What I might have said if I had thought of it in time.... What others have said better than I ever could.... And, other thoughts to remember for later.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Tell others you are proud of them
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Cultivating healthy ministry relationships
You don't have to be afraid of examining your ministry community, no matter how weedy it may be, because God meets you in your difficulty with his amazing grace. And you don't have to deny your failures because your standing before God is not based on your success, but on the perfectly successful life of Christ. So, even in failure, he blesses you with the grace of wisdom, patience, strength, and forgiveness. If you are God's children, it is never just you and your ministry partners, somehow hoping that you can work your way through your problems. No, there is a another Person who inhabits every situation and location of those relationships. He is with you, he is willing, and he is able to come to your aid. In fact, in his grace, he has made you the place where he lives. Perhaps for too long you have let the weeds of sin choke the life out of important ministry relationships. How about standing up and beginning to pull out the weeds? How about believing that, as you do, your Lord of love and mercy will give you just the grace you need at just the moment you need it?
I am thankful God gives us the grace to face our failures with humility and uses them as a reminder of his power and love.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Hope from God's Word and Greg Lucas
We’ve all been there. We are fathers and mothers and men and women and children who have walked through this valley. We know this darkness well.
We also know the only light that can shatter this darkness is the light of the gospel. And so for us, the “If we had known...” has turned into “We now know...”. And because we know, we will proclaim the hope of the gospel to these desperate, hurting, and often hope-less families.
If you are reading this today, I want you to know that there is hope. No matter how dark it may seem--there is hope. No matter what you have done--there is hope. No matter how unknown your future may be, there is a gracious God that has gone before you to prepare the way. He stands with outstretched arms proclaiming through the cross of His Son, "there is abundant hope waiting for you!"
Those of us who have this hope have an obligation to share it with others. Similarly, when we receive comfort from God we are enabled to pass on comfort to others who need it. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Breadth from Depth – Kevin DeYoung
Friday, March 9, 2012
Collaboration or concensus?
When godly men come together and collectively say what should be done, this is when we can know we are acting on the will of God. When individually we seek the will of God we will collectively be moved by God. When the board moves collectively it gives us confidence to move forward. We can be most confident in God’s leading in a collective environment.
Financial information does not always tell the whole story
"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Wisdom and counsel for men
Ambition is not the same as having a dream. A dream is simply the raw material for aim and purpose. The dreamer is the guy who would like to do something without a clue as to how to do it. A dream is good to have, but usually isn’t tempered by reality. Dreamers frustrate those around them by false starts and wasted resources. A wise decision is what happens when a dream has looked reality in the face. It’s an awareness of what one can do in light of the cost involved in doing it. True ambition has both the courage and wisdom to get the dream off the ground.