-qualified people was a poor strategy but nobody really seemed to speak up until it was all over.

I got the chance to hang out with Clark a little today. He and I drove over and looked at a lot I’m thinking of buying and ate some Mexican food. I purposefully didn’t engage him in “grieving” talk. I’m not particularly good at that, and I trusted that if he had something to say, he would.

He was driving me back to my house and we passed an intersection. Clark pointed in one direction and said, “I think my parents used to live right over there.” There was a pause and then He said, "this is exactly how you remember that your dad is no longer there, when you can’t call to confirm some piece of info like that."

It hit me then and even more now that the full realization of losing a parent doesn’t come over you at one moment in time. It comes to you in little bits and pieces. It hits you in the phone calls you can’t make to confirm some little piece of information, just as much as the holidays or birthdays without the parent.

For me this is like the fish realizing all the stuff around him is water. I’m very blessed that my dad is alive. I’m also very blessed that I get to work with him every day at our company. His presence is the water that surrounds my life. I talked to him last night for over an hour after midnight about a power point presentation he’s giving today in Salt Lake City. I don’t have any idea what it would be like to not have him around, because I always do.

So, I ask you to pray for Clark. Pray for the little moments of mourning that he will have today, tomorrow and all of the days to come. Pray that God will comfort him in the days to come and the weeks that will pass. And I ask you to do as I’ve done today, call your Dad and say hi.

Thanks

Robin and I just got back home from what seems like the longest 7 days in my life. I can't say enough how proud I am of my kids and the way they have handled a challenging situation.

We as a family want to thank all of you for your support and encouragement! We are so blessed to have such a great church family and friends. 

Thank you to everyone who sent cards, flowers, left messages, emails, texts, meals, and attended the memorial service.

We are blessed!!! I look forward to seeing you soon - after a few days of rest!

Clark 

Clark's Dad

As many of you know by now, Clark's dad passed away Saturday morning from natural causes. He had been very ill for the past 30 days, but things were beginning to look up before he took a turn this past week. 

Clark, Robin, and the kids greatly appreciate all your prayers, calls, texts, emails, etc. They said they have been overwhelmed by the love they have felt from all of you.

The Memorial Service will be Tuesday, September 23 at 1:00 at Crossings Community Church in OKC.

Let's continue to pray for Clark and his family as they walk through this week.

God Bless,

The Journey Church Management Team

Leadership that Matters

submitted by Executive Student Pastor, Tim Mannin

Now I don’t necessarily feel like I have this figured out, but there is a value that I carry in my life that really matters a lot to me - it’s a statement that carries a significant weight with how I live, love, lead, and have a life.

The statement…

Give it all away.

"Give it all away" is more than a statement. It is a philosophy of leadership to me. I’m not necessarily talking about giving away my physical and material things, although it may mean that at times. I mean giving everything I have as a person away. If it calls for my resources, great, but most of the time, it’s going to be me. 

I’m going to give away my time, give away my wisdom (if I have any), give away my love, give away my leadership, give away my selfish desires, give away my prayers, give away my story, give away my experiences.

I am going to give away my thoughts. Often times I think wonderful things about people, but I don’t really communicate that. I am going to give away my encouragement.

Could you imagine what it would be like if all of us were giving away our encouragement? If we were consistently sharing with each other the wonderful things we see in one another? What if we looked at people with a heart to lift up, challenge, and encourage? What if our own self-perception was secondary to building the perception of others? I find that I’ve often left things unsaid to others that would build them up and, in turn, lead them.

One of the greatest characteristics of leadership is the ability to empower others. Few things empower people more than encouragement. Giving away our thoughts and encouragement fuels people to be more of the person God has created them to be.

Now, I have a belief about leadership that is contradictory to secular textbook leadership. I believe all Christ followers are leaders. The world would lead you to believe that leadership is reserved for only a few. This means if you follow Christ you are called to LEAD THE WORLD. Wow, that’s a big responsibility…

Since we are united as leaders I say – LEAD! You are not here to simply do your talent, you are here to multiply your talent. What if every one of us took it on as our responsibility to train, lead, and empower people – WE GAVE OURSELVES AWAY?

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17 (NLT)

3 Statements that fuel my value of Giving It All Away:

1. Be Intentional--

Every day we can be intentional about leading and giving ourselves away to at least one person.

2. Be Ready--

What can I do to give it away right now?

3. Be Fully Present--

Don’t look beyond the moment. Sometimes leaders miss leadership because they are focused on tomorrow.

So here is the question that we must ask: What can I do to give it away today? Leadership that matters begins with us understanding that we all have much to give.

Leading Together,

Tim

Chad Higgins

Good morning, afternoon or evening, depending on the time that you happen to be reading this.  Most of you expected to log on today and read another great post from Clark, yet I was given the great opportunity to address you guys today.  My name is Chad Higgins and I am the Jr. High Youth Director here at Journey Church.

Over the last 5, almost 6, years I have been a part of the Journey family.  Many of you know me as the guy from the videos that are shown on Sunday mornings.  I have always enjoyed making people laugh since I was a small child.  Humor has been a way for me to express myself in all areas of my life.  Many people sing or paint to create worship. I have always felt like a way I worship is through laughter.

What is it in your life that God has given you to share with others?  For some of you, God has given you the ability to sing to the heavens.  Others are given the ability to dance for the Lord, and many have been given the art of administration.

You may not have seen that last one coming.  So often we only give to God the talents that we have for Sunday mornings and we keep to ourselves the tasks of our everyday lives.  Worship is a response that we give to God for who He is.  When we learn to worship God trough every aspect of our lives, we begin to worship God with our lives as a whole.  So what is your song, your painting, your joke, that you can give to God this week?

In a couple of weeks, we begin a new series at Journey called Ballot Box.  This series will allow us to look at issues such as environment, social injustice, and economy, and see what God has to say about them.  I am so excited about this series for a couple of reasons.  The first is the feeling that it’s so important to understand God’s teachings on some of the biggest areas in our lives.  The second reason I am excited about this series is the humor that will come with this idea of a campaign.  Throughout the whole series we will be running a fake campaign between two very extreme campaign characters.  Check out the profiles of our candidates, and watch many videos that you will not get to see on Sunday morning, at myballotbox.tv.

Chad Higgins

Simple Disciplines - Part One

One of the things I have realized in my life is that it is the simple disciplines that I have that make a difference. While there is a much needed place for the "big" disciplines, my daily life is greatly impacted by the little things I do. This week I'll share some little things that make a big difference in my life.

DRIVE TIME

Any time I go to my car to drive somewhere I have a plan - even is it is just a 5 minute drive. I go through a list in my mind of things I need to accomplish before I head to the car.

 Here are my usual drive time options that make a huge difference.

• Touch base with Robin to see how her day is going.
• Return short phone calls.  
• Return potentially long phone calls but can keep them short because of my next appointment. 
• Listen to a sermon on CD. 
• Identify a worship song that will help me through the moment and listen to it over and over again. 
• Have a list of things I want to pray about. 
• Listen to country music and try to forget about whatever is stressing me out. 
• Listen to news stations to know what is going on in our country and world. (Sounds small, but has huge impact on how I approach issues)   

The key is to identify what you need to do to make the most of that time. 

Bible Study Plans - Part Four

One of my favorite topics to study in the Bible is people. I love to look at their life successes, struggles, habits, etc. to see what I can learn from them. Here are some thoughts of how to do that:

1. Pick your person.
2. Find all the reference points.
3. Write down your first impressions and observations.
4. Outline the stages of their life.
5. Write down the character qualities that make them effective and unique. 
6. Write down what you perceive to be their life lessons.
7. Write application statements of how their life lessons apply to you.
8. Write out personal life application statements.  

Bible Study Plans - Part Two

While often times I use the devotional style of study that we talked about yesterday, sometimes I will do a character quality study. There will be an issue in my life, or that I feel I need to teach on, so I'll study that particular discipline.

CHARACTER STUDY

1. Name the quality.
2. Name the opposite quality.
3. Do a simply word search. 
4. Define the character quality according to the passages you have found. 
5. Find a memory verse. 
6. Write a personal application for the character quality.